I was going to somehow try to skip writing about Shadowlane, because I don't really like writing posts which are just "this happened. Then this happened. Then this happened!" and because so many other people (especially
Erica Scott and
Beth Eisley) have written great posts describing the party. That said, I do have good stories, and stories are part of what my blog is all about. Also, I'm going to feel a bit more "free" once I'm entirely caught up on what I'm "supposed" to post about.
Heather and I arrived in Vegas on Wednesday afternoon, and we got dressed in better clothes and did our makeup in the parking lot.
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| Much more presentable than I was before we Vegased ourselves up |
We then went to Holstein's in the Cosmopolitan: a place where we had eaten during our
first trip to Vegas. I ordered something which was called the "Nom Nom Burger" pretty much entirely because of the name. It had potato chips on it. I nommed. Heather and I got an alcoholic coke float which also included poprocks. It was amazing.
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| OM NOM NOM |
We went into a couple of stores, but then Heather had a session to go to, so she dropped me off with
Ten and Drlectr at the Suncoast, the hotel where the party was held. I have infinite love for those two. We hung out a little bit, then we went to go get all you can eat enchiladas and margaritas. I had JUST finished eating my Nom Nom Burger, so I just got a margarita. It was massive and delicious. I didn't even finish it in the time that it took my friends to each eat two plates of enchiladas.
Ten and Drlectr were going to a show that night, and I was feeling tired and wanted to get to
Dana Kane's house, where we were staying over, so I decided to stay and hang out in the hotel. Fortunately, I met up with
Richard Windsor and Tomdiscp at the bar, and they proceeded to buy me drinks and chat me up. Richard is at the top of the list of people I wish I had been able to spend more time with: he's funny, clever, caring, respectful and nice to be around. Also, he let me wear his hat:
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| I hope that some Richard Windsor/Alex Reynolds collaborations are coming in the future! |
While hanging out at the bar, I also got to meet
Caroline Grey, the Canadian spanking model living Ireland. She was all jet lagged but still all awesome. I kept drinking (which, in case you've noticed a lack of posts about me drinking, I really don't do very much of that anymore) and by the time Heather picked me up, I was texting Heather Wayland (The Boss of Me) and telling her that I was "too drink" to come visit her that night. Sounds about right. I sobered up while Heather drove me over to Dana's.
It was awesome to see Dana and her husband! I first met them nearly a year ago when I did my first
Spanking Court shoot, and I really got to know them when Heather and I stayed in an apartment with them during the production of
Sternwood Academy. We got there close to the time at which they were preparing for bed, and we were tired, so we spent a little bit of time hanging out and then got ready to sleep. I did sneak a peek at Dana's closet full of implements, though. My god, that thing is FULL OF IMPLEMENTS. It puts my collection to shame. Just the sheer amount of canes that she has startled me. She saw me eying them and told me: "I break a lot of canes." I suppose that's probably accurate. Ouch!
Dana has a cat named Noodle that I'm kind of in love with. He doesn't seem to understand that he's a cat and therefore is supposed to be aloof. He's so dog like, in fact, that he plays fetch and actively tries to get pets and cuddles. He also tries to eat human food and go places he shouldn't, but all in all, he's a very lovable scamp. I added this to my collection of photos of me with famous spankos cats:
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| I think that collection was previously full of just Clare Fonda's cats. |
The next morning we had some breakfast and then hung out a bit. Dana gave us some good advice, and we enjoyed both of our friends' company a little bit more before we had to go. They were not able to attend the party, which was sad for everyone, but I'm glad that we got to visit them before it got into full swing.
We packed up our stuff and drove back to the hotel, where we got ready to do a shoot for the
Clare Fonda sites. I really love working with
The Camera Man, and this time, I got to meet and shoot with
Veronica Ricci. She's A LOT OF fun to work with, and incredibly hot.
Later, I met up with and hung out with my friend, Whooperine. We've been at every party together, and we had the same first party, so that's kind of a neat thing we've got going on. He had a pretty awesome suite, and I had fun taking a tour of it with him. I discovered that his bathroom included THE SUPER CORNER:
It's probably not good for claustrophobic spankos, but I found it very comforting. Extra wall-hug!
