5 Underrated Measures of Compatibility

Kate Sloan

I’m not sure I really know anything about compatibility. I’ve only been in 2-3 relationships I would consider “long-term” in all my 27 years, so I’m maybe not the best person to advise you on what works. But I do know a lot about what doesn’t work, having lived through my fair share of disastrous relationships destined to fail. (Bleak? Yes. True? Also yes.)

You hear a lot in sex/dating media about well-known measures of compatibility: sharing similar interests, for example, or being able to make each other laugh. But here I present to you, for your consideration, 5 measures of compatibility that I think are under-discussed, rarely understood, and deceptively important…

Sexual desire style. Disregard this point if sex isn’t part of your relationship, but if it is: have you heard of responsive desire? Brought into popular consciousness through Emily Nagoski’s excellent book Come As You Are, responsive desire is a way of wanting sex that differs from our culture’s usual “lightning bolt to the genitals” understanding of how the sex drive works. “Instead of emerging in anticipation of sexual pleasure, like spontaneous desire,” Nagoski explains, “responsive desire emerges in response to sexual pleasure.” In other words, instead of wanting sex and then going to get it, folks whose desire is responsive often need to encounter sexual stimuli (dirty talk, porn, erotica, sexual touching, etc.) before they become aroused and start wanting sex.

Learning about this was revelatory for me, and many other folks who may have felt broken for seldom craving sex out of the blue. But here’s where compatibility comes in: I prefer to date and fuck folks whose desire style is closer to the “spontaneous” end of the spectrum, because when I date another responsive-desire person, sexual initiation can feel like the dreaded “Where should we go for dinner?” conversation: “Where do you want to go?” “Well, where do you want to go?” A person whose desire is spontaneous, to continue the metaphor, is likelier to say, “Here’s where I want to go. What say you?”

This is not to say you can’t date another responsive-desire person if that’s how you operate; it may just mean you both have to take a more proactive approach to purposely arousing each other (and yourselves) rather than waiting for someone else to bestow arousal upon you.

Decisiveness vs. indecision. Speaking of the “Where should we go for dinner?” conversation… I am a chronically indecisive person in many areas of life, partly owing to just lacking confidence in my own choices and tastes. It’s no secret that I’m submissive, so I like to be bossed around in bed, but I also find it affirming to be (consensually) bossed around by certain people outside of the bedroom. Weirdly, it’s a way they can show me they care.

My boyfriend, for example, is the type of person who loves making plans and being in charge of things. When he does a good job of this, he feels accomplished and proud. So he’s a good match for someone like me. When he plans a date night for us – makes reservations, gets us there on time, helps me choose what to order – I feel deeply loved and taken care of, while he enjoys the satisfaction of knowing he took care of me in that way.

Compatibility is about more than what you can do for each other; it’s also about what you enjoy doing for each other. If I was dating someone who was willing to make these types of plans but found it tiresome, each outing of this type would just drive us further apart and foster resentment – but because my partner enjoys making the exact kinds of decisions I don’t enjoy making, this interaction just brings us closer every time it happens.

Communication preferences. You’ve probably heard of the love languages. It’s an oversimplification of human psychology, perhaps, but it’s also a useful framework for understanding how to communicate with your partner.

I’ve dated people before whose love language was quality time, or acts of service, or gifts – and while all of those things are lovely, my most significant love languages are words and touch, so if I’m not getting those things in abundance, I don’t feel fully loved. It is possible to adjust your communication style to better suit a partner who differs from you in this way, but not everyone is willing or able to put in the psychological and logistical work required to make that shift.

Along similar lines, I’ve dated people before who didn’t like to text a lot when we were apart, or who answered my carefully-crafted messages with monosyllabic apathy, and that doesn’t work for me either. Communication is a huge part of what allows relationships to function smoothly and healthily, so if you and your partner have incompatible communication styles or preferences, it could become a major sticking point if it hasn’t already.

