Presenting at Tethered To WiFi 2.0

Our First Online Presentation

Here at Swinky Life, Covid was almost a life ending event for us. We had just launched a site/team/community where the main goal was small, intimate, in person workshops teaching kink and swinging skills in a very hands on, fun way. Not much of that going on in 2020! As the year wound on, we began seriously considering an online alternative. We began attending online events, in part, to see how they worked, how we felt as attendees, and get ideas (both good and bad) from watching others try. One of those events was the first Tethered to WiFi conference. We found that to be a great event, and we really enjoyed it. It energized and enthused us, and we learned a lot from watching all of the presenters in terms of what seemed to work well, and not work well, as an online presentation. So when they released the call for presenters for Tethered to WiFi 2.0, we were all over it. And we were thrilled when our presentation was accepted, and we jumped into preparations with abandon.

Practice and Prep

The workshop itself was already completed, but doing it in an online context was not. We starting looking at all of our ideas from watching others and began roughing out how we thought it would best go. We quickly figured out that the class itself was easy… but getting all the ancillary stuff in was more challenging, things like safety, consent, and our warmup exercises. One of the big constraints was the space and the setup, and we ultimately decided that the benefits of pre-setting our cameras and forcing ourselves to be stationary outweighed the ability to be more flexible and free to move. But even just a few nights before the event, there was still a lot in flux. We had the space laid out, taped off so we could take it down and put it back up quickly, and our outline and timeline were laid out, but details were still very fluid 48 hours before showtime, late Sunday.

I don’t feel good…

As the last week unfolded, another distraction was that my (Phoenix Phyre here) blood pressure was very elevated, and not responding to my medication like normal. By the time the weekend began, I was concerned. Then, I began to feel bad. Not terrible, just not right. But I am at the point in life where you take these things seriously. And so we began to debate what the right thing to do would be. After much debate, we agreed that going somewhere to get checked out was rational, and since it was only Saturday afternoon, it gave me a little more than 24 hours to deal with it before our presentation, which also seemed reasonable. So now the question became, where to go? In my mind, the ER is where you go and sit and wait and hope you don’t die of old age before your number comes up and someone can see you. So, we called the closest Urgent Care and spoke with them. They assured us they had us covered, and so off we went.

Off to Urgent Care

When we arrived at Urgent Care, it was empty. We got checked in and whisked right back to speak to the triage nurse. About two minutes into her interview, she said, “Sir, I need to stop you right there… You belong in the ER. Your blood pressure is dangerously high, and we don’t have any of the equipment or lab capabilities to properly care for you.” After picking my chin up off the floor, we discussed the phone call I had made less than an hour ago where I had explicitly asked if they had the necessary equipment, or if I should just go directly to the ER. I am certain that conversation did not help my blood pressure.

Off to the ER

We walked out of Urgent Care, got back in our car, and drove to the ER. The wait there was also very short, and soon I had needles and wires and stickies all over me. They also gave me some medication to very bluntly force the blood pressure to drop. They did some preliminary tests, and took some blood work to analyze.At the end of all of that, about 3 hours later, they came to talk with me. My heart looked fine, but they did not know why the blood pressure was so high, and my chest tension was bothering them. Because of my age, the blood pressure, and my description of how I felt, I was right in the middle of the risk scale, and based on that, they were strongly recommending I check myself into the hospital for overnight observation. If I opted not to do this, I would have to sign myself out of their care AMA. (Against Medical Advice… so, explain to your insurance company that you told the hospital to go fuck themselves!)We discussed the schedule of my next day, and the doctor felt confident that by early the next day (Sunday) I should be home, in plenty of time to do our presentation at Tethered to Wifi 2.0.

Off to the Hospital

The ER called me an ambulance, and did all the paperwork, and I finally got a great ride to the hospital. By the time I got there, it was almost 9:30 at night… so other than getting checked in, the expectation was, not much would happen on that evening. They did take all my initial stats, and drew some more blood, and gave me more meds. Through the night, they came in a few more times to do this and that, so not a great night’s sleep to say the least.

