actually i didn't even get a shirt, because the LAST thing i need is yet ANOTHER t-shirt...
Mid Atlantic Leather (MAL) is one of the largest Leather events in the country. Three days long, thousands of people, hotels filled to capacity for a mile radius around the host hotel in Washington, DC, big-name headlining entertainment (this year was Sandra Bernhardt), cocktail parties, Sunday brunch... and i spent my late evenings watching the History Channel...
MAL downplayed the Mid Atlantic Bootblack (MABB) competition, and rumor has it that this was going to be the last year of MABB. MABB was one of the best known and most respected bootblack competitions in the country because it has no gender restrictions for contestants (men, women, and everyone in between can compete) and MABB was the first bootblack competition to include juding on top of the "ballot" system.
International Mr. Bootblack and International Ms. Bootblack employ the "ballot" system of bootblack voting-- everyone who registers for the event gets a ballot to vote for their favorite bootblack, the theory being that the best quality bootblack will generate the most customers by being the best bootblack. Unfortunately in the earlier and less-regulated days of the IMrBB contest, bootblacks did things other than boots for ballots... But adding judging into the mix helps keep things on the up and up... MABB dropped judging for this year, and like i said this just might be the last year...
so, this was the first event that i have been to where i didn't have official duties-- competing, teaching, judging-- and i felt pretty lost.
but Artie and i found chocolate cake (after walking around for an hour hitting every grocery store and bakery that we could find, we ended up getting cake at Hamburger Mary's) Hail Mary.
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