It’s Complicated

It’s always complicated. Isn’t it?

What is this thing between us? How many millions of ways do we ask this? Does he like me? What does she want? What is happening here? There really aren’t enough words and there are far too many.

 

• friends with benefits
• husband
• friend
• metamours
• lovers
• vixen
• stag
• cuckold
• Dom
• ex
• boyfriend
• unicorn
• fuck buddy
• paramour
• sister wife
• beau
• fiance
• significant other
• bull
• cuckquean
• partner
• primary
• side chick
• play partner
• protector
• swing circle
• knight
• special friend
• anchor
• secondary
• great love
• main squeeze
• baby daddy
• sugar daddy
• Dom Daddy
• baby mama
• boytoy
• little
• my little secret
• beard

Just scratching the surface really.

 

 

Coming Out Sideways

If you don’t deal with feelings they don’t come out the regular way and instead burst a hole to the side, creating a lot more wreckage.

I’ve heard people say they never get jealous and you know.. I don’t usually like to be so harsh.. but fuck you and your self righteous bullshit. I know, I know. I’ll probably get emails or messages about how “no.. I am a special and unique human being and I never get jealous. I might be insecure at times, or something far less stigmatized than jealousy, but I don’t get jealous”.

The people I have really known who say things like this tend to have a jealousy problem. It’s like people saying they hate drama. Drama creators are usually the people you hear vocally spewing about hating all these people with all this drama. They whip everyone around them into drama filled scenes and then moan about the drama, never owning that they draw it to themselves. You can’t stop being a drama llama if you think the drama is always everyone else. I know that I am the maker of most of the drama in my life, either directly or indirectly playing my part, and that’s the first stop toward unraveling drama.

Jealousy is much the same. I don’t care how evolved you are. You will feel jealous at times and if you own it, understand it and will look at it, you won’t stomp over the tender hearts of all in your midst as you passively aggressively exert your desire for control and relief from your jealousy.

We can plan out too, and think how okay things are, only to find these ugly little surprises. All of a sudden we’ll have this thought, or this fear, and that is okay if we can deal with it directly and maturely.

Most of the time I really love watching Traveler fuck a woman we are with. I love seeing his passion from another side. I love knowing how she feels. I love watching their pleasure. It’s hot. But of course I’ve had little moments. I will have more I am sure. Once when it happened I realized it was me pulling away and got back in there and helped. What is NOT okay would be bursting into tears and slamming the door as I storm out in an emotional explosion. It’s okay if later I need to curl up and ask for extra kisses or need to talk about my feelings with my partner or a friend.

In poly I see it often as people display their jealousy by getting territorial or reactive and emotional or withdrawn. Sometimes it involves a lot of insecurity, and sometimes people hide from their jealousy and say they are just a little insecure for a moment.  They do little meddling things to fuck with each other. They keep score. They try to exert control in the other relationship. They get petty. They try to make sure they are given better or best or more. They try to limit others, or sabotage even. I have seen it over and over. It’s corrosive when ignored and even more so when denied, and for what? Foolish pride?

Jealousy is not inherently bad. It can be used as a healthy signal for self-examination and a sign that there is a need to be met. I hate the bad rep jealousy gets because it isn’t all bad and it can be a really helpful and healthy reminder.

But I’m telling you… jealousy is a dirty bomb when allowed to explode. Get it out, or it’s coming out sideways.  Just sayin’

 

Disgruntled

Okay.. you guys have heard me bitch about this a million times, so I’ll TRY to keep this brief.

Sometimes things in open relationships chap my ass. I’m not the only one who gets a chapped ass, which I understand. The live in partner gets an ass chapping about all of their time being chore time. And the person with people pulling on their time gets a chapped ass because where is there “me time”, and how can they possibly please everyone? And the person at the disadvantage gets a chapped ass because they have to have all these little unfairnesses and the disadvantage sucks after a while. It’s life. The world is full of ways to get butt hurt. But dammit.. my ass is chapped now, so let’s look at a way to be a little less chappy, eh?

