Tuesday, November 15, 2011

An evening out (or two)

Not a lot going on these days. Summer has finally passed as I mentioned in my last post. The cooler weather means we have been venturing out more. Always a fun thing.

Recently, Sir took me to a performance at our local symphony house. It was Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. Very enjoyable evening. He got us box seats close to the stage so we could look out over the balcony and see the performers. For the evening I wore my blue metallic gown, gloves, hood and burqa. Sir insisted that I wear the 6 inch platform boots under the evening gown. They make walking a challenge, but do give me much desired height and keep my hem from dragging too much.

The hood was a silencing hood so I could not speak or make any noise. I was also bound around my upper arms to the sides of my dress so I could not raise my hands and they barely exited the slits in my blue burqa. This was just for the fun of being bound up in rubber while out and about.

While I enjoy the sensation of restricted arm movement and having my stride limited by the over the top high heeled boots, it is the fact that I am silenced and in public that excites me the most. People nodded at me and Sir sent me over to buy him a coffee during intermission. The fact I could barely grasp it (thank goodness the serving counter was low) and that I could only silently nod at the young lady who served it generated a ridiculous amount of adrenaline, I must say. Walking back with his coffee held in both my tiny, gloved hands, barely able to clear the sides of my waist, was quite a challenge and did generate a few looks. But I made it, sat it down in front of him and then sank into my own chair. What I really wanted to do was collapse into a kneeling position ext to his chair and issue a "whew!" of relief. However, both actions were denied me.

Sir wore all black; blazer, trousers, shirt, and gloves.

I was not the only veiled person at the performance. There were two other women I saw in veils although not burqas like mine. They were with men and wound up seated in boxes across the auditorium from us. It was fun to watch them also lean out to see the performers as I was doing. Their niqabs occasionally fluttered over the rail.

The performance was excellent. Pictures is always a treat, being such a visual and aural piece. I sat through it happily. At intermission Sir struck up a conversation with the couple in the next box. They eyed me most curiously, but the subject of my attire, demeanor, or existence never came up.

We stopped at our favorite steakhouse afterwards and Sir enjoyed a good meal while I sat and watched. Of course, the silencing hood prevented me from joining him, but he had the waiter prepare a nice meal for me in a take home bag and I was allowed to eat later after we arrived at home. Sir had offered to remove my silencing hood under the burqa so I could join him at dinner, but I signaled that I would prefer to remain sealed if he did not mind. Sitting watching him eat while i have nothing to do, nothing to eat or drink, and no movement is such a strong symbolic gesture of submission, particularly in public, that I find I crave it and seek it out when possible.

A few weeks later we were invited to a party and went out this past weekend to attend. It was several hundred miles away and we were guests of our hosts at a sort of sprawling ranch house in central Texas. They are a lovely couple with quite a lot of empty rooms since their kids have mostly moved out and away. Consequently, they invited 3 couples to join them for a weekend party and we all got to have a suite each. A bedroom, private bath, and a separate room for the submissive to be kept in if desired...effectively, each bedroom came with its own little dungeon. Mine had a vacuum bed on a massage table, a spanking bench, and a violet wand in addition to a small collection of whips.

The weekend was spent with everyone in rubber, all 8 of us done up in hoods, catsuits, gloves, and serious bondage gear for the subs. We had a load of fun and our hosts put on a great spread including a big Sunday lunch of barbecue before we left for home.

So it has been an exciting few weeks.

Regards
Lady

Thursday, September 08, 2011

The Heat has Broken but My Bonds are Tight

Our string of 60+ days of over 100F (38C) degree heat has finally broken. This past Monday (Labor day, the official end of summer) we awoke to a cool 60F morning and it only climbed to 95F over the course of the day.

This still sounds amazingly hot, and is, if you are in the sun, but Monday was so cool, I was out puttering around in our garden while Sir did some maintenance on the house in preparation for the coming wet season.

Puttering around in our garden means going out in the early morning before the sun rises over the house and weeding and moving some flowers around. It also, of course, means doing it in latex.

Monday morning I asked Sir if I could work in the garden and he said yes, but to wear my burqa while I did so. And, because it was so cool when he woke me and let me out of my vac bed, I put on my usual cooler weather attire.

