Saturday was the DC Littles Munch. This time around Missy and I brought the cake. We have this funny tradition at the munch of bringing a cake decorated with whatever goofball holiday it happens to be.
This time around it was National Pickle Day.
I have been doing the littles munch for years now. I love it for many different reasons. Yes, it's great getting to hang out with old friends and new ones. Yes, it's great to have an excuse to eat cake.
But the big reason for me that I love the munch is that it's an act of service. The primary reason the munch exists is that it's a place where new people can come to talk to folks like me about what it means to be an age player. It's an easy on-ramp, where we can share our experiences, answer questions, and assure people that they're okay.
Case in point, this new girl, E. She had mailed me earlier in the day, wondering how to find the munch people at the restaurant. I gave her the easy heads up about it and told her I'd see her there. At the munch we sat down and had a long talk. She was full of questions. "Is it okay to not want to do the whole diaper thing?" Yep, I told her, sure is. "So it's okay to just really like teddy bears?" Absolutely, I told her. "Do I have to pick a specific age?" Nope, that's just something people do, and you don't have to.
She looked happy and relieved. I told her that when I first got started I had this very specific idea about who I was, what I wanted and needed, and how all those things have since changed. I said that she didn't need to listen to anyone else, even herself, about the one right way to ageplay, because there's no such thing. I said that she's in a great position, because there was so much good stuff coming her way, so many experiences and changes yet to happen.
She looked pretty relieved, and pretty happy about it.
Afterwards, Missy and I had a date night. We went to go see The 33, about the trapped Chilean miners. What a good movie.
Along the way we stopped for dinner, and even did a little shopping. (I finally got that Steven Universe t-shirt I have been wanting.) Then we went to a super-fancy-reserved-seat-leather-recliner theater we like.
Missy is a news buff, and she had followed the story about the miners back when it first happened. So she knew everything about the story. Every so often as we watched the movie, she'd lean over and whisper extra little tidbits about what was happening. It was kind of like that thing Nickelodeon used to do with Avatar cartoons, where they'd show them with pop-up bubbles with insider information about what was happening on-screen. It was awesome! We both loved it.
I love these date nights with Missy. They recharge our relationship batteries. Missy is really good to me, and supports me in a lot of things I do. She has to share me and my time with a lot of people. I love getting private just-for-us time with her.
What a good day that was.