Boston Welcome Wagon!
I stayed up until 2am packing. Not only was I packing for this crazy OMG what was I thinking trip (16 cities, 2 whistle stops, 23 days... with a different city each day until San Francisco), but I have been packing up the rest of my life as well. My partner and I just signed a lease on our new apartment in Brooklyn. And he gets to move without me there, because I will still be on tour. In fact, I'll be in St. Louis when he first opens up the apartment as being "ours," wanders inside, sets up our desks.
So what does it look like to pack for this kind of trip? Well, it's tricky. Along the way we are teaching classes, appearing at two halloween parties, being the guests at two formal dinners, and hitting some casual munches. I am leading sacred sex and community rituals, we have book signings, rope bondage courses, and I have a show with Aiden Fyre and K at Surrender where I have to be an apocalyptic angel. Yeah, the wings got shipped out in advance luckily.Plus? We travel from Chicago (brrr) to Phoenix (pretty darn warm), from dry to wet, and gosh darn it, I need comfty PJs and some light reading material too. So what you see on the bed is what I packed. 7 button-down shirts, 2 sweaters, 7 pairs of jeans, one pair of dress slacks, leathers, swim trunks, tees, undies, socks, Halloween gear, toiletries, electronics, rope, down jacket and long johns, 4 ties (I've been obsessed recently) and a few light reads. Plus some altar gear, because my faith is of profound importance to me.With the rest of my life packed into boxes, I got up at 6am, feeling surprisingly well rested. Bus to Manhattan (from New Jersey where I was staying), and then hopped a bus to Boston. Though we call it the Whistle-Stop tour, the Amtrak legs don't begin until DC. So it's Bolt Bus and Mega Bus goodness until then. Bolt Bus was fantastic, and I spent the time on there redesigning a class (and coming up with some new theories on sacred kink exploration while doing so), doing email, taking a few calls, and drinking an all-too-tasty coffee coolata. Ah, the joys of spoiling.Landing in Boston, the amazing Lily took me over to see Opn, who is the amazing education coordinator for Welcome Wagon (a project of New England Leather Alliance), and who rocks it out as a board member for MOB. I dropped off my bags, gave lots of hugs, and threw a book in one pocket of my jacket, my ipod in another pocket, and headed off to adventure.
The city is so beautiful this time of year. Leave changing color and falling around me like a wave. I crossed over bridges, walked through St. Charles street, up Newburry, along the waterfront, through parks. It was breathtaking.
I was born in this area of the world. Lowell, Massachusetts. My mother likes to joke that in the hospital for Thanksgiving they served a ten pound turkey, and two days later she had one of her own. This area sings in my blood. It feels delicious. It is not the heart of my hearts land... those sensations come up for me in Goreme (Turkey), Manly (Australia), and New Orleans (USA). But there are certain places that just feel *right* - and Massachusetts is one of them.It turns out that in Boston, trains get in the way. Or more accurately for this tale- Cambridge. The class was taking place in Cambridge, and I was trying to get back to the venue so I could meet Rigger Jay for dinner (nom nom pizza and talking nom), and found that there was always a train in the way. I had quite the wandering adventure trying to make it all work.Class was lovely. We taught "Negotiating Well With Yourself... and Others," a debut class that was really fun. People laughed, shared techniques, and stories were told. There are SO many styles on how to do negotiation. The word has always been a turn-off for me, because I have an association with 72 page checklists and feeling pressured to meet other people's "demand lists," but I said in the class that when I came to realize that what most folks really meant by negotiation was "ways to get ideas out of our head so that our partner know what is cool for us, great for us, and not such a good fit for us," it helped me immensely.Afterwards there were many hugs, books signed, laughter shared... and I was even gifted a gourd. Like, a pumpkin. Tiny. It's in my bag now.
In fact, this is Mo, chillin' with the dude who gave me the gourd! She looks so sexy and fly in his fedora.The Welcome Wagon is a fantastic project. Think of it as SM101, spread out over the course of a year. 1.5-2hrs a month, each diving into a different topic. Impact play. Negotiation. Physical safety and body fluids. Power Exchange. It's so tasty! OMG, I wish more cities had stuff like this, instead of trying to cram it all into one time slot. So very tasty.Heading home, there was a weird incident with a car and The Exorcist, but once that passed, it was me chilling with an old friend of mine until 2am, talking about life, work, and the great work of our spirit. He crashed on the couch, I crashed out in the bed, and yeah, Lord Percy and his amazing household truly rocked out the hospitality. I was blown away by great company, great food, great conversation.And now... we are off to Hartford! Tonight we are teaching at The Society, with a class called "Douche bag Deviants" - becuase you will run into them, and eventually, you will be one... so what do we do and still keep thriving spirits and a healthy community?