[box]ANYONE can participate in the EdenVlogs topic of the month and you get a gift card to EdenFantasys for doing it! Just record yourself talking about the topic and upload the finished product to EdenTube. Then email Rayne at rayne(at)edenfantasys(d0t)com with a link and your profile information![/box]

Wow! There was a lot of great participation in the BlogHer 2011 special giveaway! We were very proud and excited to be able to sponsor BlogHer, and we’re glad that you share our excitement. Of course, that excitement doubles when we offer prizes, right?

Well, we were giving away three EdenFantasys goodie bags. They were the same bags that we gave away at BlogHer to the bloggers there! In each bag, we have the Passion Bullets Dual, an EdenFantasys Tote Bag, a 1.5 ounce bottle of Wet Premium Silicone lubricant, Eden Toy and Body Wipes, and one of our brand new EdenFantasys t-shirts!

So who won? Well, congratulations to Latoya, Miss Tejota, Gia_Pet for each winning a bag!

Please send me an e-mail (kayla (at ) edenfantasys (dot) com ) with your name and address, and I’ll get these fun bags out to you as soon as possible! While you’re at it, come experience some of the fun we had at BlogHer ’11 by reading our articles.

Don’t forget to check out our ultra-amazing current giveaway for Njoy products!

Did you know that, this year, EdenFantasys sponsored BlogHer ’11? That means that we traveled all the way out to the beautiful San Diego to attend the conference, educate people about our sex toys, and meet bloggers from all over the nation! We had our very own table in the Expo hall and threw a dildo decorating party in our hotel suite as well! Kris and Kayla have both talked about their experience at BlogHer which you should check out for some neat pictures too! There were great samples and items in our swag bag that we gave away, and since we know that not everyone can attend BlogHer, we’d love to give a swag bag away to one of you – except you’ll have it to mailed to you!

Prizes

We’re giving away three swag bags to three lucky winners! In these swag bags, there will be the Passion Bullets Dual, an EdenFantasys Tote Bag, a 1.5 ounce bottle of Wet Premium Silicone lubricant, Eden Toy and Body Wipes, and one of our brand new EdenFantasys t-shirts!

How To Enter

• Leave a comment telling us when you encountered your first sex toy. For many bloggers, their first time was when they came up to our booth in BlogHer! What did you think about your first toy? Did you find it at a conference? You can do this once.
• Tweet the giveaway. Make sure to include the #blogher11 hashtag in your Tweet. “Thumbs up” it on StumbleUpon. Digg it. +1 it. GBuzz it. Reblog it on Tumblr. Just share it somewhere! Come back here and link us to the post. Links to profiles will not be counted. Make sure you link to the post. You can do this once a day.
• You can blog about the giveaway on your own blog. Feel free to write about your BlogHer experiences, too, if you have been there before. Make sure to include a link to EdenFantasys and this giveaway post! You can do this once.
• We had a lot of great sponsors help us out with the contest! You should follow them on EdenLink, and we’ll enter you to win the swag bags! Follow EdenFantasys, Doc Johnson, California Exotics, Tantus, Jopen, Fun Factory, or Wet Lubricants on EdenLink to enter for the swag bags! Leave a comment to let us know that you follow each one! If you already follow them, just let us know! You get one entry for each company.

Lots of fun ways to enter to win this great swag bag, and we’ll be picking three winners to win these great swag bags!

If you didn’t get the chance to talk with us at BlogHer and figure out about the programs we have going on, we have this very helpful page that will explain all of the ways that you can work with us. EdenLovesBloggers, and if you’re a blogger, we’d love to work with you!

This contest runs from Tuesday, August 16th, 2011 until Monday, August 22nd, 2011. Each entry must be submitted as a comment in order to count. Each entry will be verified and duplicate or late entries will be disqualified. Please check back on Wednesday, August 24th, 2011 to see if you won!

Contest is now closed!

