The Middle Layer is where I live...in-between the extremes, without a label that fits.

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Truth or Dare Night



The Mr. spent the better part of last week creating a digital Truth or Dare game for a party we initially waffled on going to. He slowly talked the organizer into more clearly defining the rules until it was tamed down to something more our speed. At first the impression we had was, “This sounds fun, but it also sounds like a road straight into orgy-ville.” The rules initially stated something like, “you will be harassed if you pass on a dare.” By the time the final draft came out, rules included “Play to your own comfort” and “No nudity unless it‘s part of a dare."

We drove down to the hotel early and assisted in re-arranging the hotel suite and then finished cutting and numbering the cards. The Mr. was hungry, and ended up taking a pre-dinner trip to a cafe downstairs for a sandwich, then another trip to the grocery store across the street for beer and napkins. The Sub and I chatted about how The Mr. and I met, how long she and The Dom had been seeing each other, and how that works for them. It was her remark to me that he had “told her” to wear a new latex dress, despite the obvious impracticality of that kind of clothing in the setting. She said, “I do what I’m told.” The thing was that after dinner, The Dom also changed clothes. He remarked, as he laced up his boots, that if The Sub was going to wear that dress, that he agreed to be in uniform and choose his volunteer fire fighter uniform for comfort. There was a compromise on his part which makes the power play seem a lot more balanced than one might imagine in a true D/S relationship.

After The Dom woke up from his nap, the four of us went downstairs to the hotel restaurant for dinner. Our restaurant mojo with the D/S couple continues to revolve around the service. The waiter was one of the worst we’d ever seen. The Dom ordered a beer and the waiter asked if he wanted it with his meal, as he had also just poured a cup of coffee. The Dom said yes, and not 1 minute later the waiter was placing his beer on the table. When the food did arrive, the waiter went to hand us our food and he got every single person’s order mixed up, except mine. I only got my plate placed directly in front of me because it was not on the tray with everyone else’s dinner.

Once back upstairs, The Sub set out cold cut platters, fresh fruit and her ‘famous’ bacon wrapped dates. We sat around chatting and trying to come up with more dares for the list. At a few minutes past 8pm, the first guest arrived. He was an older Cuban guy with a set of maintenance man keys on his waist that smelled like smoke. The smell was so strong that I ducked out of the living room of the suite to assist the Sub in wiping the baby powder from the outside of her latex dress. The next guest to arrive also smelled really strong, only it was cologne that overwhelmed the room when he walked in. He attempted to sit down beside me on the couch, but when he got up for a drink I all but pulled The Dom down onto the couch beside me. I was a little worried that I would spend the night buried in the corner of the couch avoiding eye contact with creepy guys, but eventually a little conversation sprung out of the awkward silence of waiting for the remaining guests and I discovered the awesomeness that is s’mores flavored vodka on the rocks. Yum!

By the time everyone had arrived, the guests included a fabulous BBW in a retro-style polka dot dress with her petite friend in leopard print leggings, the deaf guy and his very talkative girlfriend who we met at a previous discussion group, a plain-faced girl in gym clothes who we later realized was the chick BF1 had been attempting to flirt with at a barbeque earlier this month, and a gorgeous black woman that was new to the group who impressed me not only with her fabulous heels and matching lingerie, but with the confidence she had as a single woman to show up alone to this sort of event and immediately get into the game.
   
The dares varied from silly things like singing the hokey pokey or doing the robot with bonus points for doing it in your underwear to three-way kissed (the Creepy Cuban got that one and nobody volunteered to assist) and the underwear clad push-ups over a participant who was also in their underwear (The Mr. and the Sub took part in that dare.) The talkative chick was stripped down to her underwear several times over the night, and the BBW in the dress bared her lacy-panty clad ass for several dares. The two of them were of comparable size and switched clothes in front of the group for one dare despite the BBW's lack of a bra. 

The BBW's energy, confidence and presence really made an impression. In the past I’ve had a tough time understanding the appeal of women of size in that extreme, but she really was the sexiest chick in the room in a lot of ways. The Creepy Cuban was the only person that provoked the cricket chirping when a volunteer was needed for a dare. Most everyone else had the whole room to choose from for even the racier dares.

