This that and the other thing.......

Honestly I don't think I have ever been so glad to see a Friday.  It has been a long busy tiring week.............. 

Remember the course I was taking on Wednesday??? It was FANTASTIC!!  but long....... oh my god it was long.  We started at 8:30 sharp (after everyone fought their way there through yet another bout of freezing rain) ........ and worked right straight through till 3:00.  No breaks.  Lunch was eaten while we worked...... but wow...... I loved it !!  I am so energized and ready to bring the new games to my kiddies.  Learning games...... not academic learning...... but life learning.  So many kiddies (in my opinion) have no idea what exclusion looks like or feels like... or bullying.... or any of the other traits we see and want to banish.  These games we learned create an environment where the kids can honestly and truly put feelings to the circumstances that happen naturally.  I honestly can't wait to start the program.......... I think (have my fingers crossed) that once the kiddies feel / see / really experience these negative behaviours we are going to be on the road to fixing them !!  (yeah yeah call me a dreamer... tell me I am wearing rose coloured glasses - but honestly I will keep fighting this fight till they carry me out feet first)

Monday I have the first of 3 workshops at my school - for my staff.  Basic training sort of thing.......... most of these women have NO idea how to handle negative behaviours in children...... or their peers for that matter.  So my principal and I found a team of animators to come in and start teaching them some basic skills.  My job was to organise it... get all the materials needed ready and set to go.......... and to do the catering.  (it's why they pay me the big bucks - cough cough) So this morning I got the materials ready including projector and screen (which I finally found in the back of a dusty cob webby cupboard) .......... found pens and paper....... and then ran to Tim Hortons to order 40 cups of coffee - 24 muffins - and 40 donut holes to help keep everyone fueled and awake.  I pick the lot up at 8 am on Monday. 

On the home front.......... eldest daughter has taken a HUGE step.  After being laid off (gotta love this recession) a year ago...... and working in a sex shop (she did extremely well selling the BDSM gear ......... LOL....... I would venture a guess she more than doubled their sales of the "good" stuff) then working for various companies on contract............. this week she has taken the steps to set up her own consulting firm.  I have fingers toes and eyes crossed that she can make this work..........instead of "Freedom 55" I am hoping she establishes "Freedom 36" and can become her own boss.


Youngest daughter is going through a battery of allergy tests.  She had a scary incident at work a couple of weeks ago.  Someone gave her a mandarin orange and within less than 5 minutes they were calling 911........ turns out she is now highly allergic to oranges .......... probably all citrus ... but the allergy tests will tell the full story.  The first part of the test was this week.......... and she found out she is allergic to cockroaches.  Joy oh joy!! You'd think they would have tested foods first.......... seeing as cockroaches aren't exactly an every day occurrence in her life. 

Tomorrow is Saturday and the infamous play party.  I am still working through in my head what to wear.  I have been feeling very fat just recently and am worried none of my corsets will still fit.  (le sigh) Though to be honest all my clothes still fit so why the corsets wouldn't is really beyond explanation.  Of course W has a slew of brand new pretty coloured rope........... maybe a body harness might work as my fetwear for Saturday???? ughhhhhhhhhhhhhh... but then I would definitely need to bring some clothing of some sort or another cause I will eventually "hit the wall" in a rope harness.......... and naked doesn't work for me........... not on any level...........

Now you are all up to date on this ......... that........ and the other thing.

THE What...........

of yesterday's post "Insanity or What?"


I posted a comment on Saturday's event over on FL ..... all innocent like - asking if I had correctly understood the french announcement of a journalist.  (yeah yeah I can do 'innocent' very well)

I was interested to see I had a few replies to my comment.  But the one that held the most sway for me was from the organizer of Saturday's party.  In his best English he explained that this "journalist" coming to the party - was not a journalist in the true sense of the word - didn't write for a newspaper or a magazine - maybe freelance?? or maybe just an aspiring journalist - or (like happens so often in this shadow world) a wanna-be.  Maitre explained to me that in his opinion the person who had announced from the roof tops that a journalist would be there on Saturday - was simply wanting attention on himself.   Maitre also explained that he had set down rules/guidelines and they would be followed.  (IF you knew Maitre you would know that he is a man of his word)

I did some thinking yesterday.  We often go to events - some we know have policeman attending... politicians attending.... after all BDSM touches all walks of life.  Hell a couple of summers ago at Maitre's party we even had 2 policemen come in - in full uniform - to check out the party.  Maitre showed them around - and then they left.  The cops didn't even raise an eyebrow.