Have you seen one of the newest events that we have going on at the EdenFantasys forums? It’s the EdenLink Q&A! With our idea to bring you a very unique opportunity, this is what happened! The EdenLink Q&A gives you the chance to come in and ask questions about the history, the products, and the recent releases from your favorite companies. For August, Wet Lubricants will be our guest of honor. On August 17th from 7PM until 8PM Eastern, on the EdenFantasys forum, Jennifer from Wet Lubricants will be available to take any questions that you have about their company.

Wet Lubricants is the world-wide leader in creating innovative products that can enhance the intimate moments in a person’s life. We carry quite a few of the Wet Lubricant lubes including the
They’ve expanded their product line to provide a lubricant for whatever your needs may be! Want a tried-and-true lubricant? We have the Wet Gel Lubricant. Want to try something flavored? We have the Wet Body Glide. Have sensitive skin and require a softer lubricant? We have Wet Comfort for you. Want to try the new water and silicone hybrid lubricant? There’s always the Synergy!

The Wet Gel Lubricant is a basic lubricant that you guys have been talking about! With 27 reviews, Wet Gel lubricant seems to be a good choice for many. Here’s what skatman91 has to say about it: “This is a great lubricant for anyone trying to reduce friction and increase pleasure. The lube only requires a few drops for intensified gratification and lasts for quite sometime. It’s water-based, so you are able to ingest it and it’s tasteless. It’s great for masturbation/vaginal sex/anal sex. If not cleaned up in time though, it will leave a sticky feeling on you. It’s an easy clean up afterwards. Just take a damp towel or tissue and wipe it off.” Is there any better way to celebrate such an amazing event than by giving away some of their products to participants? No, we didn’t think there was either!

Three random winners during the meeting will be given:

1st prize: Wet Together lubricant, the Bendable You Too vibrator, and the Eden Toy and Body Wipes
2nd prize: The Vibrating Tongue Ring, the oral-sex Wet Fun Flavors 4-in-1 lubricant, and the Wet Ecstasy lubricant
3rd prize: A $25 giftcard to purchase your favorite Wet lubricant!

As an added bonus to this great prizes, everyone that participates in this event by asking a question will be given a coupon code that’s good for 25% off all of our Wet Lubricants! How awesome is that?

We’re giving you an amazing opportunity to come and talk to Wet Lubricants one-on-one, learn a lot more about their products, and win some great prizes! Come seize this great opportunity!

EdenFantasys had the pleasure of sponsoring BlogHer ’11 which was at San Diego this year. BlogHer was a blast! I must admit that I’m very, very proud and excited over the reception that EdenFantasys received while there. Everyone was very kind to us, and I’m really excited to see everyone else’s excitement that went around our swag bag. I hear it was the most-talked about swag bag at the entire conference! I think that’s always something that I’d love to hear, and I’m really proud of how well EdenFantasys did.

Our hotel, the Omni

Our booth before the conference started

We had an artist come and paint during the party.

That’s not to say that it wasn’t really busy because, I promise, it was. There were almost always people at our booth, and it was certainly enjoyable to be able to explain some of our toys to them. We had some of the Jimmyjane, some FunFactory, and some Jopen toys out on display. Seeing people’s faces when I explained the magnetic charging properties of the FunFactory and the Jimmyjane toys just made me smile. Sometimes I forget how amazing some of the sex toy technology really is! We’ve certainly come a long way from what adult toys used to look like.

Kris and I took out the dildos from the packaging the night before the party.

Fun during the dildo party

Check out that grin! Another satisfied customer.

Even though EdenFantasys had some great swag, there were a ton of other companies giving out some other great samples and items too. With our EdenFantasys tote bags being part of our swag, it was impossible to go anywhere in the conference center without seeing one of the bags! Along with our swag, there was a ton of other great items being given out. Dr. Scholls was a hit as they were giving out Fast Flats and other foot cushions, and 3M was giving out eco-friendly scotch tape and water bottles. Pepsi was giving out free samples of their drinks, and you could get samples of Philosophy’s body products as well. Glad was giving out free Glad containers, and you could pick up a Yahoo Style Guide book at the Yahoo Contributor Network booth. That’s only the beginning of some of the great swag!

