Alpine SubDreams

The Vancouver GrUE officially started on the Friday night with a meet and greet at the local pool hall. It was a great way to start to the weekend and allowed me to  meet people who I didn’t know and to catch up with friends. I was surprised at how easy it was to put myself out there and introduce myself to everyone. I can be shy but hosting made it a lot easier to just go up and talk to people who I just met. I hope I can take more of that away for other events. Apparently,  some people never saw me in this type of light and compared it to red sparkles instead of green. I think you have to know me to understand that, smile. It was a great success but I made sure to call it an early night as I knew I would need my energy for the next day.

The unconference began with doors opening at 9am after we arrived at 8am to start set up which went smoothly.  If you haven’t been to a GrUE yet, the principles are:

• Whoever shows up are the right people
• Whenever a class starts is the right time
• When it’s over, it’s over.
• Whatever happens is the only thing that could have

You can read more about the structure on Graydancer’s post, “The Care and Feeding of a GrUE.” There is also the law of two feet which basically is, if you aren’t contributing or getting anything out of what you are doing, take you two feet elsewhere.  The day started off with gathering together as Gray outlined the day and explained the principles. Before long, everyone was heading up to the front to write down what they wanted to teach or learn. Before we knew it there was a larger number of classes written on the white sheets of paper.

The classes  were:

• Dramatic Suspension Cut-Down Experiment
• Domestic D/s & the Art of Submission
• Nice People, Nasty thoughts: Anti-Oppression & KINK!
• Building Your Community
• Somerville Bowline
• History of Erotic Slavery, followed by
• Slavery? BDSM Model/Language: social injustice vs. hot fantasy
• The Not-Going-Anywhere Hair Tie
• Kinky College: A Model for Community Education
• Pressure Points.
• Teaching Rope & Other Kinky Things (not taught on Saturday but on Sunday)
• Playing with the Force (energy play)
• Verbal Humiliation Play
• N.O.O.C.K.I.E: Reducing Risk in the Community thru Sexy Exercise
• Passionate Pussy Pleasure & Advanced Vaginal Play
• Active Bottoming (not taught)
• Discussion for partners of gender-fluid individuals (advice, questions)
• Basic Leather Care
• Sub-Clavian & the Scalenes Play the Brachial Plexus: Making Chest Ties More Comfy (or not, using pressure points)
• Negotiation Roundtable: How do you do it? Want it? Even if you’re an introverted geek?
• Foreskin Anatomy & the Male Multiple Orgasm (with video presentation)
• Starting Up With Single Tails: From Buying to Florentine
• Chain Bondage
• Adjusting Play for Physical/Mental Limits (not taught)
• Invisible Disabilities & BDSM/Kink: Developing a Tangible, Practical Tool for Discussing Access/Negotiating (not taught)
• Simple Hip Harness leading into
• Dirty Takedown Tricks
• Water Bondage
• Being Japanese: Incorporating Japanese Aesthetics & Spirituality in BDSM Play
• The Taut-Line Hitch Hands-On Workshop
• Tea Time with Tillie & Friends

I was able to catch bits and pieces of most of the discussions and workshops but I was also making sure everything was going smoothly and had my eyes all over the room. I did get a chance to bottom for PG water bondage workshop, which was fun. It was interesting though as usually when I demo, I can let myself go a bit but I had to fight it. One of the harder things about organizing was just keeping my hands in my pockets and let things happen the way it’s meant to. I loved the discussions and workshops that I got to saw and heard great things about them. Lunch was a success and everyone seemed to have a great time. I wish I could have wrote more but the day was a blur and it went by so fast. It took a lot out of me but in a positive way.

The day ended with the closing circle. It was a perfect way to close the space and what we shared there. We went around the circle and shared something about the day whether it was a thank you, something we learned etc. It was touching and emotional as making this happen took a lot of energy and hearing all the positive feedback hit me hard. I’m looking forward to reading the notes about what people said again. After cleaning up a bit, a quiet dinner was needed with a small group.

The party that night was MVK and as usual they did a great job. There was extra energy with the GrUE and I was able to catch up with people for a bit before finding a seat and able to talk with some of my friends for the remainder of the night while watching some hot play. I decided not to make play dates for that evening as I wasn’t sure if I would have the energy but sitting and talking fit with how I was feeling.

Sunday morning was cheap ass pancakes. I was engaged in the kitchen most of the time but it was yummy. It was nice hanging out in the kitchen in a quieter area and make sure people got the food they needed and fun conversations were had. The bacon was a hit and it didn’t last for a couple of seconds without it flying off the plate. It seemed everyone had a great time and when I took forced breaks, it seemed like people were engaged in deep, meaningful conversation. The winner of  the GRUEvy Award went to River, who is a local presenter that we all appreciate. We were also able to donate a small amount to Options for Sexual Health,which is an organization I fully support and MVK. Saying goodbyes was tough as it’s great to be surrounded by everyone for the weekend and people who you wish you could spend more time with.

After the breakfast, a smaller group of us went to a park for cigars which was needed more than I thought, it was nice to be able to relax for the first time this weekend and simply enjoy a fine cuban and great company. A mindless action movie followed before picking up food for a trip to an island.

That’s my summary of the Vancouver GrUE. It was wonderful, exhausted and I’m looking forward to doing it again in 2012. Another big thank you for Gray, PG, Tillie, Tori and Sonia  for everything.