Minneapolis Pride Weekend

How much fun can you have in one weekend? We were pushing all the barriers to find out.
The last weekend of June found us back in Minneapolis with friends to celebrate Twin Cities Pride Weekend. Once again, we stayed with friends and were welcomed in as family. They enfolded us into their pack and off we went for a wild ride. Friday lunch was all-you-can-eat sushi, and that night was Flog-A-Palooza and a visit to the eagleBOLT bar. Saturday we walked around Loring Park and enjoyed the festival as spectators (fried cheese curds) and then visited the eagleBOLT bar again for more time with friends.

Sunday came and we were on the parade route bright and early. Minneapolis leads their parade with two giant flags - the first one is the Gay Pride rainbow flag and it is followed by the Leather Pride flag. We joined local titleholders and community leaders and community members to carry the giant Leather Pride flag. These flags are huge. They are heavy. They are beautiful. And the mood that day was jubilant. You see, the Supreme Court ruled on Proposition 8 in California and on DOMA the prior week. And there we were, carrying one of the largest Leather Pride flags in the country, right up at the front of the parade. Several times when we stopped on the route, I turned around and looked up and down the lines of people carrying that flag. So many faces, so many backgrounds, so much diversity and history among the kinky locals - it brought tears to my eyes and a bigger smile to my face. As we walked the parade route, people threw money onto the flag - it was donations towards their fundraising goals for the year. Children threw handfuls of change, adults wadded up bills, and two people scampered out to collect the cash each time we stopped along the route. When we were done (all too soon for me) we navigated onto a grassy area with the flag and took pictures, folded the flag, and stored it. Then we joined Ryan Brown and quickly walked back to the parade route start point to jump on the eagleBOLT truck and do it all over again! This time we sat in the back of a truck with waterguns and a huge tub of water and Ryan sat/danced on the hood through the parade route. By the end of it, my face hurt from so much smiling. Seriously hurt. But I couldn't help it.

Back to Loring Park and the bondage booth! Yes, they had a booth set up with information and a partitioned off area for light bondage demos. What was the catch? You couldn't hit anyone. That means you can put someone over the spanking bench and pretend to spank them, but not actually hit them. Flogging could happen, but really not happen because you were flogging the air behind someone. Amazing thing about rope bondage - getting tied up doesn't HIT anyone. Luckey did four demos (three in the cage, one under the tent) and kept the crowd entertained.

When we were ready to collapse from exhaustion and heat, it was back to the house for a quick shower and GAME NIGHT! We ordered in pizza and relaxed with our family. Oh, the shenanigans. There is far too much evidence of that night on Bud's facebook page, and most things went undocumented. That's probably for the best, though.

Monday came too soon, and we headed back to Denver - happy and exhausted.
I am thankful for all of our friends and extended family in Minnesota - you guys rock my world!

Kink U - Cincinnati Road Trip!

What's a title year without an epic road trip?! We were invited to present a Puppy Obedience Training class at Kink U in Cincinnati and to present rope suspension demos at the bar during the social times. How could we say no? Flights were prohibitively expensive, and we almost did. But we looked at the calendar and a map and decided to make the drive.

We started out on this ever-changing road trip on Wednesday morning. Before we left to head east, we had to detour north to Boulder to pick up Luckey's phone that he left in his friend's car the night before. This set the tone for the entire trip - be flexible and have fun! Our original plan was Denver to Kansas City, MO, then Indianapolis, IN, then Cincinnati, OH, Kink U, and reverse the directions. Needless to say, that changed about two hours into the trip. We decided to swing over to Columbus after Kink U was done and visit our friend Pup Dino. Then take the northern route to the west and drive to Des Moines in one day, and finish up with a quick jaunt to Cabelas in Nebraska on our way back to Denver.

