Super Bowl 50 is in less than two weeks, and one can already see significant impacts here in San Francisco.

Traffic is gridlocked downtown by a series of road closures (which will be in force through February 12^th) as they build Super Bowl City, a giant promotional complex for the game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara – which is nearly 50 miles away. And hotel prices are climbing rapidly – to the point where a three star downtown hotel will likely start at $300 a night for Super Bowl 50 weekend.

I seem to be traveling rather a lot lately. In part because I seem to have collected a stable of regular slaves and sissies who are in Southern California or even further afield. And in part because I have a bunch of lovers and friends who are “working away” – where they find it difficult to get much time off, so the only way I can spend time with them is by visiting.

I almost always enjoy doing co-Domme sessions – also known as double sessions - where I and another Domme cooperate in dominating a submissive / slave. As I mentioned in an earlier blog a little over a year ago, the success of such sessions can be very dependent on the particular slave and the other Domme – and hopefully a good chemistry between all three of us.

A couple of weeks ago I blogged that I had a "killer cold" and that I had to go as far as rescheduling sessions - which I have never done before. And some of my regulars were nice enough to enquire after me - and wish me a speedy recovery.

Well... I am recovered.

I was on a road trip over Spring Break, and while that went rather well, when I got back, I got a cold.

A few months back (in October?) I blogged about “branding” submissives - where I write ownership messages on their bums (butts for you Americans). In quite a few cases I have to do some shaving first. Some submissives have such hairy bums that it can be hard to see what I am writing? And then I write messages in sharpie on their butts – “Ms Emilie’s Bitch” or “Ms Emilie’s Slut” or “Ms Emilie’s Sissy”.

Some proportion of people I see might only see me once or twice. Perhaps they are struggling with who they are or what seeing me means, or perhaps seeing me is just a “bucket list” item. Which is all fine. 

But I do like my regulars. Slaves / submissives who see me every month or two or three.

Tonight is New Year’s Eve – and I have a cold – and I am staying in. But that’s fine. I have been to some epic New Year’s events in the past, but am now somewhat bored with the whole thing. The events are so expensive and busy – and everybody is so excited and drunk – that the mood is frantic and unsatisfactory. Hardly quality time. And then getting to the event and back is crazy. I know this sounds jaded in the extreme but I was probably going to stay in anyway. And the sudden appearance of a cold (which might only be a 24 hour thing?) made up my mind for me.

But in any event, my New Year started early...

I sometimes get asked by people whether I regard them as slaves or submissives. As it turns out that is a much debated question in the BDSM community. For example on Fetlife (which is a great source for kink discussions in general) there are literally dozens of groups where this is discussed / written about.

I have fallen behind with my blogging, but September was somehow very busy. There was Folsom Street Fair (of which more later) but also a whole series of sessions with out of town visitors. Maybe they were visiting for Folsom Street Fair or Oracle Open World or just one of the many conferences and conventions that happen in San Francisco, but there do seem to have been quite a few visitors this past month.