Swag I had

Right about now, you're wishing you were there, huh?

Ooo! A diva Big Stuff!

At our booth, we had quite a few people stop by and want to take pictures as well. After all, we’re the only adult toy store represented at BlogHer. People were clamoring around the booth to receive one of our swag bags (which contained the Passion Dual bullets, Eden Wipes, a California Exotics vibrator, and Wet Lubricants Safe Sex Kits. We also started giving out our adorable t-shirts later in the conference: “I Like Things that Go Vroom“. I certainly loved the t-shirt, and the bloggers thought it was a big hit as well!

That was real sand. They had to bring in buckets upon buckets to make that on the table.

Doc Johnson toys that were for decorating

The star is perfect.

Our toy decorating party went smoothly as well, and I loved meeting so many new bloggers in such a laid-back setting. We had feathers, googly eyes, ribbon, markets, sparkle glue, gems, and tons of other decorations to help our bloggers decorate their dildos! Sitting around the circular table to decorate, everyone had a great time talking about their toy and attempting to decorate it to the best of their ability. You should have seen our entire bed of dildos! It was great! Our party-goers left our party with some Little Secrets vibrators from Tantus and Doc Johnson as well along with their newly decorated friend. We gave away the new Eden t-shirts too! It was just a great, fun atmosphere, and there was a lot of laughs.

Having fun at the party

It's a monster! "That's what she said!"

Aren't they adorable?

More fun with the dildo decoration

Attending the sessions was very educational. During each BlogHer session, a panel of well-known bloggers (for that topic) and a moderator discuss different aspects of the topic. They take questions from the audience, and I know I learned a lot there. “Video Blogging U” was probably my favorite of the presentations, and it covered how to make your video blogs and video reviews search-engine friendly, better-lit and better-quality, and techniques for making the best ones. As both a blogger and an EdenFantasys representative who works with bloggers, it was really neat to be able to relate the information to both sides of the fence.

One of the sessions I attended. Connecting with Brands from the Inside Out

Maria chats with one of the many men who were brave enought to stop by!

Posing at the Brawny man booth. Even cardboard cut-outs are taller than me.

I had a really fun time at the BlogHer conference. I ran a bit low on sleep (doesn’t everyone during a conference?), and I had a fun time flying for the first time. I met a ton of fun, new bloggers, and I had a great time introducing women to their first sex toys. What an honor! It was fun to be there, and I learned a lot and met a lot of new friends. Now I just have to catch up on my sleep.

Going to your first strip club can be an exciting and scary experience. Believe me, I know – I just went to my first strip club yesterday. I loaded my boyfriend and sister (which, by the way, taking your sister to a strip club is a very awkward venture, and you may choose to forgo this step when you take your own adventure) into the car, and we went out to a strip club on the edge of town. The building was unmarked with no windows, and the only signage it had was “18+ SHOWGIRLS” on the outside, so we had absolutely nothing to go off of when we went to attend this strip club. You know what else is extra not-helpful? The internet.

Most strip clubs around here seem to be a bit too low-budget or too low-tech to actually have a website. Considering all we had to go off of was the odd banner on the outside of the building, we couldn’t figure out the name of the strip club to search it on the internet, either. Finally, with a Places application coming to the rescue, we found out only a little bit about the club – and what we found out was only due to user reviews. Unless you’re attending a top-of-the-line club, I’d be prepared for surprises, or the experience to be different from user reviews (after all, maybe they got themselves tossed out).

