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horizontal with lila

43. the unicorn threesome: horizontal with a pussy educator

in episodes on 06/07/18

This is Stevie Boebi. She recently Tweeted, “What is big dick energy and why is everyone saying I have it.”  …


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Stevie:  So, about a year ago— so, my best friend, her name is Danielle Owens-Reid — I recommended that you should take her on the podcast, because she’s fucking great. Um—

Lila:  Yes please.

Stevie:  We’ve been friends for … four years? And I like, tell her everything. And, about a year ago, she told me, “I always liked you because you remind me sooo much of like, younger me.” And I was like, (softly) “Oh I ‘m the fuck that means, but ok.” Um, and then, we were talking about feelings one day, and she was like, “Well, how does that feel? Like what does that actually feel like in your body?” And I was like, “What do you mean, in my body?” (Lila hm’s) And she was like, “Like when you feel something.” And I was like, pffffth! “Danielle, you’re fucking kidding right, that’s not why they’re called feelings, like it’s a metaphor, you don’t actually feel them. (Lila laughs lightly) And she was like, (seriously) “Stevie. YES YOU DO.” And I was like, “WHAT?” So then, she was like, “Okay, you should like, close your eyes and like, think about something that makes you happy and like, notice all of the differences in your body. Like what happens when you feel that. Think about something that makes you angry.” Anger’s the easiest one for me, right. Especially in this day and age. Um, and like, notice the differences in your body. And then joy, and then arousal! Like of course, I see, I— feel physical things with arousal, whatever. So then I started practicing and at first, I didn’t feel anything and I was like, no, this is fucking stupid. But then I kept doing it, and then … n— now I, fucking feel things. And thennn, maybe it took like a month or two— And I always felt things, but like very lightly (Lila hm’s) compared to how I do now. Like it was like, “Oh yeah like, joy I get like this little, like— or excitement I get like these, like, little thunderbolts that are like inside of my chest and like stomach that are like, make me wanna jump up and down and like go like this, right?” Um but, now, excitement is like, TIMES A HUNDRED, but the same thing but times a hundred. And so now I’m learning how to feel— (silly voice) I’m learning how to feel emotions! Feelings are literally called feelings for a reason! Which is fuckin’ — was so mind-blowing to me a year ago. Anyway, so it made me develop an extreme anxiety disorder. (high-pitched laugh!) So, I don’t know if I’m like, happy ‘bout it, or mad ‘bout it. But, I’m goin’ through it. And I’m in lots of therapy. So… we’ll fuckin’ see.

Lila:  You are, literally, feeling the feels.

Stevie:  Got all the feels. And they feel great. I’m honestly kind of happy that my, childhood trauma or whatever the fuck that caused me to have deep repression and like, not feel things, happened, because like, holy shit, it helped me survive. And I was like, “Cool, brain, that was a cool thing.” ‘Cause now, after I’ve developed all this emotional maturity, by feeling things very slightly, to where they don’t control my actions, yeah, I feel like I’m just now going through puberty or something. Emotional puberty.

Lila:  That’s interesting, that reminds me—

Stevie:  So that now I know how to— (trails off) deal with them…

Lila:  I bet it’s similar for trauma, that reminds me of something that Cheryl Strayed says in her book tiny beautiful things, which is a book of her advice columns as Dear Sugar. And she says that … there’s a saying that drug addicts and alcoholics stop maturing at the time that they started using, (Stevie hm’s) and she said, “And I’ve known enough of them, to believe that to be true.” (Stevie mm’s) And it makes sense to me, about trauma as well.

Stevie:  Yeah.

Lila:  That, you would have to halt your emotional maturity because, then… extent of the emotional cataclysm is so overwhelming that you wouldn’t be able to process it, so you shut down until you can.

Stevie:  Yeah, I think that there’s a difference between: learning emotional maturity and learning, for instance, how to claim your emotions and claim your responsibility and, those are things you objectively learn. I don’t think that they’re— they’re not processing. Like I’ve never learned how to process. So that’s what I’m doing now. So my, because I was in a, whatever, repressive or dissociative or whatever state, I never processed any, any of my trauma, that doesn’t mean that I didn’t learn that, for instance, something I just really fuckin’ love saying all the time — because it’s something that rings true for me, ‘cause I’m a very brutally honest person, is that: honesty without tact is cruelty. (Lila mmhm’s) So I can learn that and still be repressing things, and that’s a thing that like, I dunno, can help in romantic and friendships and stuff like that.

Lila:  Yeah.

Stevie:  But yeah, I think that you can’t, I dunno, a therapist told me— my therapist friend told me that um — you can’t process when you’re repressed, or disassociated. But that doesn’t mean you can’t learn and live.



Stevie again. Lookin’ cute. Again.

Welcome to horizontal, the podcast about intimacy of all kinds. We record while the opposite of vertical. And we always wear robes, because it’s important.

In October of 2017, I went on a cross-country road trip and recording tour that I dubbed horizontal does america.

In this episode, I’ve made it across the U.S. to Missoula, Montana. Through a series of fortuities (which you can hear about at the beginning of episode 40, with Lindsey Doe), I got to lie down with Stevie Boebi at Lindsey’s house!

Stevie is a huge ginormous (Instagram and) YouTube star, and yet spontaneously, generously agreed to don a robe, become horizontal, and record uber-personal stories for a complete stranger’s project. Bless her.

Stevie Boebi is the creator and host of the first Lesbian Sex Ed video series. Go subscribe to her YouTube channel (it’s just called “Stevie”) and let her teach you things about pussies, stereotypes, identity politics, and sexxx. Particularly of the giving pleasure to those with pussies variety of sex, such as “How to Finger a Girl,” “How to Have Strap-On Sex,” and “Literally How to Scissor.” (To begin at the beginning, enjoy the video below.)

