Title activities report through December 2013

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post, and I promised to get my readers caught up on my activities, so here as promised is another installment of My Title Year.

• November 30.  Attended the wedding of two wonderful leathermen.  (You know who you are!)  A large number from our community were in attendance.  We were asked to wear our "civvies", in deference to non-leather family members. I got dressed up in my tuxedo.  It's rare that I get the chance to wear this, since most of the formal events I attend are Leather Formal.  What fun!

• December 1. Put together another Exiles Orientation, ably assisted by Marilyn and Jak. Targeted to people in the Bay Area who identify as other than male, who either want to join The Exiles or just learn about BDSM, this class attempts to cover the essentials of BDSM, including play party etiquette, negotiation, and safer sex basics. This time I was the Narrator, which meant I also had to play the bit parts in the skit, including Obnoxious Top "Her Royal Hiney".  I always thought I would have a problem with this role - a person with inappropriate boundaries and huge sense of entitlement - but I must after all be a terrific actor because the part was easy!  Or maybe I was just extra obnoxious that day, and able to channel it for the role. You decide. <wink>
• December 7. Attended Santa's Slave Auction, a fundraising event put on by the Alameda County Leather Corps.  I was up "on the block".  I didn't "sell" for very much, but the event did very well overall and was huge fun!  Musical numbers from L.E. LeGirl and WooWoo Monroe brought down the house, and I got a whole bunch of great pictures in the sash.  Here are just a few.  Here I am with Tracy Wolf, Women's International Leather Legacy 2012...
  
  with Rich Stadtmiller (photographer extraordinaire and naughty Santa)...

 

and with the fabulous MCs, Tek and girl Kim.  

(I had to resist posting the rest, because I have way too many!)

• December 8th was the SF Bay Area Leather Alliance's volunteer appreciation party. The Alliance, an umbrella organization for leather/kink/gear clubs in the Bay Area, puts on events like the Leather Alliance Weekend and Mr. SF Leather contest, and Leather Alley at SF Pride.  I was planning to go to their party, since I had worked on Leather Alley. Sadly, due to a death in my family in the early hours of the morning, I had several other more urgent things to do instead.  Never mind, there is always next year.  And sorry for the downer.  Keep reading, you will soon come to the VIDEO portion of the blog!
• On December 13 I arrived in London, where I spent a few days seeing friends and extended family.  I worked a couple of days in my company's London office, just so I could be in town long enough to go to Bar Wotever. I am doing a whole separate blog entry to tell about Wotever, because I love what they are doing.  But meanwhile, in the context of my title activity report, the Wotever organizers were kind enough to ask me if I would come on stage and speak for a few minutes about the North American BDSM community, leather contests, and my experience becoming a titleholder.
  
  You can see a video (made on a handheld device, you have been warned) of my talk here. The video might be a bit rough, and my talk too, but I had the most fantastic feedback and great conversations after.  I gave out several pins and a lot of business cards, and I had some great conversations with folks who had lived for a while across the pond, or were originally from the US or Canada, or who were just really interested in the differences between the two scenes.  

Well, that's it for another blog post.  Please subscribe (link on main blog page) if you want to see my next blog entries as soon as I post them.  And please also send feedback, to let me know if you like the blogs, or if you want to see something different. Thanks!