The roads were easy and the weather was great. We got to Kansas City with no issues and stayed with Chad and Richie for the night. Next morning we were driving and thinking about lunch and realized we'd be close to St. Louis. Luckey contacted Auntie Karen (Karen Ultra) and we met her for lunch before finishing up the drive into Indianapolis and staying with our friend Kyle. The next day was a short drive, so we went out to the 501 Eagle for a visit after dinner. Met some great people out for the pool tournament - Pup Spaz showed us around the bar, and the Falcons made us feel at home. After breakfast (amazing red velvet pancakes with chocolate chips and cream cheese frosting) we made the quick drive into Cincinnati.

Now, I'm going to say this, and I may take some grief for it. But if you ever visit Cincinnati and they offer to take you to eat Cincinnati Style Chili - DON'T DO IT. We ate Skyline Chili, a local institution. It is the stuff of legends. Legendary gas and legendary gastric distress. I enjoyed the taste, but I could not live with the results. I was terrified that I would accidentally sneeze and totally explode for the next three days - and I have a strong system. Just don't eat it.

Friday night continued at On Broadway bar, where our friends brought in a portable sling stand. Luckey tied and tied and hung several people up in rope that night.

We kicked off Saturday at Kink U with our Puppy Obedience Training class at the Below Zero Lounge. That was a lot of fun! We had a good sized room and several pups and handlers right up front. After talking through the class part, we had demo time and put the ideas into practice. Classes continued through the day on dungeon furniture, rope bondage, flogging, shackles and handcuffs and restraints, relationship dynamics - three bootblacks worked the entire day and night - there was much fun for everyone. Le Chateau brought their store so there was shopping available and Alexis to squeeze. Once we got everything loaded out from the education area, it was time for dinner.

Second food warning - if the locals take you to Kentucky for Mexican food, listen to your hosts about portion size! Luckey and I decided to split an order of fajitas for dinner, so we ordered it for two. They warned us that we could not finish the giant order for one, but we were silly and didn't listen. Oh my. We got the most enormous plate of food ever! We ate and ate and ate, and maybe put down a quarter of it. It didn't look like we ate anything! Leftovers for days!

After eating more than we should, it was time to get dressed in tight leather for the Black & Blue Ball. The locals at the Below Zero Lounge were a bit surprised by the leather invasion, but good natured about it. When it was time to wind down and cool off, the temperature cranked up at The Serpent. We wrapped up the night at this sexy men's hot spot. Brunch on Sunday was back at Below Zero, and then it was time to hit the road. Congratulations to Matt and John and all the local team that pulled together Kink U in Cincinnati! You guys did a great job!

Pup Dino was excited that we were coming to visit, and we decided to go to the zoo! There was a dinosaur exhibit, lots of hot and sexy men, and a stingray petting exhibit! You could even feed them! That was a blast! Then we headed back to his place in the Short North for dinner and some bar time. Turns out, it was Columbus Pride weekend. Luckey grabbed some rope, and soon Dino was tied up and paraded around Exile, shirtless and helpless to resist. I suspect he loved it. The bar was crowded and friendly and I had some great conversations with people. Fun times!

Early on Monday, it was time to leave. Far too soon for my taste, but we had a long day ahead of us. This day brought us some weather as we approached Iowa. There was some serious rain. The kind where we were white knuckle driving slowly with both of us looking for the white lines to make sure we stayed on the road kind of rain. But we made it through safe, and enjoyed grilled kabobs and an amazing baked cauliflower dish with Jeremy and Aaron and friends while watching True Blood and relaxing.

Tuesday put us on the road to Denver, but we had a quick side trip to Sidney, Nebraska to visit Cabelas. It was fun to see such a huge outdoor sport store and stretch our legs for an hour. It seemed that the last leg took far too long, as my bed was calling me. Safely home, we unloaded the car and had a quick dinner, and crashed into sleep.

It was great to spend the week with Luckey on the road. It was awesome to spend time with Chad, Richie, Jay, Kyle, Demarius, Nuzz, Vidhra, Dylan, Hercules, Matt, John, Bella, Gabriel, Zech, Rocky, Bryce, Dino, Jeremy, Aaron, and Evie. I'm sure I've missed some, but please know we love you all. Thank you for making this such a wonderful trip.

