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4:01 PM - Sunday October 10, 2005 The trip up was fun--K&J's van was wired for sound and for the first part of the trip we had a director and a camera person in the vehicle with us. It was cramped, but we had a good time, and for some reason kept singing Bubble's (see Trailer Park Boys) "Liquor and Whores" song for the crew. Good times. At the tolls we stopped and the crew got out and went into the production van, and then we were still wired for sound, but they were fiming us from the other van! K and I totally flashed them our boobs--we were going for a six pack, but Butch got bored waiting for them to pull up beside us again and so she put her shirt and stuff back on. The hard part of the weekend was mostly composed of all the politics and crap taht have been happening in men's leather chapter--I somehow got myself used as a pawn in some dirty-ass games, and I don't really like it. The instigator in my eyes, Steve L., has been really underhanded all year. When I won Ms. Atlantic Canada Leather last November, he was all smarmy and nice and supportive of me, and even went so far as to write me some very condescending and patronizing emails. I think he changed his tune when I wrote him a polite email telling him I didn't need him as my "mentor"--fuck he was pissing me off. I've had nothing but problems with this man. I think when he realized he couldn't bully me, he decided to discredit the title I'd won, and throw a contest of his own where he could potentially have more control of the new Ms. Atlantic Canada Leather. So, all year I go ahead thinking that I'm Ms. Atlantic Canada Leather, when in reality, the contest that was held had been deemed non-sancitoned by the board of directors, and therefore the title wasn't actually mine. Bullshit. But whatever. I don't find this out until 2 1/2 weeks before hte contest, and it's not because anyone actually told me--K passed on an email from Steve L, where he flatly stated that I wasn't Ms. ACL, had never been, blahblahblah. So this asshole who claims to be an Old GUard Leatherman, who say he stands for all their values and stuff, never had the courage or the integrity to tell me anything to my face. Fucker. Anyway, we show up at the hotel to register, and there he is in all his glory, kise sing me on the lips and telling me how happy he is to see me, all for the KINK filmcrew to see and record. Hypocrite. And then he has the camera shut off so he can express "how sorry he is" for everything that happened concerning my title, and that one of my leatherman friends is actually a womanhater and didn't want the women in the community, etc. Asshat. The man in quesiton has been nothing but supportive of me, and kind, and genreous with his time and learning and experience. More on this later. Anyway, the Friday night was all about socializing, meeting the judges, making a good first impression, and also about challenges and such to determine who was going to be first onstage on Saturday and the first to have an interview with the judges. It was a Survivor themed contest, so they were all "immunity challenges" and such. The first one was a game of chance, picking a die out of a bag--the person with the odd-coloured die would be automatically ejected from "the tribe." Guess who that was? Me. Damn my sensitive fingertips--it felt different from the otehrs and I just instinctively went for it. Anyway, this meant I got to sit down and drink beer for the rest of the contest. It also meant that I would have the first interview at 9am the following morning. Ugh. Anyway, the next person to be voted off was my friend Mr. Pims, and so he declared the King and Queen of Loser Island, and we graciously invited all the next contestants to our island and gave them hugs. As it turned out, we got to decide out of the last two contestants who got to go first, and who got to go last, and we picked a nice fellow named Rob to be first, and Diane to be last. Poor Rob was SO nervous. More on him later. I think the interview was the hardest part of the whole contest for me. I was second, I had to get up early and make myself presentable, and I was feeling realy uneasy about the whole debacle concerning my title. Also, KINK really wanted to film it, but the judeges didn't really want them to, and then they relented for a couple of questions. I do think the film crew hurt my chances, though I apologized for them, and thanked the judges for their patience and tolerance. I also turned off my mic after the crew left the room--the judges hadn't even thought of that, but I did. I guess I wanted it to be private--I didn't want what they aske dme to be used. So. I cried during the interview. They asked me for my side of the story concerning the whole contest last year, and I've felt so betrayed over the whole thing. I guess I cared more than I thought I did. I just feel that my title should have been honoured, but there was nothing I could do about it. I told them that I felt like I had been used, and that I really didn't like that feeling. They were all very sympathetic, though they kept asking hard questions. It took me a while to pull myself back together. K gave me a big hug in the hotel room because I was still upset. I still find it very upsetting. It was hard to talk about in front of the film crew--I was sitll really emotional afterwards. I hung out with K&J the rest of the day, Butch's interview wasn't unitl later and the judges were running terribly behind, due in part to KINK, I believe. Oh well. We didn't get a chance for supper because of the rehearsal and BUtch making it late because one of hte judges demanded that she have cool underwear and flash her during the show. But, Butch and I got all prettied up while our film crew watched, and then we were off! The contest was a lot of fun, I'm goign to be posting a few pictures in my LiveJournal as they start to trickle in. I've got some that I need to scan. MOst of htem are pretty crappy because hte venue was so dark. Hopefully there was an event photographer and there are some decent photos floating around. Long story short, I was beautiful and fabulous, but I think that the political climate was such that I couldn't win--also, the woman who won, Cecile, was an excellent competitor, and deserved the title. Also, she spoke in both languages when she answered her questions on stage. I think that was a good move on her part. She was so sweet--she was sure that I was going to win, that when I came back from getting my first-runner up kudos, she leaned over and asked me where the sash was! I told her that I hadn't won it, and she was surprised! Butch won Ms. Atlantic Canada Leather Fellowship, which to my understanding is like Miss Congeniality, so we called her that the rest of the weekend. Stay tuned for Part 2!
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