You know, I’m not sure where to start with regards to CLAW.   What a great concept and such a fun weekend!

Thursday

Sir arrived Thursday evening as did His boy, back from a business trip to Portland.Sir was in bed by the time I got home and after finishing some work after arriving home at midnight, I headed off to bed to wake up at 11am.

Friday

Sir and i were on the road by 1:00pm and got to Cleveland by 5:30pm.  We met up with slave David, who many of you will recognize from the hot furry guy in the cage from CLAW IX, got settled, had dinner and Sir sent me for a nap while He picked up the supplies for O/our bar night (Thank You Sir!).

Bears out of Hibernation Party

What an amazing night starting out with meeting the bar staff (Dave, Josh, Angelo, DJ Doug, Will), David German (Mr. Michigan Leather 2011), The Grand Rapids Rivermen, Dave Watt, Donnie on security, and Leatherwolfe.  It was GREAT seeing the Missionary Sisters of Cleveland out.  The music was great, the BBQ was enticing and much thanks to everyone who participated in our fundraisers that involved:

Bear Base Balls – Sir duct taped me to the ministage area with me dressed in a Union Suit, jock and my title vest with a big grin, ready for people to bat a ball aimed at my nuts.  Only two people were successful at hitting my nuts, and sad to say no bruises elsewhere.  That is until someone lost the ball… and out came the stuffed teddy bear diving for Sir’s boy nuts!  Special thanks to Dave Watt for arranging the birthday singing and the Oreos! *GRIN*

Bear Pick Me Up Raffle – Highly popular and much thanks to Sir for saving His boy’s knees getting down while getting a good workout in.  My left knee has actually been pretty sore recently – something being worked on.

All in all, we raised over $500 between the fundraisers and the door donations.  Much thanks to everyone who attended the bar night, the volunteers and to slave David for the photos.

It was a real surprise to see one of Sir’s boys show up with His own boy during the event.  A real surprise.

Once all was said and done, we crashed at 2:30am and got up at 8:00am.

Much thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes!

Saturday

Saturday involved brunch with Richard Hubley (MLO 2008) who I have known for years and then heading to the seminars.

What a great set of seminars!

Bareback Porn Roundtable

If there’s one man who can bring together people and spin up a great conversation on sex and risk mitigation, it’s Dave Watt.  The conversation was an eye opener for me as an outreach worker, especially listening to men who do bareback and their take on the judgements that they perceive and receive from others.  It challenged me just as we all challenged each other.  We had a great conversation about how the messaging around safe sex, unsafe sex and condom use has to change for better empowerment rather than talking down to us like kids and take a risk mitigation approach – Some that I know the Ontario AIDS Network and the AIDS Committee of Toronto has been working on.

Much thanks to everyone who participated, you’ve made an impact on me, how I approach outreach and I hope that Dave Watt will consider bringing the discussion to Toronto sometime in the near future.

Boys in the Leather Community

Again, another great discussion and much thanks to Jim Raymond – honourary Daddy of the DC boys of Leather; and Mary Elizabeth Boyd – the First Lady of Leather, honourary Mother of the DC boys of Leather and amazing woman – who I had heard of and she was sitting next to me!

The conversation was about boys supporting each other and the boys Bill of Rights.  This is something I support – I’m fortunate that I have a very good Sir in my life, but other boys are not so lucky and are also not as strong – face it, boys are just as diverse as the greater world outside Leather.  Boys need to learn how to protect themselves and that they can.

Sirs were also welcome and one Sir did raise the issue of receiving flack from peers in the community around how He chooses to honour His Boys (using His protocol).   Who are others to put down how He chooses to honour His Boys, and what His protocols are?  Sir wishes me to walk in front of Him – does that make His protocol wrong? There is no one way of doing what we do in D/s relationships – ask some of the men who have been part of Leather and have been practicing D/s for a long time.

I had a chance to connect, during and after the seminar, with American Leather Boy 2010, Bryan, who I had noticed last year at International LeatherSIR/Leatherboy.  A great boy and someone who, in the future, will (and I hear does) make an amazing Daddy.  Someone I’m happy to call a brother.

Boots!

Master Chuck allowed me to pick up two pairs of boots from Stompers – a pair of Corcorans and a custom pair of Wesco Jobmasters, I have been drooling over for years.

Corcorans

I requested the Corcorans as kind of an adult version of the parade boots I grew up with as an Air and Army Cadet when I was a kid.  They’re comfortable, they’re gorgeous and I can’t wait to shine them.

I like highly polished boots.  Always have and it’s something I grew up with as a kid being the ‘shoe shiner’ of my house.  Being involved in Air and Army Cadets as a kid, I took pride in polishing my boots to the best of my ability.

Much thanks to Gabriel Majors for being the first black to touch my Corcorans.  *GRIN*  Looking forward to seeing you black at GLLA and ICBB 2012!!!

Wesco Jobmasters

The Wesco Jobmasters are pure lust for me.  I like them on the men that I have seen wear them and I think they’re going to look and feel amazing.  I get to pick these up during the ILSb/Dore Alley weekend.  I can’t wait!!

Seriously, I am bouncing over these.  *GRIN*

Thank You Sir for allowing Your boy to purchase these boots.

Saturday Night

The reminder of Saturday involved the formal dinner where Sir and His boy were table captains along with Mr. Gay Naturist Leather at the table.

After dinner Sir had a duty that never comes easily to any Sir – that of releasing his boy/MiT in a family-only private ceremony – with my brother’s own boy behind Him; and slave David and I behind Sir.  I don’t believe there was a dry eye among any of us, but Sir’s boy has served well, learned well and I am fortunate to call Him brother.

Sir was quite tired Saturday night and went to bed early.  He allowed slave David and I to have some down time, so I let my hair down and spent some time with Ms. Olympus Leather Christiana, her Sir, Jeffrey Payne and Gabriel (Majors) as he worked his blacking magic for all of us.  Thank Y/you all for the chat!

I was exhausted from the trip to Sudbury and Portland, work has been pretty draining and so the responsible thing for me was to go to bed at 12:15am Sunday morning.  Next year, I hope to get out to the play parties, for sure.

Sunday

Sunday involved being woken up with Sir working my ass over with His hands, a paddle and counting off the riding crop strikes (YUM!), the Coffee Boys, packing the cars and then having brunch.

Much thanks to the fellow boys who brought coffee in the morning!  That was definitely a highlight of the weekend and you really got Sir up! *GRIN*

And thank you Bryan for the massage!  I needed that and it helped for the five hour drive back home.

From left to right - with American Leatherboy 2010 Bryan;
Mama Sandy; and no, i'm not topping Richard, i'm riding Him. :)

Wrap Up

I am very glad Sir had a chance to meet some of the people that have inspired me in my journey over the years, and that He’s been able to inspire others through this weekend.  That’s what weekends like CLAW are for us.

CLAW as an event brings together a broad spectrum of the Leather community which is wonderful to see.  You have:

A lot of hard work goes into this weekend and much thanks to the organizers for pulling this weekend off.

Much thanks to slave David for his help on the weekend – taking photos, lugging supplies with me, looking after Sir and me for not only CLAW but also for his help during Eastern Canada LeatherSIR/Leatherboy weekend back in February.

Please be sure to read Sir’s blog entry on CLAW.