HOW TO HAVE LESBIAN SEX – Lesbian Sex 101

💼 BUSINESS/PR ENQUIRIES – stevieboebi@gooeymgmt.com 💼 PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/StevieBoebi TWITTER: http://www.twitter.com/stevieboebi INSTA: http://www.instagram.com/stevieboebi TIKTOK: https://www.tiktok.com/@stevieboebi HOPP: https://www.hopp.bio/stevieboebi BRING STEVIE TO YOUR SCHOOL: https://goo.gl/forms/NJTZELAEJucU6w9G3 Tumblr: http://www.stevieboebi.tumblr.com Merch: https://store.dftba.com/collections/stevie-boebi Lindsey can be found in these places: YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/sexplanations PATREON https://www.patreon.com/sexplanations TWITTER https://twitter.com/elleteedee TUMBLR https://www.tumblr.com/blog/tumblingdoe FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/sexplanations

In this second part of our episode, we discuss Lila’s first good threesome, compersion, uneven but balanced relationships (such as, why Stevie likes to date poly people while she remains sexually monogamous), being monogamish, being poly-adjacent, the words “cunt” and “slit,” and Stevie tells me a story about being a voyeur.

Also, feelings.

Lie down with us!


If you enjoy lying down with Stevie and I, become a patron of the horizontal arts! Patreon is an innovation in the life of the artist. It’s a website that crowdsources income on a monthly basis. It can make it possible for me to continue creating independent, uncensored, ad-free homemade radio. My intention is to keep this podcast ad-free, but also to make this my primary career. Show me that you believe in my mission of cultivating intimacy across the world (and dislike ads)!

 

There are lovely perks when you become my patron. For instance, for $7 a month, you’ll gain access to my secret patrons Facebook group, where I share behind-the-scenes photos, fascinating articles, and near-daily curiosities. You’ll also be the subject of a post containing what I call GPG: Genuine Public Gratitude (or not! If you want to remain a private patron, I shall honor you privately!) There’s loads of other rewarding rewards as well, including monthly recorded love poems (at the $10/month level), lullabies, horizontal pillowcases, and snail mail!

Stevie as seen by Marlita on the Run.

Links to Things:

Patron of the horizontal arts!

Stevie’s fantabulous (and funny) YouTube channel, where you can learn nearly everything about lesbian sex.

Stevie’s Instagram, where each post is like a haiku-essay.

Stevie’s Twitter, where she says things. The things on her mind. You know.

Hacienda Villa, where Lila and the Villans live.

In this episode, Stevie recommends nitrile gloves for digital penetration. I took a leaf out of Stevie’s book and recommended them when I was interviewed for Grant Stoddard’s Tonic piece, titled, “9 Things All Good Sex Party Hosts Will Have on Hand.”

Lila proposes the word “libertine” in place of the word “slut,” inspired by this episode of Bawdy Storytelling.

Cheryl Strayed’s book tiny beautiful things, which is a collection of her raw and tender advice columns as Dear Sugar.

horizontal with Stevie in Missoula, Montana. And henceforth shall this serve as evidence of our adorability and horizontality.


Show Notes (feel free to share quotes/resources on social media, and please link to iTunes, this website, or my Patreon!):

iTunes link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/horizontal-with-lila/id1238031115&ls=1

website link: https://horizontalwithlila.com/

Patreon link: https://www.patreon.com/horizontalwithlila

[3:25]  Lila tells the story of the Rainbows & Unicorns party at the Villa.

[4:05]

Lila:  We call ourselves the Villans, ‘cause we live at the Villa. (Stevie giggles) So the Villans wanted to do their own party. And we’d been planning for a long time and the idea had been tossed around for a long time to do a rainbow unicorn party, because one of my housemates, he has a … a fetish of, like Rainbow Brite? And he loves for his (giggles) his girlfriends to—

Remember Rainbow Brite? My housemate does.

Stevie:  Fuckin’ love Rainbow Brite.

Lila:  — young and wear rainbow things and (giggles) he—

Stevie:  That was my shit as a kid.

Lila:  Yeah.

Stevie:  Wait, is she— a ginger?

Lila:  … he …

Stevie:  Rainbow Brite!

Lila:  Oh is she a ginger?

Stevie:  Yeah.

Lila:  … Gosh, I don’t remember.

[Note: See visual aid. Blond? Yellow-haired? Or could she be strawberry blond? Who can say.]

Stevie:  Sorry.

Lila:  Yeah… maybe.

Stevie:  Every woman, or character I was obsessed with as a child, I’m starting to realize, is ginger, and that’s why I’m s— extremely uncomfortable around gingers. Anyway, sorry, go on.

Lila:  Oh, interesting!

Stevie:  Forgot about Rainbow Brite!

Lila:  Well I’m not natural, so… (giggles)

This is Kim Possible. I had to look her up.


Stevie:  Kim Possible— obsessed with her. Maid Marian, from fuckin’ the, the fox version of Robinhood.

This is Maid Marian fox. Totally knew who she was.


Lila:  Oh my God, the fox version of Robinhood; I loved that!

Stevie:  (heaves a little sigh) K. So you had your Rainbow Brite unicorn party, rainbow unicorn party.

Lila:  So, yeah, so we wound up calling it Rainbow Playground, and, it was really fun because, I obviously enjoy control and (giggle) and I love creative control specifically, and so we had a lot of creative control and input and my, my role was doing the deco for the first floor and, so we had piñatas, and we had balloons, and we had— I made a candy mandala, which took me like 13 hours to complete.

Aforementioned Candy Mandala.

Stevie:  Oh my God.

Lila:  It was ridiculous. But it was beautiful! And we made, you know, melted crayon art, so there’s a lot of— there’s always a lot of creativity and sort of, Burning Man-style—

Stevie:  Oh wow.

