MMVIII
Lupercalia 2008
by Yum Yi
 
Another Lupercalia has come and gone, and I wanted to once again write up some of my thoughts about the event and the weekend in general…
 
Check in was quick and easy, and I promptly dropped my bags in my lovely King Suite (There’s something about indulging yourself that is good for the soul!) and hurried down to the Shoppers Drug Mart in the neighboring shopping mall. The Drug Store has a very
small grocery section, but it’s good enough to get a few breakfast items and Its-3-am-and-I-just-finished-playing-and-need-food snacks…
 
Heading back to the room, I started to get ready for the toga party. This year I didn’t have a new toga (every year previous I did) but I did bring along an extra – which was borrowed with much giggling in the suite while getting changed. There’s something lovely about having a beautiful woman in diaphanous white fabric in your suite…. Note to self – more gossamer fabric needed for future togas.
 
We headed down to the toga party, and registration, which was extremely efficient, thanks to the Volunteer Coordinator and her team of volunteers. We got our “goody bag” with the program for the weekend in it (I print off a version at home that I stick on my hotel wall mind you) and I picked up my t-shirts as well.  Meeting up with other friends who had come up from Calgary and many more from Edmonton, Saskatoon, Ft.
MacMurray and more, we headed into the ‘toga party’.  This year the games were featured around a game of “who killed Caesar” (and a very striking ghost he made
indeed!) and we went from station to station answering crimson-cheek inducing questions, tossing ‘cock rings’, playing pony, and finding out exactly what was behind that glory hole…. collecting clues. The toga party was a fun, low-key way of getting to see everyone again, and once again a friend of mine from Calgary won one of the ‘best-dressed’ contests!
 
After the games, one of the toga party organizers invited us to stay and dance… but a group of us instead headed straight for the Elephant & Castle (covering up as much as possible in the process!) for a very late night dinner… Once again good conversation took precedence over sleep, as two of us from Calgary, one from Kelowna, and another from Edmonton found ourselves chatting away into the wee hours. I’m sure we talked about many things, but needles and knives are the shiny distractions I remember most…
 
The next morning, we all met again downstairs in the conference center, and the first set of workshops to choose from included: Breath Play with Mitch Herman, I need to pee!! With Miss Leslie, The Perverted Ethical Slut with Dossie Easton  (http://www.dossieeaston.com/), and Japanese Rope Bondage, Well, Almost with Gerry Anderson. I chose Breath Play… mainly because I’ve never been to a workshop on it, love the topic, and have found that finding someone willing to talk about it / teach it
can be nearly impossible… it was WELL worth the choice. It was an incredibly interesting workshop, with a lot of background from martial arts and freediving and the relationship between blood and oxygen deprivation with suffocation and strangulation.
Mitch’s (hot) wife Sybil did a bunch of ‘knockouts’ while Mitch tried (and occasionally succeeded) holding the audience’s attention along with a few demo bunnies of his own.
 
Next, we chose between How to add a Little Violence to Your Sex! with Bruce &  Monique from the Vancouver DM team (http://www.vandmteam.com/), Caning with Mike Anderson, Fishtails with Fisherman and Ladyfish of Sagacity (http://www.sagacitygroup.net) and Playing with Archetypes which was supposed to be taught by Brody, but instead due to his absence was taught by Elwood (http://www.allaboutelwood.com/ ) and Rena… who were only supposed to be there as guests! Although I really wanted to see Brody present, the Archetypes workshop was still top on my list, so I went in along with a number of others for what was a facilitated group discussion about the different “characters” we sometimes can fall into or draw from to provide energy, confidence, power, etc… either in scenes, or in our vanilla lives. It was interesting to really sit down and think about the topic, thinking about the personas I sometimes adopt either in scenes, or to handle unfamiliar situations in my vanilla life.
 
From there we all headed out for lunch, and I met up with two friends, one from Calgary, one from Edmonton and we headed into the mall, cell phones burning away our minutes as we walked to a family restaurant… where we were seated as far back as possible…. Lunch was lovely nonetheless, with good conversation and more than a little innocent flirtation.
 
The first of the afternoon workshops were: And me without my Toy bag with Peggy O
(http://peggyakao.com/index.htm), Sacred Connections with pyxy, and Non-Consensual Consent with Sybil Herman. I would have loved to see pyxy (the most touchable woman alive!) and her presentation, but I couldn’t pass up another workshop with Sybil and Mitch Herman, and I love the topic again as well. It wasn’t quite what I thought it would be, but it was still a thought-provoking workshop about getting into the mind of both tops and bottoms during scenes that are negotiated non-consensual scenes.
 
The final workshop of the day we chose between Painsurfing with Dossie Easton, The Zen of Spanking with Sir Scott, and Female Genitorture with Mitch Herman. I would have loved to attend Dossie’s workshop, having recently used the techniques in my
vanilla life for some non-consensual medical play, but I instead scooted forward in the Mackenzie conference room to the front for the Genitorture workshop. It was amazing… while a latex-clad Sybil climbed into a gynecological table complete with stirrups, Mitch
talked about all the various torments he was about to inflict… Some of these included needles, a penis pump, a cupping set, a 7-point star, clamps and a single tail whip… Most fascinating was the chance to get a really ‘good look’ at what was happening, and
how resilient she was, despite the lovely screams.
 
