First steps

Whew, this work stuff is hard after a couple weeks of doing relatively nothing and sleeping in late every day. Already 2011 seems to be flying by.

This is the time of year to get the house in order. Paying end of month bills, submitting a new series of rent cheques, tracking orders, planning vacation days and trips are the order of the day. And of course the new year's resolutions! Mine is to find my fitness mojo again and jump in wholeheartedly back into a training regimen. I've seen noticeable weight gain since the accident in August, and the Xmas fat overload didn't help matters. Double chin, begone!

...

I got to my apartment yesterday afternoon after being away (living at Mr. Ps for the past couple of weeks) and ran into my building manager. As soon as I saw him I realized I hadn't given him any rent cheques for 2011 so I got that done asap. As you would expect, I wasn't the only one who missed January 1st, but it's very unlike me not to be on top of those things, but whatever.

I had heard from a friend that all rooms at the resort in Palm Springs hosting Winter Warmup in February were booked so he booked in a different resort. However I got a call back from Helios this morning and they had suites available so I booked a room for Mr. P and myself and let my friend know there were still rooms available if he wanted to change his reservation. Two things left to do there....find a flight and kick Mr. P's ass to get his passport renewal forms completed and processed. There were some great seat sales to LAX just before Xmas ($280 return at one point) but they're around $300 now and direct to Palm Springs is still in the $450 range. I would love to fly direct into Palm Springs for 4-5 days but we may end up just flying into LAX and getting a car to drive out to the desert. We'll see what happens; there are still five weeks or so to get that all arranged.

The first BIG Rubbout meeting with all organizers takes place this Thursday. As you might have read here, there has been a lot done already for Rubbout so this meeting is going to have a busy agenda with a lot of items to cover. We are already looking at getting a volunteer coordinator on-board for some of the promo events coming up soon. We are planning a rubber invasion of the Taboo Sex Show at the Vancouver Convention Center on the January 14th weekend to spread the word a bit about Rubbout. Yeah, it's straight and pretty generic, but we'll have fun with it and probably be pretty popular.

After that is a promo night at Pumpjack on January 29th tied in with Pumpjack's contest series. They've asked us to do coat check for the next three months or so every second Saturday on the contest nights. This is where our volunteer coordinator would be of value right now.

Then it's off to Palm Springs for WCR Winter Warmup on the Feb 12th weekend.

Kinkfest takes place in Portland on the March 19th weekend. We are considering going down there to do Rubbout promotion but have also heard that Kinkfest is very straight and it might be a waste of time. A friend of mine whose partner lives there will be going down the weekend before so that might serve the purpose as well. Does anyone have any comments on Kinkfest and when might be a good time to visit PDX to do some Rubbout Weekend promotion? Any nights in the bars there that would be better than others?

We have a final Rubbout promo night here in Vancouver on March 26th when the big banner is unveiled and the promotion blitz hits critical mass, and the event is two weeks after that!

Wow, I've already worked into the April calendar and it's only January 4. I guess it doesn't hurt to plan ahead eh?

I'm still waiting for my Invincible and E7 orders to show up. Invincible shipped on Dec 23 (which reminds me I should track the package), but I still haven't heard from Jose at E7 on the status of the fisting suit.

So what's on the agenda for 2011? Considering I'm short on vacation days and that there are a lot of momentous family events going on this year, my fetish party travel will probably be pretty limited. Other than Winter Warmup, I'll probably fly to L.A. for WCR in September (depending on what format it takes this year), and for sure MIR in November. Other than that, I'm not completely sure. A friend wants to go to Gummbalaya in New Orleans in July, I'd love to go to IML again, and of course this was the year to go to Berlin and do a tour of Germany in August, but that's already on the skids, I simply don't have enough vacation time. Unless I find a new job in the interim...but isn't everyone just clinging onto what they have right now anyways? I really don't know what this year is going to bring; I'm not really planning anything definitive. I've realized the value of my family and the fact my parents and aunts and uncles aren't spring chickens anymore so they will probably take priority.

So, I guess that means more gear and more play at home this year :)

I'm already looking at a Blackstyle mask order very soon.

I hope the new year's off to a great start for all of you!