So, after my morning bath, I dressed in a thin skinsuit of transparent red tinted latex, a red rubber ankle length, loose skirted dress with a Victorian bodice (all high collar and leg o'mutton sleeves), matching boots, gloves, and a hood covering the skinsuit's transparent one.

This was the first day I have been able (and required) to wear two layers of latex all day long in quite some time. For most of the summer Sir has relented on the skinsuit allowing me to just wear a dress or skirt and blouse and only one hood. Sometimes, I have not even had to wear a hood for the whole day unless we were going out and then only the burqa's hood.

So, I wandered downstairs after dressing, doubly covered and gloved and hooded, and asked Sir if I could do my gardening before the sun got too high. His response was, "yes, but wear your red burqa. And I will put you in hobbling chains, i think!"

I was a little disconcerted since our back yard is fully enclosed and not exposed to neighbors or anyone else. No one could see, even if I was chained, so why the burqa? But needs must when the devil rides, so I went to our play room and waited.

A few moments later Sir joined me, collected a set of hobbling chains from the wall and proceeded to severely limit my range of motion.

The steel chains he chose are not very heavy, are very silver, and have rubber manacles attached to them. They start with a pair of ankle manacles, chained together with a length of about 18 wide. This limits my stride, but since I was to be kneeling much of the time, it would not matter much. A vertical chain rises from the center of the hobble to a rubber waist belt which went around my dress. Attached to it are 'D' rings at the sides and front and back.

The side rings have short chains coming off them with arm cuffs attached. These fasten above my elbows and restrict my arm range of motion considerably.

The D rings in back and front have chains coming off them leading to a heavy rubber neck collar. Once fastened, at the specific length, I would be able to stand, but would be unable to stretch.

Then, Sir fastened my head into a bright red hood (my third) with a feeding gag and limited vision from pepperpot eyes, and fastened the collar around my throat before draping the bright red burqa over my head (he is SO enamored of monochromatic dressing). The outer hood has a built-in gag which has a tube passing through it for providing me with water. Both inner hoods have wide mouth openings. The tube from the gag can either be run under the burqa or actually passed through one of the perforations in the burqa's grill for attachment to a water bottle that I could suck from as I wished.

He had me feed my hands through the arm slits and then then manacled my wrists with an 18 inch length between them on the outside of the burqa. Another chain dropped from the one hobbling my wrists to the one hobbling my ankles, so I actually had two chains rising from my feet to my midsection, one beneath and one outside the burqa.

If this all seems a bit excessive, it is, but Sir enjoys having me bound like this. The chains are connected to each other with small padlocks, so he can configure them any way he wishes, including shortening my stride and reach.

By just removing the wrist to ankle hobble he then has me ready to go out in public, bound and hobbled under the burqa.

Next I went to the garage to retrieve my tools, a bucket, and a rubber padded kneeling board. I was able to move with some difficulty, but I have done this countless times before, so I was used to it. Thankfully, I have learned to place all my gardening tools at a fairly low height in our garage since I could not reach higher than my elbows at best.

Out into the back yard and around to the garden. I decided where to work first and placed the kneeler in front of a patch of flowers with some weeds growing out of it. Then I prepared to kneel and get to work.

This raises a question. How should a veiled lady kneel to work in a garden? Does one kneel on the burqa? Does one lift it and kneel on the dress beneath it? Or does one lift all the skirts and kneel on her skinsuit?

I recall Sister Justine at school kneeling on her apron which she wore over her habit. But my mother would typically raise her dress up and kneel on the garden kneeler with her bare knees.

I opted for the most conservative, kneeling on my burqa. This still required some fiddling, fluffing, and flouncing of both my skirt and the veil, all of which was limited in scope by my chains. But, ultimately, I managed to drop to my knees in an appropriate attitude of prayer to the vegetable gods.

As I worked, bent over my weeding and pruning, Sir took some inappropriate photos, mostly of my rear. But, he did capture a few of my red rubbered hands with their black rubber manacles, emerging from the red swirl of latex burqa to wield a small garden fork and the obligatory pair of secateurs. There is something slightly sinister about those pictures with red rubbered hands holding shiny steel bladed secateurs. Slowly, my bucket began to fill with unwanted grass, weeds, and stems.

