Of Moose And Men
The Best Laid Plans Of Both Often Go Astray

I just don’t understand men. Period.

All in all a very good Thanksgiving day. Was nice and quiet for most of it. The store this morning was uncrowded and uncharacteristically quick to get out of. The cooking went well, and I took the better of the two batches of cupcakes with me (made 2 dozen). Unfortunately I’ve broken a ring on my icing piper, so it was slathered on by spreader rather than piped nicely, but they did fine.

Side note: I really, really want to make the margarita cupcakes I found in the cookbook while flipping back to the buttercreme frosting recipe.

The dinner itself was fantastic. I took a zucchini risotto as well as the cupcakes (the mushroom selection stunk, so zucchini it was). The bird came out perfect, which the host was rightly proud of. He also thoughtfully saved me a batch of potatoes sans butter/milk, which was much appreciated. The other selections were equally tasty, with lots of good vegetables.

Some Wii was played, and I set Jon’s Wii up (he hadn’t played with it since he’d moved – in June). Next thing you know he’s going to be getting messages via the Wii from a certain someone who will have him registered here shortly. Bwhahahaha. We did warn him what the blinky blue light on the front means now, too.

Got the kitchen cleaned up just now after getting home, so no mess in the morning. Off work early tomorrow, and will plan to stop by the gym after that, swim, and hand in my receipt for the new shoes & lock. Wonder how they’ll do the credit.

Got the news that early registration for the Nation’s Tri opened for DC Tri Club folks, so signed up for that tonight. Hopefully with the stretching I’ve started doing on my feet will keep the PF under control, and keep it from recurring, and I’ll be able to do the race this time around.

Picked up replacement shoes (shower and gym), as well as a new lock this evening. Both pair were on sale, which is always good even when someone else is paying. Still, the replacement costs is going to be almost as much as they make from me for a year’s worth of locker rental fees.

Quiet night. There are happenings around town, but I got home from the shopping, laid down for a quick nap and woke up an hour later feeling pretty cold (for no apparent reason), so I stayed in and behaved myself. Earlyish morning tomorrow to pick up some last minute food needs for tomorrow night’s dinner, then it’s some cooking and some time spent in Crobuzon (aka my town in Animal Crossing: City Folk) before I zip down to Alexandria.

Friday in the office should be nice and quiet (I hope!). I’d like to get filing done and clear a ton of shit off my desk.

Partial success – they’re going to reimburse me for the items lost. When I take the receipts (and new items) in, I’ll give them some suggestions on how they can avoid this in the future (i.e., mark the rented lockers so when they do a “sweep” of lockers they can tell who’s paying and who’s not). Ludicrous that it would’ve gotten swept in the first place since I pay them, but at least they’re owning up to the goof and reimbursing me for the lost stuff.

Did get in a short (1/2 hour) swim. Probably should have done more drills, but it went pretty well, considering I’ve been off for three months. The new nipple piercings did well, too, which was a relief. Felt a slight tug on one push-off, but otherwise they weren’t noticeable (to me) at all.

Well, fuck.

Haven’t been to the gym in months (since August) because of my foot. Finally decided to go back, and to my surprise the locker I’ve been paying to rent was empty, no lock, no stuff (and nothing in the lost and found). And of course, no manager there this evening (he’ll be in in the morning). So I checked dates in my records.

8/14 was last time I swam at the gym. Also when I told them to switch my credit card over from an old one where the number was going to die (it was being switched to a new number and rewards program involuntarily) over to another company. Charges had hit the old card in July and August. I have no record of a payment hitting in September on any of my cards. October and November hit the successor to the new card, and not the one I’d authorized them to charge.

So, perhaps they cut it when a September charge didn’t go through, and I’ll admit I should have been checking the charges more closely, but why not contact me if they didn’t get paid? Anyway, I’ll see the manager in the morning and figure out what the heck is going on.

