Eternal Apprentice

Sex Camp 2008, a life-affirming experience.

When Ellie and I first got started in kink and BDSM communities we were blown away by the inclusiveness and the lack of judgment that we found.

There is a natural fear of rejection that one probably feels when presenting themselves in front of the local kink group for the first time. I was lucky that the guy in charge of orientation was one of my co-workers, but I imagine that not everyone has that experience.

Dark Odyssey Summer Camp took the feeling of being a part of a big kinky family several steps further for me.

The community system was quite nice. The “pre-camp” online community is a fully functioning personals site where you can contact potential play partners and arrange tentative “dates”. I felt like I was making good use of the site even though none of the “talk” turned into “action” when we got there, it was well worth the time investment simply because I felt more comfortable when we arrived. I recognized several dozen attendees by their profile pictures alone which set me more at-ease.

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When Ellie and I arrived we met a couple at the gates (I won’t name names, of course). Both of them were casually dressed, but I was immediately impressed by their friendliness (and the woman’s cleavage which I was lucky to see a lot more of throughout the weekend).

We set up the air mattress (kindly loaned to us by a local kink friend) and proceeded to christen the room with a delicious fuck. Having our naked cabin-mates (who we hadn’t even met by name yet) coming through the cabin to set up their spaces only turned us on more.

Walking around camp to get our bearings afterwards we checked out the dungeon/barn and the mess hall. On the way back to the cabin a man flagged us down and said, “Are you Ellie?” while walking timidly toward us.

Before Ellie could say another word he had his answer in his mind and continued, “I recognized your voice, I’m a huge fan of your podcast!” She was flattered and I’m pretty sure it was only the first of a couple dozen times she blushed that weekend.

Attending our first class I met my first Sex Camp crush. A beautiful young girl with the most precious voice told Ellie that she reads her blog after we introduced ourselves. My shyness took over, though. The entire weekend the most I could muster when I saw her was to make eye contact with her. It was worth the effort just to catch a glimpse of her pretty smile.

Shyness is nice and
Shyness can stop you
From doing all the things in life
You’d like to

Here’s the thing about camp. It doesn’t matter what kind of relationship you are in when you come to DO, you are going to have a dozen or more camp crushes. Resign yourself to it early and let the flirting begin.

Flirting was pretty much all I did, though.

My first DO was overwhelming. I wanted to go to two classes in each time slot so I had to make difficult choices about that several times a day. I chose a lot of “safe” classes, but learned a lot of really awesome stuff. Lolita Wolf’s “Kids Rule!” and Sarah Sloane’s “Service for the Novice Top” classes were great for Ellie and I. We learned a lot about ourselves and some minor hang-ups we still have about some of our play.

Bear’s “Theater Skills For Better Sex” was so much fun, and empowering. The class was only scheduled for 1.5 hours but I found myself wanting to spend the whole day talking with and learning with Bear (not to mention the making out that we had talked about on the message board).

By “safe” classes I meant only that I avoided some fire-play, new-age stuff, and hooks/needles.

Ellie and I co-topped a great guy named Neils for some light sensation play and orgasm control/denial. We feel like topping together as a couple will be a good way for us to play together and learn new skills together. Deciding on what skills we want to learn and who we want to mentor us is the hard part, though.

No regrets at all, it was the most amazing time.

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But wait, there’s more!

I have a ton of school work to finish up, so I’m posting this part now to get it out of my head. Expect part 2 before the weekend!