My kneeler has upright handles on it and short spiky legs which bite into the soil on either side. This is important because I could twist and use one hand to rise when I needed to move to a different location. I could only reach the side with one hand at a time because of the manacles and chain, but I was fairly capable of independent movement.

Sir, dressed in a black rubber shorty catsuit (a one piece affair with short sleeves and bermuda length short legs), proceeded to work on his grill, paint the railing around our balcony and stairs, caulk some windows, and repair some cracks in the outer stucco of our house. It has been a very hot summer and the exterior of our home has suffered, but it is looking much better after his efforts.

He WAS kind enough to take my bucket away from me and empty it multiple times as I filled it. He kept an eye on me to be sure I did not overheat as well and made sure that I was drinking from the water bottle, through my gag.

We worked for about four hours before the sun crossed over the crown of our house and began to beat down on the back yard. It had been very breezy and was quite a pleasant temperature in the low 70's, but one certainly did not want to be working with any strenuousness once the sun was up and the air began to truly heat up in the afternoon.

About 1 pm, just as the sun was getting to be too much, Sir came over, raised me up and unhooked all my chains. He reached under the burqa and removed the collar and the burqa hood with its gag. The reduction in pressure was much appreciated. But I did not speak as we are in agreement that once un-gagged I will always wait to be told it is ok to talk.

He then proceeded to walk me over to a chaise, sat me down, and removed my red rubber boots then walked me gently down the steps into our pool. My burqa and my dress were still on and they floated out around me until I got them a bit more under control and under the surface. The water was still blood temperature. it will be several days before it loses an appreciable amount of heat.

We floated around a bit, my in bright red voluminous rubber veil and dress, he in tight black jumpsuit. Finally, he came over to me, slipped my burqa off and unzipped my dress and removed both, placing them on a patio lounger by the edge of the pool. Thank heaven he had specifically told me NOT to corset in the morning.

So here I was, after about 5 hours in multiple layers of total enclosure and encasement in soft, red latex and steel chain bondage, now virtually naked in just the red tinted transparent skinsuit, still technically covered head to foot in rubber, floating gently on my back in a cool swimming pool. At one point, Sir came over behind me and I floated on my back, eyes closed, while he stroked my bald head through the thin latex (as he still keeps my head shaved). I am not sure when the orgasms began, but they did not end for quite some time.

We stayed in the pool long enough to enjoy each other very, very well, then he took me inside and undressed me and put me in a cool shower and had me re-dress, this time in black for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Later, after sunset, we went out to a nearby Japanese restaurant for dinner.

All in all, a wonderful labor day spent in the garden!

Regards
Lady

Thursday, September 01, 2011

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Rant Alert: Sir tells me I should warn everyone that my post today will be a rant and not fetish or latex related.

Today I watched a horrible wreck on television.

Not a wreck of flesh and steel, but of mind and knowledge.

Today I watched an episode of the game show Jeopardy! with three school teachers as contestants.

It was terrible to see two of them, one fresh from university, one with many years of high school teaching, implode in a heap of wrong answers and poor scores.

The third was also a high school teacher and, to his credit, walked away with $30,000 worth of right answers.

The other two finished with under $4000 and -$1600, respectively.

Now many things can influence this game as I am sure regular watchers are aware.

"Reaction time is a factor", so we have to allow that the runaway leader might have been considerably swifter on the buzzer.

Contestants, even those well rehearsed and chosen for the game by the producers do, sometimes, choke in the real event.

And occasionally, the categories are just not the forte of a particular contestant.But, with the possible exception of the reaction time issue above, I do not thing these rationale apply.

The lowest scorer kept losing money until she was in the red by answering questions wrongly.

She did not even know the river bordering Texas and Mexico (hint: not the Colorado)

The other, a kindergarten teacher, but, as I said, fresh from university, seemed mostly to miss buzzing in or to not try...it is hard to know when someone does not even get the chance to answer, just what went wrong.

But I certainly expected to see more even scores across the board from professional educators.

We typically see much more even scores across teen contestants, which I find interesting. Teens REALLY know teen culture.

Our teachers are trained, in some ways crafted, by our higher educational system; it is a mighty force as anyone who has tried to stand against it or change its course can tell you. And so, I looked upon the works of those mighty and despaired.

