Nedstacey2
TMF Expert
- Joined
- May 11, 2002
- Messages
- 536
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(cross-posted, with apologies, to FetLife as well) Attended this year's NEST, my first fetish gathering of any kind and one of the hardest things I've ever forced myself to do. I start by thanking LeeAllure, as others have already, for her efforts at putting all of it together again yet remaining kind and welcoming to petrified newcomers like me. Next, I want to recognize NEST's Old Guard, intending the term in the ancien and not the vielle sense: Libertine, in heartfelt gratitude for his attentive mentoring; KittenToes, who couldn't have been more warm and helpful; the sweet Skipadeedoodah; and kered, who was way nicer even than I was told he would be.
No doubt I've omitted some others who comprise the Guard, but my paralyzing shyness and underconfidence prevented me from meeting much less talking to them, like so many others of you who were there. Feeling awful about that; there were very many people around I desired to meet, some of whom with handles noted in my two decades of floating on the periphery of the community, and activities I wanted to participate in, but I just couldn't muster the guts to break the ice. Despite that, I thank the many awesome people who reached out to introduce themselves to me and treated me wonderfully, and to spare the lot of you the discomfort let me just single out two individuals whom I had the great pleasure and honor to encounter: the charitable Tkprince along with very charming Ch/Kristine.
Besides my failure to find it somewhere within myself to try to be more outgoing (not really surprised there, unfortunately), my only other major regret was that my late darling "Stacey" couldn't have accompanied me. I know that people are getting tired of me talking about her, but she would have just eaten it all up; she was as social as I am anti-social. I had longed dreamed of us going together to a NEST-like gathering, even though it wasn't her precise kink, and I thought that time would come after our kids had finished school and left home--or we had to kick them out, whatever worked--but it just didn't happen that way. She would have been my anchor, my rock, as she was in all things, and I'm sure you all would have fallen in love with her just as I and so many others did during her too-short lifetime. Since her passing, I've been going a little crazy and doing crazy things like actually thinking I would want to go to a gathering on my very own. But maybe what I accomplished this weekend would have made her proud.
To close, a call to potential newbies, a call that I myself heard repeatedly for a long time but never heeded until now: if you can scrape together the time and the money, go to NEST. It will be well worth it
No doubt I've omitted some others who comprise the Guard, but my paralyzing shyness and underconfidence prevented me from meeting much less talking to them, like so many others of you who were there. Feeling awful about that; there were very many people around I desired to meet, some of whom with handles noted in my two decades of floating on the periphery of the community, and activities I wanted to participate in, but I just couldn't muster the guts to break the ice. Despite that, I thank the many awesome people who reached out to introduce themselves to me and treated me wonderfully, and to spare the lot of you the discomfort let me just single out two individuals whom I had the great pleasure and honor to encounter: the charitable Tkprince along with very charming Ch/Kristine.
Besides my failure to find it somewhere within myself to try to be more outgoing (not really surprised there, unfortunately), my only other major regret was that my late darling "Stacey" couldn't have accompanied me. I know that people are getting tired of me talking about her, but she would have just eaten it all up; she was as social as I am anti-social. I had longed dreamed of us going together to a NEST-like gathering, even though it wasn't her precise kink, and I thought that time would come after our kids had finished school and left home--or we had to kick them out, whatever worked--but it just didn't happen that way. She would have been my anchor, my rock, as she was in all things, and I'm sure you all would have fallen in love with her just as I and so many others did during her too-short lifetime. Since her passing, I've been going a little crazy and doing crazy things like actually thinking I would want to go to a gathering on my very own. But maybe what I accomplished this weekend would have made her proud.
To close, a call to potential newbies, a call that I myself heard repeatedly for a long time but never heeded until now: if you can scrape together the time and the money, go to NEST. It will be well worth it
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