Crimson Moon Spanking Party Review--Part One

This afternoon, Cigi and I returned from the big three-day spanking party hosted by the good folks at Chicago Crimson Moon. This was the party that almost didn't happen for us. I enumerated the problems and pitfalls of planning this weekend in my previous post. After everything we went through, getting to attend this party was particularly sweet. Because of the fact that we didn't know until almost the last minute that we were going to be able to attend, all of the logistical planning was put off until just about zero hour. I had to close the night before and didn't even get to bed until after midnight. I was too excited to sleep once I got to bed but that's another story. We had packed hurriedly and of course, because of this, some essential things got left at home. Namely, hair spray and styling gel; two things that I cannot be without under any circumstances but especially in situations where I want to look my best. I also forgot nail polish remover, although I remembered everything else from my manicure kit. I drove Cigi crazy trying to find someone (anyone) that I could some from, but it never happened and my nails looked a fright all weekend. Cigi said somewhat ruefully "What makes you think anyone is gonna be looking at your fingernails?". She had a very good point, but as I've pointed out on this blog numerous times, I like to look my absolute best at these parties and having nails with the polish chipping off sort of bothered me. Of course, Cigi was right. No one noticed. Not one top said "You really should do something with your nails, Cheryl". But still...

Our ride showed up a bit early and since she's vanilla, we had to hurry up and shut the toy bags before she arrived. We took our usual number of bags--two suitcases (one large one containing our clothes and a small one with other essentials like toothpaste and deodorant and shaving cream, etc.) and two toy bags, plus a 12-pack of Mountain Dew and this time, an 8-pack of Lemon Lime Gatorade. The lady was very kind to help us carry all the stuff down to the car. She never asked why we had so many things nor did she ask what was in the other bags we were hauling. This was her car, after all, and if we got pulled over, the police could possibly search the trunk and open the toy bags. She was taking a pretty big risk (as a divorcee with three kids) and we were very grateful she was doing this for us. When we told her this, she waved her hand and said "It gets me out of the house for part of the day." Before I knew it, we were on the road. Usually, some sort of last minute catastrophe prevents this, but we hit the road on schedule and without drama this time. It was awesome. We stopped for some food but didn't stop to eat it. Now you have to know that I'm about the sloppiest eater on the face of the earth. I end up with food on my shirtfront when I'm sitting at a table so you can imagine how it went in a car doing 75 m.p.h. I ended up wearing a large part of my Whopper. But I didn't let that deter me from enjoying the gorgeous weather we were having or the fact that I was going to my first spanking party in nine months. Aside from seeing a dog that had been hit by a car laying on the roadside, the trip up was uneventful. I would love to be able to say that our arrival at the hotel was also, but it wasn't.

When we arrived, our ride decided to stay until we were checked in. She got to witness our embarrassment at discovering that we didn't have a reservation. Usually, one of our room mates books the room in her name and, because they always beat us to the hotel, there was never a problem. They would simply call the room and confirm that we were sharing the room. This time, there was no room in her name and they hadn't checked in yet. Cigi and I had a terrible moment of panic while the desk clerk (and then the manager) looked to see if the name had been misspelled or if the reservation had been lost. They even called another hotel to see if they had registered there. This was an absurd exercise as I knew we were in the right hotel. Since they had a room left, Cigi and I were forced to reserve our own room. However, the manager offered us the Crimson Moon block price (even though the deadline to reserve a room had come and gone). We had to use our debit card to book the room (even though we were paying cash) and I knew they would freeze our funds and we would be unable to use the card over the weekend. This was a bad situation for us. I was worried about being able to afford to pay for the room should our room mates not arrive for whatever reason. We got registered and said our goodbyes to the woman who had so kindly driven us up there without one complaint. We got a luggage cart and went upstairs to our room. I didn't tell Cigi how worried I was about the situation we were in because I didn't want to spoil her mood. She was pain-free despite the three hour car ride but was tired and needed a rest. We tossed our bags on the modular sofa and flopped on the beds, exhaustion taking over. We had probably only rested for ten minutes or so when the phone rang. It was someone from the desk calling to say that our room mates had arrived and they were sending them up. The mix up was easily explained. The room had been booked under the name of our other room mate's new boyfriend. We had simply not been told about it. But I was so happy they had arrived that I couldn't be angry. One of the ladies stayed in our room with us. The other one opted to stay with her boyfriend in the room they had originally booked for us. In a way (as with the bus plan not working out) I'm glad it turned out the way it did. I was apprehensive about sharing a room with a strange man for one thing. For another, five people in one room is a pretty tight fit even for a room as spacious as the ones this hotel boasted. I was so tired I felt like my knees were going to buckle on me. So Cigi and I laid back down and went to sleep for awhile. The bed was pretty firm but not even that was going to keep me from going to sleep. About an hour and a half later, I woke up feeling very much better. However, we were both now hungry. We always bring Lean Cuisine dinners from home to heat up in our rooms. One thing we immediately noticed upon arriving was that, after the hotel renovated and switched management, the microwave ovens were removed from the guest suites. And there wasn't one in the area where they served the complimentary breakfast. We had to go to the desk and ask one of the desk people to take it back to the break room and heat our dinners up for us. It was a pain in the ass really. We had to take the elevator down to the lobby and then carry the hot meals (which the man at the desk had returned to their respective boxes) back upstairs to our room. It was something we didn't do again all weekend. It was just too inconvenient. We caught up with our room mate while we ate quickly. Then we all put on our party clothes and make up and headed down to the public room. There were quite a few first timers attending and a newbie orientation was planned for seven o'clock. One of the party goers, a top, complained about having over twenty years of experience in the scene and voiced his indignation about being subjected to a "lesson" in how to behave at a party. Crimson Moon has a strict rule--no matter how many years you've been in the scene, no matter how many other parties you've been to, if you're attending your first CM party, you're a newbie to us. And different groups invariably have different rules. Besides, it never hurts to have your party etiquette brushed up on. All of us veterans had to leave the room though while the orientation went on. Most of us opted to wait in a seating area just outside the party room. There were people coming from the nearby pool so I knew that vanillas were close at hand. Our particular room was also close to the gym. Lovely. Back when I first began attending parties, many veteran CM members didn't bother to wear their name tags. After all, everyone knew who they were...well, those who had been going to parties for awhile knew. Now there's a rule that, to get into the public room, you had to have your name tag on. The name tags provided some jokes this time around as they were badly executed. All the tops were designated as bottoms and all the bottoms were designated as tops. To collect your name tags (they give you one for each night of the party) you had to have your e-ticket. This is a print out of the email you receive from management informing you that your party fee has been received. Well, true to form, our computer printer failed to print them up that morning. Because of the rush we were in to get on the road, we hadn't had time to do any troubleshooting on the printer and had had to leave without our e-tickets. But the board members were gracious and said "If we don't know who you two are by now, we're in real trouble." So this was another occasion when some one's graciousness helped us out of a potentially bad situation. Once I had my corrected name tag, I went and found a place to sit down. It felt good (after several parties without one) to finally have a big room we could all meet and socialize in. After several minutes of making small talk with some old friends and introducing myself to some new members, one of my favorite tops came in. He was quickly followed by his girl, a switch. I watched as she paddled and strapped another lady switch, who I had just met for the first time. The lady being paddled added some nice comic touches to the scene. It was enjoyable but I wanted to play. The top (the one who was one of my favorites) came over and gave me a hug and a playful (though still stinging) swat on the butt. He held a strap in his hand---one that I was well acquainted with.