Lila:  — performativeness that goes into all of our play parties. They’re really, well thought-out, almost installations.

Stevie:  Wow.

Lila:  And I had, also a large role, in the evening, in that— it was also partially to celebrate my birthday, which was a few days ago, and because it was before I was going on this… adventure.

Stevie:  Happy late birthday.

Lila:  Thank you. And I, you know, knew that we were gonna do the piñata — one for me and one for my my housemate whose birthday it also was, and I knew I was gonna do my first— I had only done my first suspension — rope suspension — a couple days before in order to practice for this and then I knew this would be my first public—

Stevie:  Wow.

Lila:  — suspension. In rainbow rope. So, all these different colors of rope down my body and I was dressed as a unicorn so it was a rainbow unicorn suspension, with a long silver horn. (both chuckle)

[6:54]  Lila tells the story of her first good (unicorn!) threesome.

Lila:  And I had the week before woken up from— first of all I had a terrible, terrible day. And then my subconscious gave me this lovely dream. And I woke up from this dream of my friend kissing me. And they are a young couple, and I s— I didn’t know that they were kinky until— I had met him in a different, (giggles) very different scene, and then, at my, maybe second or third time doing Thai bodywork at a play party, which I used to do… I saw him and met his girlfriend for the first time. And they went, into— they had this little, a little tent set up in one of the areas at this party. And we gave them a four-handed massage (Stevie mmhms) while they were on one massage table together, making out and touching each other and then they were having these four hands roam all over and massage them. And then, they said, “Okay, we’re gonna go into this tent with this other couple. And I felt … envy.” (both laugh)

Stevie:  Oh no!

Lila:  And so, you know, a week before this rainbow playground party, I woke up from this dream that he was kissing me. And I texted him, I said, “OHH! I was just given this delightful dream after this terrible day! And I woke up and you were kissing me.” And he said, “Oh man, I’ve had a really crummy day too, that’s delightful, that, that makes my day.” And they had been coming to our play parties; I got them involved as volunteers. And I said, “Well maybe, your girlfriend wouldn’t mind, if you gave me a kiss.” And he said, “No, she gets really turned-on when I kiss women.” And I said… “Maybe… she would want to kiss me too…” It’s just an option. (Stevie snorts) It’s available. I was trying to create an opt-in after the fact. J— I mean— it’s available, if she would be interested. And he got back to me maybe 10 minutes later and said, “She would love to kiss, and love to watch us kiss.” And so we had that, sort of—

Stevie:  That’s fucking cute.

Lila:  — hanging, you know, over the evening. And then the evening ended, right, and there was the production of of doing the, the piñata and doing the cake and doing the suspension and then, kind of, decompressing from the suspension because it didn’t go the way that we had planned and actually it was, there was a painful spot—

Stevie:  Can I also say that it’s really interesting and cool that it was originally you and him organizing kissing for her pleasure? Instead of you and her organizing it for his.

Lila:  Yeah.

Stevie:  Anyway, go on.

Lila:  Yeah! And actually, the other thing that he told me — and I’m glad you brought that up because — the other thing he told me was, “She is bisexual and has been wanting to explore,” (Stevie mmhms) “but we haven’t done it yet. Because we wan— wanted to do it with somebody who felt really safe.” (Stevie mm’s softly) And so the whole party goes by, and, the aftershift goes by, the cleanup shift goes by, and then, so we’re up on my floor and there’s nothing left to be done, and, it’s sort of, “Okay well now it’s, you know, 5, 6am, okay I guess… by-yye?” (Lila giggles) “Bye…” And he says, “Would it be alright if I kissed Lila?” And she said, “Of course.” And he gave me a little kiss, and I said, “Would it be alright if I kissed her?” And he said, “Yes!” And I kissed her, and I liked kissing her— m— more than I liked kissing him, even. And, we just—

Stevie:  Of course you did.

Lila:  — continued to, to kiss and it was wonderful; she’s a wonderful kisser! And so then I think that, that ice had been broken, and he, he also expressed earlier in the party, he said, “I I I do really want to kiss you, but I feel nervous,” and she said, “Oh my God…” (giggles)

Stevie:  Awwohh.

Lila:  So finally, you know, we all kiss and then I, I, have a little loft bed ‘cause I live in Brooklyn in (Stevie chuckles) in a tiny little room and, and so I, y’know, brought them up to my bed and, we’d been— (both laughs) Oh! I also gave the con— the, the orientation and the consent speech, with Mirelle that night, at the beginning. So, asking, creating opt-ins, making sure you only accept enthu— enthusiastic yesses, and say no if you’re a maybe, and all this, right? But that’s not really how I like to play. (Stevie mm’s) So it’s important for parties and, it’s just important in general—

Stevie:  Yeah.

Lila:  But I—

Stevie:  It’s great to do it before.

Lila:  I prefer to, to choose people that I’m mostly a yes with for most things and then escalate non-verbally and then speak when I need to. (Stevie mm’s) And so, I said, “Is it okay if we just, do that?” And they said yes. So… we climb up to (laughs and makes a cartoon ladder-climbing sound) my, my little bed and then… I— love these people. And that was not true of any other threesome experience that I’ve ever had.

Stevie:  (softly) Wow.

Lila:  They’re lovely people and I care for them, already. And they’re sweet and sexy. And so, there was talking and there was cuddling and then there was touching and then, she was a conduit and we were facilitating her pleasure, and, at— y’know, my favorite point, she was going down on me and I was on my back, and he was inside her from behind, and, I could see him and then he and I both came, simultaneously—

Stevie:  That’s amazing.                                                                      Lila:  — looking at each other—

Lila:  — with her, you know? And then I sort of, you know, calmed down from that and then, we started, you know, running our hands over her and she said, “I will never tell you to stop,” (Stevie giggles) so just, you know, “stop whenever you want. I will never tell you to stop.” And, I had, only once before, digitally penetrated a woman.