Coping strategies. What do you do when you’re stressed, sick, or depressed? How do you communicate at those times? What do you tend to want, need, and crave at those times – and what do you absolutely not want? Would your ideal partner give you support, or space? Would they bring you soup and sympathy, or would they back off and let you do your thing in peace?

While it’s useful to ponder these questions before they become relevant in a new relationship, often you won’t know quite how your stressful periods interact with your partners’ until you actually live through one together. It can be helpful to specifically ask for what you want – “Can you come over and cuddle me in silence for a while?” or “Sorry, I just need a few days to sort this out, but can we get dinner on Friday?” – but, depending on your partner’s own stress levels at that time, they may or may not be willing or able to give you what you’re asking for.

I learned this lesson the hard way when I had a boyfriend who suffered from intermittent depression, like me, but who needed altogether different things than I did when he was depressed. At those times, he craved emotional distance, lots of time alone to work through his feelings in private. He didn’t want kisses, or cuddles, or sex. But when I’m depressed, I usually want to be with the person/people I love, and get as close as possible, through both physically and non-physically intimate activities. Obviously, when we were both going through a tough time, we found each other pretty frustrating! Complementary needs in this regard are something I look out for now when assessing my potential compatibility with someone, because they can really make or break a relationship.

Relaxation activities. They say you don’t truly know whether you’re compatible with a partner until the two of you travel together. I think this is a good piece of wisdom, not only because travel can be stressful (see above) but also because vacationing together lets you see how your partner prefers to relax – which may be altogether different from how you prefer to do those things.

If you like to unwind by reading a book on the beach, but your partner wants to do the entire museum circuit, you may not be the best match – unless you’re able to happily go your separate ways and reconvene later on. This principle also applies to relaxation in your day-to-day, not just on vacation. If you need quiet time to recharge after a long day, but your partner needs to verbally unpack everything that happened to them and/or dance the day’s stress out at a club, you may not be the best fit – unless you can find ways to each get what you need, separately or together, without stepping on each other’s toes too much.

I often fondly reminisce on a Montreal trip I took with an adventurous, excitable friend. I expected her to drag me to historic sites and famous bagel shops – and she did, some of the time – but one afternoon, I told her I needed to recharge my introvert batteries and she suggested we go to a café with our books and journals and just sit in silence for a few hours, sipping coffee and chilling out. It was one of the most blissful experiences I’ve ever had on a vacation, and all because we were able to find common ground in how we chose to relax.

Which measures of compatibility do you consider important in a partner or friend?

Freelance Friday: Structure & Secret Readers

Kate Sloan

Freelance Friday is my recurring feature where I answer your questions about the odd blend of blogging, journalism, and copywriting that is my career. You can read more writing-related content in my Blogging & Writing section!

Q. How do you structure your day so that you stay productive? I feel like if I worked from home, I would sleep until noon, procrastinate on my work constantly, and take terrible care of myself.

A. This is usually one of the first things people ask me about when they find out I work from home. Most people have some experience with aimless, unscheduled days – whether during a bout of unemployment, a gap year, or just a holiday – so they know it can be a mind-numbing and even despairing reality. So, they wonder, how do I, and others in my position, manage to do it every day?

It’s a fair question. When I first eased into the telecommuting lifestyle, I did exactly the type of shit you’re describing here. I slept too late, stayed up too late, skipped meals or overate, left work til the last minute or did too much all at once. I was like a teenager whose parents have gone away for a week in Bermuda. It was, shall we say, not ideal.

What I’ve found helpful isn’t glamorous or sexy: it’s just rituals and routines. I’m a Taurus through and through, so it takes me a while to warm up to changes in my daily habits, but once I do, they tend to stick. While I love the freedom and flexibility of the freelance life, I also recognize that I need to impose some rules on myself if I’m going to get anything done.

My dayjob, blessedly, requires me to get up around 9AM every weekday. I am a sleepy person and I have seasonal depression; if I didn’t have a reason to get up in the morning, I likely wouldn’t until late in the afternoon – so thanks, dayjob! I usually do an hour or two of that work before getting dressed and heading out to a nearby café to work on blog stuff, podcast stuff, journalism stuff, or more dayjob stuff – whatever needs doing that day.

