Seattle, WA -- Saturday night was the Dragon Clan's play party celebrating Gene Romaine's 50th Birthday hosted by brother Odie and GLPW. It was an intimate gathering, thank god and the goddess for reasons I won't go into here in my public journal, but enjoyable none-the-less...

My rigging has definitely progressed to a new level over the course of the past year. I've been into rope since childhood, started bottoming to it while still in my teens, began running rope seriously as I transition to a primarily Dom role when I entered my thirties and solo rigged my first full suspension scene at Inferno two years ago. Since then, I have opened myself to much more instruction, dedicated myself to regular practice, engineered my own scenes (like the inverted suspension, water torture scene in Fear) and witnessed my play become more fluid and creative on the fly.

As it turns out, Christopher didn't have to work, so he joined us at the party. We started of the evening's play with a dual, near suspension scene where I strung up Christopher and Odie repeated the rigging on his boy.

The photos of Derek (above and left) are an example of my current rigging, a practical, full suspension that places the bottom in a posture similar to that facilitated by a sling. This was my second attempt at this scene and while it worked well enough for a fuck scene, the upper body harness remains a challenge, but I'm reworking it in my head and will try something a little different next time. I'm also thinking that two eighteen-foot lengths will suffice for the stirrup lines.

Unfortunately, Christopher did not have an enjoyable time and has posted a series of tirades to his journal that shed a very poor light on the situation, our relationship, and me. It's a clear demonstration that thing are not working out between us... for me or for him. I've spent much of my evening and morning responding to concerns emanating from the posts. For the record, I take no pleasure in the boy's misery. This situation needs to be resolved, post haste, even if it means abandoning the relationship.

Thoughts of 'ohana' enter my mind and the movie "Lilo and Stitch"... "Nobody gets left behind or forgotten," but I don't think I can weather Christopher's dissatisfaction much longer.

On the bright side, the lingering congestion from the cold I caught in Chicago is finally starting to break-up. I could really use a day in bed with chicken soup, juice and cartoons.