Blog - American Leatherboy 2010

Sunday, I slept in. It was around 10:00 when I woke up. Dakota and Kim had already had breakfast. I was about to head out when Dana texted and he and I walked over to Houlihans for their brunch. We ran into a couple of guys the, and the four of us had breakfast together. It was quite fun! After that, we returned to the hotel, and I spent some time talking with different folks before heading down to the vender mart to put my name on the list for the bootblacks and to vote my ticket. There was certainly a lot of time to wait, so I took advantage of that and wandered around the vendor mart to look at what everyone was offering. At various points, I wandered by myself, and with others. Never did get my boots done! But I did cast my ballot. I will look forward to experiencing Jim another time. I met up withKD, International Ms Bootblack, and we went up to the Mama's fundraiser in the SECC room. It was fun hanging out for a bit before we had to move on to our next commitment, helping Sara International Ms Leather with her luggage. Once that was accomplished, Kd And I had some time to hang out before we needed to get ready for the contest. She is a great person to sit around and talk with. Thank you KD for a wonderful afternoon! Before I knew it, it was time to get ready for the contest. We dressed in high holy cow, and made our way downstairs. After a quick stop at the bar for a drink, we headed down and Dakota, Kim and I walked to the venue -- it was just behind the hotel, so wasn't very far. We sat with Mama Sandy and a few other folks. The contest was great. Made more so by the number of people on stage who I consider to be friends and family. I practically screamed myself horse when California too 4 of the top 20 positions, and then finished the job as different people i knew were also called! It was a great top 20, and I enjoyed watching all of them on stage. We took some good pictures of Dakota, Louie and me! After the contest, we were taken up to the press room - thank you Liza and Jodi for your help in getting us there! Once in the press room, we were able to get pictures with International Mr Leather, Eric Gutierez, a hot and incredibly sweet man, as well as get picture of Anthony and "D" 2nd and 1st runner up, respectively. We also got pictures of Jim Duder, International Mr Bootblack. After that, we headed back to the hotel to change, and then I spent the rest of the evening with Morgaine, Mid Atlantic Leatherwoman, Brandon, and Loki. We decided to order pizza, and hung out in Morgaine's room talking about anything and everything. What a fun evening! At some point, I fell asleep on Loki. Eventually he woke me up and we headed downstairs for a "last cigarette" of the evening. We wound up staying down there until the sun was just coming up. I headed to my room sand promptly fell asleep. 4 hours later, I was up and walked Dakota and Kim downstairs so they could get a taxi to the subway station. After that, I wandered around for a little while in the vendor mart, picking up a couple of different things and attending the press conference. Scooby called and I told him about my weekend! After we talked, I met up with Brandon and we spent a fun couple of hours together. I met up with Chris from San Francisco for dinner. Time flew. I could not believe that we sat there talking for almost 2 1/2 hours about topic under the sun! We returned to the hotel, and I head dot my room to get ready for the Black and Blue ball. Then downstairs to hang out and talk with folks. I headed over to the dance, did my circuit, met one of the producers for Southwest Leather, and also met the producer for Mr Phoenix leather. We talked a bit a out ABW before I decided it was time to go since I had an "early" flight. Back at the hotel, my good night smoke stretched out as I talked with some of my very favorite people. I laughed so hard that my sides were hurting by the time I got back to my room. I finished packing a few more things, then laid down. I was going to try to do some blogging, but I could barely see the screen. I fell asleep almost immediately.