Stevie:  (softly) Oh wow!

Lila:  So, this was my second time, and, I was concerned about my nails (Stevie chuckles) and concerned that I was going to, you know—

Stevie:  Gloves.

Lila:  — hurt her, yeah, right, I didn’t use gloves. (giggles, expresses Stevie’s seeming disapproval in the form of a) Mm.

Stevie:  For the future: gloves.

Lila:  Stevie just made a face. Mmph.

Stevie:  No! No, just use gloves.

Lila:  Can I just cut my nails?

Stevie:  Yeah, but there’s bacteria—  

Lila:  Better—  

Stevie:  — under your nails, your nails are always—

Lila:  Better, better gloves.

Stevie:  — sharp most of the time, even if you clip them.

Lila:  Yeah.

Stevie:  Gloves feel way better than skin anyway. For the person being penetrated.

Lila:  Okay.

Stevie:  ‘cause it’s smooth.

Lila:  Okay. Next time I will use gloves. Kenneth has got a— store of them (Stevie chuckles) I will just run downstairs and get some gloves.

Stevie:  I like nitrile black.

Lila:  Yep. That’s what he’s got. That’s the jam.

Stevie:  So, how did it feel to penetrate?

Lila:  Oh, so I really enjoyed how squishy! (Stevie cracks up) How squishy it was on the inside.

Stevie:  Squishy!! What a word!

Lila:  Yeah!

Stevie:  Squishy!

Lila:  It was! And, it felt so squishy and receptive and and alive and— (Stevie mmhm’s) yeah, juicy. And so he was, on the side of her and kissing her and she was rubbing her clit and I was with my, my hand inside her … and she came that way. And it was just lovely. It was just a lovely experience. And the only, threesome experiences I’ve had have been, pretty emotionally fraught for me. (Stevie hm’s) And, there was always some left out feeling. (Stevie hm’s) It was the first time I didn’t have that. And I also thought maybe I just wasn’t, a person who experienced compersion at all.

Stevie:  What’s compersion?

Lila:  It’s a made-up word— by people in the Kerista Commune in the 70s I think to speak of joy for your partner’s joy, particularly in terms of a romantic or sexual context.

Stevie:  Whoaa. That’s a fuckin’ awesome word.

Lila:  Compersion. And I thought maybe I just wasn’t wired for that, but, I definitely felt it, as I saw them together and as I was with them, I felt joy that they were feeling joy, I felt joy that we were facilitating, something for her that she’s wanted and—

Stevie:  So com— how you say it, compersure?

Lila:  Compersion.

Stevie:  So compersion is the opposite of schadenfraude?

Lila:  Yeah. Exactly.

[15:46]  Lila & Stevie on compersion and monogamy.

Stevie:  I’m so wired for compersion.

Lila:  Yeah?

Stevie:  Oh my God yes.

Lila:  I wish it wasn’t a question for me. I wish it was just … natural. But I think… in situations in which I feel very safe, that I would feel it. (Stevie hm’s) I don’t think it’s impossible for me, I just think, I have to feel very safe. (Stevie mm’s)

Stevie:  I love feeling that. It’s like, the reason I fall in love with people. And it’s not just sexual or having other partners that makes me feel it it’s like, them talking about their passions or enjoying themselves, obviously, but, I especially feel it when they’re having— feeling good, with other people. So I like dating poly people. (Stevie giggles)

Lila:  Mmhmm! Clearly!

Stevie:  Clearly! (titters)

Lila:  And definitely poly, many loves, not— some other form of ethical nonmonogamy.

Stevie:  I don’t kno-oow. I think that I’m, I’m open to it all, but I find poly people who have had, you know, successful and whatever like, poly relationships, desirable because of the qualities that are needed to do that (Lila mmhm’s) in this day and age. So like, objectively I’m into people that are poly, and also, ‘cause I’m into compersion.

Lila:  Yes!

Stevie: I’m into people that are poly. Um, but I’m pretty, sexually monogamous at least.

Lila:  Oh!

Stevie:  Yeah.

Lila:  But you, don’t mind— or rather, even, have joy for your partner’s sexual exploits with others.

Stevie:  (decisively) Yes.

Lila:  That is really fascinating to me.

Stevie:  Why?

Lila:  Poly/mono relationships are… often really fraught. (Stevie hm’s)

 

poly/mono relationship (noun) = a romantic/sexual relationship in which one person identifies as polyamorous (having many loves and/or sexual partners) and the other identifies as monogamous (having one love and/or sexual partner). Both consent to the relationship despite its seeming unevenness.

 

Stevie:  Oh yeah, I prefer to date someone that’s sleeping with other people.

Lila:  Less pressure?

Stevie:  I’m just so happy that you gave me a word to describe why. (Lila chuckles) It’s definitely not less pressure, it’s definitely that I crave … compersure?

Pictured: Stevie + not a Persian cat.

Lila:  Compersion.

Stevie:  Compersion. I’m not gonna remember it, compersion.

Lila:  Well, I don’t think it’s a very nice sounding word, but I’m glad that there is a word. To describe it.

Stevie:  Yeaah.

Lila:  And if you think “Persian cat” (Stevie hm’s) and you think “with a Persian cat.”

Stevie:  Got it.

Lila:  Compersion.

Stevie:  Come-persian. (Lila giggles) You’re coming …

Lila:  Oh!

Stevie:  — with a Persian cat?

Lila:  Oh no!

Stevie:  That’s real bad but that’s what’ll help me remember. […]

Lila:  I basically think that that’s the most beautiful way to be.

Stevie:  Poly?