So, you used your browser to find all the information that you can, but that still includes a half-updated review about the cover fee that you recovered from fucktitties.com, which for some reason, doesn’t seem to be a very reliable source. Now what do you do? The movies always show the main characters giving dollar bills to the strippers. Is that something you should pick-up before you go, or are strip clubs advanced enough to have the technology to give you your ones while you’re there? In our case, when you decide you’re going out to a strip club at 8PM on a Saturday night when all the banks are closed, where do you go? Well, I can tell you where we went. To Wal-Mart. With a debit card. To withdraw lots of money in ones. Yes, mother-with-child behind me in the line, I did see that evil glare. Maybe I just really like soda machines; don’t be so judgmental.

So, now I have large bills for the cover fee and small ones for a tip. We drove our way over there in hopes that 10:00 at night would be late enough for people to be there. Thank god – it was. We walk in, and first impressions are not-so-good. The front desk consists of a guy smoking in a small, 3-foot by 3-foot room where the three of us barely fit. The kicker? The entire window in front of him is covered in metal bars and plexi-glass, aside from a small hole. Identification in hand, we give him our cover fee (which happens to be $10 for women and $15 for men) and walk through the very-heavy door where we are greeted by a large, scary-looking bouncer with chains blocking off the way in.

He kinda eyed up my sister awkwardly, used a flashlight to check her ID, and removed the chain to let her through, then he did the same with me (minus the eyeing portion). For the boyfriend, though, he checks the ID, and then he is patted down for any weapons or drugs. Their policy is to pat down all males who come through a door – even a small, 140 pound guy traveling with two women.

Let me explain the place: It’s pretty darn dark (don’t expect to be able to read your watch), but nothing looks too horribly unclean. There are little strobe lights everywhere, and there’s actually an ATM near the bouncer (but I’m not sure it would give out ones and never asked). There’s a large area toward the opposite end of the entrance where you can watch while the strippers get dressed and chat (loudly) with each other, and towards that end, there’s also a “private” room that has a see-through glass-panel side so the bouncers can moderate for icky activity. Toward the private room, there’s community-like seating where all of the chairs face the stage in a living-room like fashion. The stage is relatively large, with enough room for the stripper to easily use her pole and move around, but it wasn’t any bigger than ten feet. Toward a back corner of the store, was a small adult store which includes a bunch of jelly toys, lots of small-sized lingerie, and stripper platform heels.

This was our next dilemma. Where to sit? There’s the community-style area in the corner, the chairs next to the stage, and the rows of chairs that are further back from the stage. We didn’t know it at the time, but the community-style area is for guys to sit and watch the show from further back, and the not-dancing women will hit up the guys for private dances. The rows of chairs further back from the stage are for watching the dancing when you don’t want to tip, and again, women will flirt with you there to try to get you to pay for a private dance. We chose the chairs next to the stage which, as it turns out, wasn’t a bad place. In these places, the on-stage woman will dance on your lap or right in front of you to earn tips, and there’s a black “ledge” in front of you where you place your tip. The dancer will notice your tip and come over to you. So no, it’s not like the movies (at least in this club) where you place the money in their thongs.

Each girl would be on stage, starting in some lingerie (like what is sold at EdenFantasys). Each woman would dance to four songs, and during the songs, slip off clothing. During their dancing, some would come up and dance on your lap before you had placed a tip, but you got a much more thorough lap dance if you placed a tip. This is where the next awkward comes in: What, exactly, do you do when the person in the seat next to you is getting a lapdance – especially when it is your sister? There’s a naked woman on my sister’s lap grinding her breasts into my sister’s face; like, do you watch the stripper or what? If it’s something across the room, it’s fun to watch what the stripper is doing, but what are the rules of etiquette when it is your sister? You don’t want to stare and be rude about it, but there IS a naked woman next to you, so it’s a fine line. (Which, by the way, my sister adds that you should not wear a mini-skirt to the strip club if you expect to get a lapdance, as having pussy-stubble from a stranger rubbed on your thigh is an awkward experience.)