My presence did not go unnoticed, and I also stripped down to my underwear for a few dares. The petite chick in leopard print was sitting beside me when I took my pants off and she was enamored by my ass. She made several comments about how fantastic it was and, that she couldn’t take her eyes off it. The Mr. said that she had a look on her face that said if permission had been given she would have reached out and touched it in a second. 

In standard chick fashion we had all oohed and ahhed over the BBW’s dress and talked about each others bras and where to find cute clothes for fuller-bodied women. I was not the smallest chick in the room but I was not the largest by any stretch. It was a really balanced group full of varied body types that were all sexy and attractive in their own ways. Even Cologne boy wasn’t unappealing and partnered with me on a couple more tame dares.

At the end of the night prizes were awarded to the top three players then The Dom gave the, “You don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here” closing. 

I had one last “stupid human trick” I was eager to show off and ended up showing everyone except for Cologne Boy, the gorgeous black woman and Creepy Cuban. As kids, I think most everyone discovered that holding a flashlight to your hand makes it see through and glowy. We recently learned that the same thing happens when you hold a flashlight under a boob. Fun stuff!

After everyone else had cleared out, we were left chatting with the D/S couple. They had extended the invitation to stay over but I gave my traffic light euphemism and said I didn’t want to cause a car wreck. The Sub has been very clear in the fact that she’s got a crush on The Mr. One of the “truth” questions were, “Who in this room would you like to go on a date with?” Her reply was that “with permission” it would be The Mr. Her clear interest combined with her explicit respect for our boundaries makes me like her more and more every time we hang out. One of her “truth” answers surprised me a little and we talked about that a bit as well. She shared that she has “not yet” down on another chick. We talked about our previous experiences in threesomes and all varieties of the theme. It surprised me that my experiences were more varied than the D/S pair given both her age and his level of lifestyle.

The Dom continues to express interest in me, but still doesn’t approach me or even really flirt with me in person. His reassuring pat on my knee early in the night when I used him to shield me from Cologne boy and the kiss that was attempted as part of a dare was more contact than we’ve had before, barring hello and good bye hugs. His lack of confidence and presence really take down the cool points and any interest I have had in pursuing play with him. I know that if I had approached him and paused long enough to lay out some boundaries, the four of us could have had some euphemistic pretzels. I was just too tired to be the instigator, and the over-all energy would have made it a distinct and possibly awkward maneuver for me to get up and initiate play. Instead, we left around 1:30am with hugs from The Dom and kisses from The Sub.

Friday, July 12, 2013

Dungeon 101 Part One



“I will not be the fattest chick in the room. I will not be the worst/sluttiest/least/most dressed in the room. Nobody cares about my back fat but me. My hair is fabulous. The high heels are worth it. I will have fun. I will not go psycho if a chick approaches us/him. This will be fun. This will be fun. THIS WILL BE FUN!”

This is the pep talk I’m giving myself. I’m naked and wrapped in my little fuzzy blanket. My hair is curled and still in clips. At the foot of the bed I’ve laid out tonight’s outfit: black mini-skirt and red crinkle camisole with a black cover up and my sparkly jewelry. The killer high heels I wore to Rocky Horror are on the floor beside the knee high boots I had initially planned to wear. Last night was the Black Rose Q&A thing that got us $10 off tonight’s Dungeon 101. We have never been to a public sex-positive event in any way: no house parties, orgies, hotel parties, gang bangs, cuddle piles… The closest to ‘group sex’ with strangers I’ve had was when a friend with benefits and I rolled around on the floor of his apartment while his roommate made out with a friend of mine nearby enough for some groping. I had met the roommate before that night, and I’d had a threesome with the other two a few months earlier. And there was a lot of alcohol involved.

Last night was informative and interesting and not intimidating in the least. We arrived way too early because we never know what the parking scene will be like in the city. The Mr. got out to check out the details on the meters and chatted with a couple guys standing outside the pub attached to the hotel where the Q&A session was being held. When he returned to the car I told him I was pretty sure they were going where we were going. The one had on khaki shorts and a polo shirt, but the black leather murse and matching studded belt caught my attention. We were so early we decided to grab a drink and a snack at the bar. When we sat down I noticed the same woman I’d seen walk by while we were still negotiating the online parking meter thing. She was over 40 and fuller bodied, wearing a long pink skirt with hair dyed a shade of red that was almost as pink as her matching blouse. We eavesdropped as she remarked that her burger was medium, not medium rare in a polite, tactful manner. It turned out that she was one of the presenters. When we walked into the ball room of the hotel, the guys from the parking meter saw The Mr. and said something to the effect of, “Imagine seeing you here!”