Chasing the Dragon

The next morning is when the fun really started. You see, the ER gave me very powerful stuff to knock the BP down. So by the time I got to the hospital, and they checked my BP, I am pretty sure their reaction was “What is this guy’s problem? He is fine.”… But in the morning, I was back to legit ER levels of BP. I think that surprised them a little, and so the rest of the early day was spent trying one drug after another, waiting an hour to see how it worked, and then regrouping.

Regrouping

And regrouping… and regrouping… Four medicines later, and my BP was actually still going up. They started to talk about keeping me longer, and of course, THAT did not help anything either. In addition to the hospital staff regrouping, our own team began to face the frightening, frustrating reality that I may not make it back in time for the event. There are two others in our team, who were slated to be support, camera crew, and chat managers… after some quick re-evaluation, Crimson Dragonfly was chosen to be my replacement and Myrina became the class instructor rather than me.

While I sat in the hospital, they went through practice run after practice run. While I argued with doctors, they ironed out details. And when the ultimate conclusion became undeniable, I set up my laptop in my hospital room, and we began online dress rehearsals, with them in our studio at home and me sitting in my hospital room lounger chair. (With a virtual background, no one was the wiser!!)

With me now relegated to emcee and color commentator, and Myrina running the instruction, we also needed THREE presenter screens on Zoom, not just two… so, literally moments before going live, we finally reached out to Skyla and let her know what was going on. They were gracious enough to work with us and get it all in place in moments, and then, it was ShowTime!!

Saturday Night Live on Sunday

I was in chorus and jazz ensemble all through middle school and high school, and I loved all of it. There is simply nothing like performing live on stage… any kind of performance, any stage. So, me in the hospital, them at home, and all of us in Zoom … and off we went. It was hectic, funny, stressful, rewarding. We made mistakes, we discovered things in the middle of it all that we had not thought of, but we laughed at ourselves and with our audience and we kept going. In the end, it was all VERY well received and the experience was amazing.

As a side note … It was also grandly entertaining for my nurses, who all knew exactly what was going on… I had been telling them, in detail, for over 24 hours! So, as we were presenting, and they came in to give me more meds and take more BP, I would simply mute, shut my video off, take the meds, and jump back in. They all thought it was great how we were continuing to keep our presentation going.Finally, right before the end of our session, they came in to let me know that they were ready to check me out and send me home, but I was welcome to stay in the room as long as I wanted. So we finished the presentation, and then I began packing.

The After Party

We were the very last presentation of the Tethered to Wifi 2.0 event, so immediately after us was the closing circle. We stayed online for that, and had a great time. Then, time to pack up, ask Crimson Dragonfly to come pick me up, and head home.

Everyone stayed at my house awaiting my return, and we all had dinner as soon as I got back. Then we finished packing all the studio gear and equipment, and everyone headed home. It was not the party you would expect after our first online virtual event appearance, but holy shit, we were all exhausted and depleted beyond belief. But we were also thrilled, and exhilarated, and ecstatic. Not only was it our first appearance at an event such as this, but we met with such adversity, and still pulled it off. Our team has never, since our inception, had to face something like this, put our emotions and concerns for each other aside, regroup, re-plan, re-organize, re-stage, re-write, and execute on such short notice. There are no words to express the love and respect I have for these three other people.

The Follow On Love

The response after the presentation was also awesome. We had many kind comments, picked up several new followers on Instagram, and had some requests for the bonus video we (thought we had) created. (We are re-creating it and you will get it… the first one was just a bit too rough.)The entire experience was crazy, amazing, and heartwarming. Especially to my healthy heart, which it turns out, is fine. We still are not sure what happened, and I have lots of upcoming Dr. visits in the next few weeks, but it was not my heart. And while it would be nice to simply skip all of the personal drama and just talk about the event and how wonderful it was, that would be a disservice. Because, with all of the drama involved, it was the event that pulled us all together, kept us focused on something other than my crisis, and tested our dedication. The bitterness of the trial increased the sweetness of the success.A special thank you to Skyla and Ozma and Tethered to Wifi… they could have totally told us to simply wait for next year, and even though we gave them very little time, they were still gracious about taking our word for it that we had everything under control and only needed a little flexibility. They run an awesome event, and we were proud to be a part of it, and look forward to bringing something even better next year.Until then, stay safe, stay Swinky, check your blood pressure regularly, and enjoy the journey.

~ Phoenix Phyre