Maitre's parties have grown in leaps and bounds since he first started hosting them.  Now there can be well over 200 people at one of his events ....... 200 !!!  and I realized how easily it would be to "get lost in the crowd".

So W and I are going.  I am hoping we can go early - play early - and then just get lost in the huge crush of bodies.  

There is still a huge part of me that thinks we (being BDSMers) are insanely opening ourselves up to all sorts of creeps and problems........... but ...... shrug....... I also feel I can keep my "head while all around me others are losing theirs".

I miss the old days (now I do sound old - like a "Mother" or "Grandmother" bemoaning the loss of the old days I know!!)  But the truth of the matter is......... in the old days we hardliners scared the newbies - scared the wannabes .. and they stayed away from our parties.  Now they love to come and strut their stuff - wave around a fancy $300 flogger that has never seen the whiteness of an ass (not seriously) - and strut their stuff around the clubs and even private parties.  They have no manners (BDSM style or vanilla style) at all.  They act like badly behaved children at a grownup party.  

BUT the truth of the matter is........... back in the good old days (cough cough) the party organisers lost money.  Now with all these wannabes strutting around, clubs / private parties are making money and are able to keep their doors open.  And the BDSM suppliers are making money too.  Ain't no way in hell anyone of those folks are gonna say "NO" to these newbies/wannabes.

It would be nice to have loads of money and be able to open a club ONLY for the serious practitioners of BDSM but no one has that kind of money .......... the throw away kind.  So it is fit in / adapt / or stay home.


So I guess I will embrace the insanity ..... feel it up.... french kiss it - but I do think I will draw the line at buying it a drink.

Insane or what?

Many folks - especially vanillas - think we in the BDSM world are insane.  Literally.

But now even I am wondering what the hell is up with the BDSM community and some folks involved in it.

Oh we have all the in-fighting you might expect from a small closed community - who's best .. who knows more ... who the experts are ... who's done what ..who hasn't done what.... in-fighting ad nauseaum.

We have people bringing cameras and video cameras to events..... that's enough to send me running screaming ......... Some of us don't have the luxury of being "outed"  ...some of us run the risk of losing everything.......... job....... family.......kids. 


BUT I do believe we have reached a new level of insanity.  


This Saturday evening, the 4th of February - yes yes the very same Saturday I have had my eye on for 2 whole weeks -  we will have a journalist amongst us at the play party.


A journalist.


Wrap your head around that one!


OH this journalist has been told they cannot bring a camera - they can't bring a pocket recorder - just a pen and paper.  


And if you believe that one....... I have land I can sell you.............. 


A journalist at a closed private BDSM party and they won't bring a camera???!!!  Really???? oh goodie - then there's absolutely nothing to fuss over.. they promised no camera.

Honestly I believe we are doing more than embracing insanity - we are definitely feeling it up.... french kissing it and buying it a drink.

Journalists........ at a play party ............. mutter mutter mutter.

Learning .........

Maybe the title should be "Learning to remember to title the damn blog entry" 
Ahhh well - it's done now... 

I was sitting here this morning - sipping my coffee - trying to jump start my brain - answering emails - and thinking about a blog post............. when this vaporous thought floated through my consciousness.  

When I was relatively new to this job - I spent a good part of the month of February taking "Professional Development" courses.  Some were government ordered - others were interest driven.  But over the years the courses offered have dwindled down to next to nothing - and the few that are offered are ones I know inside out and upside down......... like computer courses.

About a month ago I received an email about a course being offered entitled "Play It Fair" - a course on how to help children play fair - play without bullying - play by the rules - play without discrimination - play cooperatively.  I decided I wanted to go........ except to be able to go one had to jump through a whole mess of hoops.  

Well I have spent the last couple of weeks jumping through all those hoops (the worst one being convincing my principal she can actually survive without me in the building for a whole day !!) The course is this Wednesday (oh my god - that's tomorrow!!) And I am excited to be going.......... nothing like challenging the brain during 'hibernation' season to feel energized !!!

