I should have made a t-shirt, though, that says, "Do NOT Hug Me Or I Will Kneecap You."

Well, you *could* try telling everyone you and he are into serious 24-hour lifestyle play, and he is the only one who is allowed to touch you, unless he decides otherwise. And then if you want to do a scene with someone, you say "Tim has said I"m allowed to be touched by you..." :)

I should have made a t-shirt, though, that says, "Do NOT Hug Me Or I Will Kneecap You."

DO IT! DO IT!

I love meara's idea. It fits with the culture and maintains your control over your own needs.

Good one.

And this is probably true, too. He's not being a bad guy. It's just that his overreaction feels like a judgment to me.

He's never a bad guy but I can totally see why the reaction felt like judgement.

you are an expert at holding it in until BOOM! PANIC!, it's hard for a partner to actually see it. They know about it intellectually, but the meltdowns still seem to come out of left field.

I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT. NONE.

despite what you said, what he heard was "There is a problem, and you should fix it."

Again, I am completely unfamiliar with this sort of reaction from a partner. (Did we ever decide what font color denoted sarcasm?)

I should have made a t-shirt, though, that says, "Do NOT Hug Me Or I Will Kneecap You."

DO THIS.

I should have made a t-shirt, though, that says, "Do NOT Hug Me Or I Will Kneecap You."

Maybe a headdress. You probably want something fancier than a t-shirt for this event. But a tiara with a big banner on top will get the message across.

Everyone else is extremely wise, Tep, so I'm just pointing and nodding.

Plei and Bev:

I basically need a script to talk to anyone outside of the Internet. It's a known issue with my neurology.

Which is why pictures at F2Fs of people in the same room, all on laptops, makes me want to cry with tears of joy and fellowship and tribe-ness.

THIS (except that I'm not sure whether my case is a neuro issue or just a truly, desperately incapacitating level of shyness combined with having been raised in a very Society-minded family full of expectations about public functions, of which there were many).

I never told you before, but that day up in Seattle when we were both just lounging while L and M played upstairs, with the greyhounds flopping on our feet and both of us on our own chairs with our laptops browsing through random pop culture and unpop culture stuff and occasionally snickering or squeeing and showing our screens to each other (and also, IIRC, emailing both each other and Jilli) was just so easy and lazy and pleasant and one of the very few social interactions with non-family I've had in at least the last three years that didn't trip a panic trigger even once. It was lovely.

Aww. We really HAVE found our people!

Hey, my people!

I just got a corset in the mail. It's red, for my Wonder Woman Mardi Gras costume. It's completely unlaced. Can anyone recommend a good online source for beginner corset lacing instruction?

Can anyone recommend a good online source for beginner corset lacing instruction?

I'm sure there's a YouTube how-to.