The crowd was all ages and various ethnicities. We sat directly behind a much-older man who was chatting up a girl that looked barely legal. Across the room there was a fascinating looking person whose gender I would not speculate on. S/he had tattooed legs, short turquoise green hair, hairy armpits and a beautiful complexion. Apparently the Mr. caught the eye of the “hot redhead” across the room, but I remember seeing two cute redheads and am not sure which one he was talking about. On the way out we overheard a girl exclaim, in a Paris Hilton tone, “I can’t wait to get caned. That’s going to be so HOT!” as she craned her neck to eye The Mr. I didn’t get a good look at her, but she brought my claws out.

Over-all, the presentation was well done, very informative and set a welcoming tone for tonight’s event. The hostesses were both fuller-bodied, very “normal” looking women in their 40’s. The brunette is a manager at the club where the event is held and she reminded me of a chick I worked with back in Texas. They covered the questions about what to wear, what about “security clearances” and privacy issues for members, as well as a list of the various educational services the organization hosts and some of the terms commonly used in the scene. Tonight is slated to start out in the same format before they open the “Exploratorium.” They repeatedly described the evening as a buffet where one could sample a variety of sensations in a safe, sane environment.

The Mr. should be leaving work in about an hour, and then we are driving down to pick up our friend, who I have dubbed BF1. BF1 didn’t feel like going into the city two nights in a row but is also a newbie to this scene and wanted to get the full intro this evening. He was going to ride in with the D/S pair and another newbie, but we already made plans to stay at his place after the event so it’s not any real additional driving for us to pick him up. We are going to get take out near his place before going to the dungeon. The ride will give us time to talk about the grown up stuff surrounding euphemistic pretzels, and all that. I admitted to myself (and to BF1 and The Mr.) that my hesitation last weekend seemed to be coming from a sense of skittishness I’m feeling about walking the line between intimacy, comfort and sex again. The Mad Scientist thing ended up more intense than is practical in this kind of situation, and the way it ended cut more deeply that I expected. I’m not saying that it’s wrong or bad to develop feelings for an outside partner (something the Mr. has been reminding me of since The Mad Scientist went MIA on us) but it is not something I’m ready to deal with again just now. I genuinely like BF1, and as backwards as it may sound it’s harder for me to get naked with someone I like than it would be if I only had a casual interest.

However, we have dubbed July as the month of “Fuck it!” So that’s what I’m going with… Fuck it! And now I need to start packing the overnight bags.

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Muddled Instincts and Tattoos



Friend (still working on a nickname he is good with as he has had the blog and the Tumblr on his radar from the beginning) came by on his way out of town and stayed over Thursday night. We had a more clear discussion on the topic of Euphemistic Pretzels* and I realized I've been having issues with my own instincts.

Issues so bad I couldn't even find a title for this piece when I went to post it.

You know the sensation when you're heading towards an intersection and the light turns yellow... you almost always just "know" whether or not you can make the light or if you need to hit the brakes. You know that if you hesitate or misjudge things, you are going to cause a car wreck. That's the sensation I was getting about taking the next step with him, so I kissed him goodnight and he slept on the couch.

I've had that sensation about the job stuff, and generally just not feeling as trusting of my own gut lately. It's tough for me with the way I've always lived my life. I go with what feels right, no matter how crazy it may seem. It's never failed to do any less than get me in exactly the place I needed to be in... But lately I find myself waffling on things that I would have always just made a snap decision on. I don't over-think things like that. That's the Mr.'s department. Usually.
 
The three of us had a relaxing morning at the house and then went out for pedicures. It was our friend’s first pedicure, and the Mr.’s second ever. While sitting in the vibrating chairs I asked The Mr. his thoughts on lunch to which he replied, “I wasn’t thinking of anything at all.” That was the best part of the pedicure time. Well, that and the hot stone massage. Wow.
 