Cafés are a crucial part of my workflow, and I’m certainly not the first freelancer to feel that way. Whether it’s the caffeine, the noise level, or just the impetus to put pants on and join the real world, there is something about cafés that helps me power through work that might’ve felt impossible if I was sitting at home in my pajamas.

Over the past year or so, I’ve become more methodical about taking a proper lunch break, rather than just working through it like a fiend. I’ll buy or make something filling, and settle in with a book/podcast/TV show/YouTube video while I eat. I found I was more prone to burnout back when I would half-work through my lunch, so now I force myself to get out of “work mode” for a while when mid-day hits.

My major not-so-secret secret weapon for productivity is a to-do list. I make one in my Notes app every day, and cross things off as they get done. My partner has access to the list, and his supervision makes this tool even more potent. It’s simple as hell, but keeping a to-do list religiously has boosted my productivity a lot.

Lastly, while it’s important to build structures that help me do my best work, it’s also important to build structures that let me relax at the end of the day. Freelancers and other self-employed types – especially those prone to hypomania! – are notorious for never really “clocking out,” and as necessary as that sometimes seems, it’s not healthy. When I’m done my work for the day, I close all my work-related tabs and apps, shut my laptop, and physically walk away from it. Often I’ll unwind by smoking some weed, reading a book, listening to a funny podcast, and/or writing in my journal. Then I’ll typically eat a late dinner and call my partner around 10–10:30PM. Our end-of-day phone conversations provide a grounding conclusion to my day, keeping me focused on something that isn’t my inbox or my Twitter timeline, which always feels so needed after a full day of work.

Q. Has anyone you weren’t “out” to as a sex writer ever found your blog and confronted you? How did you handle that?

A. While I wasn’t always “out” as a sex writer, I’ve never really been embarrassed when someone read my writing who “wasn’t supposed to.” I always figure that if they’re offended by it, that’s on them, not me.

Of course, that isn’t true in every case. If I was writing cruelly or nonconsensually about someone, it would be reasonable for them to get upset about that. I’ve definitely done this in the past, but I’ve learned from my mistakes. Nowadays, usually the only people I roast on my blog without their express knowledge are people who’ve deeply hurt me – people who genuinely fucked up in some way. Anne Lamott says, “You own everything that happened to you… If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better,” and I believe that, to some extent. Someone who dumps me in a coldhearted way, or ghosts me, or leaks nudes of people I love, knows they’re being a dick when they do that, so I have few qualms about lampooning these people on my site – which they probably don’t even read, anyway.

The caveat is that I’m never unnecessarily cruel and I never identify people who don’t want to be identified. I wouldn’t write mean shit about a Tinder hookup’s dick size for no reason; I wouldn’t publicize an ex’s name, or describe their appearance in overly specific detail; I wouldn’t spill other people’s secrets or their deepest shames. It’s just not nice. I’m not saying I was always perfect on this front, but these are the standards I hold myself to now.

That said – yes, there have been times when I’ve discovered someone was reading my blog who I wish wouldn’t. For example: a dude who had, months earlier, lied and told me he was poly when he was actually monogamous, thereby making me unknowingly complicit in him cheating on his girlfriend. Or an ex who’d broken up with me in an especially explosive and scary way. Or a guy I’d stopped talking to after he crossed numerous boundaries. While I don’t necessarily begrudge these people reading my site, it is weird when they tell me they read it, especially if they do so as part of a half-assed apology or an unwarranted desire to “reconnect.” It feels like a boundary violation. If you are reading this post knowing full well that I probably wouldn’t want you to be here… perhaps think a little about why you’re doing that, what you’re getting out of it, and how it might make me feel if I knew.

