Wrapping up a whirl wind week here in Seattle – as I’ve mentioned before, this is one of my favorite cities. There are parts of it that just feel like home. So many places, my heart lays claim to here. Someday, maybe I’ll finish the blog about why this will not be my home – I dunno so many blogs in draft state, becoming like abandoned children to my ever wanderlust.
This trip was as the last one was, an excuse to support my sister’s arts, whilst simultaneously feeding my soul. Centered around Norwescon – as she was performing as one of the burlesque dancers. Finding it a little unusual of a circumstance, I had not decided fully if I would be attending the con or just watching the festivities from the scenes as I’m often more apt to do. The puppy dog look she gave me on Thursday when I faced the hour long troll of a line for not having preregistered, answered that question.
She simple could not conceive, me being a writer & avid sci-fi/fantasy gamer not attending a con that was occurring in the same hotel where I was already planning to stay. Yeah I’m weird like that.
J came out to visit this time from Florida, which made for a special treat, and additional stresses for me. Originally P was planning to attend, had bought his airfare. He declined when I released him from his commitment, due to not wanting the extra strain of wanting to please him, J & Sis…. this has been a weird weird trip.
I ended up catching a rather nasty head cold, via my sympathetic tendencies I’d suspect. I ended up skipping nearly all of the panels at the con, except for two that I found poignant and appropriate considering certain provisions I’d made with P prior to attending. Sufficed to say J has been “on my list” since before I was married. And with the recent drought, I got consent from P to play with J while I was here. Long, sordid, not-mine-to-share and seriously unhealthy story later, that was not to be; leaving me slightly disappointed and in the seemingly endless perpetual state of horny that has been “new normal” for the past nearly 2 years now.
It was this condition; coupled with more than curiosity from having read through the new paper style flyers of events for the con and having found the most two interesting panels, both late at night, both on Saturday and both of interest to me. Introduction & Advanced BDSM.
Kink is not something new to me. Its something more than a curiosity; but I’m not certain what else I would label it in the great book of my life, its something I’m comfortable with, my own sexuality, and that of the bounds with which I’m willing and wanting to experience. This is a slippery slope for me however, for many reasons. Not the least of which is being married to someone that is not comfortable with these concepts; any of them.
This was the question I asked in the session, and the moderator asked me bluntly if I had been hoping for a miracle answer or a hail mary. I laughed, because I know there is no easy answer, but if there were a hail mary to be had, I felt, after 2 hours of listening, enjoying, laughing, and smiling – 2 hours of blissful joy with people, other human beings also equally comfortable with themselves, and with non-normal conditions — Happiness. It was a Hail Mary, for which I’d hoped.
The suggestions provided really made me think, they also, as well as having attended the panel, made me realize that I seriously need to explore this subject matter in my local area, there is no reason for me to not have broken out of my cocooning shell and found some of these types of encounters in my own haunts. Its the happiness, comfort and joy of likemindedness that I greatly enjoyed. It was a safe environment.
Its a truly sad thing for me, that the coffee at this hotel has been some of the worst I’ve ever had in Seattle, its mostly Starbucks coffee, which normally is pretty consistent, but they are not even brewing it up to standard here, and that has just made me a sad panda. We did venture downtown and I was able to get some very tasty drinks around and about, one of my favorites is Cherry Street Cafe – the one on Cherry street. There were several others I enjoyed this trip, and even found one that was serving the Goats ones from Olympia from a previous trip.
It was either the number of sick people at the Con or it was the ice cream from Mora’s in Bainbridge. J had apparently gotten really chatty with this nice lady that told her she simple must try this particular ice cream from this particular place across this particular ferry. So what did we do? We went on a 3 hour expedition to get to this place. J & sis were … grouchy, for a bit of the time. We ended up enjoying tasty pizza, when the original place we had been provided as a suggestion was filled and did not have open tables due to reservations. — The pizza was great and far less expensive; there is something really tasty about surprise calzones – being a bread lover of all types, any chance for a calzone is one I will not easily pass up. These were quite satisfying, spinach, chicken & some local cheese – and it was amazing. The ice cream place was just down the road and it was good also- although we all – especially me, ate way way way too much of it.
It was some combination of these lovely things, or the people that caused me to spend 2 days laid up with a fever, tossing and turning with wicked kink filing my head in my delirium. Sufficed to say, I was rescued from most of the rest of the overwhelming people interactions by this sickness, but missed out on a good bit of sightseeing with J & sis.
Did get to pull in some last minute visits today, for the Zoo (first time for me in all 7 of my trips) – and back to the aquarium. We also tried out this cute little cafe bistro in Fremont called “HA!” — yes, yes, I did try it strictly because of the name – well and the overwelmingly positive yelp reviews. Neither were overrated, it was great the brioche french toast melted in my mouth.
The weather today was really outstanding, it actually got warm enough for short sleeves to be comfortable, and taking in the aquarium in the afternoon light was really a sight to remember.
So many reasons I love Seattle, always so hard to leave.
This post would be truly remiss if I neglected to mention getting to hang out with BK (Gamer friend from WoW) – he was gracious enough on our arrival night, at the middle of the night to come and pick all 3 of us up and shuttle us around to find a place still open for dinner. Wish he had come hung our more for the Con, he probably would have enjoyed it quite a bit.