I had a lot of fun at Carnal Carnival today. I spent a fair amount of the day working in the “Pop the Condom” Dart Room. There were a couple friends whom I’ve worked the room with before and I always enjoy it and get more involved in the event when I’m actually volunteering to help out. I also got to wander around during breaks and administer a nice spanking and paddling to the lovely bottoms of a couple other friends there. And I had a nice chat with the guy who runs TabooLeather, a cool bondage online store. I’ve got my eyes on a nice leather arm binder he has for sale. It’s one of those arm binders that goes from the neck down your back and holds the wrists in a parallel position. I got to try it out and it’s completely inescapable. All in all a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon.

Wow, the turnaround time on that new dress I just ordered from Versatile Fashions was amazing. Apparently they make each of these dresses up whenever they have an order come in. They took down my measurements on Wednesday and three days later the package was in my mailbox. I’m looking forward to wearing this at FetishCon, coming up in a week and a half. If I can’t get any action with this little number then the gods are against me. (Ideally I’d love to find a cute gg to tie up and handle, or meet the kidnapper of my dreams – or is that nightmares?) Anyway, here are a few shots I did this afternoon with a new photographer I’ve been working with.

Tomorrow afternoon, Sunday, July 29th, I’ll be volunteering at Threshold’s Carnal Carnival in North Hollywood, CA. It’s a yearly fund-raiser they do with carnival games with a kinky twist and lots of yummy fattening food. I’ll be there all afternoon, for the whole thing, most likely helping out in the condom and dart toss room. It’s a lot of fun so come check it out if you can and if you see me there do say hi.

I had some time off today so I hopped in the car and went down to Versatile Fashions. I’ve been meaning to make the drive for years. It’s about 35 miles from where I live, and I figured since I’m going to FetishCon in a couple weeks I should get something new. So I put in an order for their PVC “Nite Stalker” Dress in purple. And while I was hanging out I was thrilled to see the lovely Ms. Antoinette arrive. I got to meet her and chat for a few moments and she was a delight, truly a larger-than-life personality. I offered to hand out a few of their postcards at FetishCon since she couldn’t make it this year. It was a lot of fun and I’m dying to see the new dress, which should arrive in a week or so.

I had my first laser treatment on my beard today and it went really well. The place where I had it done used to advertise in the old Girl Talk magazine, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that you get a discount if that’s where you heard of them. I went in early to have some numbing cream put on my face and I’m glad that I did. I have a dark heavy beard and I didn’t shave for three days beforehand. When I was finally ready and the technician saw how heavy my growth was she said, “Oh, that’s gonna hurt!” But actually it wasn’t that bad. It stung like a strong snap from a rubber band but was never really alarming. Now the numbness has pretty much worn off and my face might be a tiny bit red in spots but that’s supposed to fade pretty quickly. The next treatment’s in four weeks. They schedule them according to the growth cycle of hair. The hairs they zapped today are supposed to start falling out in the next couple weeks or so and there should be a new batch of hairs to work on next month. If this works I’d have to say I probably should have gone in years ago. It certainly wasn’t as big a deal as I thought it would be.

You know how on some of those sites like MySpace, where it asks for your age people will sometimes put down “99 years old” just to fill up the space? I understand the impulse to do that, but I always think that if you just tell the truth it can’t bite you in the ass later. Not that I always follow my own advice. Hell, I lie and shade the truth as much as anyone. But age is one thing that I can deal with. I’m 44. Yeah, I’m getting older and the body inevitably fades, but that’s just how it is. Avoiding stating the truth isn’t going to change anything.

In the scheme of things, my life is actually pretty good and even fairly easy compared to the lot of so many people in this insane world, where just basic nourishment and shelter are ongoing struggles. Just knowing that things could be so much worse plays into my desire to try to be more honest about who I am, including my age. I could say that I’m 37 but the gods would know otherwise.

Well, it’s good to be back in L.A. I had a good visit with my family, though my parents both looked a lot older than they had last time – that inevitable march of time. I felt a little sad and lonely while I was waiting for my luggage at LAX, so afterwards I called it an early night and got some much needed rest. Back to work. In about three weeks is Fetishcon. It’ll go fast.

Not much blogging here lately. I’ve been out of town over the weekend, in Atlanta visiting my parents and family. It’s been a good visit though at times a bit stressful. I love them all but as always family can drive you crazy like no others. Tomorrow I’m flying back to L.A., appropriately on AirTran airlines.

Club Fantasy – Just a reminder that the next Club Fantasy party is coming right up. It’ll be this Friday, July 20th at 8 PM in N. Hollywood, CA. I’ll see you there!

As I mentioned earlier, I’ll be at FetishCon this year in Tampa, from August 9th till the 12th. So if you’re going to be there, let me know. I’m hoping to meet lots of people, and I find it’s always best when you have contacts beforehand whom you’re planning to meet rather than just going in blind and hoping for the best. So feel free to leave me a comment if you’re planning to attend, or you can send me an email on my MySpace page. I’m also looking to do some “trade” shoots with other models and photographers (and maybe even paid shoots under the right circumstances), and I also want to just do some shooting for fun. It’s four days but it’ll go fast. Hope to see you there!

I like the Ontario, CA, airport. It’s much more relaxed than LAX, which is where I get to go later this week to catch another plane to see my parents in Atlanta for a few days. It’ll be a much shorter trip this time. They’re getting older and having some health problems, so I try to see them about twice a year while they’re still here.

I know it’s going to be a shock when they finally die. I really get along with them quite well. My Dad knows about my bondage website and crossdressing, and he actually thinks it’s pretty cool that I get to do something that I enjoy. In the past I often saw him as a guy who was always struggling in life, doing okay but never really having an easy time of it. Which often made me worried, as I feared that I might follow the same path in life as I got older. So it’s a nice development that in the last few years he’s been better off and happier than he’s ever been. It takes some of the pressure off of me.

My Mom knows about my crossdressing and knows I run some sort of website, though she doesn’t really know what it’s about. I used to fear that if she found out that it would destroy her, but now I kind of doubt that. She’s a lot stronger than I give her credit for. In any case, I don’t think she really needs to know any of the gory details anyway, though I’ll admit I often feel like I’m hiding so much of my life from her when I talk to her on the phone. Not that I’m having crazy bondage orgies every weekend, or would even want to talk about that if I was (actually my life is pretty boring in a lot of ways), but that tendency to keep secrets comes very naturally and is a tough habit to break.

I’m still in Colorado for a few days. This morning I’m using a friend’s computer to remotely access my own a thousand miles away, but the really funny thing is that I’m on dial-up. Talk about slow. It’s like a zen exercise in being present to the moment. It always amazes me to realize how many people still use dial-up. I’m no internet snob or anything but if you’re using it and can switch to some form of high speed, you won’t regret it. It’s worth every penny, just in terms of time saved.

Shameless Plug – Speaking of broadband, I posted two long video clips last week on the Ts in Trouble paysite: a couple more “best of” clips from the DVD I made earlier in the year. The scene’s called “Sandra’s Self-Bondage Mistake,” and a couple people have commented on the onscreen mouth-stuffing gag sequence. I used a handkerchief and a fairly large scarf wadded up and shoved in my mouth, pushing it in to the limits of what I could handle. Then I wrapped clear tape over my mouth and around the back of my head several times to hold it all in place, giving me that bizarre “smashed-lips” look you get with clear tape. I never would have done it as real self-bondage, as the choking risk would have been way too high. But with Chainguy on the camera there was little risk of me really getting into danger. I’m hoping to do some more onscreen gagging and stuffing like that, it turned out really well. The files are big though, about 25 MBs each. So no dial-up here.