I’ve been much better about getting partners’ consent to write about them and running relevant details by them before publishing, ever since a boyfriend told me, during a breakup, that I’d made him feel used for material. Those consent practices are important, but it’s also important for me to be able to write about shitty behavior when people are shitty to me. It grinds my gears when a partner or a hookup does something reprehensible and then says, “Don’t write about that on your blog” – because the implication is that they want to appear good and sweet to my readers, without actually being good and sweet to me. Fuck that. If they wanted me to write warmly about them, they indeed should have behaved better.

If you have questions for this series, you can leave them in a comment below, or email them to me!

How to Take a Truly Decadent Bath

Kate Sloan
A nice deep tub at the Wythe Hotel

Baths are one of life’s grand delights, if you ask me. Maybe we like them so much because they’re like returning to the womb, in a sense – floating, safe and sound, in warm water, alone with your thoughts. What could be more calming? (Well, the “alone with your thoughts” part isn’t so great if you have anxiety, but you get the idea.)

I want you to maximize the relaxation and rejuvenation you can wring out of a good bath, so here are some of my top bathing tips…

Make it smell nice. This is the most basic way to turn up a bath’s fancy quotient. Some of my all-time favorite fragrant bath additives: Lush’s Brightside and The Comforter bubble bars, a few glugs of lavender essential oil, and those scented Epsom salts you can find in most convenience stores. Mix and match to create your ideal olfactory landscape!

Light it pretty. Candles (especially scented candles) are a classic for this purpose, though make sure they’re oriented for minimal fire risk! If candlelight isn’t your style, LED fairy lights are equally soothing. I also have a Neuma lamp which can cycle gradually through all the colors of the rainbow, and I find it highly relaxing to watch.

Turn up the tunes. Or turn them down. Whatever you prefer! I usually just blast some calming songs on my iPhone, but if you want to get real fancy, you could set up a Bluetooth speaker or something.

Bring reading material. You may prefer to simply silence your brain in the tub, or meditate on the day’s events, but I love to read in the bath. Cheap paperbacks are perfect for this, because dropping one in the water will just give it more character, if anything. I can also highly recommend the waterproof Kindle Oasis; it’s pricey but it has totally revolutionized the way I read!

Jerk off, if you’re into that. I like waterproof sex toys that bring pleasure in and out of the tub, and luckily, there are lots on the market these days! Make sure you’ve got the right kind of lube on hand, however: water-based lube is generally a no-go for underwater use. Silicone-based is better (provided your toy isn’t also made of silicone), though it might leave your tub feeling slippery afterward.

Don’t forget snacks and water! While many of us would love to lounge in a bath for an hour or more, two main reasons we might not be able to are the water cooling down (you can add more hot water if you want) and hunger/thirst. You can lose a lot of electrolytes sweating in the hot water, so keep some portable foods and drinks around! (Writer and bath aficionado Rachel Syme recommends a big bowl of clementines and a popsicle. Sounds good to me.)

Give your skin a treat. Does a head-to-toe body scrub sound nice? How about a tingly face mask? Maybe a slow, methodical full-body shave, using luxurious coconut oil as shaving cream? I find these lengthy, restorative processes totally dreamy.

Talk to a friend on the phone. Wow, remember when we used to do this?! Completely optional, of course, but a phone call to a friend can be a fun addition to bathtime, and may even become a soothing weekly ritual. Grab a waterproof case for your phone, or use a cheap, clunky handset so you don’t drop it into the suds.

Leave work at the door. Some people buy “bath desks,” slats of wood they can slot atop their tub to hold things like a phone, a laptop, or a notebook and pen. I understand the temptation, but for me, there’s no point in taking a bath if I can’t relax my brain once I’m in there. (Plus, I’m scared to death of dropping my computer in the water!) I do, however, keep my phone somewhere nearby (on silent), because some of my best ideas come to me while I’m soaking in the tub, and I need to be able to note them down somewhere if that happens.

Have your post-bath clothes at the ready. Laying out an outfit for Future Me is one of the kindest things I ever do for myself. Often, I’ll place a pair of lounge pants, a T-shirt, and some slippers or fuzzy socks near a heat vent so they’ll be all cozy for me when I’m ready to put them on. Heaven!