Lila:  No. Compersious. I just don’t … (chuckle) don’t always feel it.

[18:49]  Did Lila feel compersion with her last partner?

[19:18]

Lila:  I consider myself, by the way, poly-adjacent.

 

poly-adjacent (adjective) = being close to polyamorous people in proximity, or polyamorous relationships in ideals (Lila’s term).

 

Stevie:  Okay.

Lila:  You know?

Stevie:  Yeah, I consider myself monogamish. (Lila mmhm’s) Because I am sexually monogamous, usually. But that’s the thing. That could fucking change. I’ve never like—

Lila:  (emphatically) Yes.

Stevie:  — been sexual with someone and then like, had, frequent or, like, strong desire to have sex with someone else. But, I do like to date other people, and explore kink with other people, and…um, like, make out and cuddle in non-sexual intimacy. (Lila mmhm’s) And like going on dates. Flirting.

Stevie portraits by Marlita on the Run.

[21:22]  Lila proposes the word “libertine” as an alternative to the word “slut,” as inspired by this episode of Bawdy Storytelling.

 

libertine (noun) = one who is sexually free, and/or adventurous, an alternative to the synonym “slut.”

 

[22:22]  How Stevie feels about “libertine” / how Lila feels about “cunt.”

Stevie:  I like that.

Lila:  It’s an old phrase. Stevie:  I like it less than “slut.”

Lila:  Yeah?

Stevie:  Mmhm. To me it feels less about sex … and it feels more about your place and, role in the world.

Lila:  The connotation is about sex.

Stevie:  I know, but I’m just saying, to me—                                           Lila:  For you.

Stevie:  — the word sounds. Like just the way, the consonants and stuff… How do you feel about the word “cunt.”

Lila:  (beat) Eh.

Stevie:  (laughs) What does that mean?

Lila:  It means like, I don’t love it.

Stevie:  (kind of shocked) Reallyy?

Lila:  (overlapping) I don’t, I don’t love any of the words—

Stevie:  Oooh, what do you, what do you call—                                      Lila:  But I use “pussy.”

Stevie:  — yourself, you call, you call it a pussy?

Lila:  I use pussy, yeah. But I don’t love any of them.

Stevie:  See, when I say “pussy” it’s very like, in a joking or childlike way. (Lila hm’s) When I say “pussy.” When I say “cunt,” it’s like, “This is happening. You are fucking my cunt.” You know?

Lila:  Yeah. . . There was a time in my life when I thought “slit” was sexy.

Stevie:  Slllit!

Lila:  Yeah.

Stevie:  Holy shit. (Lila giggles) When I was in theatre in high school, we had to do this, word, or, what was it, whaddo they call, like warm-up exercises?

Lila:  Mmhm, improv games.

Stevie:  You probably know this. Where it was like, uh, “I slit a sheet a sheet I slit, and on this slitted sheet I sit.” (Lila laugh-gasps) And that, gives a whole new meaning to that, to the word slit.

Lila:  Could you say that again?

 

I slit a sheet, a sheet I slit, and on this slitted sheet I sit.

 

Lila:  Oh my. Oh my. (both laugh)

Stevie:  Are you gonna start calling it a slit now?

Lila:  Wow. Maybe… (Stevie giggles) I’ll see— I’ll see if I can work it in. (both giggle)

Stevie:  That’s amazing. I bet you could try it with sexting first. What would, what are some adjectives that you would use? Before slit? … Like: wet begging slit? (Lila makes non-committal noises) I like “begging.”

Lila:  (trying it out) Begging slit.                                                    Stevie:  That’s a good one.

Stevie:  (both laugh) That’s pretty good, that sounds great!

Lila:  Yeah, it really does sound good. Thirsty—

Stevie:  I think I like it ‘cause it sounds like clit.

Lila:  Thirsty slit?

Stevie:  Thirsty! But that’s— makes it sound dry.

Lila:  Well. (cracks up) Well…

Stevie:  “Come do something about this thirsty slit.”

Lila:  Yeah. (giggles) Could you, could you uh, could you come and—

Stevie:  Could you take care of this?

Lila:  Just lend a—

Stevie:  Just moisturize the slit, please?

[25:29]  Stevie tells Lila a story about a sex club.

[28:39]  Stevie on feeling your feelings.

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Lila
See that resting frown face on my mom as she slept See that resting frown face on my mom as she slept?

I’ve started to make that same face. I wake from a dream or a doze to find that I’m frowning. I touch my lips to make it stop. After a few moments, I discover that they are making the frown shape again. I can’t make it stop because I’m sleeping when I do it. I’ve started doing it when I’m not sleeping too. When I’m awake, I think it’s a cross between a grimace and a frown. A frimace? (I mean, it can’t be a grown. Or can it?)

I don’t really have that much to frown about anymore, except, I suppose, for the onslaught of fresh horrors perpetrated by the country I live in on the daily, the greed of the few and desperation of the many, the natural disasters that are frequenter and hotter and wetter and gnarlier as the earth continues its job of beginning to shake us off its back… yeah I guess there’s not much to frown about, really. 

I took Mom to FloridaRAMA because she had been complaining for months that she didn’t do anything anymore. She mentioned concerts, plays, ballets. But by the time the sun went down, she would be sundowning and wouldn’t want to go anywhere anyway. So that afternoon I decided to pick her up and take her on an outing — which was always a pain in the ass, and especially a pain in the ass to do solo. It involved going to her room and making sure she was dressed, convincing her to get dressed if she wasn’t, which was a laborious process, insisting that we needed to take the wheelchair which of course we did because she was falling all the time and brachiating (holding onto walls and less sturdy things like chairs, tables — at least, some nurse told me that this is what it’s called but the internet seems to only relate it to apes swinging from their arms to get from place to place) […]

Continued on horizontalwithlila dot substack dot com (the link is in my bio)
In the bathroom of the Italian restaurant after Da In the bathroom of the Italian restaurant after Dad’s cold rainy rural upstate funeral looking like a sad British clown / Nowhere, NY / April 12th, 2025

Right after my father died, there were Anthonys and Tonys everywhere. 

