Tawdry Talk

A lot of you don’t know, but I’m one of the co-moderators of BearsLycraSpeedos, a group dedicated to exploring the fetish of bearish men in Speedos, Lycra clothing, singlets, wrestling, et cetera.

I found these nylon/lycra boxer briefs at Target, and have been sharing a few pics of them, in their five colors that I was able to get in my size, with the group. Behind the cut are two of the shots.

The Jesus Prayer is a useful meditation tool:

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

It’s a mantra that one repeats. In the Orthodox monastic tradition, a prayer rope is used to engage the hands while the prayer is repeated. The prayer rope is a knotted loop of yarn tied in special knots. Each knot represents one recitation of the Jesus Prayer. The ropes are typically knotted in 33, 50, 100, or 300 knot lengths. I have a 100 knot rope. Every 10 knots there is a bead. It’s a way of connecting the body with the mind and heart to, as the Apostle Paul wrote, “abide in prayer.”

I installed the new hard drive yesterday, and kept the old one on the secondary disk controller, instead of putting the CD burner back in. But, I realize that that was a mistake, as that old drive is bloody LOUD! I can’t believe how incredibly loud it is… I had thought that maybe it was the cooling fan, but no… XP spins down the old drive after a period of inactivity, and I can hear just how quiet the system is without that drive spinning, and it’s stunningly quiet. I mean, I can still hear the cooling fan, but it’s almost a whisper compared to how it was before.

I bought a 200GB Maxtor hard drive at Fry’s Monday on sale. I just finished installing it. The installation software that came with it moved all of my old C drive’s stuff completely over, and now it boots as C:, the old C is D, and the old E is still E. Fabulous! OK, I did change the cables a bit in the box to have the new C and E on one controller, and the D and DVD burner on the other controller. But overall, it was very simple.

On Monday, John and I drove down to Palo Alto to go to Fry’s so John could return the external hard drive with the annoying LEDs all over it. On our way to Fry’s, we stopped for lunch at Thai Garden, located on the border between Palo Alto and Los Altos on El Camino Real.

Located in Palo Alto Bowl, Thai Garden’s red leather banquettes certainly conjure up a bowling alley’s lounge feel. The grungy tabletop did nothing to spoil the image of this place as a greasy spoon, either. The watery and bland chicken and cabbage soup they served with our lunch plates was among the most boring and lifeless things I’d eaten in a long time. I don’t think it could have been any more bland if they tried.

I ordered the Chicken in Basil, as hot as they could make it, and John ordered Imperial Beef (beef with brocolli). I had Pad Thai with mine, and so did John, but he ordered fried rice. The Chicken certainly was hot, but the balance between the flavors of the basil and the heat of the chilies was so out of whack and bland, that is was all heat and very little flavor. John reports a similarly bland experience with the beef. The service was bland as well.

Overall, I can’t recommend this place, unless you want your tongue to be bored.

Do Paso (& Roll Promenade): Clasp your partner’s left forearm, rotating around 360 degrees, then clasp corner’s right forearm and rotate around 360 degrees, then the partner’s left again and girl dancer rolls out to promenade position. Without the Roll Promenade, this call ends with a Courtesy Turn to have couples facing center. (Thanks fuzzygruf for the assist!)
Step to a Wave (two facing couples):
VV
^^
VV
^^
becomes
^V^V
^V^V
facing dancers put right hands up at shoulder level and step forward, clasping the right hand of the dancer in front of them.
Wheel Around: the specified couples in a promenade (heads or sides) wheel around to face the couple behind them, forming facing lines. This is often used when a caller has made a mistake in his/her calling that puts the promenading couple in the wrong order for going home.
Ocean Wave Balance: In a wave position: ^V^V, dancers lean first forward, then back, then return to standing upright.
Swing Thru:from a wave ^V^V, everyone drops left hands, and rotates around right hands 180 degrees, clasping the left hand of the person they approach, if possible. then right hands are dropped, and those clasping left hands rotate 180 degrees around, clasping right hands of those they approach. NOTE: a Left Swing Thru is the exact opposite: rotate around left hands first, then right. It will be called as “Left Swing Thru.”
Boys/Girls Run:Two Dancers adjacent to each other: BG for instance. If the call is Boys Run Around the Girls, then the boy in a pairing of adjacent dancers would move forward in a 180 degree semi-circle around the G dancer, while the G dancer would stepping without facing directions, over to the position vacated by the running dancer.