What are your favorite ways to make a bath the best it can be?

 

This post was sponsored by Diskrét, purveyors of classy sex toys for serious enthusiasts! As always, all writing and opinions are my own.

5 Questions to Ask Your New Kink Partner

Kate Sloan

A vanilla friend once asked me, when I gushed about how well my new dommy beau’s kinks fit with mine, “Isn’t that the point of identifying as dominant or submissive? So you can easily find someone who’s compatible with you?”

Ha. Easily? That’s a laugh. While I am indeed a submissive – and a damn good one, if I may say so – that doesn’t mean I automatically jive with every dominant who crosses my path. Even setting aside more basic factors like attraction and harmonious personalities, we might not work well together kinks-wise because there are so many different ways to be dominant or to be submissive. If I want to be nurtured but you want to degrade me until I cry, maybe we’re not gonna work out. If you get off on heavy sadism and my pain tolerance is only so-so, we might have to part ways. If the names and words that light your fire are ones that squick me out, maybe we should quit while we’re ahead.

While there’s no foolproof and thorough way (in my view) to assess compatibility quickly, there are certainly ways you can help speed it along. With that in mind, here are 5 questions you can ask your new beau (and answer yourself, too) to figure out whether your approaches to kink could work well together – for an evening, a fling, or maybe even for the long haul.

1. What kinds of feelings do you like getting from kink?

When you’re in the midst of a kink scene, do you like feeling adored, appreciated, accomplished? Or do you prefer to feel overwhelmed, overpowered, and owned? How about degraded, dejected, or dismissed? (More great feelings words on Bex’s Yes/No/Maybe list.)

Knowing this about a potential (or current) kink partner can help shape your scenes. I’ll take a very different approach when submitting to a dom who appreciates quiet obedience, for example, versus a dom who likes a little bratty resistance. Likewise, if a dom thinks I want to feel used and put down, they’re not going to be able to give me the type of scene I actually tend to want, which involves me being cherished and coddled. Figure out your desired feelings first, and then you can start to figure out everything else.

2. What does it look like when you’re enjoying yourself? What about when you’re not?

As a sub, I giggle when I’m enjoying myself – but I know other subs whose mid-scene giggles might mean they’re uncomfortable and don’t know how to say so. I know people whose stony silence might mean they hate what’s happening, and people who only go silent when things are feeling really good. I know people who kick and scream when they’re taken past their pain limits, and people for whom that’s just a sign that the scene is going swimmingly. It’s important to know how your particular play partner responds to both good and bad stimuli, so you know when to slow your roll and when to hit the accelerator. Of course, you shouldn’t rely only on these cues – it’s still important to have (and heed) a safeword, and perhaps a green/yellow/red check-in system or something similar – but they’re crucial to know, nonetheless.

That doesn’t only hold true for subs and bottoms, either. Doms and tops also have “tells” for when they’re enjoying a scene and when they’re decidedly not. A bonus of articulating these signs to a partner is that you get clearer on them yourself. I never used to notice, for example, that my ankles would cross together protectively when I was nearing a pain limit, until a partner asked me to list and explain some of my nonverbal signals. Being more aware of your own body and responses is always useful!

3. Has anyone ever safeworded with you before? What happened?

This is one of my favorite screening questions for new doms, because it shows me quickly how they handle consent in scenes and to what extent they respect their partners. A bad or dangerous dom will tend to get defensive when asked this question – “Of course no one has ever needed to safeword with me!” – while a good dom who’s been around the block will likely have at least a few stories to share. (I’m sure you could learn a lot about a sub by asking them this question, too.)

Pay attention to how they talk about the person who safeworded (affectionately? dismissively?) and what they claim to have done after the safeword was said (hopefully they tried to give the person what they needed, instead of reprimanding them or abandoning them). Notice, too, what their general attitude on safewording seems to be. If they view it as a wimpy cop-out that should best be avoided, rather than a vital communication tool in any encounter, maybe you should steer clear.