Denver Pridefest 2013

June! It's the season of pride. Time for parades, sunscreen, rainbows, festivals, socializing, and celebrating the advances we've made for social justice and equality, and maybe getting laid too. For us, it was a time to celebrate with our local family.

Denver's celebration spans both Saturday and Sunday, with the parade on Sunday. Saturday we took a turn at the Leather/Kink booth, supporting their first year. At least five local groups pitched in funds to rent the space, and carried literature and information from all groups locally. Den-PAH (Denver Pups and Handlers) had a time slot, as did the Denver boys of Leather. There were other titleholders there as well. Colorado Bootblack  Erik joined Luckey and I while we spoke to the crowd and engaged people in friendly dialogue. There were many children present, and they loved the outfits they saw. "Can I have a shirt like that, mommy?" was met by "Maybe when you're older."

For about five years now, the Rocky Mountain Leather Alliance has sponsored a Leather Contingent in the Pride Parade. It started small, with less than twenty people that first year. But by the end of the parade, people had joined us out of the crowd and marched proudly with the leather folks. This year, we had about 60+ people at the start, and right in the middle of it was a bright yellow convertible with me and Luckey sitting in the back.

What a ride! We were probably going to be walking when our original red convertible was not available. That's really not an issue, but it was to our friend Shazzy. She was going to be our driver, and had her heart set on driving us down the parade route. So, she rented a car for the day. Dang, it was bright and pretty and she was a fantastic driver - didn't dump us out once! We were joined by Praxis, International Mr. Olympus Leather, who was in town for the weekend.

My good friend Brad is one of the most knowledgeable non-medical people I know concerning HIV, and one of his favorite sites to share information is The Stigma Project. When he participated in the Mr. Leather Colorado contest, Brad promised to bring a campaign to Denver to raise awareness about HIV and the stigma surrounding the virus. He named his project "Marked for Awareness" and the effort began on Sunday. He brought bright red latex body paint and foam brushes, and painted "+" "-" and "+-" symbols on volunteer's arms, legs, chests backs, foreheads, anywhere we would allow it. Then we walked the parade and spent the rest of the day with the symbols on our bodies. If anyone asked, we could discuss that they are to bring awareness to HIV and the stigma, and we encouraged people to be HIV Neutral in their attitudes. I had the "plus over minus" on my right forearm and my left bicep throughout the day, parade and all, and had several good conversations.

We had a dozen puppies following our car in the parade, with an assortment of hoods, paws, harnesses, squeaky toys, and tails. They barked and howled and enjoyed all the attention, stopping at one point for a water break by the side of the street. The car following them had fun too, because they got to hear all the comments from the people along the entire route
"Isn't that cute?", "Look at them!", "Is that a TAIL?", "OMG, I think it is a tail", "How does it stay?", "Where does it...", "Oh no it doesn't", "I bet it does - look at it move", "oh my!"

The sun was shining and the mood was upbeat along the parade route. There were only a handful of protesters in a couple of places, and the crowd either totally ignored them or carried large signs to block them. Overall, it was humbling to sit in the middle of the attention like that. There was so much love and support. I smiled and waved and made eye contact with so many people on that parade route that I had to take a long quiet lunch afterwards and soak it all in.

We walked through the fair afterwards to visit with friends and watch the people. A short rain cooled things down during lunch, so it was not as hot as previous years. We closed out the day with Beer Bust at the Denver Eagle and then headed home to rest.

IML

Memorial Day, end of May. This trip was a lesson in patience; a walking meditation in keeping your eyes and heart open.

The universe set out a special set of lessons for us that weekend - many dealt with stress and patience. We had airline issues, baggage issues, hotel issues, relationship issues, time management issues, and more. What was the point? I believe it was to simply stay calm and keep working to move forward. This is not going to be a post to complain about everything that happened to give us stress, but I'm going to acknowledge that things happened, and ultimately, we made it through due to the kindness of our friends and strangers. Was it easy? No. There were moments that truly taxed my hypertension medication. And yet here I am, alive and healthy, a little wiser, and certainly grateful for general human kindness and helpfulness.