Traveling from San Diego is a little like going somewhere on a sailboat. You tend to leave early in the morning to get anywhere by late afternoon. And this trip was no different! I had to be at the airport by about 5:00 am. So, daddy and I were up at 4:00 am, and headed out the door at 4:30. He dropped me off at the airport, and I navigated my way through security and found my gate. When I fly South West, there are a number of restaurants to eat at early in the morning. Sadly, in the United terminal, there is Starbucks, and that's pretty much it. Starbucks wasn't even open! So I sat there watching as people stood in line for a shop that wasn't open. By the time it was open, the line stretched half way back to the checkpoint. So, I went over to the convenience store and grabbed a snickers bar and water. I was really glad that I did, as the flight was "to short" to serve real food! For the first time, I had a flight that had a 2 year old sitting next to me. She was well behaved for about half the flight, and then started crying. Loudly! I noticed an e,pry seat further back in the plane, and made the hard decision. Risk missing my contacting flight to retain a portion of my insanity. I moved. It was a relatively peaceful flight after that.. We arrived in Denver a few minutes early, and OMG, they had a smoking area IN THE TERMINAL! I love the Denver airport! So I ran to the area, smoked,and then headed to my connecting flight with about 10 mi it's to spare. I landed in Chicago and missed Dakota by about 30 minutes. We chatted by text for a few minutes while I made my way to transportation. I arrived at the hotel in the company of Mike Tattresel. It was funny because we met up and started talking without realizing that we had talked that morning via Facebook! He was great company on the way to IML. I met up with. Dakota and Kim, and we got me settled in the room. First item on the agenda -- FOOD! Because yet again, my flight to Chicago was deemed to short to serve food, and a smoke was more important than eating! We ate ate houlihans, a little pub close to the hotel. It was good food, and great company with Dana, Dakota, and Kim! We returned to the hotel, and, started running in to people I knew, so getting back to the room was a challenge! I received a text from Adam, asking if I had made it in, since he had received questions about where I was since the rest of the family had already been visible. -- there is nothing quite like having family keep track of their boy :) Friday night was opining ceremonies for IML, and we sat with Mama Sandy Reinhart (please forgive spelling if it is not correct). She is an amazing woman who has worked hard for our community throughout the country. After opening ceremonies, we changed, and I spent the evening catching up with friends and family from across the country, and catching up with many of the contestants for IML that I have met in my travels -- people who are both friends and family. For being tired when I arrived I was stunned to realize that the time had flown, and at 4:00 am, I was finally headed to my room. Saturday was going to be a fun day!

Kim and Dakota were smart. They went to bed around midnight, so they were up and raring to go at 8:30 in the morning. Apparently I was supposed to get up because even as quiet as they were, I still woke up. We got dressed, and headed out in search of food. Along the way, Rich Stadmiller joined up with us, and it was a small parade of folks! We decided that we wanted bagels, but the only thing they had close to the hotel was a place that served "squagels", square bagels. As we were ordering, Mama Sandy texted Dakota, and we picked her up one as well. We headed back to the hotel with our food, and went to Mama Sandy's room and had breakfast. From there, we wandered around for a bit, and then I met up with Randy, Bob and Jim for lunch, then went to a cigar social at a local cigar shop. While we were there, one of the locals came in and looked me up and down. They asked if I came on my Harley, and without thinking, I replied "Not yet." I thought the staff were going to fall over they were laughing so hard! It was a fun time, and thanks to Rob, who took some good shots of me enjoying a cigar!

After that, we headed back to the hotel. I headed down to the vendor mart, and didn't make it but two booths, before again, I was busy talking with friends. A special thank you to Off Ramp Leathers for giving me a new leather medallion strap for my ABW medallion! I met up with Randy again for dinner. We headed to Buca DI Beppo for dinner, along with Bob and Jim again. We met up with 15 other folks there. The room we ate in had religious artwork and a bust of the pope in the center. We played around a bit with the bust of the pope, Bob took this great picture of the bust where the reflection actually created a symbolence of a cross. It was really a cool picture! We also put one of the contestant medallions on him and took additional pictures with various different items that folks had on them. I don't think i have laughed so much at a dinner in a long time. The wit staff was phenomenal, and I think enjoyed themselves as well. Thank you Lady Justice for organizing the dinner. I started getting a head ache, and took some aspirin. That evening, it was Pecs and Personalities. I still had my head ache, so was drinking slot of water. It was actualy a fortunate thing, since I headed to the bathroom right before the beginning of this portion of the contest. While i was in there, I ran into Mr Ottawa Leather2003. He had a wardrobe malfunction with the zipper on his chaps, and I was able to help him get them fixed. Unfortunately, in the process the zipper lost a tooth, so hfe was going to have to be careful from that point on. returning to my seat, I watched the contest, but with my headache it was sometimes difficult to follow along. We listened to 53 men stand in their jocks and answer a humorous question. It was a great time. Unfortunately, about half way through the contest evening, my head ache lifted, and. Discovered I was exhausted. If I did not take a break, I was going to fall asleep. So i headed out to smoke, and that helped me immensely. I returned to the contest to disco err that I had missed 4 of the people I really wanted to watch and listen to. My apologies to Alex, Mr Maryland Leather, Tim, Mr Connecticut Leather, Scruffy, Mr New Jersey Leather and "D" Mr Mid Atlantic Leather. The pecs and personalities contest was a lot of fun. And when it w over, it was time to get out of high holy cow and down to some fun parties! On my way out from the contest, I stopped by Woof Camp, with JB, Mr Hays Valley Leather. It was fun to watch the puppies, but I found myself thinking of my own puppy, and missing him, so I made a quiet exit. Of course, Scooby had called me right before Pecs and Personalities, so I was already missing him. On the way to Onyx, I ran into boy Chris, American Leatherboy 2008, aka grandpa :). We chatted for a minute before he went off in search of his Daddy and I headed towards Onyx. I do need to apologize to the Windy City Boys troop for missing their event Sat afternoon, for some reason I thought that it was Sunday! The men from Onyx through a fantastic party! Unfortunately I didn't want my headache to come back so after putting in an appearance there, I headed out. I was on the way back to my room when I passed by a guy I had met that morning, who was distraught because he had lost his wallet. I worked with him to notify the hotel, and then the Onyx folks to keep an eye out for his wallet, then was again, working with him to remember what room he was in. That was when he was describing how he lost his wallet. He was wearing thigh high Wescos, and had put his wallet in the leg of one. I stopped him at that point, patted him down, and found his wallet. He was a little inebriated, so I put him to bed and made him promise to call me in the morning,because he was feeling so ashamed about what happened. I headed back to the Onyx party to let them know we had found his wallet, and then notified the hotel of the same thing. From there, I went back to the other tower, and spent the rest of the night hanging out and talking with people. I was surprised to see that, again, it was almost 4:00 am before I finally went to bed.

For IMsL this year, I was asked to be the assistant talley master for the IMsBB competition. In case you don't know what that is, it stands for International Ms Bootblack competition. I agreed, knowing that this would be a two year commitment. Next year, I will be the head talley master. I got my schedule of events, and discover that I needed to be at the hotel no later than 11:00 am on Friday. (this was a week earlier that I found this out). After scrambling a little bit, we decided to leave San Diego Thursday night, and driven until we found a hotel that we could stay at along the way. Then drive the rest of the way Friday morning. we found a hotel in Livermore approximately 60 miles from San Francisco. Daddy insisted that we get up early because we might have needed more than 3 hours to drive the 60 miles. When it was all said and done, we arrived in San Francisco, at the hotel with more than an hour to spare, I headed for my judges meeting at 11:00, while PuP and Daddy went back to the room to nap. After my meeting, we headed down to the boot blacking area for "First Shine", the official opening of the Bootblack competition. Each of the people competing were amazing in their own way. I learned something from each of them. I also learned something from each of the amazing judging panel, Pony, IMsBB 2009, Tim Starkey IMrBB 2010 and Red Warrior, ICBB 2010. This was a great panel of judges. At 5:30, I had my first major talley task. We had to count ballots for the boot blacks. That was an interesting bit of work :) I was off for the rest of the evening, but we had the first part of the contest starting soon, so I rushed up to the room ate something, changed and we zipped down to the contest. We had a lot of fun that evening, and after the first part of the contest, we went to the San Francisco Eagle -- which may wind up closing. Huge bummer that. We hung out with Ms International Olympus Leather who is a very fun person! We headed back to the hotel around 1:00 am, and sacked out for the night. I had to be at the opening for the Bootblack competition Saturday morning, so I was up and moving at 8:30 am. I spent some time answering work emails after the opening, but spent most of my day around the boot black area. It was a lot of fun to watch and learn. My talley work continued at 3:30 pm when I had to count the second day of ballots, and then we took the judges binders to tabulate their scores and identify a winner. It was kind of odd to go to the contest that evening knowing who the winner of the bootblack competition was. The contest was fun, and all in all not that different from others I have been to. After the contest, we zipped up stairs, got our toy bag and then went to the play space to play with PuP. That was a lot of fun. From there, we wandered to one of the hospitality parties, and then to the room as the day caught up with us. Sunday was a fun lazy day. I bought a new Cat -- actually Daddy found it for me because he was tired of me borrowing his! PuP got a new toy that we would use later at e bar on him. At 3:00, ABW hosted a hospitality party that was a blast! Dakota and Kim were flying out at 10:00 pm or so, so we all headed to the eagle to hang out and have fun. It was great! We headed back to the room around 10:30, ordered some food delivery, and crashed put for the night. Monday morning, we checked out and headed for home. Along the way we stopped at Harris Ranch for lunch and had excellent steaks! I look forward to returning to IMsL next year!