4. What are some edges you’re interested in pushing?

These malleable edges are also known as “soft limits”: things you aren’t interested in doing, with most people or in most circumstances, but that you might be open to if the right situation and partner came along for that particular thing.

For example, I don’t want to feel like some douchey bro’s blowjob machine, but with a compassionate dom who I trusted and loved to please, having my mouth used in an objectifying or degrading way could be fun. Maybe your partner’s been curious about knife play for ages but has never had a chance to try it out. Maybe they’re a dom who’s curious about subbing, or vice-versa. Whatever it is, you don’t have to push that edge immediately or at all, but it’s good to at least know about it, so you can perhaps start to work toward it together.

5. What kind(s) of aftercare do you need?

If someone is new to kink – or hasn’t done it in a while – they may not know the answer to this. But they probably have at least some idea. Common elements of aftercare are cuddles, compliments, and snacks – but of course, these don’t work for everyone.

I get nervous doing scenes with new partners who I haven’t discussed aftercare with yet. While most kinksters seem to know intuitively that aftercare is important, it’s hard for me to relax and have fun if I don’t know that I’ll be properly taken care of when I’m too subspacey to articulately advocate for myself. So it’s best to have this conversation before it becomes relevant, so both of you know you’ll be able to get what you need.

What questions do you like to ask new kink partners before playing?

 

This post was sponsored. As always, all words and opinions are my own.

Monthly Faves: A Sparkly Dildo & A Smoky Eye

Kate Sloan

It’s been a rough month for my physical and mental health, but as per usual, I managed to find some comfort and joy in sex. Here’s some of what I loved in February…

Sex toys

• I mentioned it briefly last month, but: the VixSkin Bandit is rocking my vag’s world lately. It’s comparable, dimensions-wise, to one of my favorite flesh-and-blood cocks in the known universe, so of course I love it for that reason – but it’s also a knockout in its own right. Vixen Creations is always killin’ it. (Their latest, the Gambler, is hilariously massive; maybe I’ll manage to fit one into me someday.)

• If you’re in need of a new water-based lube, I can’t recommend Sutil Rich highly enough. It’s luxuriously thick and long-lasting for a lube of this type, and I love how elegant the bottle looks on my nightstand. I’ve gotta restock mine soon!

• I’ve been wanting a Crystal Delights Star Delight glass dildo for years, and it’s always been way out of my price range – but they were having a sale around Christmastime, so I bought myself one as a holiday gift and had it shipped to my boyfriend in New York to save on postage costs. It’s quite a simple shape, and it’s made of borosilicate glass rather than the fancier and weightier soda lime glass, and both of those facts make me doubt that it’s worth its ridiculously high price tag. But it’s become one of my favorite toys to have inside me while I’m receiving oral sex. It’s surprisingly hard to find toys that work well for this purpose, but this one fits the bill. Here’s my partner on why this toy is genius:

When I’m going down on you, and I want to fuck you with a dildo, it’s nice to have something that won’t jab me in the face. The Crystal Delights dildo is perfect for this because after it’s inserted, it has a wide/thin base that I can easily press on with my hand, but that doesn’t bump my chin while I’m licking and sucking on your clit. Pressing one or two fingers against the gem in the base allows me to find the center of the toy just by touch and control the angle more easily. And It stays in place really well because of the texture and length, so I never worry about it coming too far out right as I get close to making you come. Also it looks gorgeous sliding into your cunt, and when I take a moment to breathe and give your sensitive clit a break, I have a pretty glass cock to look at.

Fantasy fodder

• (Content note for this one: incest roleplay.) Older brother/younger sister roleplay is something my partner and I experiment with occasionally. It’s an interesting dynamic because it allows for both nurturing-based and humiliation-based styles of dominance; I can be both bullied and loved, in the same scene, by the same person. Basically what I’m saying is that every way m’boyf ever dominates me is hot as fuck and I want more of it…

• (Content note: intoxicated sex, faux-“drugging.”) After a visit to a local dispensary, my partner and I found ourselves in possession of a weed-infused Nanaimo bar, which of course we immediately used for sexual purposes. High sex is great; high sex specifically on edibles is, in my experience, especially great. More giggly kink 2k19!

