Entries Tagged 'Stuff and Things' ↓

Doorway Butterfly by Lochai

Well, if it’s not evident to everybody in the entire world, I have a thing for Lochai.   I actually fell in love with Lochai’s work long before I developed this thing I have.  I knew the images before I knew the artist.

Anyway, here I am again, writing about Lochai, or “Perfect Lochai” as Marky refers to him whenever I speak of him at home.  This time, I’m writing about his art.  If you read my blog on a regular basis, then you already know that Lochai’s award-winning image, “Beach Bound,” now hangs in the World Erotic Art Museum.

Aside from Beach Bound, which will remain at the WEAM indefinitely, there are several museum prints available to purchase.  Museum prints are special because there is only one, and they are marked (”M”) as museum prints.  I don’t know, I just personally like feeling like I have something special.

Beach Bound is actually available to purchase as a print, but not the museum print copy of it.

You can find all of the images on Kirinawa.com that are being sold.  In my last conversation with Lochai (today) he said that a few have already been sold and so therefore, are not available.  Those that are not available as museum prints are:

• #3 - Aftermath
• #16 - Iris
• #23 - Madison Retro
• #24 - Pony Up
• #34 - Self-Portrait
• #35 - Angela Idles

You should email Lochai directly if you are interested in buying one of the WEAM museum prints - double check that it’s still available and find out about pricing.  Oh, and a little insiders tip:  it’s worth noting that prices will double on the prints after the move to San Francisco.

This Lolcat is For My Favorite Attorneyman, D - Have A Good Monday!

Seriously.  I’ve lost track.  I thought it was Monday on Friday and today I forgot it was Sunday until long after the Simpsons were over.  I am busier than ever, which is a very good thing if you’re someone trying to run a business.  Nobody wants to start a business and hear crickets.  In fact, we’ve got so much on our plates that we’re probably going to leave a few blogs dormant.  We considered selling the domains, but ultimately they are costing us nothing if they just sit there.  There’s no sense in getting rid of them.  In short, you won’t see much posted on MrandMrsKink.com or on CorsetandCollar.com, and you may have already noticed that I parked MommeDomme.com.  There just simply isn’t enough time in the day to take good care of them.  I do want to integrate part of MommeDomme into CatalinaLoves.com, but again- when is there time?  It’s a good idea to RSS feed to them so you get updates as they happen.

So this blog is really not a “useful” blog in the big picture.  It doesn’t have a motive.  I don’t really sell anything here.  I don’t really write sexy adventures or anything like that, but it is my personal journal in some ways.  I don’t write my really personal stuff here, but it’s a good place to sort of debrief at the end of the day.  It’s become a part of my bedtime routine that I enjoy - the opportunity to write freestyle without pressure to please an audience.  Read it if you want or don’t.  It’s not about readers, but just about writing.  How liberating!

So basically here was my day: Lochai, Trufetish.com, and Fetlife.com.  I slept in today - I went to bed around 4 am and I woke up at noon, the call that awoke me was Lochai.  Off the top of my head I can’t even really recall what it was about.  He is, of course, going crazy with wrapping up loose ends and moving to the other side of the country within one month and being ready to go to work.   I do have to say that I am pretty excited to work so closely with two men that I respect and admire.  They both have taught me a tremendous amount in a very short time.   I also enjoy them both on a personal level, so it makes working so friggin’ hard fun!

How does Trufetish fit in there?  I stayed up late and wrote my article to submit before the deadline.  How about that?  The deadline is the 26th and today is the (wait, let me check, I really don’t know) 25th!  Wow.  Big deal.  I thought today was like the 22nd and I was really early.  Not nearly as impressive, but it still counts. This month I wrote about roleplay.  You’ll have to wait until it is published on Trufetish.com to read it.  I’m curious to find out what people think about it.

So Lochai told me today to expect a package from Fed Ex this week.  I Love Surprises!  I hate them, and I love them at the same time.  They drive me crazy, but it’s a good kind of crazy, like when you were a kid and it was December 23rd!  It’s a good week for packages, actually.  I’m expecting a few!  It is so exciting!  I love just getting a card in the mail, a package makes me jump up and down with joy.  For real.  I love them.

In other news the-f-mag.com contacted us today.  They wrote that they stumbled upon Quid Pro Quo and were planning to write an article about our little empire.  Neato.  I’ll have to follow up on that tomorrow (today).

This week there is a lot on my plate - I have a lot of people to get in touch with, plenty to write, and I have raffle items that need to go to the post office.  I am giving all of my clothes that are too big to my neighbor so I’m cleaning out my closet, literally, not in the Eminem kind of way.  I think a lot of my friends are annoyed that I don’t have time to socially chat online very much anymore, but if I’m not incredibly disciplined about getting my work done, then it just adds up and freaks me out.   So to my friends, please just know that I’m not ignoring you, we’re just working our asses off right now, trying to make the Fetlife Marketing Department a huge success while we continue to work our asses off for our other clients at Quid Pro Quo.   This week that literally translates into working all day contacting various people for several projects, setting things up for various promos, having graphic design work outsourced, writing reviews,  and then working at night on a new blog for Sgt. Major and fine tuning Lochai’s blog.   I have the best job in the world.