I’m too tired to finish tonight, so I’ll finish in the morning.

I suppose I should offer some explanation for my decision to seek celibacy right now. Since Bob and I broke up in April, I have had to do some serious regrouping, have been meeting men, going out and trying to make new friends, work on my practice. There’s barely been any time to do any deep thinking about where I want my life to go. So I’m going to use this period of time to channel my sexual energies into increased focus on my prayer life and massage practice.

So, after yet another disappointing weekend of having men who say they care for me flake on me, I’ve decided that it’s time to have a period of celibacy. I need to get my head clear of men and romance, and focus my energies on my massage practice.

Please pray for me, to whatever deity you choose, that this period is fruitful and rewarding to my heart and mind. And if you are atheist, send me your good wishes for my success.

After I shot my load of cum down that cute cub’s throat at the corner of 9th and Folsom, I was strapped to a St. Andrew’s Cross and had the snot flogged outta me. Albadger, John, and I went to Flipper’s for lunch, and then Albadger and I went to the matinee performance of Handel’s Rodelinda. In honor of the day, I did go in my leathers: Red Wing boots, harness, Green Leather shorts, vest, cap, and these nifty maroon spandex boxer briefs I got at Target last Monday. So as not to offend the delicate sensibilities of the blue-hair set, I did wear a blue cotton and spandex t-shirt under the harness. Let me tell ya, standing room for three-and-a-half hours in two inch heels is quite a challenge. But what a transcendent event!

The staging of Rodelinda is definitely noir. Pamela Rosenberg’s Eurotrash friends actually got one right: they peeled back the layers of the libretto and found the emotional core of the work, and the stark lighting and mostly black wardrobe worked remarkably well with this baroque mastepiece. Every member of the cast was exceptional, especially the uber-woofy countertenor David Daniels as Bertarido, the deposed King of Lombardy.

Especially exciting was getting hit on by that drunk opera queen during the first intermission - he had an extra seat in the third row next to him, and would I join him? Later, during the second intermission, a high society woman gave me her ticket to her front row seat! I didn’t want to abandon Albadger, though, so I gave it to another person in standing room. I can’t imagine why anyone would have left before the amazing third act, though. It was really spectacular!

After Friday night’s all-night sex fest (ok, ok, next time someone says they want to fuck all night, I’ll believe him!), I didn’t get any real sleep until about 11:00 Saturday morning, sleeping largely until 18:00, when I had to get up and start getting ready for my 19:00 massage client. Said client was in some pretty scary physical shape, and didn’t do any of my pre-massage advice. After the massage, when most clients are lying on my table, listening to the rhythm of their body, following my instructions to lay there until I get back to help them up, this client hurriedly got off the table without my help and practically threw his back out in the process. And when I told him he couldn’t have any alcohol or caffeine for 24 hours, but to drink water instead, he looked at me as if I had just told him his mother had died. He said something about caffeine being easy to avoid, but he wanted to go out and drink margaritas. After suppressing a sigh, I told him that if he had to drink alcohol, he should alternate with water to avoid excessive dehydration. I could see from his face that he wasn’t about to take my advice, though, so I just took his payment and wished him well.

A massage is an intense physical experience, especially the way I give them. Perhaps I should give an aftercare sheet to my new clients to explain what they need to do to get the most out of the experience…

Things to do before a massage:

• If you are injured or on any prescriptions that act as a diuretic, you should check with a physician before getting a massage. Also, uncontrolled diabetes is a contraindication to massage, as are a few other conditions like being on blood thinners, etc.
• If you are in normal health, drink plenty of water - enough to make your urine as clear and colorless as possible.
• Do not arrive hungry, neither arrive with a full stomach.
• Take a long hot shower.

Things to do after a massage:

• In the 24 hours after a massage, avoid caffeine, alcohol, hot tubs, sauna, steam rooms.
• Drink plenty of water.
• Take it easy and enjoy the sensations of your body.