One of you thought I fell off a cruise ship.
Another one of you thought that I went bankrupt doing my ABDL Photo Contest and quit the scene.
I ghosted from the ABDL space for a few months, and now that I'm signing back in to my email account and logging in on social media, I am getting all of your messages. Some of them are cracking me up!
Those of you who know me in real life, or who follow me on my personal (vanilla) Facebook, already know this. For those who don't: a move, and some major life changes, came my way over the summer.
That, for me, involved taking a few months off from blogging.
Now that I'm back, I'll clue you in to what's up.
If you've been reading my blog since the beginning you might remember that, back before I moved to Orlando, I spent my summers on a sailboat in upstate New York.
Quite a few of you have read about it, and three of you have even spent time on it. My boat was a cross between a boat and a cradle, and I spent many nights on it, diapered, being rocked to sleep in my watery berth. I loved every minute of it.
Then I moved to Florida, got a job in Orlando, and climbed the corporate ladder a bit. Over nearly ten years in the south I built a life that, while landlocked, seemed like the 'next chapter' for me.
During that time I got to meet so many of you. You've probably heard me say it many times: I considered myself super lucky to live in Orlando, always ranked #1 or #2 nationally for tourism. From 2006 through 2016 y'all visited the city for family vacations, spring break trips, corporate events, or - for a few of you - just to come see me.
I got to meet so many people I would not have met if I lived somewhere else. Having come from a region where the ABDL scene was DOA I realized how lucky I was, and never took it for granted.
My company moved my division to Washington state late last year. I had the option of picking up and moving, or leaving and taking a generous severance package. I chose the latter. As much as I might like Seattle, and the ABDL scene in the Pacific Northwest, I wasn't ready for that big of a move. I chose to stay in Orlando and freelance, spending as much time as I could outdoors in the sun, and spending as much of that time as I could in diapers. After ten years of work work work work work, it was nice to not work for a bit! I attended my first-ever con, and had time to put on the contest. I traveled a bit, hosted a bit, went on a cruise, and had some fun.
I spent some of that time browsing the internet in the months after being laid off, and I won't lie: I spent time looking at sailboats on the Atlantic coast, and at houseboats across the southern half of the U.S. I daydreamed a lot, picturing myself buying a sailboat and cruising to the Bahamas, or even buying a houseboat and moving aboard.
There is something about your professional life changing drastically in a short amount of time that wakes you up: you start to realize that pouring your life into a job is not what you thought it was while you were doing it. A few job offers in or around Orlando came my way, but I wasn't ready to start yet. And then it hit me: what I really wanted was to start over.
I think the
Orlando Pulse shooting was the catalyst for my finally realizing that it was time to stop
thinking about making a change, and time to actually
make a change. I was living a few miles from from club when the shooting occurred, and the news dominated the headlines every day until I left for my vacation. I watched with all of you as the name of victim after victim were made public and then published, and read the stories of each person killed on the news. It struck me that, in their biographies in the paper, their lives were reduced to a series of facts. How old were they? Where were they from? Where did they go to school? Where did they work?
I realized, as I was watching and listening to their stories, I kept thinking how pointless some of the facts being shared were. One victim was a chef at a local hotel, and the news readers mentioned that repeatedly, as if the man's job defined who he was. I realized that my bio just months before would be very different from my bio now - and that neither of them would be how I'd want to be remembered.
Cwis spent years working for a greedy corporation!
as opposed to
Cwis freelanced a bit...
Who cares what Cwis did for a living? That seems important while you are doing it, but when a reporter is telling your story for the TV and you're dead, it seems so trivial...
Tell what they loved to do!
Share who they loved!
Tell their stories, and don't be limited to a series of facts like where they worked, as if, for most of them, that meant anything more than a paycheck - or, before their deaths, they anything more than hours on a schedule to their employer.
I took my annual vacation to New York in July, like I have every year for the past ten, and thoughts of the Pulse victims, and the finality of life itself, were on my own.
In between days spent on the dock at the cottage - both in diapers and out of them - and so many friend and family functions, I took a few drives out to boats for sale. I looked at sailboats, and I looked at houseboats. I looked at a cabin cruiser or two.
One boat in particular caught my eye. It was a little bit more than I was looking to spend, and it was a bit older than I was interested in, but it was a lot of boat for the money: two bedrooms, two bathrooms, private shower, and a big salon - that's boatspeak for living room.
It was a true liveaboard.
A few days before I was scheduled to return to Florida the price was lowered.
