A post in which we are all blown out of the water, and then go home

I woke up today on point. I was determined to be on it! Miss Kat was still sleeping, so I went ahead and got all my grooming stuff done quietly. I woke her with an hour to get to the breakfast she had planned with Ms Shay. Then I was off like a shot for coffee. I had spotted the Starbucks across the street, and was there and back in record time. Sigh. I would have sworn she said Splenda. Usual protocol was Sweet ‘n Low, which is why it made such an impression. She hates Splenda. She opened her eyes just as I triumphantly dumped a packet in. It was only one pack, and there was some Sweet ‘n Low in the room, but what she wanted was Equal. I’m just not dana. The Splenda incident aside, we finished getting ready for breakfast seamlessly. I put in a wake-up call to Ms Shay just in time to keep her from going back to sleep. She’s a slugabed from way back, which I knew.

I was pretty keyed up. Miss Kat and Ms Shay have both been in the scene for years, but had just never gotten to know each other. But dana and I have had the pleasure of playing with both of them. dana was actually in service to Ms Shay for a while. Watching these two great Dommes approach each other was kind of like watching worlds collide, or a meeting of the United Nations or something. I knew I had to be as close to perfect as I could possibly be today. But it was exciting too.

When we got down to the lobby, Ms Shay was waiting for Miss Kat. At a 2-top. Hmmm. Miss Kat went on over to join her, while I waited at the side talking to Marty and Petal. When they changed tables and it became apparent that I was to join the ladies, I went on over. They were actually talking in a fairly relaxed fashion. I did interject something when I could segue or had something to add, but in general I tried to be quiet – today was not about me. Ms Shay had obviously not planned for me to be there, although she was gracious as always.

So I was just relaxing and getting used to that situation when Lady Beth, Lynn, and Bart walked up and joined us! Lady Beth has a special greeting for me to use with her, but after I joyously jumped up to do that, I was kind of at a loss. I’m sitting at a table with THREE Great Dommes. Lordamercy. It finally just plain overloaded my circuits and I had a blow out. I sat and ate my breakfast, which Miss Kat later told me was exactly what I should have done anyway.

A picture of my back that Rhonda took this morning. Truly, it was an Aviance night last night - whoo-hoo!!

After a long leisurely breakfast and a smoke, we visited and caught up with people we’d lost track of last night before it was time for Lady Beth’s last class ‘Leather Families’.

Now we all went into this class expecting Lady Beth to talk about structure, share a few anecdotes, take some questions, and maybe lead some discussion. Well she did all that, but she also went into the love that holds a family together, and talked about the sad parts of having a leather family as well. There is a cost for everything worth having, but she emphasized that the joy that a leather family brings is worth the cost. She went through a brief history of the Kindred, and some of the things that have happened in the past. She told everyone it was worth the pain because of the joys involved, but by that time I was in tears, as was almost everyone else in the family, but we were holding it together.

Until. One woman asked Lady Beth to introduce the Kindred, since we were obviously almost all there. Lady Beth agreed. As a pledge, I didn’t know whether or not I would be introduced at all, but she called me FIRST! That was it for me. I was gone. I joyously kissed her hand in greeting, and stayed by her side sniffling, eyes shining with tears, until Lynn took her rightful place. By the time we all got up there, even the hold-outs were crying. There wasn’t a dry eye in the audience either.

To top everything off, she called Adrienne up. Adrienne had been in the audience at Miss Kat’s side, and had been crying almost through the whole discussion. The emotions flying all around were just SO powerful. So there we stood at the front of the room before everyone, bonded in love, in protocol freely given; honor bound to each other through good and bad. We were all had tears of joy in our eyes. The room was just surging with love. It was overwhelming. It flooded over everyone in the room.

There was a woman at the front who was obviously having a moment. I felt drawn to go to her, but I would have had to crawl in front of Lady Beth while she was speaking to do it, and I knew that would be wrong. But the second the formal discussion ended, I went to her and asked her Sir for permission to hug her. I threw some of that love and energy at her. I was just too full. I don’t have words to describe the power in the experience.

So after that, we all kind of tottered outside, shell-shocked. No one had been expecting all that. We talked a bit, had a smoke, and tried to come back to earth. When we did, we were hungry. Rhonda and I went to lunch with Russ and Billy. There was a great little Thai-influenced place around the block that was quiet and blessedly cool. We had a nice lunch and headed on over to the hotel to say goodbyes. It was over. It’s always kind of jarring to leave a kink event and go back to the real world. But it wouldn’t be too abrupt. I had Rhondee to ride home with me, and this point frankly I was too wrung out to even be upset. I was also very tired. And we had a long ride home ahead.

We went around, trying to say goodbye to everyone. I bought a great set of wrist and ankle cuffs on sale from one of the vendors. While we were wandering, we ran in to Big Red. She was looking as stunning as ever, and looked up startled when I greeted her. She had been typing a text to me to tell me that she hadn’t understood that I was free to play this weekend because of my pledge to the Kindred. She wanted me to know that I was wanted, and that she would have enjoyed playing with me this weekend, had she known. Of course, there were Big Huge Scenes going on for me this weekend, but I hadn’t known that up front. I thought it was very kind of me to reassure me. I was very touched.

But it was past time to hit the road. Rhondee and I were still so shell-shocked from the family class that we really didn’t talk much at all. Rhonda found some CDs and put one in, and we just listened to it. I was too wrung-out to talk, and anyone who knows me knows how rare THAT is. When we got closer to home, we came out of the torpor a bit and talked about some family stuff that had gone on, but by the time I got her home I was ready to collapse. That was about the time I realized that I had a message on my phone from Miss Kat. I’d had my phone on silent from the class, and forgot to turn my ringer back on afterwards. Dammit. She had been looking for me and I hadn’t been there. With that, I felt that I’d blown being a good boy for the whole weekend. I was glad that she would soon be back with her dana.

I always feel like Sabrina (Rhonda’s partner) never sees me but for a minute or two at a time, but Rhonda released me from having to be polite. “Go on home.” She said. “I know you’re worn out.” I did.

I got home, unpacked, and went to bed. The last couple of days have been so eventful that I feel like I need some time to digest all that has happened, and kind of work it out in my head. But work is tomorrow.