I want to start by saying that I'm not complaining about anything here, just mind dumping and commenting. Apparently I can't comment about anything without it being a complaint soooo...
Anyway! SELF was this past weekend. It didn't suck as much as last year. I still have trouble getting into the puppy headspace, which affected the demo. In my defense it was at 9:30 AM WHICH STILL SUCKS. It was made abundantly clear that a puppy class does not work that early in the morning. Yet we got stuck in that time slot again. Loki's still damn good at teaching that class though, even running on only a few hours of sleep. We (the pack) also helped him teach an Electro 101 class. Again, Loki knows his shit.
The vendor mart has always been somewhat disappointing for me. It's previously seemed to be skewed more towards the S&M side of things than the B&D. This year felt more balanced though. I picked up a nice metal play collar for myself because fuck it, it's hot and I like collars.
I tied up Soma and abused him a good bit. He's the sole exception to my preference for B&D over S&M. So many fun faces and noises…
My SELF ended early on Saturday though, as I wanted to sneak out and play with a guy who was visiting town from Tennessee. He's one of those rare (at least in the southeast) guys that identifies as Dominant without an emphasis on sadism. So I jumped at the opportunity, packing my bags and driving across town to get tied up.
So I probably failed to communicate properly, and what I expected to be an overnight Dom/sub scene ended up being a two hour bondage and edging session with some Dom/sub time. Don't get me wrong though, I still had a complete blast. I have an obscenely difficult time letting go and getting into the proper headspace, focusing on whatever senses haven't been blinded/gagged and trying to figure out what's coming next. It took me a while but I finally found my happy place and gave in. Dude knows what he's doing and does it well. Two thumbs up from me.
Then I had my orgasm. It's probably time to start mentioning that I have a short fuse when the discussion of limits comes up. I spent a few more minutes tied up, we chitchatted and then he untied me and I took my exit.
Lessons learned? Communication is important. Even if it's awkward, getting everything out in the open beforehand and laying out expectations will be more beneficial than anything else in the long run.
Additionally, I don't think I'm as innate a puppy as other pups. Getting into that headspace is more difficult for me than getting into a submissive headspace. I think that works in my favor though, seeing as how it's good to have someone in the group who can (try) to herd other puppies when the need arises (as demonstrated in St. Louis).
Couple other notes… got my hair buzzed. I'm really happy with the way it looks, it'll stay like this for a while. I'm planning to visit Florida and meet someone on my "drop everything" list for the first time since we started talking two years ago. Starting to get excited about that.