Well, it’s 5:48 am, I just remembered that I need to set someone new up on the BestSexBloggers.com blog.  A lovely blog, Bloody Laughter, was personally recommended by our own Essin’ Em.   A superb blog.  I’m excited to see what she posts on BestSexBloggers.com.  Off I go, Chris Martin singing to me, to wave my magic wand and add a new contributor.

It’s official. Marky D. Sade and I have accepted a proposal to work with Fetlife.com as their marketing department. We are actively seeking new relationships with companies, large and small, who are interested in advertising their products or events on the best fetish social networking site. What makes Fetlife.com the best adult, fetish, kinky, social networking site on the internet? Well, take a minute to read what Jane’s Guide had to say about it:

Take a moment and imagine a leather Facebook or Myspace, and then imagine it being run by and for kinky folks. That is exactly what Fetlife is! It is the coolest new community site out there for pervs, and it is absolutely 100% free. I had been hearing the buzz about this new spot on the web from a few of my lifestyle friends, and I finally decided to go set up an account and take a look myself. Many years ago I had been on other sites that promised community and allowed free communication, but since those sites have sold to other companies their soul has left the building and communication costs money. It is also communication that is no longer under the nurturing ownership of perverts with a personal interest in our tribe. I’d lost interest, and so had most of my friends. I was hoping that this site could be some of what I was missing on the old ones. Wow, I wasn’t disappointed! I immediately ran into some of my old friends, and then ran off to recruit new ones. It is easy to sign up. Once you have, then you set up a profile. You can add pics to it, and you’ll never run into that “you have to have such and such membership” to view pics or show them to others. There are social groups here with ongoing forum conversations, so you can sign up for topics that interest you (or create your own groups). There is a mail system that acts like a personal bulletin board for private conversations, so you don’t lose track of what has been said to anyone. You can post writing, see what your friends are doing, and a lot more. A lot of talented pervs are posting writing and engaging in conversation here. I’ve met a lot of new friends. There is a small amount of advertising, but it is done really tastefully and never gets in the way. You can write to the folks that run the site, and they will actually write you back. I’ve been in love with this place and raving about it for the last several weeks. This is one of the few sites that didn’t ask for review. I sought out the owner and asked him if I could post one. It is that good. I feel like I’m giving you guys an early Christmas gift. Go check it out! This is the next big kinky community site! They are going to be huge, and they will stay huge as long as they keep the spirit that they have now. - Vamp

To highlight: “There is a small amount of advertising, but it is done really tastefully and never gets in the way.” and “This is the next big kinky community site! They are going to be huge, and they will continue to stay huge…”

We couldn’t be more proud! It’s all true, too. One thing we love about being a part of the Fetlife team is that we are able to work with you, one-on-one, through each step of the way to get your ad placed in just the right spot. You can advertise broadly across the entire network, or we can target by location (country or state) and by gender (M,F,MtF,FtM and or GQ), thereby optimizing your advertising money by targeting your market, the kinksters who are looking for your company or product!

We only display three ads per page, all static and nicely placed in the F-zone. You’re not competing for attention. People will and do see them, but as Vamp pointed out in her review, they aren’t obnoxious and annoying. We’ll keep it that way! We want to continue to build Fetlife the way it was intended - by (real) Kinksters for (real) Kinksters!

For more information on advertising on Fetlife.com, please contact us at mark@fetlife.com or catalina@fetlife.com. And feel free to grab that banner up above and link it from your site to Fetlife.com. :)

Postsecret.com every Sunday!

Life is very busy and I’m not sure how much I’ll get a chance to write.  This is truthfully one of my favorite blogs to write because it’s just the one where I get to sit down and say ” blah “.  What comes out comes out.

Today we officially became the marketing department for FetLife.com, which is exciting!  Marky is really the genius at it.  I talk to people.  I’m good at networking.  He’s good at actually making the deals in the dunes.   Between the two of us we’re a great team.  We think in such different ways that what seems obvious to me wasn’t to him and vice-versa.   You can advertise through FetLife.com by contacting me (catalina@fetlife.com) or Mark (mark@fetlife.com).

Also big announcement today from Lochai.  He was offered and has accepted the position at Kink.com as the new webmaster/director of Hogtied.com.  He recently went out there (to San Francisco) and did a shoot.  You can watch it here.  I am fortunate enough to have seen it already and I’m telling you - I adored Lochai before, but now I adore Lochai.  What a yummy scene.  That’s all I’m saying about it.  You have to see for yourself!

Another crazy announcement in my circle:  Audacia Ray is no longer writing The Naked City.  I know?!  What the hell are they thinking?  Sometimes I wonder.

