41&42-365 Ego stroke

It's been a great couple of days. The kind where a series of unrelated events combine to pump up your ego in rich and meaningful ways.

On Wednesday I had to meet with a client. On the drive I had the opportunity to catch up with a friend who knows not only about Ivey Lane but more the real-life me and Vince as well. It was a great conversation overall and one of the topics turned to ego. The good kind. The kind that motivates and encourages. It's true that I'm interested in sexual adventure (as well as LIFE adventure) for experiences and sensations it produces all by itself, for the freedom of expression, for the individual connections.

But a big part of my motivation has to do with the fact that I want that for other people, primarily Vincent. I take immense pride in being the kind of wife that adds to his happiness, not the kind that harps, and bitches, and limits, and scolds, and generally becomes the proverbial "ball and chain" that so many men (and women) live with every day of their fucking lives.

My ego is driven by helping to make peoples lives fully, richer, and more rewarding than they thought possible, in every way I can.

Which brings me to the photos. This first was taken near my client's office. They are happy. They are very happy. They are incredibly happy with me because after several years of false starts and crappy results, they finally brought Vince and I into the project and are finally getting what they want, what they had a hard time articulating, and what their previous vendors couldn't or didn't deliver.
FYI -- the photo above is a ruin of slave quarters on an old plantation. Vince and I get to travel around a bit and we take photos all over the country. I might start a series and call it "Somewhere in America" and add a few of these to Proj365. This photo reminds me that throughout history and even today, there are people who don't have choices or opportunities; who were and are forced to live lives by the whims and dictates of others. And in the end, it all turns back into dust. If you have opportunities in your life and choose not to take them, that's just sad. But if you disallow others, especially those you profess to love, from experiencing all that life has to offer, especially because of your own fear and limits, because you want to keep what's "yours," then you may be more of an asshole than you realize.

The next day, Thursday, was tax prep day. We met with our accountant to go over last year and plan for this one. She rescues cats. Lots of them. This lovely, FAT, HEAVY baby is laying on my arm, which he did for about 45 minutes. My fingers were as asleep as this guy by the end of the meeting!

But it was a good year and this one is shaping up to be even better. Part of the additional ego stroking is that we are reaping some of the rewards of the years of effort we've put into our work and business. In fact, my biggest concern right now isn't whether or not we're going to have jobs this year, but rather how in the hell are we going to get it all done without killing ourselves! As you can see, the tax cat isn't concerned.

After our meeting we just spent the day running errands, hanging out together as we drove all over town. We ended up a cool little restaurant that had nice entertainment in addition to great food. And yes, Ivey's getting her sexy back! Yes!!

We spent the evening flirting with each other, thinking about other people we may (or may not) be meeting. We chatted about the strangeness of it all as well as the adventure. We talked a little about some of our new friends and how much we enjoy them. We laughed as we thought about the "if they only knew!" quality of some of our older, more established friendships. We talked about possibilities and all of life's adventures that are on their way. Not just sex (though it's a significant part!), but work, travel, life. And I felt damn good. So good in fact that we came home, I put on one of my new sexy ensembles that I bought at Christmas just for Vince. We went up to our little love nest and fucked and laughed and giggled and moaned and kissed and just had ourselves a fine old time.

And this morning, we woke up and did it again. If that won't stroke your ego, nuthin' will.