Then - believe it or not - I found a course (or maybe it really was W who found it) on FetLife.  It is in February too....... and being offered in our Nation's Capital (which makes this course rather iffy - due to a 2 hour drive in winter weather - and we could conceivably have a winter storm which means no driving to the Capital) ANYWAY ...... for now I refuse to stress over the weather........... 

The course is on protocols and power exchange - and protocols for serving high tea and protocol dinners.  We know the two couples offering the course - and i find them down to earth "real" people.  Yesterday I realized I would love to go and hear what they have to say on the whole topic.  

The ones who are Big "Ds" as they put it .. will meet in a separate room from those of us who are small "s's" and then after 2 hours of talking and sharing the small "s's" will perform a tea service for the Big "Ds". 

There is a huge part of me that misses the whole protocol thingy....... and I am honestly hoping they will have some answers as to how one incorporates protocols and power exchange into the real world - the very real world - where families and work and health issues abound.  AND - when one has two bad knees how one kneels gracefully...... or perhaps they have an idea for something that we can use in place of kneeling.

 I am also hoping they will give us some clues on how to deal with the large majority of the BDSM community who don't believe in the need for - or the use of - protocols.  Because trust me - when you are the only one doing something in a crowd - you feel awkward and ............ yeah and sometimes you can land up being bullied ....... that's exactly what it feels like - bullying !!! 

So maybe just maybe - my month of February will be filled with learning...... and fun...... and the longest month of the winter (especially this year cause February has 29 days!!) will fly by filled with interesting challenging activities !!!

Civilized

Civilized is what the birthday party was on Saturday........ thanks to Mother Nature.  Ya see we had a mess of freezing rain on Friday...... and by late Friday night the Island had cancelled the Winterfest and shut down the sliding hills.  (see me do the dance of joy??)
So the toboggan birthday party became terribly civilized and was "cake and coffee and presents" only.

Behind the scenes things were not all that civilized though........... Youngest daughter had made the birthday cake on Friday night and left it to cool on the kitchen table.  Sometime Saturday morning - the 2 year old monster angel found the cake......... and well ya know.. it was just sitting there calling to him..............

Youngest daughter worked her cake decorating skills and turned the above mess into this...........

 no one even thought about the baby slobber which just added a touch of love to the cake......


However PigPen declared "it was the most awful day ever!!" and sulked a little bit when he was told we wouldn't be going sliding....... but the promise of an extra piece of cake and a visit from his distant cousin saved the afternoon.

We played party games too !!! (sort of) The kids had playing cards of "Where is Waldo" so granny got involved in a rip roaring game of trying to find Waldo ....... my partner was the 2 year old monster  angel....... 

 just tell me that's not the face of a monster angel

and we had good laughs trying to find the "guy in the red sweater" especially when there were cards with loads of red sweater wearing guys. 

After much laughter and hooting and hollering ... and cake and cake crumbs everywhere... Eldest daughter and I headed back home......... each to have a quiet evening in our separate houses.

Yeah I will admit I felt a little lonely........... but I do have my eye on the 4th of February and the planned play party ...............  

~~~~~~~~~~~

And for those of you keeping track of my accounting skills - or lack of.......

I spent a few hours this past weekend working on the books.  I was trying to reconcile the books and of course - true to form - it wouldn't reconcile.  HOWEVER......... I did find the problem this time...... opening balance was wrong - which didn't make sense as my bookkeeper did the last reconciliation and it reconciled for her......... 

Then - after a few hours of panic and self loathing......... the light bulb went off.  This program is mostly (about 99%) just so I can keep track of my expenses and income.  The payroll is fine - set up and running right - which is the bit the government looks at.... the rest ..shrug .. as long as I keep all my receipts that is all the governments care about.

So I went back to the reconciliation - figured out what I was out by........ made an "ask my accountant" entry for the amount...... and reconciled with my bank statement.  YAY !!

ok it may not be a huge victory for anyone who understands math and bookkeeping ........but it was a HUGE victory for me... I am no longer scared of the damn program - or my seemingly ineptitude with it.  Next month should (fingers crossed) go much better.........