Now Jeopardy is, by no means, the way a teacher should be judged or ranked, rated, or recommended. Jeopardy! is a game show and cannot be used as a significant testing vehicle except, perhaps, in the IBM Watson competition. IBM chose Jeopardy! as its demonstration vehicle because Jeopardy! does require contestants to both have a wide general base of knowledge and to exercise their language parsing and comprehension skills to participate at any reasonable level. Jeopardy! is used in schools to exercise students in those skills and it does have a very strong pedagogical background.

What worries me about this presentation I watched today is that I see many other episodes with people not in the education profession who do amazingly well; whose breadth of knowledge is both wide and deep. Why, then, do our professional educators who go on this show appear not to have the same knowledge base and skill base? Let me hasten to say that I have watched other Jeopardy! Teachers episodes with similar results. The previous one I watched had a high school teacher also go negative with all his wrong answers and have to leave before Final Jeopardy! And anecdotally, educators seem to make relatively poorer contestants overall. I have not performed a serious study, however.

What, I wonder, is going on?

Teaching is hard! teaching below university level is harder than hard. I have done it, I have taught others how to do it, and I have researched how students learn so teachers can be able to do it well and better than it has been done before. No matter what, teaching is hard...and teachers in our K-12 grades are not even allowed to teach as much as they would prefer...they are laden with so many administrative and politically motivated responsibilities that 12-14 hour days with significant amounts of that spent working at home each evening are considered not just normal, but somehow a moral imperative. Don't put those hours in and you are considered a poor teacher, unmotivated, ill prepared for promotion, etc, etc.

But, what are we doing in educating our teachers that we seem to see less and less breadth and depth in THEIR education? At these levels, ANYONE coming from a university education should have a strong grasp of a broad range of topics. And people educated on how to teach should also know the basics of general knowledge about history, geography, language, literature, mythology, physics, math, chemistry, biology, astronomy, philosophy, ethics, theology, politics, history, culture, music, drama, and art.

Our universities have an obligation to produce teachers ready to answer questions and ready to facilitate the gathering and contextualization of information into knowledge. Some say this is not necessary. Some say teachers should be taught to teach (organize and plan lessons and present the information, and just stay a few chapters or pages ahead of the students) but I must disagree. As long as there are teachers and we do not hand over education strictly to the web, teachers must continue to be a bit of the "sage on the stage" while also being "the guide by the side". They need a solid base of knowledge at their fingertips to quickly and accurately answer questions that arise. This is particularly true of elementary, but also of high school teachers.

Now, I do not expect every bachelor-degreed teacher to be an in-depth expert in all of those subjects above. but I expect teachers-to-be to be so interested in knowledge itself that they can almost not help but absorb significant amounts of information about those topics. And I expect university courses to be designed to interestingly and effectively impart that knowledge to them. Interestingly designed and taught general studies courses should be required of teaching majors...(no, frankly, I believe they should be required of ALL majors.).

Another thing we need to do before university is to stop teaching wrong information. History classes that are more designed to indoctrinate young students in cultural values at the expense of historical accuracy need to go. Geography courses that are decades out of date and set students up with an inaccurate vision of the world outside their borders need to go. Science courses that demonstrate effects without forcing students to think about causes and implications need to go. Literature courses that avoid hard topics and worry about political correctness when teaching students who absorb vast amounts of attitude from pop culture need to go. Any courses which universities identify as having to be untaught to first year college students need to go.

The current way in which teachers are prepared to be teachers is unfair
The current way in which teachers are expected to be teachers is unfair
The current way in which society views teachers is unfair
The current way in which society values teachers is unfair

These things are not just unfair to the individual teachers involved, they are also unfair to the students they teach and to the society those students both inherit and create.

The teachers I watched on Jeopardy! today who performed so poorly may be excellent teachers in their own environments. I know nothing of them, their skills, their interests, their dreams, or their achievements (well, apparently the runner up only managed to eat 5 hot dogs in a hot dog eating contest where she was the only woman and the winner ate 42, which does indicate a certain willingness to embrace difficult challenges!)