Suddenly everyone was called Tony and everybody else was talking about their Dad or playing songs about death. 

* Passing a girl on the street talking to her friend, and the only words you catch are “My dad had…” 
* Walking into your favorite gluten-free café, and they’re playing the Flaming Lips song “Do You Realize?”

Do you realize / that everyone you know / someday / will die?

* Realizing that the second title for Billy Joel’s song “Movin’ Out” is “Anthony’s Song.” I never truly registered this until I was trying to write one morning in a blessed cacao shop (yes, for real) and I paused to listen to the opener:

Anthony works in the grocery store
Savin’ his pennies for someday

* Ordering fries from the surfer guy at the beach shack on my pilgrimage to the ocean, when his co-worker shouts, “Hey Anthony!”

If you put this stuff in your feature film script, your screenwriting teacher would tell you it’s too pat, too predictable, “don’t put a hat on a hat.” (The Writer!)

It’s like that old quarters experiment on attention… you start looking for quarters on the ground, and suddenly, you see them everywhere.

The drugstores full of Father’s Day crap. Marketing emails about “Dads and grads.” Only one company sent an email that said, Hey, we know that Father’s Day time is tough for some people, so click this to opt out of all Father’s Day related emails.

Click. CLICK!

I wish I could click that link for the universe. No father stuff, please. No Dad shit. But there were quarters everywhere, of course, because the back of my mind was attuned to all things Dad.

{You can read the rest of the essay on Substack. Link in my bio, bb.}
Love Letter to New York, whom I miss so much 1. S Love Letter to New York, whom I miss so much

1. Straight out of a fitting for “The Deuce”?

2. Free Friday at @whitneymuseum 

3. Basquiat makes me feel like home

4. Madison Square Park photo op (irresistible)

5. Candid

6. Got to see the lovely @josescaro & @benbecherny ply their craft at @bricktheater 

7. Charming marquee!

8. Closing night vibes (not pictured: the succulent plant I brought in lieu of flowersof)

9. Chuck Close in the subway!

10. More subway Chuck Close!

11. Man Ray retrospective at the Met

12. Love a good silhouette

13. A rare VERTICAL bathroom portrait in one of the finest bathrooms of them all, at the lovely New Mexican food joint with the rainbow cookies Of My Dreams, @ursula_brooklyn 

14. My man is a photographer too. 🤩

15. Cannot. Resist. Photo Booth.
I wrote a list in 2020 titled “How to love me wh I wrote a list in 2020 titled “How to love me when I’m ... depressed”... and in this essay, I encourage you to write your own version (How to love me when I’m... anxious, How to love me when I’m... burned out, How to love me when I’m... in despair)...

And if you write one, how I would love to read it. (Or even learn about one of the items on your list, here in the comments).

Here’s an excerpt:

 “One of the characteristics of my depression (and most of my other tizzies, such as but not limited to anxiety, severe procrastination, adulting paralysis, etc.) is that while I’m in it I have no idea what — if anything — will help me get out of it.

It’s more like I DON’T WANT TO BE HERE BUT I DON’T KNOW HOW TO GET OUT SO I’LL JUST HIDE UNDER THE COVERS UNTIL I WANT TO DO SOMETHING AGAIN CALL ME IN 6 MONTHS.

Ergo, therefore, if I’m in a state, and you ask me what I need, or what you can do, I may or may not have the wherewithal to tell you. Emphasis on the not. I may not even have the wherewithal to know.

And if I don’t know, how can I tell you?

I can’tdon’t, then.

If I’m not in a state I probably have plenty of things I could say but that’s when I don’t need the help so badly. (A lá it’s not the worst while you can still say the worst.)

As I mentioned in the subtitle: You don’t come with an operator’s manual. Your model came out of the fleshbox with zero instructions. And since no one possesses your operator’s manual, no matter how much they love you, you are going to be the supreme author, the expert on you, since you’ve been studying you your whole life. Please for the love of Pete & Ashleigh, do your people the great good turn of writing them some instructions. Triage options, if you will. Trust me when I say that they (nearly all of them) need it.

If you write it for them, they will have it when you need it.

This little list could, quite without exaggeration, save your life.”

The link to the whole essay is in my bio. (Join me on Substack darling!)

#substack #substackwriter #depressionandanxiety #communityiseverything
Love Letter to St. Pete @stpetefl Where we met, Love Letter to St. Pete @stpetefl 

Where we met, where we re-met ❤️‍🔥

1. An afternoon at @grandcentralbrewhouse with my handsome gentleman in @warbyparker 

2. Bb’s first @nineinchnails concert (okay, technically in Tampa) in @selkie & @viveylife . It was stellar. Trent sounds just like he used to and the projections were gorgeous!

3. Matching denim jumpsuits ( but his is a @onepiece )

4. The finest pizza in all the land (even with my dietary restrictions!) from @noblecrust (OMNOMNOMNOM)

5. He even makes doctor’s appointments fun.

6. I love matching him sooooo muchmuch. 

7. Just us and a zebra, nbd.

8. Theme Park joy

9. At the art show @wadastpete that my gentleman curated for his students. 🪐☄️🛸👽🚀✨
When I was a kid, I used to read myself to sleep. When I was a kid, I used to read myself to sleep. 

Actually, I don’t know when I stopped.