1. Don’t put shit on the calendar for other people without asking them. You don’t own your partners and they are managing their own time, hopefully. (Exception.. if you have children and the children need their parents, then it’s perfectly normal to put that right on the calendar without asking and tell your co-parent what you scheduled so they are aware.)
2. Don’t have to have the most. Especially don’t have to have the most all the time. I’m not saying you can’t HAVE the most.. but don’t HAVE TO HAVE the most all the time. It’s sucks.
3. Other people are humans and are worthwhile and just as important as you. We might all have different kinds of relationships and different responsibilities and levels of commitment, and things might not be “fair”, but all the humans in these systems matter and should have consideration.
4. Don’t cancel on one person for another. I mean it. Really really really try to NEVER cancel on a partner, especially for another.
5. Don’t eat into your partner’s time with their other plans. Save your talks and snuggles and fights and catching up for your days. A quick message or text isn’t a huge deal, but let them have their time if they have time with others. Don’t make them leave later so you can catch up or leave their plans early if you don’t actually really and truly need them.Everyone’s time is important.
6. Don’t lie. It comes out a lot and is hurtful in all situations, but when your commitment is trust, rather than sexual fidelity, and you break that, it’s damaging and hurtful to a higher degree. Don’t lie.
7. Keep your agreements. If they don’t work for some reason then talk about that, but if you have an agreement, honor it until you change it with whoever you have the agreement with.  Seriously.. things change and are different in the moment sometimes and you need to renegotiate. But until you do renegotiate, keep your agreements.
8. Be in the moment, enjoying the person you are with. Don’t be at a club having sex with one person with your head on a swivel for what else there is. Don’t be all cagey to make plans in case better things come up later. Don’t make people your fall back positions. People aren’t filler. Even if you are only with a person for a very specific casual sex act and will never see them again, honor the time you have together and BE THERE.

That’s good enough for the moment I guess… but what would you add? Any good ways to avoid chapping asses?

The thrill of the chase

The thrill of the chase is only a thrill when it’s a little reciprocal. This comes up over and over again.

Men send out messages on dating sites by the dozen and get few replies, usually. You wonder if “they” will call. Does she want to hang out again? Is it too soon to ask him if he’d like to spend the night? You’re in love with them and hope they don’t just like you a bunch.

I joined a swinger club and it has a facebook group.  In the group a woman commented today that she doesn’t know if this is the experience of other single women, but she is tired of being “picked last”, and she doesn’t appreciate being someone’s booty call when some other date or the wife cancelled. She explained that she wants to sleep with people that want to sleep with her and it feels crummy to be choice number 4.

Starting the NEW blog

 

Some years ago we started asking ourselves questions. Does monogamy actually work for us? What does it mean if we want to touch other people? Have sex with other people? Have relationships or even love for more than one person?  Would having an orgasm with someone somehow erase what I have with this other person? Would it really?

Could I have sex with others?  Could people I care about have sex with others and we’d still be us?  What if I loved more than one person? At the time I was married, and swinging appealed to me. I had wanted to be a swinger pretty much since I’d learned about what it was. My husband at the time and I discussed it. He was interested at first, but quickly realized he would rather have relationships with others, and we learned about and became poly. And well.. I’m not going to lie. For a lot of reasons, not all of them polyamory, my marriage exploded.

But I was here and I was still poly. I had the capacity and interest in relationships with more than one person at a time. And over the years I had these polyamorous relationships. The most people I was ever dating at once was four, and I do not recommend it. It’s exhausting and basically I was always disappointing somebody.

I read and read and blogged and blogged and lived and talked and tried, and found that hierarchies weren’t for me. I didn’t like primaries and secondaries and never did. Even my husband and I when we first opened up felt that this wouldn’t work for us.  This doesn’t mean that my existing relationships and long term loves don’t have priority with me or that they don’t matter. I am very into honoring commitments and the investment of love and time and experience.  But I liked anyone I dated to be a whole person and to not be arbitrarily forever limited, no matter what, because someone met someone first. This is long and hard to explain. We’ll come back to it.

So.. I’ve been polyamorous for 5 years. And over the years I’ve had occasion to explore, my sexuality, life and all kinds of things. I’ve discovered I’m still interested in swinging and joined a club. I’ve also discovered I’m kinky, and explored that a little bit too. And over time I just kinda discovered that I didnt’ need and didn’t fit super neatly into any tiny box.

Like most humans, I’m complicated. I’m guessing so are you.