From there we went out for a disappointing lunch. We've had the worst restaurant mojo when our friend comes to town. We are still trying to find local places and avoid chains, but our endeavors have been less-than successful.

Our friend left after a more 'green light' kiss and The Mr. and I set out to do something that the Pre-Mr. Man he once was said he would NEVER do. The Mr. decided he was ready for his fist tattoo. We had looked online at a couple shops- checked out their pictures, Yelp and Google reviews, and had two in mind. No amount of research can tell you what the feel of a tattoo shop will be like and for me, that’s been the deciding factor. We found a cool, touristy area not far from home where the first shop was. They, however, had no availability for over a week and the vibe there wasn't great. We’d read that they were over-priced anyway, so we just left. From there we took a detour to exchange a pair of shorts and calm a little bout of the Crazies that The Mr. was having. I figured the moment had passed and he said we were going for ice cream. The next thing I knew, we were pulling up in front of tattoo shop number two.

The shop had designs on every inch of wall space in addition to the usual poster racks of drawings. One of the owners greeted us warmly and got the paperwork for The Mr. while I looked over the racks for inspiration for a piece I need covered up. While waiting for the artist to set up, the owner’s wife/co-owner struck up a conversation with me, complimented my shoes and let her Shitzu out of the office to come love on me for a bit. The artist that did The Mr.’s work was a cute little girl with multi-colored hair and a septum piercing, covered in beautifully colored ink. She didn’t look a day over 22 but the website had said she’d had something like 7 years experience. The Mr. had been concerned about the pain, but hardly winced at the needle. When she was done, the artist cleaned up the ink splatter on his arm along with the tattoo itself, smiled and said, “You’re one of us now.”

My Kiddo got her first tattoo late last year and hid it from us for several months. Just now, the Mr. took a look at the unscented lotion I retrieved from her room and gave me a look. He said, “She is slick!” She had asked him to take her to the drug store and she insisted over and over that she needed UNSCENTED lotion. She knew that he would have no idea why it mattered so much being a tattoo virgin. She truly is her mother’s child
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*Euphemistic pretzels: our code-word for naked play time with a third person involved. Yes, there’s a story there and I’ll post it soon.

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

The Anxiety Monster and its Dysfunctional Family



I wish I knew the exact quote and its source, but I remember reading a saying of sort that guilt is the incestuous cousin of anxiety and depression. You feel bad because neither anxiety nor depression is a good feeling, right? And then you feel bad for acknowledging that you feel bad and can’t participate fully in life. It’s an ugly duo of nastiness that just fuels the fire.

My earliest bouts with depression hit me around the same time as puberty. I was in the sixth grade and found myself so lacking in energy that I was coming home after school and collapsing at the bottom of the stairs, unable to make it to my room. The normal physical education my classmates took part in left me breathless and dizzy on a regular basis. I was not medically overweight despite being one of the few girls in my class to tip the scale in the triple digits at 115 pounds and 5’2”. They ran tests on my heart as I was born with a very slight heart murmur and they thought maybe it had gotten worse and not better. They did an ultrasound of my chest and determined that I had outgrown the murmur and there was no physical reason I should be so tired. My pediatrician decided I was depressed and gave me an antidepressant. I remember thinking the guy was a “quack,” and even referred to him as Dr. Quack in my journals. I also remember that I took the pills for exactly three days. They gave me cotton mouth and made me the bitchiest little thing on two legs. At the ripe, old age of 11, I knew enough to know that I didn’t like it and simply tossed the bottle.

As my menstrual cycles kicked in, so did the dramatic mood swings. Anyone that said PMDD is just an excuse to give psyche meds to chicks never lived with me. I ran the gamut from crying bouts to cleaning binges with a few failed attempts to paint my bedroom that started out as cleaning binges and ended in crying bouts. My father looked at the foods I was making and cautiously asked once if I was pregnant. Birth control pills helped, but I spent most of my adult life completely insane for at least one week out of the month. I was on some form of a birth control pill up until age 28 when I had a partial hysterectomy.

The doctor that so graciously removed my uterus was the first to prescribe Prozac to me. Initially he offered it to ease my PMDD and later told me that I was not emotionally stable enough for surgery when he first saw me or he would have done the hysterectomy sooner. Prozac worked without numbing me down like other meds I was given over the years. Unlike the other meds that I would try for a couple weeks then throw away; I stayed on Prozac for around 3 years. I weaned myself off of it after The ExH and I separated so I’d be able to go without once my health insurance was gone.

