our 1st munch

Well my dear friends and readers, the lovely Serafina and I went to our first munch last night, an event put on by Quad City Kinks.  Even though we ended up leaving pretty early, we very much enjoyed ourselves and look forward to going again.

I guess our biggest problem is being "early to bed" kinda folks, as we normally get ready for bed about the time most folks would just be gearing up for a night out on the town.  I figure that feeling sleepy by 9pm didn't ever help anyone's social life, it certainly doesn't do any wonders for us.

It didn't help that Friday nights was the company Christmas Party for my business, so the night before the munch was not only mandatory, it ran rather late (as such events are prone to do.)  We started the day tired.

Then there was the weather.  We had a storm front seemingly stalled over us, bringing a soaking downpour upon us just as we left Friday night's festivities.  The rain lasted through Saturday as well, and though I'm thankful for the moisture because we've been in a drought, this kind of weather always seems to make my arthritis pain worse.

So by the time my delightful slave/wife and I arrived at the munch, we were already very tired and very sore.  The warm welcome we received from the folks who arrived before us were very nice.  With the excitement of going, and doing something new, not to mention meeting new people (perverts just like us,) I think we forgot our pain and fatigue, if only for the moment.

The event got pretty big.  When it was all said and done, the total headcount reached 32, a very impressive total, especially when it's considered that our modest metropolitan area of less than 500,000 actually has 2 different BDSM social groups.  Viva la kink!

We enjoyed a nice meal and some good conversation with the folks around us.  Everyone attending the event introduced themselves, allowing us to put some faces with screen names we knew from Fetlife.  And, there was a very nice holiday gift exchange.

To be honest, the size of the crowd caused a little bit of difficulty for me.  I'm going to sound more than a little bit like a decrepit old man when I say this, and it's true I'm not getting any younger, but I honestly have trouble hearing clearly when I'm at a noisy event or when I'm in a crowd.  It's always been a bit of a problem for me, so it's not just age I reckon.

And in some venues, catching 3 out of every 4 words isn't a problem.  But I can tell you for sure, it is more than a little problematic when making introductions for the first time.  Leading to embarrassing exchanges like the following (fictionalized to protect the names I really did butcher . . .)

"Oh, so your name is WagonFlower?" I say not quite sure I heard correctly.
"I'm sorry DragonBlower," I respond, just a little embarrassed when corrected.
"Oh geesh, I'm really sorry DragonFlower!  Really I won't get your name wrong yet again, I promise . . ." I said, finally getting it right on my third try.

Perhaps I wasn't really that bad for me last night, but it felt that way.

All too soon, the excitement ended for us, as we found ourselves getting sleepy and sore.  Not having had the foresight to bring along any decent pain medications, we found ourselves packing up and heading home.  It was earlier than we'd hoped to leave, but we felt satisfied with the food (about what you'd expect from the chain restaurant that hosted us) and the company (we met some nice folks we'll enjoy seeing again.)