I read myself to sleep in my childhood bedroom, with a flashlight under the covers of a trundle bed (drawers filled to the brim with dress-up clothes) when my mom said it was too late to be awake. I checked out 25 books from the Freeport library at a time, filling the trunk of my parent’s car, and devoured them in weeks, partly from my perch in the flowering dogwood tree in our backyard (were the blooms ivory? or cherry blossom pink?), partly while curled up on an orange-and-yellow-ticked seat cushion I dragged down to the crawlspace in the basement — my “secret hiding spot,” which was neither secret nor hidden and so can only be termed a spot, armed with Oreos and flashlight, and the remainder under the covers before bed.

I suspect I knew more words then than I know now. There are still words like “vehement” that I’m only about 70% sure I know how to pronounce. I learned them in context. I can spell them. I can use them in a sentence! But am I saying them correctly? 

Unsure.

I read myself to sleep in high school, even though I had to get up unconscionably early to get bussed in to my magnet program — Pinellas County Center for the Arts — 35 minutes away from our sad little apartment. Like a magnet, @pcca_gibbs PCCA grabbed young artists from the whole county.

I had a major in high school, which is more usual now, from what I hear, but wasn’t so usual then, and what I majored in was called Performance Theatre (as opposed to Musical Theatre, the love of my life I never thought I was good enough for). 

I really wanted to go to the Fame school in New York — LaGuardia — but when I was 12 my Mom divorced my Dad and forced me to move to Flah-rida. So I went to PCCA instead. (To be honest, she probably wouldn’t have let me commute into the city to go to Fame even if we had stayed on Long Island.) 

Read the whole essay (link to Substack in my bio)!

#booknerdlife #readingforpleasure #readingrainbow
My man and I got our nerd on at @nerdnitestpete ! My man and I got our nerd on at @nerdnitestpete ! 

We had the opportunity to support my lovely, engaging, and compassionate Happiness Ambassador friend Adam Peters aka @mindmaprenovations as he changed some lives by teaching us how to begin developing a preference for positivity. I’ve seen him give this presentation a few times before, and this was the best one yet — and to the biggest crowd, over 300 human nerds!

I love us.

I consider it my sacred duty to paparazzi my friends when they do marvelous things, as I hope to have done unto me!

P.S. Applied to give a Nerd Nite presentation myself … fingers crossed bb’s! 

1. My gentleman is so handsome. (Also, I got this stellar skirt in excellent condition from my favorite thrift store with a cause @casapinellas !)

2. Toasties supporting Toasties! @dtsptoastmasters members: me, Steve Diasio, Dawn Cecil (two-time Nerd Nite Speaker alumni!), & Rick! (Not pictured here — but later in the carousel) Christian Carrasco.

3. Fit check baybeeee.

4. Caryn, Nerd Nite boss extraordinaire, introducing the evening.

5. Caryn introducing my friend Adam (did I yell “THAT’S MY FRIEND!” at the end? WHY YES I DID.)

6-10. Adam rocking the casbah.

11. Fellow Toastmaster Christian.

12. I love mein mann!

#nerdnite #nerdnitestpete
A woman approached me. We collaborated once, a yea A woman approached me. We collaborated once, a year prior, I think. Time is weird. She reached out both her hands.

“What a beautiful mourner you are,” she said.

I took her hands.

I think I said thank you.

She was referring, I suppose, to the gloves, the dress, the shoes, the lipstick, the earrings. 

But what does it mean, to be a beautiful mourner? 
What does it mean to mourn beautifully? 
To have good grief?

“My dad dropped dead,” I said, to get myself used to the shock of it. 

“My mother is dying,” I said, to reconcile myself to the fact of it. 

I don’t wear mascara anymore, because I cry every day.

People hugged me in airports, at rental car counters, in line for a sandwich. They hugged me in the TSA line. At the chiropractor. The grocery store. My father dropped dead, I told them. My mother is dying. I told them and they hugged me. I was glad I did. I was glad they did.

Sometimes, when people were truly asking, if I had the time, and I had the spoons, I repeated my litany of 2025. So they’d understand: it has been this kind of year. It seems that everyone has this kind of year at some point, or, devastatingly, at several points in a life — a maelstrom, a dervish, a crucible, a nexus, a whammy, a time — an Alexander’s-no-good-very-bad-terrible kind of year. 

There were so many months in February. So many years in April. So many decades in the first half of 2025. I didn’t want to become an adult, but 2024 made me, and 2025 sealed the deal. 

It’s amazing I managed to get this far without growing up.

READ the whole essay on Substack
SUBSCRIBE through the link in my bio and make my day, darling 

💋 

#substackwriters #goodgrief
Love in La La Land 1. “So this is where they ke Love in La La Land

1. “So this is where they keep the LIGHT!” -SATC … At our first @lacma member preview, enjoying the majestically empty Geffen galleries before the permanent collections moves in.

2. Urban Light, and me (installation by Chris Burden)

3. A historic view at LACMA, never again to be seen!

4 - 13. Art, mostly part of the Digital Witness exhibit

14. Love at the @gettymuseum 

15. Queer exhibits! 

16. Sunset at the Getty with my love

#museumnerd #lacma #lacmamember #digitalwellness #thegetty #loveinlalaland
For you, when you need it, and for the people in y For you, when you need it, and for the people in your life, when they need it.

Here’s an excerpt from the essay:

[To read the whole thing, follow the link in my bio to my Substack (and subscribe there, darling)!]

My chiropractor called me out a few weeks back. 
He said, with his characteristic smile (he has nice little teeth), “I read your essay.”

“You did? Thank you for reading,” I began, genuinely surprised and moved.

“But I still don’t know what to say!” he admonished. “You only told us what not to say!” 

Then he gave me an enormous cashmere-scented candle in a plastic bag. 

This was not apropos of nothing. I mentioned that scent in the essay. 

That giant cashmere candle, so big it has not one but FOUR wicks, means something. And then he had to go and ruin it. (jk, jk, Dr. Brian!)

