My very firstest-Leather Pride bootblacking gig.
A few people were surprised that I would drive 5 hours to do 4 hours of bootblacking.
But that's cause they don't know me.
Let me move away from Pittsburgh for a few moments and explain some things about me.
I have struggled a lot with my identity as a bootblack.
I have issues. I am a cis-gendered female, mostly femme, mostly heterosexual. I am closing in on age 50. I am plain and struggle with my weight. I am shy and introverted.
I am not an appropriate choice to work at a men's Leather bar. Which I don't resent, by the way. It's just the nature of what bootblacking is. Gay men generally do not want my girl cooties on their boots.
Even kink events, I'm not the popular choice. Why have a middle-aged plain overweight lady do your boots when a sexy young hot thing can do them instead.
I totally get all this.
But I love bootblacking with a fierce passion.
Often I have wondered why I feel so strongly about bootblacking, when I simply don't have the right equipment to get a decent number of opportunities. I have shaken my fist, a-la-Salieri, at the heavens for punishing me.
But I've been working through it.
I believe there are reasons for the way things are, reasons that I probably never will understand. And that's okay. Life is too short to wonder why things are the way they are. Better to do what I can and be happy with that.
So every bootblacking event I have the honor to work at, I give myself, 100%. If you sit in my chair I can guarantee you are getting the very best of my skills and love. I try to remember that every opportunity I get, might be my last. It should not be squandered.
Now. Back to Pittsburgh.
What a wonderful weekend I had. I probably worked closer to 6 hours. And met some amazing people. The first night, Friday, at Leather Central, I could not believe how busy I was. That some of my customers were old-time Leather men and they were happy to sit in my chair and have me work on their boots, girl cooties and all. God damn. I could have cried. I did, actually, in my car on the way back to my hotel.
The second night was the conclusion of the title contest. This was at a different place and the two of us bootblacks were in the back of the bar. Again, I was honored to do the boots of just the nicest Leather men, who were just happy to have someone fuss over them and their boots. It is such a fulfilling feeling, to have someone walk away from your chair, not only with their boots shiny and glowing, but their spirit shiny and glowing too.
This is why I love what I do. And if I don't get to do it as often as I'd like...oh well. Perhaps it is this way so that I may feel this joy as profoundly as I do.
THANK YOU PITTSBURGH!! HOPE TO SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!!
