Interlude: Three Events

Interludes are short segments between regular episodes with no editing but WITH leather creaking. It's a chance to hear a little more about what's going on in my life. 

I've had a busy 2024 with Mid Atlantic Leather, Dublin Leather Weekend, and Mr. Florid Rubber. I'll share my experiences with these different and diverse events!

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to Full Cow, a podcast about leather, kink and BDSM. My name is Edge, my pronouns are he, him, and I'm your host. And this is another interlude the episode between episodes, offered raw and unedited, but with Langlitz Leather creaking there, I'm getting a little extra creaky for you. It's been a while since I've had an interlude. I've been enjoying my hiatus and I've done quite a bit of leather travel at the beginning of 2024. And I wanted to tell you all about three events I've been to in the first months of 2024. And they were each different in very unique ways and I thought that would be an instructive discussion to share my experiences.

Speaker 1: 0:44

The first one is MAL Mid Atlantic Leather in DC beginning of January. And I had, you know, I used to live in New Jersey, so I was in the Northeast and I had gone to MAL decades, decades, decades ago. I had not been to it since it was at this location. That's how long it's been since I've been to MAL. And I was talking to one of my best friends and he was like warning me about the sound of the lobby, and then the person I was attending with in DC said oh, it's not that bad. It's bad. There's nothing quite like walking into the lobby of that hotel and hearing the roar of the lobby crowd hit you like a wall, just like a wall of sound, and that is really kind of emblematic of my experience of MAL. It is a big leather event. It feels like the biggest leather event I've been to, at least in terms of the concentration, because everyone's all sort of crammed into this one lobby and for an introvert it is not the best event. Now, if you're an extrovert, if you feed on that energy, good Lord, get yourself to MAL as soon as possible, because you will be drunk on energy. That's how energetic the space is itself. If you're an introvert, I urge caution.

Speaker 1: 2:10

And there were sort of after effects of that crowdedness. It's not just that I always felt slightly overwhelmed from a sensory standpoint, but also it was really hard to connect with people because I would see someone I chatted with online. I would have 10 seconds to say hello to them before the next person I knew was right over their shoulder and I had to go say hello to them. So I felt often like I was sort of frantically running from person to person in this extremely crowded space just trying to connect with all the people I wanted to connect with. It wasn't overly satisfying because of that. The vendor mart was also like a nightmare of crowdedness, because you want to get there when it opens because vendors only have so many sizes at each thing and you need to find your size. And so I went shopping with the people I was with. I made everyone hold their hands like make sure you know where your buddy is, because it's very easy to get separated in that space and the ceilings are really low, so I just felt crowded in. We did get some great gear. Everyone got what they wanted. I was very happy to play the role of leather Sherpa stylist and tell people what to bear or what to wear and what to buy and how they looked in it, but it was again overwhelming.

Speaker 1: 3:29

The good news is that I found the sub events at ML really fantastic. That includes the cigar brunch at Shelly's. That includes the leather cocktails. These were smaller because it wasn't the whole group, it was some subset of them, and that made it easier to navigate. It made the sensory input output a more reasonable level. It made it easier for me to sit and talk and connect with people and those were really amazing times.

Speaker 1: 3:59

The other thing is the person that I'd gone with who lives in DC. One of the evenings we went off site. He had a friend who lived not far from the hotel and we just got away from everything and went and had some cigars and had some pizza and that was deeply restorative for me. So I don't think I'm going to go back to ML. It's not a bad event. It is massive. It's interesting to see how the hotel sort of manages the massiveness. There's a very complicated elevator system with the hotel staff running the elevators and telling you where to go. So everyone's aware of how massive it is and people do a pretty good job of managing that. And yet it's just not the event for me. On top of it, dc, in January, very cold, oh, cigar smoker, go outside. Is there a tent? No. Is there a heater? No. There's this sad little area right by the hotel where all the smokers are kind of clustered together. That's fine. It just didn't feel particularly welcome or welcoming if you're a cigar smoker. So ML not for me. Glad I went, super great event, if you'd like. Lots of people, lots of energy, lots. It's a lot. That is my takeaway of ML. Ml is a lot.