“Hang in there,” he said, at the end of our session.

I cringed a liddle. (That’s not a little, not a lot, it’s right in the middle, a liddle.)

But you see, he was completely right! I told him I’d give him a list! I hadn’t given him a list! So I began compiling. Every time someone said a thing that made me wince, it went on the list, which lead to Part 1: What NOT to say when someone dies.

Each time someone said a thing that felt like love, made me farklempt, I took a screenshot, and it went on the list. 

This is the farklempt list.

As I wrote in “what NOT to say,” the useful things people say are fairly varied (and tailored to the griever), while the un-useful things tend to be generic variations on a tired theme.
“what TO say” will be a living document, updated whenever I have something useful, or supremely un-useful, to add. Here we go.
Love in Louisville. 1. Photo credit to my love, Love in Louisville.

1.  Photo credit to my love, Zachary

2.  Selfie with Street Art by the windy, windy river

3.  Horsies! Street Art! (Do you know how much I love murals?!)

4.  Looking like an award-winning art teacher at the art teacher conference (ahem, he is the award-winning art teacher!), wearing a @riskgalleryboutique necklace & big fcking bow!)

5.  A Wizard interlude! What a delight to witness my friend @personisawake absolutely Rock @cm_louisville & inspire a roomful of humans

6.  When your love matches the art. 🖼️ *chef’s kiss*

7 & 8. Major interior design maxi inspo for my ADU reno from @21clouisville by @fallen_fruit 🌺🌷🌸🌻🌼💐🪷

9.  The crayon shirt, bow, and soft rainbow chiclet necklace style brought to you by my inner 6-year old!

#ilovelouisville #wizardry #creativemornings #21clouisville #21c
The video clip of me in the yellow dress and anthr The video clip of me in the yellow dress and anthropology-professor blazer is an excerpt from second iteration of my talk, “The Intimacy Equation,” which I first gave as part of the @bof VOICES conference, outside London in 2021. 

This rendition had a test-drive at my Toastmasters meeting last week. Imperfect, unrehearsed, delivered from bullet points with a slim little notebook in my hand… and yet, I have shared it with my paid subscribers over on Substack (link in bio) because I want to be a person who shares process, not just product.

(This is a bit of a coup for my recovering inner perfectionist, and I have to say, I’m a wee bit proud.)

I kept my fancy equation. 

But now I have a simple one, too. 

#toastmasters #publicspeaking #intimacycoach
More Chiro Office Portraits: 1. NY vibes in the 6 More Chiro Office Portraits:

1. NY vibes in the 6th borough

2. Googly eyes in @selkie 

3. Bossbitch even when she doesn’t get the grant

4. Started practicing yoga again did I tell you?

5. Big mad (but not at that yellow two-piece thrift score from @casapinellas !)

6. Sporty Spice (obsessed with that @tottobrand bag)

7. Grumpy girl, big bow

8. Resort style bb!

9. Sad girl lemonade

10. @selkie ballerina

11. Bridgerton on a no-makeup day (also @selkie )

12. The day I picked up my mother’s ashes (still haven’t opened them)

13. @temperleylondon & mourning
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Funeral ( A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Funeral (excerpt)

It was the night before Craig’s memorial, and I had an audition due. 

It was a feature film audition, due at 11am Pacific / 2pm Eastern. This happened to be squarely during the memorial. I was playing an elementary school teacher, and so when I packed in a whirl for New York, I grabbed my crayon shirt and a giant hair bow and figured surely I’d be able to wangle a human into helping me with my self-tape. New York is my hometown! So many potential wangles! Right?

Two nights prior, out with my friend @kristianndances , no stranger to auditions herself, I had an invitation to her Brooklyn apartment to get’er’done, but, you see, I didn’t have the shirt with me. And friend, if you pack your crayon shirt to audition for Miss Kelly the elementary school teacher then frankly, no other shirt will do.

Since I was staying with another friend, I asked him to help me, but he wasn’t available until the morning. 

The morning of the memorial. 

{ continued on horizontalwithlila.substack.com }
Just out here looking like the Pride Statue of Lib Just out here looking like the Pride Statue of Liberty.

Remember, I promised the good people of @stpetefl that if they gave me another limited edition Pride flag, I would wear it as a dress. @stpetepride 

AND SO I HAVE.

The Pride Market at Grand Central today was full of rainbows and swag and glitter, just the way I like it.

I love us all.

And I look forward to the day when all any of us need, is love. Because we’ve got plenty of that to go around.

#stpetepride #stpetefl
POV: When your friend is one of the great young ja POV: When your friend is one of the great young jazz guitarists, but you haven’t seen him play in a decade (except for that time last month when he accompanied you to sing at your mother’s funeral). What a mensch. What a band!

#natenajar
I’m just gonna leave this here. My fave sign at I’m just gonna leave this here.

My fave sign at @blackcrowcoffeeco 

Apropos of Everything.

#stpetepride 
#transrightsarehumanrights 
#blacklivesmatter 
#notinourname
Excerpt: You can even make a difference through sm Excerpt: You can even make a difference through small acts of resistance, ones that annoy or befuddle the evildoers, like witty and nonsensical emails to awful government agencies, clowns showing up outside imm!gration hearings, giant group dances in front of vile businesses. We can find a thousand little ways to gum up the works. Bonus to you if it makes you laugh. Bonus to everyone if it makes others laugh. The Resistance doesn’t have to be stodgy. 

We, like the Dark Side, can have cookies. 
We, unlike the Dark Side, can have joy.
But we MUST PROTEST in some fashion.

When I protest, I don’t want to do so by:

- Shaming the physical appearance of the evildoer
- Slut-shaming the evildoer
- Shaming their nationality, sexuality, identity, profession
- