My 28th birthday was this last weekend, and it was fabulous!

We had a meeting of the Ladies High Tea and Pornography Society, with about 20 ladies coming in their best hats and gloves to sip creme brulee earl grey tea and Pimms, snack on mini pot pies and cucumber-mint sandwiches, and watch such art as "Rezervoir Doggs XXX" and "Open Invitation: A Real Swingers Party in San Francisco". It was absolutely delightful! I was really happy to be surrounded by friends who also enjoy the juxtaposition of a frilly tea with hardcore smut. Additionally, this was the first meeting of LHT&P in the Bay Area, so it was awesome to have it for my birthday, at my house, low key enough to not exhaust me but not so low key that it was dull.

I think a great number of the ladies who came are excited to see more of these happen in the future! I do hope there are more, as I'm really enjoying being surrounded by female energy and laughing. There's nothing like watching parody porn and making fun of it while dressed in a ladylike fashion and flirting with similarly minded folk! Admiring each others "sunday best" certainly broke the ice and led to an enjoyable party. And the boy sent the most beautiful bouquet of flowers!

I brought out the vintage china for the party, and was relieved that none of it got broken. It's my inheritance, after all! I am a little sad that my Lady Clankington pistol apparently got dropped and some pieces broke off it, but I'll see if I can get it fixed up.

After the tea party, it was time to put moustaches on and go to Suzanne's birthday party- we're birthday twins after all! So on with the moustaches and off to Oakland, where gin was had, and cake, and hanging out with all my friends together at once. I got all sorts of awesome presents, including a singing pickle, donations towards the Consent Culture tour with Maggie Mayhem, some cute tights and a beautiful necklace. I drank too much, stepped in some cake accidentally, and ended up falling asleep at 11pm, but woke up to brunch, geocaching, and a relaxed day at home. I felt incredibly loved, and so happy to see so many people I care about.

All in all, it was a good start to my 28th year!

The cherry on the top was yesterday, when my ex partner took me to get my cutie mark. Yeah, yeah, I know, but the cutie mark thing really speaks to me. The idea that at some point you earn your cutie mark, a symbol that references your passion and your life path is one that really resonates.

I knew pretty quickly what that cutie mark was going to be, too- a sword and a pen, crossed. I'm a firm believer that while the pen is mightier than the sword, both are good to have on hand!

The sword is Xena's sword, as she was my feminist and queer femme icon from an early age- kickass, a little kinky, sometimes fucking up but always striving to help those in need. Xena was my pre-Buffy idol, a woman who didn't need to settle down, who could take care of herself but was still vulnerable when someone deserved that intimacy. She had a strong relationship with another woman, was an equal partner in bed, was at one with her desires and, while she wasn't monogamous, she was pretty ethical with her lovers. I also liked her backstory- fighting to protect her village, she becomes one of the most feared warlords in the land, gets knocked off her path of destruction and becomes a champion of those who have less power. Read this blog for like, 5 minutes and tell me that didn't imprint!

The pen is a Mont Blanc Boheme Noir, a really beautiful and quality fountain pen. I liked it first because of the name (ah, Bohemianism, and an opera with tuberculosis as a main theme) but also because, while it's a high quality pen, it's not the fanciest, most top-of-the-line in the Mont Blanc world. I'll admit, I went to Mont Blanc because when I told my girlfriend I was getting "a pen" she looked horrified that it wasn't a specific pen. She's a bit of a calligraphy snob. ;)

I'm really happy with my cutie mark, which is on my upper thigh (my flank, shall we say) and positioned to look sexy when I'm wearing a garter belt and stockings. Soon, there'll be an image of that! I also got my acetylene tattoo at last, on my back- highly explosive? Yep. sounds about right.

All in all, a lovely birthday. I'm so grateful to have spent it with so many of my loved ones. Bring on 28!