So finding myself at need to create a new blog for a variety of reasons I thought about the next chapter. What did I want to write? It wasn’t going to be just a blog on polyamory. And it wasn’t a blog just on swinging. Or a blog even just on dating.

Love, Sex and Relationships have always interested me and are fodder for an infinite stream of thought. It’s also a stream for profound connection and I’ve made so many friends here on this journey of ethical non-monogamy, of honest open relating. And it occurred to me this new little blog could be something else.

I could have blogs on all of these open sex and love and relationships, and could invite a friend to contribute here and there too. We could have interviews and podcasts and links. In non-monogamy, in so many ways we are all defining for ourselves what any of these words and labels mean, and how they fit us, if at all.  And we’re the architects of the connections we are creating. And that’s beautiful but it’s scary and difficult too. And I learn a lot from my friends, and hope you do too.

There’s a weird thing that happens when we start asking ourselves all of these questions. We find and create the love and sex and relationships we crave, and we walk off of the path that doing things the way we were told to creates.  I have found the blogger community so informative and supportive. Starting this new broader blog, I hope that continues.

However you got here and whatever brings you, welcome. I hope to hear from you in comments or emails or on facebook or twitter or any of the other places.

I’m so excited at this next chapter. Here’s to open love and sex and relationships. Here’s to new blogs.

– Thanks for reading!

Holly

Gushing

This one has a lot of sex.  Skip if you like.  😉

Okay.. so I need to put my whole BRCA genetic cancer deal on a slower track.  The next test will take a few weeks or a few months.  So I guess this isn’t going to be a sprint.  Which is nice.  I feel this urge to enjoy.

Part of what seems kinda unfair about this is that I finally gushed.  I’ve squirted for a few years and I recently reached a new peak.  I gushed.   I thought it was a fluke.  It wasn’t.  Damn you Quinky!  You sexy beast!  Quinky cursed me.

Lust and Marriage

flyer for Lust and Marriage by Dance Naked Productions

I went to a play last night in Seattle, at the Theatre off of Jackson.  It was called “Lust and Marriage”.  If you can, you must run to this play.  It was phenominal!  It is showing there tonight, and tomorrow and then Thursday, Friday and Saturday of next weekend too.  It is put on by Dance Naked Productions, by Eleanor O’Brien.  June 14th is the last day.

Eleanor, I hope I can call her that after she kinda bared her sex and love and relationship soul out there, put on an amazing performance.  I laughed sooo much, and I cried too a little.  It was the story of lust, desire, sex, relationships, dating, hope, heartache, jealousy, acceptance, commitment, open relationships, polyamory, freedom and love.  And it was fucking RIVETING.

It was 90 minutes long with no break and it felt like 20.  It felt like she was telling my story.  It felt like she was telling everyone’s story.  There’s this magic that happens when someone is being so real that it just sparks on the real in others.  Our heart knows when something came from the heart.  So it was like that, so close to the bone.  It was hard to watch in parts because of this.  I knew and related to some really hard things.  But it was good too.  It was sort of wonderful to feel all of that gamut of stuff about love and sex and connection.  I laughed so much and only had that one spot to cry in, and while painful, that was good too.  She spun this kinda spell that good performances spin, and I was utterly enthralled.  So much to think about.

I say this with brutal honesty… if you are near Seattle at all, you need to run to this show.

Life on the Swingset!

I’m in!!!  They are letting me submit contributions!

I have long been a fan of “Life on the Swingset”, the podcast.  It led me to “Pedestrian Polyamory” the podcast and to abiding crushes on pretty much the entire cast of both podcasts.  Talking with other open/poly/swinger folks it seems I am not alone in this.  After a while I checked out their website, and I’m a fan of that too.  It has great blogs and info.

I think when I first opened up I was so hungry for information about how to navigate all of this heady adventure, and so amazed to find that there was a broad community out there figuring this stuff out too.  I also enjoyed Dan Savage’s “Savage Lovecast” and Minx’s “Polyamory Weekly”, and Sex Nerd Sandra’s podcast.  I love learning and I often go on jags when I discover great new things to learn.  I read “Sex at Dawn”, “SM 101”, “Opening Up” and “The Ethical Slut”.  I read websites and scoured the net.