"You want some of this?" he asked holding it out.

What a silly question! Of course I did. He directed me to a nearby chair and had me lean on it. I told him I hadn't played yet and needed a warm up. I was wearing cute plaid shorts and he spanked me over those with his hand. This particular top has a great hand, just the kind I like. After an abbreviated warm up, he got started with the strap. Because this was the first night of the party and because he was the first person I was playing with, he lightened up considerably. It wasn't light by any means but he knows I'm a hard player and he gave me a very nice strapping. Strapping happens to be this guy's forte. He strapped me wonderfully. Not too hard but not soft either. I could feel the heat through the cotton fabric of my shorts. Nice. I rested for a short spell and then across the room, chatting with some other members, I spied my blogging buddy, Dr. Ken. Now when Ken and I usually play, I'm almost always torn up pretty bad and he has to shorten the session with me. So this time, I made sure that didn't happen. I went over and asked him if he wanted to play. Yes, absolutely he wanted to play. So off we went to his room. It was one of the nicest spankings I got all weekend. Because my bottom was in such good shape, he was able to give me a longer, harder spanking. Did he ever! It was awesome. Of course, along with the spanking came some nice conversation, too. Dr. Ken is a wonderful, charming man and I look forward to the time I spend over his knee. However, it had to end sometime and off we went back downstairs to the party suite. The room was fairly full this time. And there was some public play going on. I watched this for awhile since I now needed a rest. Soon after this, a guy I had been chatting with pretty regularly came into the room. I had not met him before and so I was excited to play with him. It was his first party and much of our chats had been taken up with me assuring him that he would have a good time and that he would get people to play with him. He was a switch after all. However, he seems to be more of a top. I talked to him for awhile and then we went up to my room to play. He was pretty nervous I could tell. Now he had told me his spanking experiences had been pretty limited (furtive one-swatters in bars, etc.) but you would never know it. He was a pretty impressive spanker to put it mildly. He spanked me by hand and then we broke out some of my straps. He told me had paddling down pretty good but needed practice with straps. I was more than happy to help him out. He strapped me very nicely and kept a nice conversation going at the same time. He was funny and pretty smart to boot, a huge plus for a top in my opinion. It seemed like we played a really long time. He found one strap he favored among my collection and just sort of tried his best to wear it out on me. It was very enjoyable. His company was also very enjoyable. He had a very nice, somewhat heavy, spanking hand. But the strapping couldn't go on indefinitely so he ended it. I was a little disappointed as I wanted to continue. He told me we could have another session another time, but for now, he was a little tired. I noticed the alarm clock next to the bed and I had to admit it was getting late. So we went back down to the party room where I met a few more new people who had arrived late. The conversation went on for awhile and before I knew it, it was ten o'clock. I hadn't slept well the night before and it was beginning to catch up with me. I went to the guy who had just strapped me and asked him if he'd give me a nice, relaxing spanking to send me off to bed. He was more than happy to. We went to his room this time, where he first showed me his paddle collection. Most were old frat paddles. But they were very nice to look at and, because they all came from Northwestern University, very attractive as collectibles. He hand spanked me until I was completely blissed out and then escorted me to my room. Cigi was already there taking her make up off. I asked her if she was calling it a night. "What's my usual bedtime?" Usually, at home, Cigi is tucked away in bed by ten or so. I had to admit I was tired and feeling very floaty from my spanking so I, too, called it a night. I could hardly wait for Day Two.

Tomorrow, I'll post part two of my review.