So you want to get a lapdance, right? Their lapdances mostly included grinding on your lap, pressing their breasts in your face, or sitting on the tip ledge and spread themselves for you. But, how much do you tip? I mean, I feel like a dollar is a bit cheap for the small lapdance that you get, but it’s impossible to tell how much others are tipping. We settled on a couple dollar bills for each tip, but we still never figured out how much you’re supposed to tip.

Really, though, that was about the gist of it. It was neat to see the women strip, and they all wore very sexy heels and moved with grace. Some of them did some very exotic and athletic stripper moves on the stripper pole (like climbing it), while others stuck to mostly floor work and dancing around the pole. There were bigger women, and there were also smaller, more athletic women who danced. When the women weren’t on-stage, it was normal for them to talk to some of the guys there and flirt with them. As this is a bring-your-own-beverage club, most of the middle-aged men who came brought a cooler or couple cans of beer with them to enjoy the show.

I think your experience will vary depending on the quality of the club you attend. We went to a small, rural-type strip club that wasn’t horribly low-class, but it wasn’t high-class either. Some of the women seemed like they really enjoyed it, while sadly, some of the women didn’t look like they were enjoying themselves. We stayed for about an hour an a half, and we did have a good time watching the girls and enjoying the music. Now, I hope you know a little better about what to prepare for when you hit up your local strip club!

Kinky sex can be amazingly fun and amazingly arousing, as long as you do a bit of planning in advance. After all, with consent and communication beforehand, wouldn’t it be fun to give a “naughty” spanking? What about being the “evil” teacher whose student can’t seem to get the right answer? Maybe the (fake) nightstick that a policeman is carrying is going to teach you to not drive over the speed limit next time. Kink has a lot of different possibilities, and with great possibilities does come the need to put in some consideration to safety measures, to make sure that this slight-risk activity stays as safe and consensual as possible. As always, discuss any kink-related item (especially impact play) with your partner before attempting to bringing it up during play. Once you both have discussed your desire to play with impact play such as: flogging, spanking, caning, paddling, cropping, or any activity where you strike your partner for arousal, here are other safety considerations to keep in mind:

Safe Words:
A safe word is one of the basic components of any kink scene. Because, when you get kinky, you might want to pretend to hate it. In impact play, “no” may sometimes mean “yes”. For this reason, you use an agreed-upon safe word that basically means “I’m serious; please stop!”. It’s important you and your partner agree upon a safe word before playing with kink. A lot of kinksters that use the stop-light system: “red” means “stop now”, saying “yellow” means “not so much/not this activity”, and if you’d like, saying “green” means “I’m perfectly okay with this”. This is a way for you to kick, scream, pout, and plead all you want, while still having a way to actually get out of the scene if something goes wrong. Both partners should agree to stop all activity when a safe word is spoken – even if in the middle of a scene, trust is important, and as such, a safe word should ALWAYS be respected, and the scene should be halted immediately.

Safety Zones:
There are certain zones on the human body where impact play should never be done. There are nerves very close to the surface of the skin, and doing any sort of impact there can severely injure a person. These no-touch zones are all of the arms, the neck and head, the front and back mid-section between where the ribcage ends and the pelvis bones begin, and the area including the knees and below to the toes. The lower back is the biggest no-no because it’s at the biggest risk to be struck. The lower back includes a kidney on either side of the body, and those are very close to the surface and very easy to harm. No strikes should land above the butt when it comes to the lower back. None. Nada. A ruptured kidney doesn’t sound very kinky. Does it?

So where should you strike? The biggest strike zone is the butt. Everyone has some padding on their butt, so it’s the best (and most pleasurable!) place to strike someone. This is where all of your impact play should be done if you’re a beginner. When you advance, other plausible areas including the back upper third of the thighs (but not near the knees as there are nerves near the surface) and the upper back near the shoulder blades. Most people can’t take the upper back as an impact point because some people don’t have any extra fat there. So really, there’s no reason to move away from the butt when you’re starting out. Caning and other more-painful toys should never be used anywhere aside from fleshy, padded areas, like the butt.

