Kate, I'm so sorry.

About the cuddling -- needless to say, I would never ever go to a cuddle party. I'm not big on cuddling people I know and like, frankly. Except ita, of course. But I do like touchy services -- massage, pedicure, etc., and part of it is the touch. The fact is, I can go for days without significant physical contact with another person.

Oh, also, I was feeling like the air-conditioning at work was the total bright side of working on my usual day off, until I remembered I could have been at the pool instead. Alas!

The funniest part is that you have to see this without the slightest bit of sexual overtones.

Yeah, it still would have had me rocking back and forth in the corner of the room. YAvoidanceOfHumanContactMV.

This is the part that kills me:

He confessed to a bartender at a sports bar before his arrest.

"Here's your beer. What's up, buddy? You look kind of down?"

"Well, I think I fucked up with my girlfriend."

"Yeah, we all do that sometimes."

"Yeah, she was nagging me to come to bed and cuddle after sex, and I just couldn't take it any mroe, so I completely smashed her skull in with a claw hammer."

"Ummmmm..... I'll be right back. I have to.... Do a thing."

Yeah, it still would have had me rocking back and forth in the corner of the room.

I think the groundfighting would have driven you out of the room way beforehand.

Imagine groundfighting with someone who scuttles. So it's not a firm contact with your body, but a light and unpredictable contact between their torso and anywhere on your body.

That also was too much for me. I had to disengage my brain and many of my nerve endings to get through that exercise.

but a light and unpredictable contact

Yeah, I think it's the 'unpredictable' bit that squicks me the most. You will touch me when I say you can, please and thankyou.

I had to disengage my brain and many of my nerve endings to get through that exercise.

Sometimes I think the mental training you must have to do would be worse than the physical.

Not to mention krav. The amount of time spent groundfighting would have crashed through any boundaries -- it's not just contact, it's hip to hip, lying down.

See, ground-fighting doesn't bother me. I mean, it did a little at first, but it's just fighting. Maybe the whole violence aspect takes away from the weirdness.

Though on further reflection, I realize that the majority of the time I'm ground-fighting with other guys and that I do feel kind of self-conscious in the rare instances I'm paired up with a woman. Not because of my own personal space issues, but because I feel like I'm invading hers. (I know logically, if she's in the class, she's aware of what it entails, but it doesn't stop me from feeling a little uncomfortable about it.)

Not because I'm bothered having my hair cut (in fact, I really miss having my hair washed),

This is probably the one case where I'm paying for a service that involves touching and I enjoy it. Not the hair cutting, which is generally boring and something uncomfortable, but the hair washing is very relaxing.

Of course, lately I've been going to the local Cost Cutters because it's cheaper and I don't have to schedule an appointment weeks in advance and the closest I get to having my hair washed there is a few squirts of water from a spritzer bottle.

THIS is what wanting to cuddle could get you.

Aimee's been skipping...

Heh. I've hugged both msbelle and Jesse. They managed to just barely stifle their impulse to recoile in horror.

Happy Birthday, Fred Pete!

I didn't!! I might have missed it, but I didn't skip!

While the whole paying for cuddles thing kinda squicks me, some of my best yoga sessions have involved a lot of touching. I'm crap at learning physical stuff, so when a yoga teacher puts her hands on my body and moves it into the position she wants it, there's often a *click* of "Oh, yeah, this does feel more stable/stretchy/whatever." But there's a very clear idea of who is touching and where and how/when/why. There's no emotional context other than, "Let's get this right."