His bed also had about 80 pillows on it, so I made a giant, plus mountain to lay over:
Most. Comfortable. Spanking position. Ever. :D
Later still, I finally met up with Heather W. We've known each other online for ages, but had never had a chance to be in the same place at the same time. There was hugging and photo taking and rejoicing. I also met Beth Eisley for the first time and fell instantly in love. Ugh. She's the best. She's perfectly cute, super sweet, and incredibly smart. I'm smitten.
That evening, we went to a bunch of suite parties and drlectr gave me my first night, midnight paddling during a mass group effort. This is the part of the story where the details kind of break down. I did a lot of hanging out with awesome people, and I had a lot of fun, but I didn't stay up too late because the next morning was my shoot for
Shadowlane itself!
Unfortunately, the Shadowlane shoot didn't go perfectly smoothly. There were mixups about time schedules, so the scene which had originally been planned for me and Mila Kohl never got shot. We did get to do a scene with Amy Hunter, though, which was most excellent, and I think turned out very well. I'm just disappointed that we didn't get to do anything full length. Eve did say that she would have me back to work again when it wasn't so hectic. I don't have any pictures from the shoot yet, but I'll show you when I do.
After I finished with Shadowlane, it was time for me to shoot with
Northern Spanking. This was very exciting to me, because there's something very thrilling about being on sites overseas. The Top for the scene that I shot was Stephen Lewis, who I'd seen in many videos but never had a chance to meet before, and I was very excited about that. I don't give away the storylines for shoots before the content goes up, but I will say that the scene which we shot (which also included Heather Green) was very formal. It was, in fact, the most formal scene I've ever participated in. It totally pushed my buttons in all the right ways. I feel like it is almost inappropriate that I like being spanked by English people so much, like it is some how linked to hegemony or fetishizing the other or whatnot. But the truth is, the stories that I first encountered when I discovered that there were stories involving spanking where all stories written in England and they were all overflowing with formality. When I got into my first spanking relationship, it was with SF, who is both English and ridiculously formal. Stephen had the same sort of thing going on in this scene: he was formal and rigid without seeming cruel or even cold. I just ate it up. It was one of the best scenes I've ever done for a video. Everyone from Northern Spanking was incredibly nice, friendly and accommodating. I'm planning to get over to the UK sooner rather than later, and I look forward to working with them again when I do!
That evening was the Vendor Fair, I think. I'm having trouble with the timeline of things, again. I got to see Erica again, which was wonderful, and to meet her boyfriend, John. He's a really great guy, and I was very impressed with him. I wasn't vending, so I wandered from booth to booth and said hi to lots of people. I noticed at Ten's booth that I was on the cover of one of her DVDs. Sweet!
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| I'm on the bottom right. :) |
Heather and I also hung out with Veronica a little more, and we ended up talking Pokemon. Uh, can you say BFFs?
Later that night, Heather and I participated in the Spankolympics, as hosted by Northern Spanking. We only did the first event before the room got too hot and noisy for us, but we owned it: we took the gold medal in "sprinting," which meant that Heather had to spank me 100 times as quickly as possible. Due to her extreme physical fitness, we did better than a bunch of "real" tops (Heather is pretty much just a bottom) and finished in 15 seconds. WINNERS.
We spent the rest of the evening hanging out at suite parties and having fun. I also changed my clothes six or seven times.
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| This is me as a contrite school girl. |
I don't remember too much of what happened during the day on Saturday-- I think I was mostly working, in either shoots or sessions. I know that when I saw Erica at dinner she told me that she didn't see me at all that day, so that's probably the most accurate description. Eventually, though, I did start getting ready for the banquet.
Now, let me start off by saying that I've never been much of a girly-girl, in case you haven't noticed. I'm in my element in clothes that I got six or seven years ago and don't quite match each other, a kind of fluffy skirt, a panda t-shirt, maybe a pair of knee socks and my now overly worn saddle shoes which were once upon a time, kind of fancy. I get girlied up for shoots, but I've never been super at it. Recently, though, I've wanted to embrace that side of things more. The Heathers helped me with this: they helped me pick out my outfit, Heather W picked out my bling and did my makeup and Heather G straightened my hair for me. Heather W suggested that I should wear a pair of her heels. I did it. I was about six feet tall with them on, but instead of feeling HUGE I felt beautiful. It helped that everyone kept fawning over how good I looked all dressed up. It also helped when Beth showed up at the door in her underwear and just said "HAIRSPRAY?!"