International Mr Leather weekend in Chicago is an experience like no other - you can make the weekend anything you want.
We wanted to have fun, reconnect with our friends and family from around the world, meet new people to add to our family, romp with the puppies at Woof Camp!, and enjoy the great opportunities Chicago has to offer. We got to do all those things.

So many of our friends that we've met this year are local or state or regional titleholders on their way to join the brotherhood of the IML competitors. It was wonderful to see them all and encourage them on their journey all year, and it was fantastic to watch them all through the weekend. It takes a special kind of courage to put yourself out there in one of the biggest competitions around. You should all be proud. Congratulations to Andy Cross, Mr. San Francisco Leather, for taking the International Mr. Leather title back home to the city by the bay and to Oil Tan Sam who took the International Mr Bootblack title home to Portland.

Many other friends are vendors at the various shows and events - it's been great to meet them and see how they pour their hearts into their wares. Support your local vendors, my friends. It may be cheaper to order merchandise from overseas, but the quality is superior here. You will get what you pay for. And if you have a problem, it's easier to deal with a human on the spot instead of a machine or service overseas. Support your local businesses!

Many of our friends do not fall under these categories. They are significant others, best friends, or community kinksters. They are wonderful supportive and loving people who make us feel at home no matter where the road takes us. They love puppies and all things puppy. We love them because they always welcome us into their lives and families anywhere we see them, and that makes our family bigger too.

There were so many conversations, so many hugs, meals shared, friendships formed, kindness shared, hot boys tied up, and good times - I could not begin to list them or even give highlights.

If you haven't figured out by now, let me make it clear - IML for me is all about my great big kinky leather family. I love them all, and I am honored to call them my friends and family. Hugs to you all!

High School Days

If I knew all I know now, would I take that knowledge and go back to high school?
Nope.
I was not happy in high school. There were some serious secrets I was keeping from the world. But that was the early 1980's, and things have changed.
Now there are gay-straight alliances, clubs in high school where people can talk and learn and be themselves and not feel so alone. While it's not a perfect system, it's certainly better than NOTHING, which is what I had growing up in a small town in the bible-thumping south.
So when my friend asked me to come and participate on a panel discussion at a local high school's GSA meeting, I was happy to go.
It was their first attempt, so they invited almost 20 people and hoped that a few would show up. Well, almost everybody showed up - the panelists nearly outnumbered the students.
As a panel, we spanned an age range from 24 through 60+; sporty, academic, engineers, teachers, leatherfolk, drag queens, and parents of grown children too.
We introduced ourselves down the line and told a little piece of our personal stories. Then there were some basic questions that bounced around, and some Q&A from the students. With a panel that size, that was all that could happen in the 90 minutes they scheduled for us. The kids were amazing - they were engaged and respectful. The faculty was supportive and even the principal attended, spoke her full support, and declared no tolerance for bullying.
There were refreshments afterwards, and more visiting among everyone present.
Based on respect and confidentiality, that's about all I'm going to say.
But what really hit me was this - those kids are alive and hopeful and honest about their sexuality. At their age, I was barely living, despondent, and lying to myself and everyone around me. I dated a really sweet girl, but knew it would never go anywhere. I spent my time in church knowing that they would never accept me. I entertained thoughts of dying because it would hurt less than living.
And honestly, if the 2013 me had ever visited the 1984 me, grownup me would scare the crap out of high school me. I don't know if I would have believed that I could be happy, not be alone, find love, be at peace with my Creator, live publicly, and experience such joy. But I am, and I do. And I hope that what we did will inspire those kids to be the best and most amazing humans they can be.
Thank you for the opportunity!