Speaker 1: 5:22

Now, two weeks after that I flew to Dublin for Dublin Leather Weekend, so we're talking about a much smaller event. I'm sure ML was in the thousands and thousands of people. Dublin Leather Weekend was limited to about a couple hundred, so instantly it was a better event for me as someone who's an introvert. I love Ireland, I love Dublin. I am gaga for an Irish accent. I was secretly looking for my Irish husband. I did not find him, and so everything about this was appealing. It was my first international leather event and I had a really, really, really wonderful time.

Speaker 1: 6:03

I met people again that I've known from online for years and I'd never met before, and people from all over Europe France, germany, spain, portugal, norway, denmark, iceland, scotland, england. Surprisingly, I think, I met more Europeans than I did Irish folk the first night. Here's a hallmark of how good I found the event. The first night was a sort of meet and greet kind of thing at a bar called Penny Lane which had this really beautiful sort of courtyard in front, and I was there for almost I think almost six hours. Now, introverts do not do that. We do not, we do not socialize for hours on end. We drain the battery and we go, but I was having such a good time. I was able to connect with some dear friends that I had met the last time I was in Dublin. I was able to connect with people I chatted with online and I was enjoying the energy, I was enjoying the people and I was enjoying the conversation.

Speaker 1: 7:05

And then on probably oh yeah on Saturday, they had a Kayley, which is a traditional Irish music session at another bar called Panty Bar. What fun. There was this moment where, right, so they've got the fiddle going and it's all Irish and some people are doing a jig and I'm in gear and everyone's in gear. And there was this moment where I almost had tears in my eyes because I realized how blessed I was of all the privileges that had to align for me to be in this bar in another country, experiencing another culture, in gear with like-minded people. It was so moving to me and I danced a jig. The video is available on my Instagram. That was just delightful fun.

Speaker 1: 7:53

Some of the problems and it's not an event without problems, and the problems were around the meals. We had a lot of trouble getting our food at the leather dinner on Saturday night, a lot of trouble with food at the lunch on the next day, on Sunday. But these logistical things did not detract from the really amazing time I had. I don't know if I'm gonna go back simply because of time and money, but I would strongly recommend it. I actually met quite a few Americans too, so I think it is getting this kind of reputation. It's worth the trip. Ireland is beautiful. If you're an American, you get to clear customs at the Dublin Airport, which is significant. That's all I'm going to say Makes travel significantly better when you're coming back home. The event is a good size, the people are good. They're fairly good at running it. I would not recommend doing the meals Beyond that. I would just dive into it and really enjoy all the beautiful connections.

Speaker 1: 8:52

Finally, this past weekend I did the Mr Florida rubber weekend and this wasa Very local event. So I did huge national American vote event, ml. Oh, very Goldilocks, right? Wait, wait, wait, too much for me. I did a good, medium bear sized Goldilocks International event my first international event. And then I did a very, very local event. It was my first rubber event, which was exciting. I'm still new to rubber, I'm still getting into it and it was an opportunity for me to wear my rubber out in sort of active bar environments.

Speaker 1: 9:29

I had met some friends out in rubber once shortly after Christmas, but it was just sort of a dead night at the Eagle. No one was really there. I Again met people I talked with online. I Saw friends I hadn't seen in a while and the nice thing about local events is people come out of the woodwork and you meet new people who are local, who you didn't even know existed, because the event gives them a reason to gear up and to go out. I dropped by the opening cookout and met someone that I've chatted with for decades, really enjoyed connecting with him.

Speaker 1: 10:07

On Friday night I skipped the bar crawl because I'm sober and that didn't sound like a lot of fun for me. I went straight to Ramrod. It was okay. The bar crawl didn't arrive until hours later, so by the time the actual rubber people got there I was pretty tired and it ready to go home. And Then I did the contest on Saturday and it was really a good time. It was well run, it was a good event and I've learned a lot about rubber.