So please do not take this as any indictment of these individuals; I am making no judgements about them as individuals. But, after watching educators perform poorly as a group in several of these Jeopardy! episodes, I have to wonder, why do educators, as a group, seem to do poorly and non-educators, as a group, seem do so much better? And why do some educators do so wildly better? Are they just outliers or is there something else going on? Training, opportunity, personality? What is making the difference? I do not believe the old adage of "those who can, do and those who can't, teach". We have no scientific evidence of that. Although we DO know that many true experts in any field make very poor educators in that field. Experts do not know and often cannot explain how they do what they do...but here we are talking about general knowledge, not deep, deep expertise in a single topic.

But they should have more knowledge at their mnemonic beck and call than they appear to have on this show.

Well, those are my thoughts. I do not usually use this blog to comment on social issues, but this one struck very close to my heart. Watching educators do so poorly on that show always bothers me and worries me. I wonder if I could have done more as a teacher myself to be sure my students walked away with a greater breadth of knowledge than just the topic of my course.


regards
Lady

You will now be returned to your regularly scheduled latex fetish blog.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

A Visit With Family

My word! I did not realize it had been such a long time since my last post. All the way back to April. It is amazing how time gets away from me these days. My apologies to all of you who have been asking me to write again. i shall try to be more prolific, but I plead some exhaustion from this incredible summer we have had. We will shortly pass 60 days of over 100 degree highs. Not officially as we had a day or two at the beginning of August when the official temperature only rose to 99. But Sir and I have watched our home thermometer climb into the 3 digit range every day since June 30th.

I have spent the last two months being allowed to wear only 1 layer of latex around the house many, many days and not even having to be hooded some of the time. I have also spent a considerable time in shower and tub, staying cool and being sure I am safe from heat rash and other irritants.

But last night it actually rained. We went out to dinner and noticed, as soon as we stepped out of the house, that the air smelled like rain. The sky was cobalt blue with nary a cloud in sight, but still there was the unmistakable fragrance of aerosolized moisture in the air! Sure enough, loud thunder awakened me in my vacuum bed this morning even before Sir was up to release me. And the patio was not just damp but positively wet when I went out for a little swim later.

Ah! The new vacuum bed. I love this one.I have not written of it before because Sir did not get it for me until our recent wedding anniversary (36th) last week. It is a stylish red and allows my head to emerge, covered in a black latex hood or transparent one from my skinsuit.

This makes it possible for me to sleep in it next to Sir. Just sealed in a whole body skin suit with my head protruding from the smooth, shimmering red sea of latex. Our bedsheets are black latex, which makes for a lovely contrast. This new vacbed does not hold vacuum without a constant pump (unlike our older his and her beds) but Sir placed the vacuum pump a good distance away and ran a long pool hose to the bed. This makes the noise distant enough that we can fall asleep.

Beyond the fact that my head protrudes and the face that for the first time I can directly see what my vacuumed packed body looks like in such a bed, there is little difference between this one and my other one. But it is very nice to be able to see while being packed, sealed, and restrained in it. The fact that I am sometimes even able to communicate with him is fun, but I confess, most of the time I enjoy being gagged and having him use my face and head for his fun as he stimulates me in my rubber prison.

In other news, we had Sir's sister, niece, and their friends over a while back. We did a nice Sunday dinner. Nothing special here...I was in my red burqa over a red floor length dress. I was, however, allowed to speak and eat. We had barbecue which, for me, meant a small plate with bite sized bits taken under my burqa and consumed while everyone else ate as well. We met the niece's new boyfriend who was a little disconcerted at first, but adjusted quickly. Sir's sister had a long time girlfriend with her who was also aware of my lifestyle and had even met me down in San Antonio so there was not any surprise there.

Before we ate, we all went out in the pool. I wore my blue burqa over a blue skinsuit and the water kept me cool enough, but frankly, it was still blood temperature and not very refreshing. Nonetheless, it was fun to be floating in the pool, burqa swishing around me, warm water sluicing over tight latex beneath it. I DO love swimming in latex...it is a most stimulating exercise.

Sir wore a very tight latex bermuda shorts catsuit with latex cargo shorts over it. That worked for him as he could drop the shorts and be in what was effectively a shorty wetsuit for swimming. His niece forgot to bring a suit so we loaned her a latex bodysuit of mine which fit very nicely...we are about the same size. She had never worn rubber before and was a bit skittish at first, but I pointed out all the celebrities that are wearing rubber now and that got her into it! She's quite the Gaga fan, among others!