Colorado Leather Weekend

Home at last after three weeks on the road! But not to rest - The Mr. Leather Colorado Foundation weekend of contests is here! During this first weekend of May, we select the new Mr. Leather Colorado, Mr. Colorado Rubber, and Colorado Bootblack titleholders.
I was honored to be able to judge this contest for the second year in a row, and I had the distinct honor of serving as head judge. Luckey served as one of two Talleymasters - the folks who collect the scores from each judge and do all the math and ultimately tell us who won.
Friday night started with a meet & greet at the Denver Wrangler. This is a chance for the contestants to interact with the public and the judges and show off their social skills. For the general public, it's a chance to socialize and meet the contestants. But for the judges - the game is on. We are watching everything the contestants do and how they do it. Social interactions are a major part of being a titleholder, and most of it occurs in a bar setting.
After the night slowed down, it was time to sleep and get ready for the contest on Saturday. Interviews started around 4pm, and we had three contestants for Mr. Leather Co, two contestants for Mr. Colorado Rubber, and one for Colorado Bootblack. The panel of judges were no pushovers - they were local and regional folks, most were titleholders, but all were experienced and had strong views of what kind of person they wanted to send forward to represent Colorado.
There were hard questions asked; emotions were high with some contestants, others were peaceful.
When it was all done, Lonnell took the title of Mr. Leather Colorado, Boy Paul will represent Mr. Colorado Rubber, and Boy Erik will serve as the Colorado Bootblack. Congratulations to all three of these fine men!
Sunday brought us back to the Denver Wrangler for a Victory Beer Bust, which served as both a party to celebrate the winners and a fundraiser towards their travel funds.
I want to thank the panel of judges - Michael, Dayton, Nate, Fox, Treasure, and Marty - it was a pleasure to work with all of you!
Thank you Rocky and Luckey - you kept us all on track and made sure our scores were legible.
And I want to thank the producers of the contest, the Mr. Leather Colorado Foundation, for the opportunity to serve on the panel and for their hard work every year.
There are some pics of the event here!
Now it's time to rest for a few weeks and pack for IML!

CLAW

It's the third weekend of April and we're heading east again, but northward to Cleveland for the ever-growing Cleveland Leather Awareness Weekend (CLAW). There was no contest during the weekend, but it was a puppy bonanza! Classes for an amazing variety of interests (including puppy) held in multiple locations, silent auctions rocked the nights, the vendor mart was large and the selections were wide. It takes an army of volunteers to keep this event running smoothly, and they did an amazing job.
One night offered a puppy obstacle course, complete with an MC to keep the crowd involved and the action moving. I volunteered to handle any pups without handlers so they could participate, because it was a team event. I was paired with a wonderful young pup whose handler/partner was busy volunteering and could not make the event. We had a chat about things and I learned that this was his first time as a puppy outside their house - big step for him! We talked about things and got comfortable with each other, and then he eased into headspace. Once we hit the floor of the agility course, he was ready and romping. He did a great job and we had a fun couple of minutes out in the middle of the room with a whole crowd watching. Later, his partner joined us and we had a friendly visit about how well he did. They were both proud, and they should be.
I was fortunate to spend some time with Boy Matt from New Jersey. This sexy man really helped me balance the needs of my introvert against the stress of the third weekend in a row traveling to larger events. I was worn a bit thin, and sharing time with him helped me recharge my batteries. Thank you Matt!
The second night offered a puppy mosh pit for the pups at CLAW. The attendance vastly outgrew the allocated space, long before it could begin. Wow. They were incredibly under-spaced. The mosh crew did their very best with what they had, and I was pleased that they were able to run and control the pit, but it was super crowded. Hopefully the event organizers will take note and triple or quadruple the space allocated before next year's event. Luckey did not join the mosh - it was impossible to control the snacks with such a large attendance, and his honey allergy makes him vulnerable to far too many things. So he stays alive for now, and we're ok with that.
We saw so many people, so many puppies, talked, visited, took photos, laughed, ate, and bonded. This really is an event that can be about anything you want it to be - so round up a group of your best dozen traveling friends and start planning to attend in 2014!