The thing I remember most is his scent.

There was a light touch of cologne, a bare hint of the last cigarette he had smoked (just a trifle, with all the sweetness of fresh tobacco and none of the acrid burn of the ashes), and the light musk of his sweat. None of it was noticeable until I was close to him, but once I was I drank it in as deeply as I could, nuzzling closer to his neck in order to get it all at once. It was utterly intoxicating, and maddening, and made the parting that much more difficult.

While today was about quiet contemplation and recovery, tomorrow has to be about cleaning. Ick! Place is a mess, and I need to do beau coup laundry. My massage table hasn’t moved from the front hallway yet because I need to vacuum its normal resting spot before it goes back. Oy.

I think I’m headed to an LYS tomorrow, too. Friend of mine has expressed an interest in starting knitting, and far be it for me to refuse help there. Probably pick up some 7s and some simple yarn and start him on a scarf.

I finished all but the thumb on the first of the pair of gloves I’m doing for our secretary at work. They look really good – I purposefully loosened my style versus the ones I did for myself and I’m quite pleased at the results.

Speaking of mine, I’m wearing them tonight as I head up to the Eagle for Flogging 101, and it’s nice to have some warmth but still be able to tap this out on the phone. I did discover an end I’m going to have to work back in tomorrow, but that shouldn’t present too much of a difficulty.

* * *

Okay, flogging 101 was a lot of fun. Ran into one of my buddies from CBE this past weekend. Turns out he’s on the board of SIGMA, which (along with seeing the new schedule of play dates) was enough to convince me to renew my membership. Will have to send them a check this week.

The flogging itself was interesting. Learning how to hold yourself, how to hold the flogger, where to strike, how to vary your striking, etc. Started hitting newspaper, moved up to someone’s back. Definitely can see the attraction of it, from both sides. Might have to add a flogger to my repertoire come MAL this January. One guy recommended one particular vendor who should be there. Will have to check them out. I could see getting to like doing this.

And, slight change of plans for the evening and into tomorrow. Kento is heading through DC and crashing at my place this evening when he gets here. It will be good to see him, even if it was unexpected.

My name is Moose, I’m from Washington DC, and I’m aware of a feeling of calm and peace.

Celebrate the Body Erotic was, as always, a fantastic experience. Slightly smaller group, I think (28, including the staff), but the energy was fantastic. My impression was that while there were, as always, some men with wounds to explore, there seemed to be less crying and more laughter this time around on Sunday (for those who haven’t been, on the final day there’s a long, focused massage that frequently is a very strong emotional experience for those being massaged).

For my own part, I did laugh again on Sunday, but not quite as much as I did the previous two times I’ve done this workshop. The laughter started earlier in the session, but it died down and the feeling I got was more one of energy building up inside, like the qi (probably more specifically jing qi) kept accumulating until the end when I had to gather and release it upward (away from other participants). I repeatedly had to throw the energy off – it was too much to hold onto for long. But while I had it and could play with it? Wow. Even now the thought makes me tingle.

The time spent down, with good food, friendly men, fresh air, good sleep, and lots and lots of touch was exactly what I needed. With this foot injury I have been withdrawn from my body, ignoring it while it healed, and not living inside of it. Not a healthy thing to do. So getting back to that, and reconnecting with it was precisely what I needed right now (though my “you-haven’t-been-running” calves are now telling me how much I haven’t been using them today!). I’m very glad I had made the decision to do this session this year. I think I’d like to do one of the week-long ones this upcoming year.

I highly recommend these to anyone and everyone (and yes, they have them for straight folks and couples, too). It’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but I have found it very useful in my life.

So today I’m just sort of lounging and processing. I’ll do some errands later, but in the meantime I’m enjoying just being.

Is it bad when you wake up dreaming of rope harnesses?

Now I really want to tie one on someone. Rawr.

Sinfest says the election went the way it did because of the moose vote. I can live with that.