Easing Into It:
When working with your partner and striking your partner, you want to make sure to start slowly – especially if either of you are new to this. The best system is an open-communication system. This may not factor into the “punishing me as hard as they can” fantasy, but those fantasies can be fulfilled later when you both know your limits. Start off softly for a couple strikes then ask your partner how it feels. You can ask your partner if they can take it harder or not, as well. To make it more in character, you can try something like “How does it feel when I spank you? I bet you want me to hit you harder, don’t you?” If your partner seems genuinely scared, or seriously mentions that they can’t take it any harder, then stay at the level that you’re at. If they start fake begging or fake pleading, (you know your partner enough to know when it’s fake, right?) you know they’re playing their character, and you can kick it up a notch.

Despite what you see in porn movies and such, kinksters start off softly with their play. The reason that impact play is pleasurable is because the pain makes the body flood with endorphins. You have to start off softly to give the body time to adjust and release those endorphins. Don’t expect to start off full-strength – even when you’re an advanced player. Starting off softly is always the best way to make spanking and impact play more pleasurable.

Pick your Implement:
When you want to delve into flogging, paddling, caning, or anything for the first time, you need to make sure you pick a kink toy that’s going to match your ability with the materials and pain scale. Not all kink toys feel or act the same way. Would you expect a wooden paddle to make the same sensation that a fur paddle would? No. If you are a beginner, look for certain materials in your kink toys to make sure that your toys don’t make it as easy to cause damage.

When looking at paddles, go with anything that is covered in faux fur, if at all possible. Please try to avoid canes completely if you’re new. Any type of crop is going to be stingy, but crops that are shorter in length will be less stingy. For floggers, stick with a heavier flogger that is made from suede or faux fur, if possible. All of these materials can still cause pleasurable sensations, but they aren’t as likely as firmer materials to cause harm to your partner. You have a bit more wiggle-room when it comes to making mistakes.

Practice your Implement:
One of the biggest mistakes with an impact toy can be going in half-practiced. All impact toys have a different sensation, and require different handling. Before you practice on a human being, get your targeting down first – especially if it’s from a rougher material or a cane. Practice hitting a pillow. If you really want to get down to it, place a duct-tape “X” on the pillow and practice attempting to hit that spot over and over. (To make this more realistic, you can prop up the pillow at an angle, up against a wall.) Once you can repeatedly hit this “X” with very, very minor misses, you’re ready to play with a human being. After all, impact play can be dangerous, and you want to make sure that you aren’t going to injure your partner when you go to play.

Prepare for Mistakes:
Before you play, make sure to prepare for mistakes in advanced. For example, I recommend having a First Aid Kit around to take care of any injuries (cuts, etc.) that doing the impact play has caused. For the first couple times you play (if not always), I highly, highly recommend wearing something that protects the kidneys, as they are one of the most in-danger areas with impact play. If you’re doing impact play with a female bottom, have the female wear a denim skirt (or heavy material), and have her pull it up above her hips. It provides a last-minute barrier between the impact toy and her kidneys. With guys, it can be just wearing an extra-thick shirt. Or if you really want to be safe, play where you can put a blanket over your partner’s kidneys and lower back. Most people don’t miss while spanking with a hand, but when it comes to caning or floggers, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Keeping these kink-safety tips in mind, enjoy your impact play. Always make sure you and your partner are on the same page, and never practice impact play with someone you don’t trust. If you wouldn’t trust yourself naked and bound with the potential play partner, just err on the side of caution and don’t play at all. Add some kink toys to your sexy repertoire, and make some kinky fun!

For more in-depth impact play resources and safety, see these books:
SM 101: http://www.edenfantasys.com/books-video-audio/better-sex-guides/sm101-a-realistic-introduction
The Compleat Spanker: http://www.edenfantasys.com/the-compleat-spanker/adult-toys-dvds-19565

I’m surprised at how much I enjoy going back to the hair salon. I’ve been back quite a few times already in the past couple months. It’s actually really interesting in itself. Getting your hair done is something that we don’t normally consider intimate, but when you think about it, the entire idea of getting your hair done is extremely intimate.