Each year, for the past little while, San Diego Leather Pride has run for approximately 10 days. We start with All Clubs Night Thursday, the Ms meet and greet Friday, the Ms contest Sat, and brunch and kinky classes on Sunday. Followed the next Thursday by the Titleholder Cocktails Thursday, the mr meet and greet Friday, the contest on saturday and the victory brunch and after glow party on Sunday. This is a hell of a schedule, because there are also those events that only constants and judges do. So if you are on the committee, or judging, it makes for a long two weeks. I serve on the. SDLP committee, and for the first part, was a very busy boy. Dakota flew in from the east coast, and was head judge for the Ms contest. It was the first time that Daddy was able to meet her. They got along fantastically. Before I knew it, it was time to see Dakota off o. Her trip home, and the second half of Leather Pride to commence. During this part, I was a judge for the Mr contestants, so I was still q busy boy. Leather Pride was great success and I enjoyed, as I usually do, being actively involved, as well as being part of the judging panel.

There are those times when work interfere wi fun, and this was one of those times. We arrived in Las Vegas on Thursday around 11:30 am. We drove, as we normally do, and I spent most of the drive working. Rechecked in, and I spent a little more time working before we wandered down to the smoke out hospitality suite to register and get our arm bands. We caught up with our friends Tom and Paul, and then it was back to the room for more work. I managed to wrap up on thursday in time to have dinner with Tom, Paul, Mark, and a few other folks that we have met over the years going to this event. After dinner, we went back to Toms room and I beat on Mark with floggers. It was fun. After that, we hit the proverbial wall, and crashed out for the evening. Friday, we got up, had breakfast, and I took care of the work I needed to do. Frank arrived about 11:00, and I spent the next hour or so making a collar for him as Daddy collared him that weekend. The collar is a braided leather collar with loops to put a lock on it. After we finished the collaring, Daddy and Frank played while Tom and I played. Tom has been promising to fist me for several year, and we finally got the opportunity! He was well worth waiting for. *WOOF* Not only is he hot, and a fun bottom but he has very talented hands!! Tom Told me at he wants to play again, and this time he wants to set up a recording device. Apparently when I came I sounded like the end of the "Hanna Barberra ride". After fun in the sling, I worked a little more, before heading out for the evening. The bar was fun, but packed. I was fighting head aches all weekend, so the smell of the cigars was not working for me. Ultimately, we ran out of steam and headed back to the room and to bed. Saturday was another fun day. Still spent way to much time working but managed to. Work in social time as well. Saturday night, we went to the play party. It was more of a social party, but Daddy and I co-topped Frank, and then I went off with Ian from LA, to play with electricity. Wow what an electrifying experience! Sorry about the pun. I couldn't resist. After the party Saturday night, Frank fisted me. Unfortunately, I was a little tender from playing with Tom, so this was a more sedate fisting, and ended much more quickly than I wanted! Sunday, we hung out by the pool, and did ore miscellaneous stuff, And I worked. Monday we headed home. And I worked. S All I all I enjoyed this trip, but would vastly prefer to NOT have to do work work during them. Such is the life when you run a small business. Thank you to the organizers and volunteers who put together Smoke Out. This was our third year, and the best one yet.

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IML Sunday - contest

IML -- Travel day, Friday

IML Saturday - Pecs and Personality

IMsL

San Diego Leather Pride

Smoke Out - Las Vegas