• A recurring fantasy for me lately is a scenario where a dommy dude fucks me and commands a subby dude to go down on me during the proceedings, purely so I’ll be tight and wet for his pleasure. (Uhh, writing porny shit like this still embarrasses me even though I’ve been chronicling my sex life online for nearly 7 years.) I enjoy that this fantasy makes me feel simultaneously objectified and prized, both useful and unimportant in one fell swoop. The breadth of the human sexual imagination is a trip!

Sexcetera

• The Voices of the Walrus podcast read my piece on asexuality and also interviewed me about it on live TV. I thought their questions were really smart, and I hope I answered them well!

• This month was the five-year anniversary of Tell Me Something Good, my local sexy storytelling event. It was lovely to spend the evening with whip-smart sex-positive folks, sharing stories from our wacky-‘n’-wild sex lives. I told the story of my recent Library Bar roleplay with my partner and it was fun!

• Sextistics: This month I had in-person sex 10 times and phone sex 22 times, totaling 32 sex sessions.

Femme stuff

• Despite owning a zillion already, I bought a new red lipstick this month: Rouge D’Armani matte lipstick in “Lucky Red,” the matte version of my favorite red. (I don’t think they make the glossy version of this shade anymore?! Or at least, Sephora doesn’t seem to sell it.) It’s classic and luxurious and makes me feel like a movie star, which is exactly what a red lipstick should do.

• Many many months ago, I tweeted lustfully about Coach’s collaboration collection with Keith Haring. My very sweet boyfriend evidently filed that information away, because 10 months later, on our anniversary, he surprised me with the blue Rogue bag from that collection – engraved with my initials and a little blue heart, natch. It’s astonishingly beautiful and well-made, and I feel so sophisticated and vibrant every time I carry it anywhere.

• My best makeup look of the month was the navy smoky eye I did for a long-distance date celebrating our “collarversary.” Sir and I each went to a hotel bar in our respective cities (our first I-love-you was uttered in a hotel bar exactly one year earlier) and talked on the phone while sipping cocktails and snacking. It was romantic AF and I felt very glamorous!

Media

• If you’re at all interested in the subjective experience of mental illness, run – don’t walk – to buy Esmé Weijun Wang’s new book, The Collected Schizophrenias. It’s getting a lot of attention since its launch, and for damn good reason: the essays in its pages depict the sometimes-grim, sometimes-poetic realities of living with schizoaffective disorder, from stigma to self-care to death delusions. I loved every moment I spent reading this book.

• I absolutely tore through Raven Kaldera’s anthology on submissives with disabilities, Kneeling in Spirit. It’s a lovely and affirming resource. If you’re a submissive with physical limitations, or the dominant of someone like that, you should pick this up.

• At one point this month, I experienced an intense and random urge to listen to one of my favorite Missy Bauman songs, “Natalie.” Resultingly, I started listening to Missy’s music pretty much on loop for weeks. She has a new EP out – go take a listen!

Little things

Karaoke night with treasured pals. Selfies in bisexual lighting. Getting pitches accepted at dream publications. Seeing my bruddy perform live. Highly aesthetic peppermint tea. Using D/s as a tool to help keep me healthy. My new fancy pen (a recommendation from my pen-nerd boyfriend). Oysters and Manhattans. Hitting 10,000 Twitter followers! A tiny ruler I bought for impact play before I realized how tiny it was. Ridiculous over-the-top Valentine’s outfits. Spending V-Day evening at a children’s musical in the Distillery District by myself. Beauteous flowers from my beau. Hanging out with cats. My new rainbow menstrual cup. CXBO chocolates. Matching MeUndies. Really immersive hypnotic inductions. Jacobs & Co. Steakhouse. My Sir’s insistence on finding pancakes for me when I was craving ’em. Renewing my Soulpepper subscription. My sparkly new phone case. My new assistant (it’s a long story).