I’m back from the afternoon judging. There were seven of us, and they made us all wait until everyone was done before we could leave, so I got no nap. Must... get... Starbucks!
The questions were somewhat more serious this year than last, although I’ve blanked out some of them. Let’s see: How did you get into rubber? (My first experience was trying on a shirt at IML, which I put on by myself and the guy said “Oh, you’ve put these on before, I see.” Guess I’m a natural.) What about rubber attracts you? (People pay attention to me in it, and that forces me into a space where I have be ready for that and even to encourage it, and that then pushes me in a more public role in the community.) What would go into a personal ad? (Be positive, include my facial hair requirement, mention the rubber as well as other fetish things, and be upfront about wanting to build toward a relationship that is more that just a “scene”; I want equal parts cuddle and kink.) How will you raise funds to travel? (Not much of an issue for me, given my computer engineer career. I would rather raise funds to help charity and local rubber clubs, not to use for my own travels. [How’s that for stroking the judges?]) Given a 15x25 room and $100,000, how would you outfit your dungeon play space? (In other words, tell us about your fetishes. This was the hard one, but I included a couple design ideas for a rubber sling and some rubbery furniture.)
At the swap meet/vendor fair afterwards, I bought a rubber flogger from floggers.com, and a pair of codpiece shorts from House of Whacks — black codpiece, transparent latex. Should be quite interesting.
I walked back to the hotel with Tim Brough, and made some side mentions about the strengths of some of the contestants which I didn’t know already: Mark (Chicago) is part of a number of clubs and knows about event organizing; Ed (Ft. Lauderdale) is quite active in that area’s community; and Mike (Chicago) competed either 2 or 3 years ago.
The
pre-judging is only 40%. We’ll
be doing Rubber Image, The Question,
and Wet Rubber. For the first,
I’ll be wearing the oufit from the
front page off my web site (http://home.earthlink.net/~rubberize — takes
a while to load!): jumper from Made of
Rubber and boots from LaCrosse, but also
my Western jacket from Syren and the
shammy flogger (yellow) from floggers.com that
I bought last year. I want to get
across the rubber jacket thing, since
it is mentioned on my registration form. Also
mentioned there is my interest in country-western
dancing: for The Question, I’ll
be a Rubber Cowboy, with rubberized jeans,
shirt, and hat (and boots with rubber
soles). For Wet Rubber, which is
basically the “fantasy” portion,
I’ll be wearing my French jogging
suit top and my LaCrosse waders (which
only come up to my navel due to the shoe
size) with the Mr. S suspenders; during
the dousing, I’ll let the waders
slip down to show the House of Whacks
g-string. (This one is based on
audience reaction. Being in the
first 2-3 competitors is valubale here,
not just for warm water but because the
longer it goes on, the less enthused
the audience will be.)
The Question is the hard part, as we don’t know what it will be. Last year, it was “Invent a rubber toy.” Two years ago, it involved Clinton, Lewinsky, Tripp, and Starr. This year, the Florida election stalemate is bound (ahem) to be a high possibility, but Khris Francis (the emcee) may avoid it as too obvious. (And no one wants to hear about it, do they?)
(I see the Republicans are suing some part of Florida, claiming that the hand recount of the ballots is unconstitutional. Huh? How did they count and recount the ballots before they had machines for that purpose?)
I took another 8 pictures this afternoon, and I project about 25 more this evening, maybe more. Gods, I love digital cameras with SmartMedia cards!
Well, it’s almost 6:00, and I have to be at the Cell Block at 7:30, so I need to change clothes, get some food, and pack up my suitcase. Three pairs of boots take a lot of space.