For one, we trust the hairdresser with the next few future months of our lives. After all, if they give us a great haircut, we can look amazing for the next couple months. If we get a horrible haircut, we can end up looking horrible for the next couple months. We don’t usually put such an important task on a person, so even getting your hair cut can be an act that has to require some intimacy and some trust of another person you may not even know. We have to trust that someone is going to make us look nice – even if we don’t know the work that they’ve done in the past.

There’s really something sensual about having someone else shampoo your hair. This is something I’d have the boyfriend do on a regular basis, but unfortunately, our house is just not equipped with a place where it would be comfortable to give or receive a hair shampoo. (I should consider purchasing one when I get “rich”, right?) There’s also something so intimate and relaxing about having someone take over a task that is one of those tasks that you’ve been doing for your entire life. During sex, we don’t think to treat the scalp as an erogenous zone, but really, no one besides yourself ever touches your scalp. So I think it’s one of those places where having another human’s touch can be amazingly erotic. It’s not so much a turn-on, as it is relaxing. It’s like having one of those full-body massages.

The price of your visit can vary upon where you go. There’s a place across the street where I love to go in and get my hair shampooed. It’s less than eight dollars there. Other places can cost a whole lot more. Regardless, this can be a less expensive habit than going and getting a coffee daily or getting a regular manicure. It’s my own little habit that I love.

I ended up going back to my hair salon more than I had been in the past. In the past, I rarely had my hair cut. Now I’ve gone a couple times in the last six months, and I’m planning on going back even more. It’s almost like a spa visit. I don’t know if I want my hair cut, but I definitely would enjoy having my hair washed again. And again. It’s probably like my version of having a manicure. It makes my hair light and fluffy, and it’s just plain stress-relieving. I have a feeling I’ll be going back to the salon whenever I have a bad day. Having someone shampoo and clean your hair is just one of the best pick-me-ups.

It’s interesting how holding a third-shift job will change your regular routine. When I first signed up to work a third-shift job, I was worried about how it would fit into my routine. However, the job had a great description, great pay, and was only five minutes away from where I lived. With all those factors in mind, (along with the fact that they offered it to me) I decided to take the plunge, and see if I could make this 3rd shift schedule work for me.

Once your body gets used to the schedule, it’s surprisingly easy to stay awake from 11pm to 7am. I never imagined that staying up in the middle of the night would ever feel as natural as it currently does. It’s actually amusing that as long as I don’t have class, or anything else that requires me to be awake in the daytime, I actually can go weeks without being outside when the sun is out. Though, it took a couple weeks to get into the habit of being awake in the middle of the night.

You’d be surprised at how a third-shift job actually affects your sex life. I mean, after all, we aren’t awake at the same time anymore. We don’t go to bed at the same time. We don’t sleep together all that often anymore. With all of those things in mind, you’d have to imagine that it changes your sex life quite a bit, and yes, it does. You just don’t see each other the same amount that you used to. He’d try to adjust to my 3rd shift schedule, but he has to go to work during the daylight hours, so he has to stay on a “normal” schedule.

A lot of people have sex right in the morning or before going to sleep. Since we don’t go to sleep together, those time frames are gone for us. When I’m going to sleep, he’s just waking up. A lot of times, when I’m waking up, he’s just got a couple hours until he goes to sleep. With this, we don’t have sex nearly as much as we used to. I actually find myself missing him a lot, during the day. We don’t get as much cuddling time because we don’t sleep together either.

When the boyfriend sleeps, I hang out on my laptop in the living room writing up my reviews for the week. It’s actually cute, because the boyfriend has taken to sleeping on the futon in the living room, because he feels lonely if he isn’t in the same room with me. When I sleep while he’s home, I sleep on the futon too. Even if we aren’t actively cuddling, it’s still nice to know that the person you love is nearby and there to “protect” you.

