Blog of a Leather Title Contestant
One kinkster's pursuit of a title.First Runner Up
Well, not a bad run. People enjoyed the show we put on… in fact me and the other girls had people stopping outside the Blue Macaw to watch from outside! We rocked it.
And I had great friendly competitors that definitely made it fun.
Funny… it’s a bit like a good roller coaster. I looked forward to the contest with anticipation as time ran down and the date of the contest got closer. It was positively terrifying and gut-wrenching while I was in the middle of it. And now that it’s over, part of me wants to hop on again.
I guess I am pretty twisted. Cool!!!
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What a night! But wait, there’s more!!!
Okay, enough channeling Billy Mays…
But wow! Last night was fun at the meet & greet. 
And we raised tons of $$$ for the causes and travel fund. Yay. Now it’s time for the contest.
I finally have nearly everything ready. Still need a few touches here and there, but just about to go to the city.
OH–and I found out the leave a comment bit is broken on this… I need to fix it, but no time right now. 
Wish me luck!
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The contest begins!
Well, after a few frantic weeks, the contest is now on us.
It begins tonight with the meet and greet at the Eagle.
I still have things to do… more work on my fantasy, practicing my speech, sewing one last costume. But nothing insurmountable.
I did end up getting some great sponsorships and supporters, which made me really happy. I even called Ali at Edges and she was jazzed to be behind me and contributed an excellent prize. Plus, she gave me a really earnest good luck wish, which was great. For a while I was worried that I was coming too late to the table to get anything, but not so!
I’m excited about tonight! It’s all happening!
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Ups and Downs
Well, the last few days have been really stressy.
I’ve been actively pursuing sponsors, but at this point I’m late in the game, so I’ve had a lot of nos. I should have gotten this ball rolling sooner. My committments around other leather events took priority, and now that I’m finally able to focus, I’m finding that other contestants have already nabbed most businesses.
But the good news is that Penthouse came out for me in full force! They donated a big pile of schwag.
Also, Rich Stadtmiller was great–he told me I can use any of his photos, and he’d be glad to provide high resolution images with no watermark, gratis.
Plus another up is that both Good Vibes and Mr./Madame S allowed me to make contest-related purchases with a discount.
I’m still talking with a couple other businesses, asking them for even small things that would bring them business, like coupons or logo items. Anything small that would show support for the contest and me as a contestant.
So, we’ll see. One of the hardest parts of sales and marketing for me has always been being told no. And having run my own business, where people were constantly requesting donations (bakeries get lots of donation requests) I also know how hard it is to say no, too. But the up side is that people have generally been friendly, and I’ve found myself in some interesting conversations. Particularly with Jonathan, at Mr. S, who had a fair bit of advice for me once I explained that this was my first leather contest, and asked him for some guidance.
And, I had a pretty interesting fantasy mostly worked out–me performing, with Wolf giving advice on what looked good and what didn’t, but unfortunately the use of fire at the venue has been called into question, and I probably can’t use the fire fans. So, fortunately a friend of mine that has many more glow toys is willing to loan them, and I’m meeting him tonight to see if he has any that would be good for the venue, which has an unusual stage. Also, the producers have been willing to plead my case to the bar manager… it’s a long shot, but maybe the bar manager will be OK with the routine I have. (Crossing fingers.) It’s a setback, and worriesome, but something will work out.
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Contestant Meeting
Well, today was the contestant meeting, and we were able to get questions answered about the contest. Lots of good information for planning.
One thing that did become apparent was that a couple of the contestants are playing a little rougher than others, or trying to anyway. I’d breifly thought about using a tougher, more close-to-the-chest approach, but rejected that pretty quickly. For one, it’s just not my style… I’m an up-front, direct person that loves to share thoughts and ideas (hence this blog where I’m talking about everything I’m doing.) For two, part of the reason I’m in this is to make sure we have a good competition–and what better way to have a good competition than to have all the contestants come in strong?
Anyway… getting to know folks, and this week should be interesting!
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My own progress…
Well, today I spent most of the day whipping my site into a reasonable shape. It no longer looks like a amateur project circa 1998… it’s at least in this decade anyway. I still need to put together the page on bisexuality… and some of the other pages were a bit rushed, but they’ll do for now.
Although things are coming together, the list of things to do is still quite long. I’ll take a stab at it:
- Make chocolates for contestant basket. (And maybe extras for BR?)
- Finish doily for contestant basket.
- Make gum paste flowers for items in the contestant basket.
- Make pastries for contestant basket.
- Contact businesses for sponsorships.
- Use search engine credit to promote my site before the contest.
- Sew costume for Fantasy.
- Work out a routine for Fantasy.
- Reconnoiter angel wire for Fantasy.
- Mix song for Fantasy.
- Practice Fantasy & demo for friends to critique.
- Write speech.
- Find just the right friend to help me back stage.
Okay… now the list is less intimidating now that I’ve put it all in one place. I’m thinking that doing an adequate job of these will be about 30 hours, and I’d like to do better than adequate.
Maybe if I say pleeeezzze Wolf will clean up the living room for me!
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A Death in the Family
Received very sad news today.
Mr. Marcus Hernandez, who was to be one of the judges for the contest, passed on. He’d been part of the community for ages, but I’d only interacted with him once, briefly. I was looking forward to talking with him during the contest and getting to know him and more about him during the process. But, unfortunately, this was not to be.
May he rest in peace. With lots of boys to wait on him.
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Learning So Much!
Well, getting ready for this event is challenging me in ways I honestly didn’t expect.
I’ve been rapidly learning more about putting together “modern” web sites. Due to career-hopping my understanding of web site development stopped somewhere in the early 2000’s, hence the somewhat klunky look of my main site. But as I whittle away at it, trying to get it to look more like I really want it to, I’m learning a TON!
Also, I’m totally geeked on the Word Press blogging software. It’s public domain, and lots of people have really contributed to its development, so I’m finding lots of fun and funky stuff. Some of which I don’t really have the time to play with now, but will be in the future. I’m glad it came up in the interview for the job with Burning Man (which I didn’t get) because I’m totally enamored with it.
And last… I’ve got a song I really want in my performance but I needed to trim away about 2 minutes. SOOOOooo… guess what! I get to learn to be a junior sound engineer. Hee hee! This is totally cool ’cause I’ve been curious about it for a long time, but haven’t had a good reason to go digging into sound toys. Wolf found an interesting mixing program called Audacity that is fun so far… and I also found another tool called CDex that I’m learning to use.
Who would have thought that running for a leather title would push me to do more with my computer?
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So much to do!
Well, I’ve been frantically working on my site, on items for the gift basket, and trying to find the right clothes for the upcoming contest. It’s only a week and change away, and it seems like it’s going to be hard to get everything done. Ah, but it’ll all happen one way or another!
Tags: Leather Contest