Beyond that, our past few months have been fairly quiet with little of note. We have been going to movies to get out of the house and stay cool. We had one of three aircons fail for a week which meant that we slept in the playroom for a few nights as its A/C comes from a separate unit from that of our bedroom. It is also in the middle of the house with no windows and thus remains cooler.

We went to an interesting museum exhibit a few months ago (I can't believe I have not posted an entry since before then) and have been out to dinner several times, occasionally with friends or colleagues of Sir's. His business is continuing to grow and he looked into larger offices recently, but has made no decision. He joked about me going back to work in the office as his partner...at least I hope it was joking...I do not have much desire to return to the business world although there is something appealing about the idea of wafting up and down the corridors of his offices in a swirly rubber burqa. :)

I have been doing some writing recently. Just some stories to amuse myself. One about a submissive young man who agrees to become a bizarrely transexualized rubber maid for a couple in a society of latex aficionados.

And after watching the recent royal weddings and the batch of 1950-1960 period shows on television I began to think about a story revolving around a woman who is invited to enter the upper echelons of a very stiff, formal society ... attending galas, balls, debutante presentments, high teas, charity and political funding events, and such ... but this is not just high society she is invited into, it is rubber society and she must make some serious and permanent decisions about her lifestyle and her appearance, dress, and commitment to the etiquette she is expected to keep when she enters Rubber Society.

Sir encourages my little writing hobby, but I am not sure hat to do with them once they are finished. Many are little more than a chapter of a larger work and not even up to the standard of a short story...they are vignettes as of now, but I shall continue tweaking and pecking at them.

So this has been my long, lazy, hot, and rubbery summer. It is officially over in little more than a week (labor day) but I suspect the hot days of 2011's summer will hang on throughout most of September.

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Cool Winter and a Second Life

Well, it has been a while between postings. We are having a very nice winter with rather more cold, ice, and snow than usual this month. But not the foot of snow we had in february last year.

We have done very little in the way of shopping or outings. The cold certainly makes latex dressing a bit of a challenge and I am routinely wearing three layers around the house...a total enclosure skin-suit in transparent rubber, a catsuit over that, and a dress over it all.

We did go see Tron: Legacy at the cinema...a fun flick with better story I think than the original. I was in my blue burqa with the two eyes which limits my vision a bit. We did not partake of 3D ... Not sure how that would work for me. I was able, however, to follow the story and the visuals are quite stunning. I love some of the costumes ... very dramatic and fetishy...I wonder how much the rest of the audience recognized that aspect. beneath my burqa I was in a long blue dress and a very tight, full enclosure blue tinted transparent skin-suit. AndI was, of course, silenced by the burqa's metallic blue latex hood which also has pepper-pot eyes to limit my vision further.

The new burqa which I have mentioned in other posts is more of a bronze electrum colour than platinum and Sir thinks it will be more interesting as a springtime outfit. So I hope to have some photos of it in a few weeks when the temperature starts back up.

I have been spending a lot of time in Second Life and have made some new friends. However, I mentioned Deirdre Young in my previous post and she and I met up again the other day at the Powers of Creation store. I was contemplating several new transparent latex full enclosure suits they are offering for avatars. I had just found a gorgeous latex kimono at Latex Web, inc. and was wearing it with a very nice Oiran hair. Deirdre suggested I model for her.

One thing led to another and a few minutes later (with Sir's enthusiastic permission) I was in her studio space and being posed on a wonderful stand crafted by Lelo. I have included some of the photos she let me have here.

I believe she will publish some others in her Second Life Fetish Fashion Blog soon. I think the kimono is one of the best in SL and the inclusion of Geta really completes the outfit. The hairpins are an extra item, but they were from Latex Web as well.


Not much else has been happening, as I said earlier. We have been resting up after Christmas and had absolutely no intention of getting out in the Ice this past week. Nor did we go to the SuperBowl, an event which has no attraction for Sir, whatsoever. I have been working on a gift for my sister, a new embroidery project. Doing needlework in gloves is challenging, let me state categorically!

And so I shall close this little posting. I hope everyone enjoys the images of my Second Life Avatar, latexladyll galicia.

Lady