The silent auction closed after the last workshop, but  we weren’t able to hang out to see if we had won, or to place any last minute bids, because it was off for a quick trip to Sanctuary (http://www.sanctuarycurios.com/) before heading back to the hotel to meet with a long-time good friend for dinner. We tried first hitting the Spaghetti Factory
– but it was packed to the rafters with a 30 minute anticipated wait, so we headed back into the mall for Asian/Indian-fusion dinner, and great conversation.  This was one of the first times in years that I was able to find some “personal time” during the event,
and although I have loved volunteering for the event in the past – it also was fantastic to catch up with a dear friend.
 
After dinner I headed back up to my suite, called a few friends to see if they had headed down to the play party yet, and then tried to get ready as swiftly as possible…. Plans were slightly averted though, as a friend came by to keep me company while I was getting ready, and a quick hello turned into a much longer conversation before I was dressed and ready to head down to the conference center –which had been turned
into a huge room for the play party!
 
Once down there, the room was full of lovely noises, people engaged in socialization, play, flirting, joking, and just generally having a great time.  Unfortunately even with a room FULL (and I do mean FULL) of furniture, when it was time for me and a friend to play… there just wasn’t any room!  It took some doing but we finally got down to some great play time.

The next morning, Louise presented SM as a Contact Sport – which I would have loved to see, as Louise is always energetic and intriguing, but after a very long night, sleep took precedence and I poured myself out of bed just in time to check the silent auction winners (hurrah! I won two items!) and head into what the night before had been a play space, and that morning was transformed into our space for a great, well appointed brunch. The awards and speeches were pretty quick, and generally amusing more than serious…with thanks to those who assisted with the event past and present.
 
When the brunch was over, I rushed to the lecture room, and saving seats with my auction winnings, met with a bunch of friends for what was likely my most anticipated workshop of the weekend – Electrical Play with Mitch and Sybil. In case you don’t notice the trend… they were fantastic presenters that I just couldn’t get enough of! They did a brief demonstration with the violet wand (I lined up twice….) and then talked about in great depth on TENS and EMS units for muscular stimulation. I’m not sure how many people regretted not having front-row seats, because to volunteer, I was right there right away along with three other willing victims. I adore electrical play, and had a fantastic time… though thank goodness they gave out good notes, because without them I likely would have missed a great deal.  What can I say.. my attention was elsewhere!
 
After the Electrical Play workshop, Dossie Easton presented the final workshop for the event, Radical Ecstasy. Having just read the book, I was torn between wanting to go, and not being sure I was in the right frame of mind for it. A few friends suggested we indulge in the hotel’s hot tub, and my mind was made up, so instead spent the time relaxing and
chatting in great depth with two good friends in the deliciously warm water.
 
After the hot tub, I headed down to the mall again, and met with a new acquaintance I had originally met online, and had been meaning to chat with all weekend (but kept running out of time!) for dinner at the Elephant & Castle.

It was a nice relaxing meal (although we’d come at a bad time and it took ages to get our food!) and from there the Iron Dom competition was being held…
 
My dinner companion went to see the competition, which pitted Elwood against Peggy O, raising over $1500 for the Little Sisters Defense Fund (http://www.littlesistersbookstore.com/index_defense_fund.html), however I was in the mood to continue relaxing, and didn’t have any volunteer obligations unlike the previous year, so I headed up to my room to unwind, and very slowly get ready for the second play party of the weekend.
 
The previous year, the second party had been less packed, as many people headed back home, not wanting to spend the additional night in the hotel. However this year, I think it was equally packed as the first night, and I spend much of the night socializing, and enjoying the company of friends new and familiar. As I was heading out, I was reminded of how much darn work it is at the end of the evening to clean up (knowing all to well from our regular P3Gatherings (http://p3gatherings.com/ ) parties and ran upstairs to change out of my kimono and corset, and into ‘work clothes’ to help tear down furniture, haul it downstairs for trucking away, and all the other little things that always require people (who are usually too tired after the weekend and a night of play to assist…).
 
Sleep was divine, and I slept in a LOT longer than anticipated, but a crafty friend got me a late check out, then we met downstairs, packed up the car, and along with a delicious new acquaintance headed for the long-anticipated post-Lupercalia Denny’s…. Several
hours were passed with food, engaging conversation, and far too many happy distractions along with another kinkster who joined us for the meal. My ride from Calgary and proceeded on the ride back to Calgary, girlish giggles and fond (all too tangible) memories reliving themselves in our minds the entire trip.
 
Definitely another great weekend… and once again I came out of it with new thoughts swirling through my head, new desires, new lusts… new plots and plans…. I think the biggest thing that I took out of this weekend was a chance to shake things up in my life
after a horrible 2007, to re-emerge again with renewed energy and confidence.
 
… oh.. and the desire to get one of those Russian EMS
units!!!! LOL