late summer wrap-up

I'm getting a little distressed as I look at the calendar and realize I'm days away from September.  Summer is my favorite season BY FAR, and this year it's been so busy, I feel like I haven't had a chance to enjoy it.  I've certainly enjoyed all the training, wrestling, and travel, of course, but I feel like I haven't gotten to really stop and appreciate the summer itself, if you know what I mean.

Mixed Wrestling Gauntlet

This past month gives the perfect example -- I had a combo get-away + session tour scheduled for early August.  The weekend before, I had a huge four-match video shoot set up with Tommi and Mahea during their NYC visit.  But just as everyone was arriving for the shoot, we got word that Tommi and Mahea were having an accommodations crisis and would need to reschedule.  Since everyone else was there already, we went ahead with the shoot...with me fighting Diablo and Hanz back-to-back in an Exhaustion Gauntlet Match.  

My match with Tommi

My match with Mahea

And THEN we proceeded to reschedule with Tommi and Mahea for various weekday times, which meant that I had to bolt out of my office on two different days to do my matches with them during my lunch breaks!

I was feeling very accomplished and super-pleased with all the fantastic wrestling action after this but also super-ready for that vacation.  But it was not to be, at least not as planned.  Diablo was coming with me on this trip, and the very day we were to leave he tore his MCL (a knee ligament) in morning BJJ class.  We still made it to Wildwood and D.C. (an especially fantastic stop, by the way, with great sessions, great people, and a lovely microbrew pub dinner with friends).  But we cut out the stop in Charleston, which was to be the most relaxing and beach-y, and brought him back to NYC for a doctor's appointment in the middle of the week.

We've since gotten good (and bad) news back from the doctor.  The tear is only partial and will heal on its own...but that will take six to eight weeks.  So I'm happy (and sad) for him, and relieved (and disappointed) that soon but not as soon as I'd like, I'll get my best training partner and video victim back.

So that brought me up to practically the end of the summer in a whirlwind, and am I ever working on making up for lost time now.  This past weekend was glorious -- on Saturday instead of going to class, I took my Muay Thai gear out into the park for a little open-air training.  And on Sunday I finally did make it out to the beach on Long Island where I soaked up sun and discovered an amazing little place that makes its own turtle cheesecake ice cream.  And I did get myself home in time for one Sunday night video shoot -- an utterly fun bondage custom with princess dresses.  Oh, how I love costumes!

Now, with Labor Day weekend up next, Indra is back in New York, and she and her plus-one will be joining Diablo and me for a holiday trip up to Montreal Fetish Weekend.  Road trip + Indra at a multi-day fetish gala -- this couldn't promise to be more fun.  I still have a little shopping to do to create the most fantastic domina attire possible, and there will most certainly be pictures.  And dancing.  And pictures of dancing.

That's it for now; more after this coming weekend adventure...

true blog revival!

OK, so it's the end of August, and most days it's horrid and sweltering out. Actually, I think that's great. I love hot weather, but it is very lazy weather and makes it hard to actually do anything. I'm distressed that I've been trying for a week to make it to any Fringe Festival show at all and have been prevented by subway malfunctions, over-scheduling, or heat-induced fatigue. (I WILL succeed tomorrow night; there is no other option!) I STILL have to make it to the beach this summer. My academy has added several new class options in the morning, which is ideal for me, but I haven't managed to increase my training frequency yet despite a couple weeks of good intentions. (Again, this WILL happen this week; I'm determined.)

However, some very good things HAVE happened lately. Somewhat in order they are:

My vacation at the beginning of August. I swung south to Wildwood on the Jersey shore for a couple of days, where I had fun strolling the boardwalk, witnessed a fantastically impressive storm sweep in off the ocean, and was able to watch some live MMA at a Reality Fighting event there. Then I proceeded out to western PA for my yearly trip to Pennsic, a giant medieval festival. I spent a week camping and sword fighting (well, I personally use a polearm rather than a sword) in huge armored battles with a 1,000 people per side. I got a bit carried away buying belly dancing costumes even though I can't belly dance – although I did take a class while I was there. Unfortunately, it was a fairly advanced class focusing on the particular art of balancing things on your head while belly dancing. So now I know more about balancing than the basic dancing. Oh, well. Also went out to a few excellent parties around campfires. The best one was the Ladies’ Night Party, which featured ungodly amounts of wonderful food and drink and (mostly) attractive shirtless male servers being indecently harassed by the feasting ladies. And, yes, this too was done around a campfire. Great night ;) And great trip.

Next, I confirmed that I’ll be travelling up to Montreal again this year for the Fetish Weekend there. I’ll be doing sessions and shooting wrestling videos with Pamela and judoboy while I’m there, but enjoying the city and the fetish galas will be a big part of the trip. I’m having fun planning for the high fashion scene at MFW (designing Rococo Masquerade Domina wear!), and in anticipation (and as a result of actually not having the past few weekends at home) I’ve been getting out to New York parties again. Dropped in at Suite Abyss the other weekend, and I must say that club dancing is a good time. Planning on much more soon!

(Other upcoming travel notes – I won’t be going back to Atlanta in September after all, sadly. But I will be going to Indianapolis later that same month. Should be an interesting trip – I’ve got family out that way, and they’ll get to meet some of my wrestling colleagues. Worlds will collide.)

Also, there was lately the Grapple Den Two-Year Anniversary Party. We had a summer beach theme and an arena rock soundtrack. A lot of good matches – we’ve had great talent over the past few months. I continue to believe, though, that more people need to be brave and try oil wrestling at the beach theme parties. Sure it’s a little disgusting, but it’s great fun. Cloberella was game for it and, of course, Tony, who’s always game. Props to them.

Also a good news/bad news note – I had such an utter hell of a time putting together the party music on my dying laptop that it finally convinced me to get a new laptop. Alas for hellacious difficulties. Yay for the new laptop! I’m composing on it now.

Finally, there was the afore-mentioned video rematch with Kim on Sunday. That girl is so much fun to fight and really frikkin’ good. I’m thrilled with my takedown performance this time around, but I also nearly died in one choke… It was an even closer fight than our last December battle, and our highly critical video editor has been raving to me about it. A good sign! And best of all, it will be available very, very soon. [ETA: It is available NOW: VeVe vs. Kim REMATCH Video] This should be the start of a good run of video production – besides the Montreal matches, I’ve got a mixed competitive video and a second (and maybe third?) spandex match lined up. Good stuff heading into September; stay tuned!