Speaker 1: 10:33

Rubber people are really friendly. You know, when I was at Ramrod, when people started arriving from the bar crawl because I was in rubber. They immediately came up, they said hello, they started talking. It was, it was really so welcoming and which is weird. Right, this is my city, but I don't know any of these people and a lot of them were people who weren't even from here. But we're visiting. And they came up and they said hello, no attitude, no, nothing like that, just friendly people. And I found that true of all the rubber spaces I was navigating and I find them a little bit friendlier than leather spaces, I'll admit.

Speaker 1: 11:08

The next thing I learned is that when you're wearing rubber, the question you're gonna be asked all the time is who are you wearing? Who are you wearing? Everyone wants to know who made what you wear. So there's a lot of discussion about different makers and the world of rubber is so complex. When you want to get something. It's like what colors do you choose and what colors the zipper and what's the main color and what's the accent color? And am I getting the codpiece? Am I getting the zip up the ass? It can be really complicated. So to have other people who've had experience with manufacturers to really sort of join that Conversation as a community felt really great. The other thing I learned, you know, when I go just out to the bar, I usually I'm in leather. I usually don't might have a vest on, I don't usually have a shirt on.

Speaker 1: 11:51

People love to touch bare chests without consent. The one thing they love to touch more than a bare chest without consent is rubber. Everybody just wanted to touch me, not always in a pawing sexual way, but they wanted to touch the rubber everybody. Now I'm kind of okay with that, not really because I believe in consent. I Like it when people ask me before they can touch me. The big problem is, you know Like I'm getting ready.

Speaker 1: 12:24

I spent all this time and polishing the rubber, got to get the special polish and the polishing cloth and polish the backside and polish the front side and put it on and do another polish so that I'm all pretty and shiny and the first thing people want to do is hug Me and touch me. They want to steal my shine. They want to steal my shine. It's very sad so I was not thrilled about that. It's useful for me to know so that I can be a little extra guarded when I am out in rubber.

Speaker 1: 12:54

I'm enjoying the rubber journey in general. You know rubber is sort of this material of paradox that it is very hot because you sweat in it, but it's very cool because your skin is the temperature of the air. It is very freeing because it feels like you're naked, but it's very constrictive because you are tightly held by the rubber and you would think it's really slippery because you are literally covered inside and out on lube, but rubber is actually really grabby. I remember I was at the contest and I would just like bump into another rubber person and we would like stick together. Well, I mean, it's not surprising, right? You use rubber, hits the road and all that. So I'm learning a lot, learning a lot about rubber.

Speaker 1: 13:39

So some of the takeaways here is different kinds of events offer different kinds of experiences and at each of these you still could have navigated the event based on your agenda. Mal, my God. I mean people were just wandering the hallways looking for sex. So if you're looking for sex, you can do that. If you're looking for shopping, you can do that. If you want a circuit party, you can do that. Different events offer different ways of navigation and different size events, different locations. Events have different flavors. So if you're new to events, you might want to think about how you respond best in spaces. Now that's not a reason not to go to a really big event like MAL, but it is a reason to be more thoughtful and intentional. If I go back to MAL I don't think I will I'm going to spend a lot more time on these sub events and making sure I have smaller spaces where I can connect with people.

Speaker 1: 14:33

Medium sized events like Dublin Leather Weekend fantastic, local events, fantastic. Each of them different in their own way, but each of them offers something to you. So, wherever you are in your journey, think about events, because the one theme you might have noticed in everything I talked about is that I met people, and that includes people I've chatted with online, sometimes for years. It includes old friends, it includes new friends.

Speaker 1: 15:00

Events are now one of the places where we are best able to connect with each other in person, because local kinky leather rubber spaces are disappearing, because we are relying on virtual networks, and so you're chatting with people across the country, you're chatting with people around the world, and events bring people together. They allow us to participate physically and directly in community, whether that's a very local community, whether it's an international community, whether it's a large national community. So think about going to an event. I think I've never been to an event, I just hated. I will say that I've never felt like I've wasted my money going to an event, and they can get expensive. There are ways to minimize costs. Think about going to an event so that you can experience all of this in person. I strongly recommend it, no matter what size event you choose.