In other news - I received copies of Rachel Kramer Bussel’s books Spanked!, Tasting Her, and Tasting Him.  The thing is, I think that Marky is supposed to review Tasting Her and I was to review Tasting Him, but I like both books!  Being bisexual means I get to review both :)  I need to get to work on reviews though, because I have a few books and movies that I need to give my opinion on - I know my opinion influences the greater society as a whole, and without it you will be paralyzed - do I buy the book or not?!  What about this dildo?!  What does Catalina Say?!

I can’t remember if I already mentioned this, but I’m writing now for Trufetish.com and I think this month I’m going to write about polyamory, feeding off of the two articles that are already there.  I’ve been on both sides of the pond, as a couple with a girlfriend or a boyfriend and also as the girlfriend of a couple.  It’s also a topic that I’ve been discussing a lot lately with close friends.

I am also writing now on The Femmes Guide.  It’s an interesting thing, the Femme’s guide, “a sex-positive femme queer collaborative blog”.  It was brought up the other day by the editor of the blog that we aren’t a very diverse group - that aside from one of us (me) we are all “white, fat, femmes with advanced educations.” This brings up the issue of me being an ex-fat femme.  I’ve been looking for a place to write about this phenemona - the loss of an entire human being (130 lbs. so far) and how the rules have changed.  The game is different.  I am not quite sure how to navigate through society in this new role.  I don’t want to write too much about it here yet, or else why would you bother to go there to read it, but I think it will turn into a nice article.

Well, that about covers everything I can come up with at 4 am.  I’ll be back in a few hours, at it again…

Lolcats are from icanhascheezburger.com

A couple of crazy weeks have passed!  It’s nice to be back to normal.  W goes back to school on Monday and she’s really excited to finish out her middle school years there.  She has had to change schools several times and it would have been such a disruption to her life to have to change schools again this year and then again next year.   Her education has benefited, it’s objectively obvious when you look at her transcripts and awards.

Next year she’s likely return to public school.  It’s not really an issue of private vs. public school.  These three years are the only years she has attended private school and that was due to my faculty tuition discount.  I suspect that most parents are paranoid about public school the way that some are about stranger danger, yet if you do your homework you’ll see that your child is safer walking (alone) to and sitting in public school in NYC than they are in a lightning storm and we have lightning storms here almost daily in the summer.

Public schools in North Carolina are terribly underfunded.  One of the best things you can do as a parent of a public school student is try to have your child placed in the honors programs.  Because W will finish the year at her middle school in honors Algebra 1, Spanish I, Latin, Chemistry, and an advanced English and History curriculum she will benefit in the pubic school system.    She has her own goal of attending a private, specialized school for math and science on scholarship her last two years of high school.  She is extremely motivated to do well.

Of course, I can’t say this without mentioning how imbalanced the public school curriculum is - for a public school system it still seems to be a very have vs. have nots system.  I recognize that this is a Privilege.  I also recognize that it’s in my job description as a Mom to do everything I can to give her every advantage that I can in life, while teaching her to be grateful, compassionate, and generous.

Okay, so enough about education and parenting.  Life!

The Best Sex Bloggers is doing great - our content is top shelf, the contributors are amazing writers, and the variety isn’t found anywhere else that I know of.  Most of the admin stuff is finally done.  Our header is up and looks good, we got the image problem fixed, and now we can start adding selected contributors to the project.

I’m going to be helping Audacia Ray with some promo work on some of her new projects, so that’s pretty amazing and exciting.

I’m going to review a movie for Madison Young that she sent to me.

Rachel Kramer Bussel is sending us some books to review for Amazon.com, as well as a copy of Spanked! for us to review.  I have another of her books that I am reviewing currently, called Dirty Girls, for Seal Press.  I am actually the only person holding me back from being done with that because now that I know her RKB, I want to ask her a few questions about the book before I publish the review and I have been distracted.  I’ll have to get back on track with that.

I’m talking with Lucrezia Magazine about writing for them, though since I’m still just talking with them, I don’t have really specific things to mention.  I just thought that it’s worth mentioning.

Lelo.com contacted me and asked me to review a product of theirs, so I chose the Luna Beads.  I haven’t even had an opportunity to try them out.  Yes, I know you can’t imagine, but it’s been a weird couple of weeks.  I assure you, I’ll get to work researching them and give you my opinion.

Finally, at least for now, I’ve joined The Femme’s Guide and will post there about some specific topics with some amazing women who are collaborating on the project.  It’s a nice opportunity and I appreciate being invited to take part in it.