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| There's a sexier photo of me somewhere. I will obtain it and post it later. |
The banquet itself was a lot of fun. There was pretty good food and I got three pieces of cake, so that I could sample them and decide which one was the best.
The best part was after we finished eating, though, and they played some slow dancing music. I never really had a traditional "prom" experience. I went to two, but one was with The Worst Boyfriend Ever and the other I got basically thrown out of for being there with a girl. I've always wanted to slow dance, but neither of my boyfriends are really the type for it (I don't THINK Rafa and I ever slow danced together. Maybe we did at graduation or something. Unclear). Anyway, Whooperine and I danced together and he didn't even tell me to take my shoes off. It was kind of magical-- everyone kept telling me I was pretty and that I looked great and none of it was backhanded. Everyone I ran into was smiling at me because they actually liked me. I was slow dancing with a boy, not sitting at some back table being an outcast. I try not to be mushy, but the experience was all kind of a dream come true. I might have teared up from happiness at one point.
Later, the music picked up and we all danced to fast songs, which I am horrible at, but was not ashamed about. At one point, our dance circle included me, Heather G, Erica, Sarah Gregory, Princess Kelley and Mila Kohl. It was probably pretty hot. I was constantly surprised at how all the girls in my age group knew every song they played. "These songs were my college years!" Kelley explained. Ah. Right. I never heard any songs during my college years, because you are not allowed to play the radio in the library. :P
Again, the evening was spent bouncing around from suite party to suite party, catching up with people and having a blast. Sunday morning was the Corporal Punishment Court (I think) and I came dressed like this:
Court was ridiculously fun. Almost all the cases were really funny, and they left me rolling around with laughter. Beth brought a case against someone which was really adorable, and there was a Heather vs. Heather case, because "regular Heather" (Heather Green) kept losing her key to the room and asking Heather W for it. Anyone who knows Heather G would not be surprised by this at all: when we lived together, the two of us were frequently in trouble over lost keys. This is a habit which enough being in trouble got rid of for me, but apparently not for Heather. Anyway, having fun at the expense of your friends is what friendship is all about, right? This time, it was at the expense of six strokes with a leather implement, delivered by StrictDave. As a side note, Dave was very impressive to watch as a Top. We didn't scene together (he's on the list of people I would have liked to spend more time with) but I was blown away by his technical proficiency when delivering a spanking. The man clearly knows what he's doing, and he turns a spanking into some kind of crazy dance.
The rest of the party was much more relaxed for me. I hung out with people and chatted, had some fun scenes, got to know knew people and catch up with those I've known a long time and just have fun.
I could go into the play by play of the last day, but really, I don't have the energy to do things justice, so I'll say this: the people at Shadowlane made the party amazing for me. I love so many of them, and I felt wonderfully at home and accepted.
It was the best party ever. The only thing that would have made it better would have been in Malignus could have been there with me. And ellee. And Naomi. So, more people. But especially Malignus. Being away from him for six weeks was a long time.
After Shadowlane was officially over, Whooperine and I spent an extra night in Vegas at The Mirage. This involved lots of fanciness: we had a big, beautiful room with a wonderful view of the Strip, he had rented a Porsche which we tooled around in, we watched La Reve, which was absolutely other worldly and we ate a really excellent meal beforehand. That evening, Ten, Drlectr, Jerry Diamond and his partner came to hang out in the hotel and we had lots of fun goofing around. Jerry consistantly referred to people as "Bob X" if X= the person's actual name and he had us all in hysterics. After they got tired and went back to where they were staying, I took a bath in the fancy tub and went to sleep. The next morning, after a bit of running around, Whooperine and I went to go see dolphins and tigers at the Mirage's Secret Garden before going to the airport. It was AWESOME.
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| I took this photo of two dolphins making out. |
It was the perfect end to the perfect party. That afternoon, I went to the airport and got my flight home. I was delayed, of course, because this is me we're talking about, but by a bit after midnight, I was home again.
And home is wonderful place to be.