I started this blog during this phase, needing a place to talk about all the things that were happening because the only open people I knew were the people I was dating.  Over time I found community with local meet ups and munches and slowly came out everywhere but at work.

Anyway.. long story summed up, I became a fan-girl of some of the people blogging and writing and podcasting about all of this stuff and I’m insanely honored to say that I’ll be submitting posts to contribute to Life on the Swingset’s blog community.  I’m writing my bio and my first post.  I can’t believe it.  I am very excited.  I think I’ve read the email from Miko the Techogeisha something like 90 times.  I can’t believe she said she and Cooper are already familiar with this blog.  Wow.  Wow.  Wow.  I shouldn’t be surprised.. I mean.. they are people.  They are people like me who are figuring this stuff out too.  Part of what I love about the people I so admire in this community is that by and large they all seem to be still learning too.  They have a lot to share, and part of that is their own journeys with this stuff and the ways they learn and change over time.  This little old blog has a wider reach that I understand sometimes.

I’m 3 people shy of 600 subscribers.  And I am constantly in awe of this.  I know by blog standards this is still relatively small, but I am deeply deeply humbled.  I hope I can contribute something useful and I hope I can add to the community of voices out here.  It’s like anything though, right?  I’m not a learned pro.  What I can add that is really valuable and really unique to me is my experiences.  I’ll try not to state tooooo many opinions though I will share some.  I’ll try to share experiences as I can, and I’ll try not to embarrass anyone but me.  It took a few days to inform my little murder.  We’re submitting to Life on the Swingset!!!  Booya!

Why I Won't Fuck Your Boyfriend

I had a really nice day.  I had a really nice weekend overall in fact.  Traveler and I had a fun and beautiful date going to Hump! Tour, and I had a nice Saturday, garage-saling in my hood, and met a woman from OKC.  I’ll get to that in a minute.  I had a good Sunday.  I spent a little time in WoW, cleaned my house and FINALLY got my boxes from moving in all loaded up.  Cleveland came over and measured my brake rotors.  It’s a long story, but he likely just saved me a BUNCH of money. I made him breakfast and we marveled at the loveliness of a Sunday morning together.  Sunday mornings are very rare for us.  It was nice to just talk and cook and joke in the daylight, with the breeze blowing through my clean apartment.  I didn’t shower before he came over, because I was cleaning, and still we got carried away.  I tried to not have sex with him, and could not resist.  Even full from breakfast, even a little mussy from cleaning, there was no stopping.  God the chemistry of that man.. woof!~

We kissed and laughed and marveled at the storm once it had passed.  Great googly damn.  He headed home after a while and I sat back to grin and finish my laundry.

It's is the Point

Boss and I hit the “Bondage is the Point” party at the center.  This includes frank talk of sex and kink.  😉

First.. a tiny aside.. happy happy sigh.  Traveler had a little unexpected free time tonight and asked if I’d like to do dinner and WoW.  Yes please.  It was a quiet little night and I loved it.  I always love it.  I said to Quinky Girl the other day (and sounded like a greeting card) that the most precious thing we give each other is time.  I revel in it.  I’m so grateful.  I’m so fucking happy.  I could not be more grateful.  Seriously.  Getting to see more of Cleveland, and more of Traveler and having a sexy sexy date with Boss!?!?  I’m just gushing over here.  Gushing.  See what I did there?

I just got home from Traveler’s and I’m sated and languid.  We talked and laughed over dinner at our favourite place, played our game, snuggled and called it a night and I couldn’t be happier if we’d had the most epic date ever.  I just love being with him.  I loved working in his yard this past weekend and talking while we did dishes and made dinner.  I loved holding him and sleeping tangled in a ball.  I loved playing WoW.  I loved being overcome with passion.  I love everything we do.  Okay.. okay.. enough of that.  I’m sorry.  I’m just so fucking happy.  I’m reluctant to repeat this gushiness here with Cleveland, but it is there too.  I fall deeper deeper deeper….

Now, on to the promised kinky fun.  🙂

Boss and I had missed seeing each other on a couple of occasions and I’d been looking forward to our date.  The party that night was the “Bondage is the Point” party.  The description said “no impact” and talked about bondage kinda being the point.  Neither Boss nor I are super bondage people (though as it turns out he is actually very good at it).  You gotta love that he’s that good at his weak point.