Along with messing up sleep schedules and taking away time to be with one another, it’s a bit harder to get on a regular eating schedule too. After all, my lunch and dinner are at about 1AM and 6AM. I rarely end up eating regular meals because of this. I end up snacking instead, and I’ll eat my “breakfast” when the boyfriend eats his dinner.

Getting the proper amount of sleep is awkward too. After all, when I need to sleep, the rest of the world is just waking up and has things to do. I like hanging out or doing exciting things with other people, so it’s really tempting to just stay awake. I know it’s not the best to stay awake, but at the same time, it’s really nice to be around other people. Making sure to get the proper amount of sleep is one of those things that most 3rd shift workers face.

I enjoy my 3rd shift job though. It’s a great job, and I like working there. At the same time, it requires me to “schedule” what used to be my normal, fit-in-as-we-go functions like eating, sleeping, or having sex with the boyfriend. It takes a bit of getting used to, and it’s a bit of a hassle, but if you can find a good 3rd shift job, it’s worth it.

The winter has been pretty boring. I’m not sure if it’s a matter of my life being pretty boring, or if it’s just winter in general, but I’m almost glad that winter is over. The early months of spring (like right now) are my favorite because it’s not too warm and not too cold. I hate the frigid temperatures of the winter, and I hate the sweltering temperatures of the summer, so spring and fall are my only reprieves.

In fact, if you ask me, I can give you a ton of reasons why spring is my favorite season. For one, a lot of days are nice and cloudy, which are my favorite days. The sun is nice, but there’s something about the omniscience of the cloudy sky that can make a spring day seem all the more productive. Along with that, all of the bugs haven’t come out just yet. In summer, they all are full-force and ready to bother my life. In the spring, they sorta are coming out, but they haven’t reached full force, and a good junk of them are dead from the winter’s cold. (There’s something good about Midwest winters, right?) In spring, all of the snow is melting too. And of course, the little chipmunks and squirrels come out to play, which makes me a happy person anyway.

Spring can also be interesting because everything is coming back to life. My town actually looks really horrible during the winter. All of the gorgeous greenery that the town tries so hard to upkeep is all dead. Plus, with all of the snow melting, our town becomes in danger of flooding every spring as well, so winter just brings a lot of evil things to our town. However, when the green starts popping up again, the town starts looking gorgeous again. There are tons of trees outside, and we live really close to a park as well. The campus itself starts to look a little ragged because the water from the melting snow makes mud everywhere. Overall, though, our town starts to look a lot more beautiful and a lot more gorgeous (as long as you avoid the downtown bars).

This spring, I can’t say that I have any particular plans. I know I plan on enjoying being outside a lot more, and I’m actually looking forward to putting in a lot of hours with my job as well. The boyfriend and I will probably go out and visit somewhere for a mini-vacation sometime in early May. Along with that, we’re both hoping to just spend a lot of time at home. I think we may go on a road trip somewhere nearby, but it’s not like we can go too far away. After all, it’s not like I can rent a hotel.

I’d like to get on a soapbox here – I still don’t understand why someone under-21 is not allowed to rent a hotel room. I wish there was a way that under-21 guests could show proof of responsibility. I have a credit card, a steady job, and I pay all of my bills on time. It seems unfortunate that even though I hold an adult job, I’m not allowed to have the adult relaxation of being able to go on a vacation, since I’m not allowed to rent a hotel room to stay there. I may try calling around to see if someone will make an exception, but at the same time, I don’t expect much.

I guess I don’t have too many spring plans in the making. I’m hoping I can take a vacation after classes finish, but we’ll see. I think we’ll probably just stick close to home and enjoy all of the beauty that nature brings to us. Spring is one of my favorite seasons, and I think I’m going to happily hang around in it.