February 18th
And vanish I did. Offline on a Thursday, move on Saturday, die on Sunday, buy sox and skate on using underwear until Wednesday, find my shoes midnight the following Thursday evening, fly to Edmonton that Friday morning, party party party then fly back to Seattle Monday - yesterday.
Let's break that down now. First of all, the move happened on 2/8 as planned. It only happened because of a corps of friends who each hit their limits on my behalf, and for which I will be eternally grateful. I handed out the first donut to Derek, Panther's house mate, around 8am and took DeVil & CB to TUBS at 8pm as the only thing we had energy left for. Unfortunately, there was only one main exit from the old place, out a pair of sliding glass doors. Unfortunately, fifty scadzillion boxes were packed and stacked up against those doors and in the little room that used to be my sling room next to them. That meant that we had to load and transport fifty scadzillion boxes regardless of what was in them prior to the furniture being moved and put in place. And, of course, that meant that the playroom downstairs, somewhere around 12x12 or 15x15 or thereabouts is now 6' high in wall to wall boxes. Shoe boxes with pantry boxes. Kitchen boxes with desktop essentials boxes. Dead storage boxes on top of Open Me First boxes. As well, I moved from a place with more finished wall space into a place with more total square footage. I have many bookcases which will end up in the playroom or the pantry or workshop instead of in the living room. We had caravans of vans, trailers, trucks, cars and if I could have found a helicopter I'd have used it. Derek was there, rode in on his motorcycle and helped out for several hours until he had to go to another committment. AT was in fine form, with Max left at home to babysit. KSlave and her hubby C were there, along with a lap top to keep their daughter entertained. Elf and Omaha jumped in and had their two daughters entertaining themselves along with KSlave's girl. CB was a major load master, furniture disassembler, and was always right when he suggested doing things his way. DeVil brought cookies and was entrusted to be the shock absorber for the aquarium en route from one place to the other. Elizabeth was unable to make it, however her wonderful wife Viand showed up and did a great job. She called me from the Wet Spot and said that she was unable to recruit a crew to help set up for an event as they were all at my place; she showed up after doing the set up, and worked through to the end of the evening. Kev was in and out working on things at the new place like replacing 50 year old outlets with grounded ones. Gene and Two and Tali [the extended family I discussed here] were all a major help for some hours. Goddess knows, if I've forgotten anyone please forgive me and kick me til I spit out your name. I was not only humbled by the help of my friends, I'm now quite humbled by the fact that the unpacking is a larger project than the packing! At the end of Saturday there were only a few of us left. Viand was sleepwalking, but carrying bookcases while she did so. CB, DeVil, and I were similar. I invited all of them to TUBS spontaneously. Viand went on home to her wife [whom I called, thanked, and warned of what condition V was in]. The remaining 3 of us went and soaked in those hot bubbling waters quite thankfully. When we left TUBS it took all we had to walk back across the street to our vehicles. The next morning and all through that Sunday I hurt worse than I've hurt before. Worse than high school football, basic training, worse than worse. Oh, gods and goddesses....
We were in the tub to our necks, and the snow - which drifted down all weekend - froze our hair. I enjoyed everyone she introduced me to through the weekend, and this couple in particular were outstanding folks - the kind who you would want to have as friends no matter where they were. She is lucky in the people she has around her. Although he wasn't there in the tub that night, let me mention her husband as well. He labored long and hard as part of the team putting on the Lupercalia as well as the play party scheduled separately, for Sunday night. He gave me every possible courtesy and I hope I did the same in return. "Hi, here's my wife, my home, my table - have fun." ... that takes a helluva guy.
Koi had invited me up with a couple of particular adventures in mind. She had had small tastes of play piercing and knew that she wanted much more of it. As well, she was extremely interested in experiencing a cutting.
After much planning and discussing and hemming and hawing, we set out Sunday afternoon to do the cutting. Here is a picture of the final product, with which we are both quite happy.
Koi and I had planned a large play piercing scene for the Sunday evening play party, and as well she and I conspired to make sure my dance card was quite full. She introduced me to a friend of hers who had never had a play piercing before, and I started the evening by filling said friend's breasts with a whole lotta steel. Next after that, I was honored to give a flogging/paddling/rope etc to a scruptious young lady I had met during the Guy Baldwin presentation. It was her first, and there is no doubt in my mind it will not have been her last. She took to it like white on rice. By this time, Koi was just a tad bit nervous at the amount of steel - and where it had been put - in her friend's play piercing experience. Something about all those 18ga in and through the nipples were a concern. She was already still high from the cutting earlier in the afternoon. She did marvelously, though, and wore several beautiful patterns of mandalas and endorphin buttons. She did notice, as it turns out, when I switched from alcohol spritzing to fresh squeezed lemon juice, pulp included, all over the designs. Yippie kay yay! As we finished up out scene the party was winding down, and around midnight I found myself walking a block and a half to the car in the falling snow, wearing tshirt, kilt, shoes and sox, and an unzipped sweatshirt. I was either high myself or thoroughly acclimatized to Edmonton!
The flight home was relatively uneventful. I happened to arrive at US Customs in Vancouver at precisely the moment that the two women at the gate just flat told me they were too tired to go through my bag and to keep on moving. On homeward, I found Littleone unable to stop mewing me out for hours, and the fish sulking. My vacation was great, and very needed, and hopefully Koi got out of it all that she had hoped. I think we both found life to be exceedingly rich and good. Now back home, I have to once again join the never-ending fight for truth, justice, and finding my saucepans, remote controls, and PDA charger.