I went to take a look, and decided to change my life.
Purchasing the boat, insurance, registration, and the marina slip blew through what was left of my severance, and part of my savings, as well.
The day I moved aboard I had a full-blown anxiety attack. This new lifestyle was completely and totally different from my life prior. Had I been made a mistake?
After two months of living aboard, I'll admit that I did make a mistake. The mistake was not doing this sooner.
I regret not making this decision the day I left my job.
I regret ever accepting that job, and not figuring out a way to do this ten years ago!
Living on a boat is a lot like living in a tiny house: space is limited, and everything is built-in - the beds and some of the other furniture. You learn tricks to increase very limited storage space - I bought a cooler that doubles as an end table, and a coffee table that raises to become a desk and includes storage, as well. I found a hanging locker that is perfect for storing diapers and supplies, and will have an Amish carpenter put together something to increase that storage next year. For now, the rest of my stash goes with most of the things that didn't make the cut for my new 'home' - into storage.
I spent most of my summer entertaining vanilla friends and family members, with everyone wanting to come out to see the new boat. There's a saying, something about you find out how many friends you have when you buy a boat, and I can tell you that is definitely true. Not that I'm complaining - reconnecting with people has been great. But when your boat is also your home, you start figuring out that there are limits, and it's up to you to set them. That is doubly true if you need some regression time.
Sad you don't see any diaperboys in this pic? Come join me and be one hehe....
I did spend a considerable part of my summer in diapers, even going nearly 24/7 for weeks on end. For those of you who know about boats, the bathrooms are called 'heads', and the toilets empty into holding tanks that must be pumped out at a special dock relatively frequently. Thus, many boat owners try to limit how often their heads are used by guests. I, too, set some rules. When we're at the dock (which is 99% of the time) I and my guests use the marina bathrooms and showers - that cuts down on trips to the pumpout station. But walking to the bathroom sucks, especially now that it's getting colder, so you had better believe this dude quickly figured out that being diapered around-the-clock is the way to go. So fucking convenient! People on the other boats here sometimes crack jokes about using diapers to avoid having to take their boats to the pumpout station. One of us isn't joking hehe.
I've already diapered someone on the boat - an old vanilla friend who pamped up with me just so he could say he was the first. Still, no pictures yet. I'm not sure if I'll get anyone out here before the end of this season, but I'm looking forward to meeting some of the upstate New York ABDL scene and, hopefully, having some people out to the boat for 2017.
I'm envisioning diapered photoshoots in this awesome little berth I'm planning on converting to a crib of sorts - you'll see pictures as that takes place. (I'm thinking of going with a 'whales' theme. Definitely something nautical, anyway.) And I've been talking to a few ABDL's I'm close with about taking the train in for a diapered weekend out on the lake. Who knows what the future holds?
One of the negatives about owning a boat in New York is that it needs to be hauled out for a few months during winter. That means that for most of November, as well as December, January, February, and March, I will be living on land, working on the boat and working. I'll be at CAPCON at the end of March and, if the weather cooperates, will return home to put my boat back in the water the very next day.
For now I am learning how to pilot a big-ass boat (this thing is huge), and learning to adjust to life on the water.
Living on a boat in the northeast is very economical, one of the reasons I chose to begin my boating life here: I can keep my boat in the water for $250/month including electric, way cheaper than most of the marinas I found down south. I also love it here, and - as many of you know - this lake has been special to me since I was a little kid.
Still, I can't say that I'll do this here forever - I can see myself motoring down south in a year or two, finding a space somewhere that the boat can be in the water all year. Between now and then I'll be looking to connect up with ABies with boating experience. Looking for new Pampered friends, and hopefully one day even a little diapered 'first mate' to share the #boatlife with.
If you're already living in upstate New York, email me - hoping to get to know some of you!
And if you have experience with bigger boats, and/or want to come out for some diapered time on the water, hit me up!
I know I took some time away from the blog, and even signed off of my ABDL accounts for a bit, keeping in touch with some of you via texting and phone calls, but losing touch with many. Those of you who are friends with me in real life, or who follow my vanilla accounts, have seen lots of boat pics already. But for everyone else, sorry if I missed your messages! And for those who visited Orlando and had hoped to hang, sorry that I didn't get back to you - I'm working on replying to email, FetLife, and etc. messages now.
Once again: hit me up if you're local to upstate or have experience with big boats. Or just if you'd like to reconnect! I promise I'll get back to you ASAP.