All of my friends are out of town this weekend.  Seriously.  M is gone for three weeks traveling in Asia, Mr. F is in Pittsburgh celebrating his birthday, Mr. Johnson is in Colombia, I dropped The Dude at the airport yesterday for his weekend away, and Nikki is at Fetcon, as are Sabrina and Melvin.  No wonder I’ve managed to get so much work done today! :)

I am overwhelmed with emotion and at a loss for words at the outpouring of support that people in our community have shown our family by donating prizes for the raffle, buying tickets, cross posting to spread the word, and the kind words that have gotten us through a very difficult time. We are proud to say that our personal need has been met and good (us, the sinners) triumphs over evil (them, the morally superior). To feed off of Graydancer’s post, we have proven that “a community proving that a community of pervs cares more about her education than an administration full of assholes.”

This means that instead of being my personal mission to fight for my daughter, I am on a bigger mission for the greater cause. I recognize that I am not the only person going through this battle. In fact, it’s a series of small battles that are all a part of a greater war on personal freedom, often with children in the crossfire.

This shouldn’t happen, but if you’re living an alternative lifestyle, it very well could happen to you. The only way to combat it is to put on the armor, link up arm-in-arm, and take them on as a commUNITY. That is exactly what I’ve seen in the last few days and I think we can do more!

The raffle continues, as it is scheduled to end on Sunday (8/17/08) at 10pm, but from this point forward, all proceeds will be going to the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom as a contribution from the community that has stood together and won this battle. This is our way of supporting the war that has been waged in the land of the free against personal and sexual freedom. At the end of the year, the refunded monies will also be donated on behalf of this community.

The National Coalition for Sexual Freedom is a national organization committed to creating a political, legal, and social environment in the United States that advances equal rights of consenting adults who practice forms of alternative sexual expression. NCSF is primarily focused on the rights of consenting adults in the SM-leather-fetish, swing, and polyamory communities, who often face discrimination because of their sexual expression.

My deepest gratitude to those who have supported and continue to support this cause. I have never felt such a sense of community in my entire life. So here is the current prize list for the new official National Coalition for Sexual Freedom raffle. Check back, as we seem to be adding prizes daily.

From Lochai there are three 5×7 museum signed prints from his recent exhibit at the World Erotic Art Museum, two of them are not only museum signed prints, but are also very limited editions.

Alley Bound and Curves are a limited edition of 10 museum signed prints. If you win, you will receive either 6/10 or 7/10. Beach Bound is Lochai’s iconic World’s Most Erotic Photograph winning piece, and is a signed museum print. (Sold normally at $75/print)

Ellie Lumpesse has donated three books:

The Straight Girl’s Guide to Sleeping With Chicks by Jen Sincero
Aqua Erotica by Mary Anne Mohanraj
The Ultimate Guide to Fellatio by Violet Blue

Ellie is also offering:

a 30-minute private phone session (that can include her amazingly sexy man) if you win.

Sam donated:

custom, hand made jewelry (a necklace and earring set) to a runner up. “It’s not a kinky prize, but pretty,” she said. Pretty indeed! Take a look: http://quem98.livejournal.com/306470.html

Thursday and D donated:

a signed 8×10 print of any one of their photographs
a copy of the book, The Mammoth Book of Illustrated Erotic Women.

And Thursday has also offered:

one of her sexy (orgasmic) voicemails to a lucky winner. Let me tell you, that is one hot prize.

The writer of Between My Sheets offered:

A brand new, still in the package, never been used Silver Bullet Vibe.

And just now I heard from my Naughty Secretary who offered:

Her services as a graphic designer. There are two separate prizes - each being two hours of graphic design time (normally charged at $120/hr). In addition to participating in this raffle, she is doing her own auction to raise money. She is sponsoring a silent auction of one of her paintings on her web page.

Edward, from Exjinn.net, the company that hosts all of our blogs and provides us without outstanding support and service, has offered:

A 50 gig hosting plan from Exjinn.net with 1-year of service.

Essin’ Em:

just donated a copy of the book, Wetter, with her story signed personally for you. As if that weren’t generous enough, she has also offered an 8×10 print!

Sabrina Fox - does the name ring a bell?

Sabrina Fox, as in the redhead hot as fuck bondage and fetish model, Sabrina Fox, was chatting with me today and mentioned that she has a few pairs of latex panties that she recently wore for a photoshoot that would offer as prizes. Latex panties worn by Sabrina Fox, anyone? Oh wait until I tell W about this when she is older.

Jeff Mach commented: (THANK YOU, JEFF!) [This is one of those prizes that I would like to know if you would like to be entered to win. If you're not in the area and can't use the tickets, then they would do you no good, but if you are in that area, then it's a great prize!]

I am running a New Year’s Eve fetish event in New Jersey at the end of this year (on NYE itself). I’ll offer a ticket (that is, admission for two people, including gourmet meal and champagne)

and

I run the Wicked Winter Renaissance Faire, now entering its fourth year, every February - again, in Jersey. We’re going to three days this year, and tickets for all three days would usually be at $40; I can donate two pairs of those, as well.

I feel like George from “It’s a Wonderful Life”. Graydancer, who posted a very insightful post about the society that we live in, just twittered me (it sounds dirtier than it is) and said:

I didn’t realize you were adding prizes. Throw in an audiobook version of my novel, “Nawashi“.

Rose Fox offered a very generous and naughty prize — a very good combination for this crowd!:

I used to review DVDs for AVN, and I’m still on Vivid’s mailing list, so now I have a closet full of unopened Vivid porn DVDs. I’ve been trying to figure out how to donate them someplace and would be delighted to offer them for your cause.

There are too many to catalog, so perhaps 10 “grab bags” of ten DVD’s? I’d do my best to include a varied selection so that the winner is fairly likely to get at least a few titles that suit their tastes.

(Just a note on this: because of the laws regarding the selling of pornography, the winners would need to submit a copy of their ID to Rose in order for her to be able to send them to you.)

Beautiful Rebecca has offered:

an original piece of sensual art from the artist. It was scheduled for a gallery show next year but we would much rather have it go to your cause as it hit home. It is 3×4 metal with an object representing a uterus called, “Oikos Cella”.

Alternatively, for those who win, but don’t feel that this art is right for their home, she is an interior designer and has offered to do a consultation for a room re-do. The details are kind of extensive, so I’ll discuss it with the winner personally.

Ms. Nikki Nefarious and AlteredAperture.com) has donated prints and a rope kit:

Collette for TABU Magazine 8 x 12
Jamie in Latex 8 x 12
Girl’s Best Friend 8 x 12
Scream 8 x 10
GarGirl Bound 8 x 10
The Enforcer 8 x 10
Sarah Sealed 8 x 10
Red Hood 8 x 10

and then A Starter Rope Package (4-pack of multi-colored ropes in different lengths and hemp rope cuffs)

Lily, who calls herself Lily (the rope ho) in her comment has donated

3 x 30ft hand-dyed, processed 6mm hemp kit

Radical Vixen, who most of you know as the editor of the weekly sex blog digest, Sugasm, is a very active political advocate. She has offered two books for the raffle:

She’s on Top: Erotic Stories of Female Dominance and Male Submission
Sex and Bacon: Why I Love Things That Are Very, Very Bad For Me

Thank you, so much! I cannot tell you how moved I am by the random kindness of the community. Lochai’s the one who started the commUNITY concept, but I get it better than ever now.

I’m officially re-launching the “Catalina’s Emergency Tuition Fund Raffle” as the “The Battle Is Won, But the War is Not Over” raffle with all remaining proceeds from this point forward going to NCSF.

Here is the link to buy your virtual ticket.

Tickets are $10.00 each, you can buy as many as you’d like (if you’d like to donate $50.00, for example, I’ll enter your name 5 times). You are not obligated to buy a virtual ticket. You can also just donate to a very worthy cause at any amount.

I really will write down names and put them in a hat, and my daughter can pick the winners. At this point, she is well-aware of what is going on. We’ll choose the winners on August 17th at 10 pm. You will be notified by 10:30 pm by email. Heck, we’ll even try to find someone to film it and show it to you all :)

Buy A Raffle Ticket To Win A Limited, Edition, Museum Signed Print From Lochai

I’ve never discussed this on my blog before, but recent developments have prompted me to discuss the reason why I’m no longer a teacher. Being Catalina isn’t always a good thing. I separated early this year with my school as a peaceful way to avoid a public scandal that would ultimately affect my teenage daughter, who attended said school.

Part of my agreement I cannot legally discuss - specifically the reasons and terms of my separation - but use your imaginations. I can say that I agreed to leave quietly and peacefully under the condition that my (straight-a’s, honors courses, award-winning, athlete, without a discipline record) child be allowed to attend her last year of middle school just as if I had resigned at the end of the year. Let me spell this out for you. Faculty receive a substantial tuition discount. I pay 10% of the tuition. This roughly amounts to $1,100. After leaving, all faculty are offered one more year for their children at the faculty tuition discount as a way to avoid disrupting their children’s lives too much.

A few days ago the head of my former school called me to tell me that had rescinded his offer and that she was no longer welcome to attend. In the same phone conversation, he changed his mind and decided to honor our agreement. Well, kind of. I came in with the tuition and they refused to accept my payment.

Later I received an email that stated that on top of the faculty tuition, I am also expected to pay student fees, which are not covered under the faculty discount. Okay, so throw in another $900. I can come up with that, even if it means the car payment doesn’t get paid.

The straw that broke this camel’s back? The additional $1,000 expense account that is being demanded by the 18th of August to cover her lunch account (which was roughly $750 last year) and field trip expenses (which are roughly $250). I requested that she not be allowed to charge a lunch in the cafeteria and that she will bring her lunch, which is an option available to (other) parents, to have this fee waived. The field trip charges, I can’t really object to, that seems fair, so mental tab up to $2,200.

I’ve just been informed that the school is unwilling to waive the expense account fee for her lunch account and demands the entire amount be paid. If it is unused it will be refunded to me at the end of the year. Nice of them to at least offer that. This brings up my new grand total to $3,200 in 8 days.

I went from having her tuition paid to being a mile away.

I have never been as upset as I am right now. For a “Christian” educator to use a child as a pawn in a moral battle against me, and what I represent, is unethical - it’s beyond unethical - it’s reprehensible.

So I’ve played all of my cards, my hands are tied. He wins right now. Because I have been judged a whore, my child loses.

I refuse to allow that to happen. For the first time ever, I am asking my readers to help me. I’ve asked my readers to support the arts (artists, photographers, and other bloggers) but never asked for financial support on my blogs for myself or my family. Today that changes because my child is involved. Today I ask for your support for my daughter’s education and future.

Similar to the project I did for Lochai, I am asking for donations towards my daughter’s education fund. I spoke to Lochai this afternoon, and he has offered to donate three 5×7 museum signed prints from his recent exhibit at the World Erotic Art Museum, two of them are not only museum signed prints, but are also very limited editions.

Alley Bound and Curves are a limited edition of 10 museum signed prints. If you win, you will receive either 6/10 or 7/10. Beach Bound is Lochai’s iconic World’s Most Erotic Photograph winning piece, and is a signed museum print. (Sold normally at $75/print)

On top of Lochai’s unbelievably generous offer, several people have contacted me since posting this and asked to donate items to be raffled off as well. Now, from Ellie Lumpesse we have three books:

The Straight Girl’s Guide to Sleeping With Chicks by Jen Sincero
Aqua Erotica by Mary Anne Mohanraj
The Ultimate Guide to Fellatio by Violet Blue

Ellie is also offering a 30-minute private phone session (that can include her amazingly sexy man) if you win.

And one of Janice’s friends left a comment in my blog that she would donate custom, hand made jewelry (a necklace and earring set) to a runner up.

“It’s not a kinky prize, but pretty,” she said. Pretty indeed! Take a look: http://quem98.livejournal.com/306470.html

Thursday and D have also offered a signed 8×10 print of any one of their photographs and a copy of the book, The Mammoth Book of Illustrated Erotic Women. And Thursday has also offered one of her sexy (orgasmic) voicemails to a lucky winner. Let me tell you, that is one hot prize.

Then I got an email from a total stranger, the writer of Between My Sheets, who offered:

A brand new, still in the package, never been used Silver Bullet Vibe.

And just now I heard from my Naughty Secretary who offered:

Her services as a graphic designer and artist. She is looking into which painting(s) she is going to donate, but she has committed to two separate prizes - each being two hours of graphic design time (normally charged at $120/hr).

Edward, from Exjinn.net, the company that hosts all of our blogs and provides us without outstanding support and service, has offered:

A 50 gig hosting plan from Exjinn.net with 1-year of service.

Thank you, so much! I cannot tell you how moved I am by the random kindness of the community. Lochai’s the one who started the commUNITY concept, but I get it better than ever now.

Essin’ Em, the pansexual feminist sexpert on her way up, just donated a copy of the book, Wetter, with her story signed personally for you. As if that weren’t generous enough, she has also offered an 8×10 print!

Sabrina Fox - does the name ring a bell?

Sabrina Fox, as in the redhead hot as fuck bondage and fetish model, Sabrina Fox, was chatting with me today and mentioned that she has a few pairs of latex panties that she recently wore for a photoshoot that would offer as prizes. Latex panties worn by Sabrina Fox, anyone? Oh wait until I tell W about this when she is older.

Jeff Mach commented: (THANK YOU, JEFF!)

Prize donations, a few: - I am running a New Year’s Eve fetish event in New Jersey at the end of this year (on NYE itself). Tickets are probably going to be something along the lines of $250 per couple - we were actually finalizing that this week. I’ll offer a ticket (that is, admission for two people, including gourmet meal and champagne) for the raffle, if you’d like.

and

I run the Wicked Winter Renaissance Faire, now entering its fourth year, every February - again, in Jersey. We’re going to three days this year, and tickets for all three days would usually be at $40; I can donate two pairs of those, as well, if it will assist you.

I feel like George from “It’s a Wonderful Life”. Graydancer, who posted a very insightful post about the society that we live in, just twittered me (it sounds dirtier than it is) and said:

I didn’t realize you were adding prizes. Throw in an audiobook version of my novel, “Nawashi“.

Thanks, Graydancer! I appreciate it! I didn’t know I was going to add prizes either, until people started offering. The outpouring of support in the various ways people have shown it is very moving. Some people can afford to show their support by purchasing a ticket, some people are supporting us by crossposting, some are offering prizes, some are doing all of the above and then some. I even consider it supportive just to see comments from people who happened upon it and have shown emotional support.

In the comments this morning, from a total stranger, Rose Fox, was this offer, which is generous and naughty — a very good combination for this crowd!:

I’m here via the person who donated the jewelry. I used to review DVDs for AVN, and I’m still on Vivid’s mailing list, so now I have a closet full of unopened Vivid porn DVDs. I’ve been trying to figure out how to donate them someplace and would be delighted to offer them for your cause.

There are too many to catalog, so perhaps 10 “grab bags” of ten DVD’s? I’d do my best to include a varied selection so that the winner is fairly likely to get at least a few titles that suit their tastes.

Thank you, Rose — I don’t know anybody, personally, who would turn down a handful of DVD’s. And you’re really giving away 10 prizes, not just one, so thank you x 10! You’re right, there’s got to be something in there that turns that key in the lock. (Just a note on this: because of the laws regarding the selling of pornography, the winners would need to submit a copy of their ID to Rose in order for her to be able to send them to you.)

Also in the comments this morning was a message from Beautiful Rebecca offering a piece of original sensual art:

I have an original piece of sensual art from the artist I live with I would like to donate. It was scheduled for a gallery show next year but we would much rather have it go to your cause as it hit home.

The List Keeps Growing! 
Please read this post on CatalinaLoves.com
to see the most recent list.  Good stuff!  I’m overwhelmed by the contributions people are making to make this raffle a big success.

I’m officially launching the “Catalina’s Emergency Tuition Fund Raffle”, here is the link to buy your virtual ticket. Tickets are $10.00 each, you can buy as many as you’d like (if you’d like to donate $50.00, for example, I’ll enter your name 5 times). I really will write down names and put them in a hat, and my daughter can pick the winners (of course I’ll come up with some vanilla reason why she’s doing it). We’ll choose the winners on August 17th at 10 pm. You will be notified by 10:15 pm.

Courtesy of Postsecret.com

I really get a kick out of being judged and underestimated.  I mean, I get a kick out of it because I like to prove people wrong.  Example:  The other day two men were walking behind me and they were speaking in Spanish and my ears perked up and I listened to what they were saying.  As it turned out, they were talking about my ass and what they would like to do to it.  Now, of course secretely I love knowing that, but I also love that moment when I turn around and say, “¿Hablan con sus madres con esas bocas?” which translates roughly into, “Do you speak to your mothers with those mouths?”  Oh, you weren’t expecting a little redhead with freckles to know what you were saying, did you?  Tsk tsk.  Judge thee not.

So when I last left you I was going to do a radio show and enjoy the evening.  In fact, that’s exactly what happened.  You can read about the radio show on Catalina Loves.  It was a good time.  One thing that never fails to surprise me is that people are surprised that I am bilingual.  I guess it’s the red hair and the freckles, but nobody really expects me to speak Spanish, and nobody really expects me to speak Spanish well.  So one of the first questions people ask me, when I do open my mouth and let the romance language flow, is “¿De dónde eres?” (Where are you from?)  When I tell them that I am from Oregon, the next question is always, “¿Son de EEUU tus padres y tu familia?” (Are your parents and family from the US?)  And I answer, no.  None of them speak another language.   It is baffling to people.  The highest compliment that someone can pay to me in this respect is, “But you sound like a native speaker.”  So the question is:  How did you become bilingual if you grew up in a little hick, logger town in Oregon in a English-only house?  It’s very odd, as am I.

I went to a very small, public school where foreign language was not offered.  There were no AP classes, no honors program, just 20 kids graduating (3 of them pregnant) without a clue about the world.  My freshman year of high school was the first year a foreign language was offered, and it was Spanish, and the kindergarten teacher, who had taken Spanish in college was going to teach it.  I took two years of Spanish and went on my first class trip to Mazatlán, México.  It was amazing.  I continued on in Spanish, taking independent study with the kindergarten teacher because there was no Spanish IV or AP Spanish class for me to take and took the AP test at a school half an hour away my senior year.

My Mother, for all of her faults (and she has many), is also a saint.  She worked as a waitress 20 hours a day 7 days a week to send me to Costa Rica on a student exchange when I was 16 after hosting a Costa Rican student in our home for six months.  I didn’t understand the enormity of it at the time, but now as a parent, I understand how much more she had to work to support another child for six months and send me.  Simply applying for a passport was an ordeal - nobody in my family had ever applied for one before.  She got me out.  Out of the little town that would have suffocated me, out of the little world I would have otherwise known as the world.

My experiences in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, and El Salvador will never be forgotten.  It’s been 20 years now since my first trip to Costa Rica.   I lived with two different families.  One was very, very wealthy - the father worked for the government - which is how I managed to meet Óscar Arias.  That’s right, the president of Costa Rica and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Oscar Arias.  I ate dinner at his house!  I’m sure he wouldn’t remember me, but I will never forget him.  The other family lived much more modestly.  I still remember living in La Urbana José María Zeledón in Curridabat.  A good post for another day.  I’ll have to find the album and scan some pictures, somehow.

Fast forward to 1990 - I quit college (Oregon State University) despite being in Spanish 318 my freshman year.  I was so overwhelmed and underprepared for college that I just quit.  When I wised up years later and returned to finish my undergraduate degree (University of Oregon), I had my mind set on making money!  I went into the computer science program, and really, I was quite good at it.  It was a discussion I had with my adviser one day, however, that changed my path.  He discouraged me from pursuing a degree in CIS because I was a single mom and he didn’t see how I could possibly work the hours that programmers work under deadlines as a single mom.  He discouraged me from it. Fuck him, what did he know?  I was a girl with a goal and he wasn’t about to discourage me.

All along I took Spanish classes as my “fun class” while taking C++ and OOP courses.  Even W remembers attending the summer school class I took where she sat on the floor and colored while learning about algorithms and if-then-else loops.  Then I hit a big concrete wall called discrete math (side note: I hate it when people spell discreet, as in secretive, discrete).  I couldn’t do discrete math to save my life and it was a requirement.  I loved the professor.  Dr. Koch.  I still remember him to this day because he was the epitome of the crazy math professor, wacky combover and all, and on the first day of class he clarified that his name was not Dr. Cock, but Dr. Cook (phonetically).  I digress…

I jumped ship.  I was so happy in Spanish classes and so miserable in my major.  As it turned out, I had pretty much already completed my major in Spanish from taking them for fun and kicked ass without effort.   Getting my undergrad degree was a big deal to me, but I wanted more.  I had been a big student government geek - I lobbied at the campus, state, and federal levels for Pell grant funding and the Oregon Health Plan - and I was even President Frohnmayer’s intern for a summer, so getting into grad school was pretty easy.  I asked for a letter from the President of the University and Governor Kitzhaber* and I was in.  Oh, and I had to take the GRE, but I didn’t study for it.  The chair of the romance languages department told me that it really didn’t matter how well I spoke English or could do math, since I was in grad school to study Spanish literature.

Jump forward to today, well Friday.  I did an hour and a half radio show in Spanish about sexuality, BDSM, fetish, and taboo.

I think it’s safe to say that this tremendous sacrifice that my mother made for me is what started me on this amazing journey of passion, sadness, love, gratitude, and joy.  I learned to be an adventurer because of the callouses on my mother’s feet.  Thanks, Mom!  I don’t know if it makes up for putting my braces through my lip with your fist, but makes it more difficult to hate you.

*I’ll have to tell you some day the story of how W sold Gov. Kitzhaber a raffle ticket for her daycare center while we were at Willamette University for a big new day care center opening PR thing and how I fell *up* the stairs of the White House, tearing my stockings and scraping my knee, on my way *in* to lobby VP Gore on Pell Grant funding

Lolcats are from ICanHasCheezburger.com

Every day I wake up and wonder what the day will bring because every day is weirder and weirder, or at least something very intense happens every day, either to me or to someone very close to me.  Maybe it’s this way for everyone and I just don’t realize it because I am narcissistic.

Yesterday I woke up and found out that BestSexBloggers.com had been picked up by Fleshbot and our numbers went through the roof on the third day.  Then I was asked to do a live call-in radio show in Spanish about BDSM and fetish.  The challenge is - I don’t normally talk about BDSM or fetish in Spanish.  They just aren’t conversations I’ve really ever struck up while traveling or living abroad.

Communicating eloquently and gracefully becomes much more of a challenge in your second language and I have more and more of an appreciation for it every time I am put outside of my boundaries like this.  Don’t get me wrong.  I have near native fluency and I consider myself completely bilingual, but your second language is just that - and there’s a reason why you choose your first language to express yourself best.  However, my Spanish is quite formal and academic, as my Master’s thesis was written about a 17th Century Spanish and Italian literature.  My travels have given me the skillz I need to communicate on a practical level, but like I said, the Kinktionary is a little different in Spanish than in English.  I’m so clueless that I don’t know what BDSM things mean in English when people bring them up until they explain the term and then I say, “Oh, thaaaaaaaaat.”

Nerves aside, it is a good opportunity for me professionally, for personal growth, and to legitimately practice speaking Spanish since I don’t get the opportunity often anymore.  Even as a high school teacher, I spoke a dumbed down version of Spanish.  This is a challenge and I love a challenge.

I’ll leave the station and visit my Cookie Friend for a while and then make my way to M’s for my Friday Night in Uptown tradition.  We may just stay in, or we may go out.  We’ll see.  Either way, it will be nice to get away for a few hours.  M and I cross paths, but our paths don’t cross.  We live in different worlds.  We don’t have any mutual friends, there is just M and Me.  It makes for a very close friendship that makes it safe to say or be whatever you want to, without fear that anyone else would ever know.  It’s a tradition I will miss greatly while he’s away exploring faraway lands with faraway women for two weeks.

And now I’m off to get beautiful.

Not even RR with his bullshit tactics today can ruin my day.  It’s Friday.  I should enjoy it.