Less than a year after I’d gone off Prozac I met Depression’s ugly sister, Anxiety. I started having panic attacks that turned into violent crying fits and ended with me curled up in the fetal position. There were certain triggers I learned to recognize. Of all the normal life things, grocery shopping was the hardest thing for me to do. During most of the 18 months I was with Moose, he had to do the shopping because I couldn’t even pull into the parking lot at Wal-Mart without falling apart. Other situations would come up and I’d find myself running from wherever we were at and hiding in the car. It was embarrassing, scary and made worse by the generally stressed out life I was living. I was still without health insurance, but I had become friends with a group of people who tended to stray from traditional medicine in favor of holistic remedies and herbalism.  One friend in particular, a medically retired Vet with debilitating PTSD gave me a Happy Camper one day and told me where to buy them. She swore by them and never left the house without a couple in her belly and her service animal beside her.

Last year when I met The Mr., I was on my own and doing better than I had in years. I was training a class at the call center I’d been at for around a year. My income was comfortable, even when my high heels weren’t. I’d learned to take a Happy Camper before grocery shopping, and carried them in my bag for unexpected panic attacks. Generally, things were smooth. The work stuff was stressful, but I was in a place where I commanded the room and saved my crying for the quiet moments when I was alone in my classroom doing time critical reports making over-time pay. Until the day I couldn’t.

Maybe it was the corporate Big Wigs that were sitting in on my class. Maybe it was the Taco Thursday turning my insides over while I tried to lecture. Maybe I was ovulating. Whatever the reason, I found myself starting to break out in a cold sweat. As I walked the aisle of the room, stars were flashing before me. I felt nauseous and short of breath. I tapped my assistant and told him I needed a minute and asked him to pick up where I was in the slide show. Before I could make it down the hall to the bathroom I started crying hysterically. I was having a major panic attack at work with only a small 2-stall unisex bathroom to run to. Inside the stall I crouched down on my heels and shook and cried for a good 10 minutes. Of course someone that knew me came in just as I was coming out and attempting to clean myself up. I played it off as a stomach issue so they would think I had been vomiting and not crying. I went back to the classroom and wasn’t in the door 2 minutes before it hit me again and I had to go running. Again when asked if I was okay, I alluded to digestive issues and was asked if I was pregnant.  That was the day I started carrying a larger stash of Happy Campers.

Since the move out East I’ve seen an increase in anxiety over all. Working from home has turned me into even more of a hermit than ever, creeping into the realm of agoraphobia. Just the idea of leaving the house when my mood is off can send me spiraling. The Mr. is the type that can’t stay home for days on end, and gets cabin fever after only one day off work. We are so enmeshed in each other that our moods sometimes feed each other and we have been known to play ‘pass the crazy ball’ back and forth several times in a day. He understands when I’m having trouble and is quick to bring me a Happy Camper and remind me to eat breakfast before the caffeine winds me up. He is good about holding my hand and not leaving me alone in public places when possible. He also takes Happy Campers when he finds himself having a case of the crazies. He truly understands what happens with me because it happens to him sometimes in his own way. But the guilt of it still gets to me.

I feel guilty for being crazy. I feel bad for needing pills, even if they are herbal. I feel like I’m holding him back from doing things he would enjoy that would likely cause me to have a meltdown. I push through as much of it as I can, but there have been times where we’ve gone somewhere and I’ve just needed to leave.

Today was a family event at his work. He wanted me to come, but knew that between the number of people and the environment it was likely to cause anxiety for me. He asked about it a couple times in a non-pushy way, giving me the option. When he left this morning we talked about it again. I was considering pushing myself, taking a Happy Camper and getting dressed. He said to me, “It’s okay. You would just get pretty to be surrounded by people you don’t know and be outside for several hours while worrying about getting home in time for work.” He meant it when he said it was okay for me to stay home today, but the incestuous cousin to my Anxiety Monster has been hanging around all day.

And in the end, he got tasked with a project, blew off the "Mandatory Fun Day" event and was home by lunch time to start his long weekend.