I know I'm criminally behind in posting about the latest wrestling adventures -- I blame this (like everything) on my day job which has been loading me with tons of take-home data entry for the past couple weeks. But that project is SO close to done now I can taste it, and I feel I can afford a celebratory blogging session.
First story to tell: my mid-April trip to Chicago. This was such a mix of ups and downs it was wild -- definitely one of *those* trips. To start out with I was simply blown away by the wonderful flood of interest -- thank you, Chicago, and to everyone I simply didn't have time to see, I'm sorry and I'll definitely be making a longer visit next time.
So I catch my super-early flight out of Chicago, land, and make it to my hotel with two hours to settle in and set up before my first session. Only to find the hotel has overbooked itself due to some conference they're hosting and my reservation is one they've given away. There's not really time to argue, so I break out the laptop, discover there are two other hotels in walking distance, call the first to find it's gone out of business, call the second to find they have rooms available, and take off down the road lugging my travel mats on my back.
This second hotel is everything you'd expect of a rent-by-the-hour dive, but it's all I can do under the circumstances. When I ask for a non-smoking room, the front desk hands me a can of air-freshener. I have to hope my session guests will find that this adds a seedy, romantic excitement to the whole affair. I clean up, set up, and breakfast on packaged shortbread Indra had been nice enough to bring me over from London. And then the fabulous part of the trip begins.
I really had some wonderful sessions on this trip. A big thank you to the fellow who brought me the lovely purple opera gloves. And also to the guy who egged me on to do my nastiest humiliation session yet -- I find people *usually* want somewhat playful and safe humiliation, but that was not where this session ended up, which was quite fun and thrilling. Also terrific to end a long day of wrestling by seeing one of my very favorite regular clients again -- made saving the heaviest, hardest match for last a real pleasure.
Saturday was its own misadventure. I'd come out for an event in the city as well as sessions. This day involved a nerve-wracking clown-car carpool with some other hotel guests to get downtown (very bad driver who liked picking fights with other cars -- *never* accepting such an offer again) and my event running vastly later than I could ever have guessed completely bollocksing up my night. But I survived! And in the morning I lugged my mats back to the airport shuttle (at the original hotel, grr!) and came home to plan a more relaxed return visit.
The major project back here lately was a custom karate video with
Indra. I've done fantasy karate videos (
Karate Nylons One &
Two) before, but the premise here was a technical training encounter between two black belts. This was a big deal because I really have no background in karate and had a short time to pick it up since Indra was heading back to London April 28. (Good-bye, Indra, we'll miss you until you come back in August!) So I spent about a week getting a crash course in both karate techniques and attitude, along with a bit of stage combat. Lots of fun, concentration, and roundhouse kicking. We ended up making two versions -- a more combative sparring match which Indra wins and a self-defense back-and-forth which I win, both finished off with a choke to knock-out and a bow to the unconscious opponent. The combo will be released soon, but there's already a trailer up on YouTube:
VeVe vs. Indra Karate Trailer.
There have been a ton of little odds and ends going on too. Now that warm(ish) weather seems to be coming back, I've enjoyed a bit of roof gardening and spring cleaning + remodeling around my apartment -- big improvements with more to come.
Spring and summer also tend to get me fired up to step up my training...but I managed to break my toe in BJJ class last week attempting an "experimental" cartwheel guard pass. In its extremely inconvenient way, this should actually be good for my grappling since I'm having to take a month off from Muay Thai and can put the extra time into ground work. No trouble with the toe at all when I'm on the ground. I'm also just shifting into a max strength training phase in my lifting program -- those are always my favorites. I need to do a nice comprehensive test lift, actually, and post my starting numbers; then perhaps in six weeks when I've got some results to show, we'll get out a new lifting video.
Speaking more of videos, Doom Maidens has been in the market for a new camera lately. My role has been moral support as Diablo tests and rejects various options. We're sensing it's time to retire the old camera but finding that new models don't surpass it for picture quality and are infinitely less compatible with our software. Frustrating. The hunt continues, but we've got a slew of projects lined up for next week, and for now we're newly determined not to trust any of them to disappointing "upgrades." On the horizon are mixed competitive and armpit worship vids with
Orlandoe;
Athena vs. me in a catfight; and hopefully the debut of a new victim facing me in competitive straight and bondage wrestling matches. Stay tuned for more action...
