• The Tummy: Much though I might wish otherwise, I don’t have a body to die for.  There’s a bit of a tummy, and God knows, the camera does add weight.  (And the video camera adds a bit more, as I saw on the replay of the contest; not much, but a little.)  On the other hand, only one of the five judges wasn’t at least a little “padded”.  (Okay, truth be told, I don’t really wish I had a “body to die for.”  While I wouldn’t complain about shedding maybe ten pounds, many guys seem to like a bit of a tummy on a partner [me included].  It tends to be a sign of someone who is “real” rather than one who spends every free hour at the gym, worrying about staying “pumped”.)
   

• The Glasses: At a minimum, they aren’t ideal for photography purposes.  (I recall a photo spread in Playgirl a few years back with a guy who wore glasses.  After examining it carefully, I realized that they had taken the lenses out of his glasses to prevent reflections!)  And there’s that old saw about “Boys don’t make passes at girls who wear glasses,” and I’m afraid there does seem to be some truth to that in my bar cruising experience.  Me, I actually have a small fetish for guys who wear glasses.  (Too many Lois Lane comics; I just know Superman is behind one of those pairs!)  Regardless, I don’t have a choice in the matter, as I’m unable to wear contacts at all and my vision isn’t bad enough that laser surgery is an option.
   
• The Travel Schedule: I already gave the run down of where I was going to in 2000 earlier in the report.  Maybe I sounded overbooked.  (“But y’are, hon!  Y’are!”)  Of course, many of them are events that a rubber title holder should consider attending anyway (Mid-Atlantic Leather, Thunder in the Mountains, Rubbout).  International Mr. Leather, however, would have been particularly difficult, since I was slated to be in Houston that weekend.  (Bruce suspected the opposite angle cost him points on the same matter: he can’t travel much, for whatever reason.)
   
• The Interests: Despite my ready acceptance of others’ rubber fetishes, not personally embracing them might have counted against me.  I’m so shallow!  (“That’s not what I heard.”)  (Ahem.)

     Anyway, enough beating myself up over this.  (That’s what I got that flogger for.)

     Did I enjoy it?  Very much.  (Oh, the contest, not the flogger.  Well, that too.)  Would I do it again?  Definitely.  Will I do it again?  Maybe, but certainly not next year — that would look desperate!  (Instead, I will look at expanding my interests and abilities.  If I was a good candidate this time, I could be a superb one in a couple years.)

     (Well, so more for that resolution. Read the MIR 2001 Trip Report.)

     Monday morning — well, Monday afternoon, if you want to get technical, by the time I got up after getting back at almost 7:00 am — featured breakfast at IHoP.  A few years ago during IML, I ate at this same Halsted one and they actually gave me too much food (and a humonguous glass of juice), so it remains one of those “Try to eat there if you can” places for me.

     After that, I did a bit more shopping, including the ubiquitous stop at the Disc Go Round used CD store at Belmont and Clark — have to keep fattening up my CD collection (I haven’t counted lately, but at the time, it must have been approaching 500 CDs), and used CD stores are a great place to do it — and I came out with recent albums from Dolly Parton and Sawyer Brown, plus The Village People’s “Live and Sleazy”.  With my third place prize money ($100 — oooo!) burning a hole in my pocket, I went to Equinox, a glass store across from the hotel, and bought a small copper-colored lamp.  (Copper is my favorite metal, all rich and warm.)  And for a late lunch, I went to Penny’s Noodle Shop, further up Clark where the El crosses over.  (When I had been in Chicago the previous year, Scott had been pointed out to me as a popular place.  I wasn’t especially impressed: they sat me at a table but didn’t give me a menu — I had to get up and get one for myself — and I had a rather mediocre sliced beef with noodles soup [Phô, for those who do real Cambodian and Vietnamese restaurants, or in this case “faux Phô”].  If this is the same place and management, I can’t imagine why it is or was particularly popular.  Maybe just because it was on the leading edge of Pan-Asian Fusion noodle shops?)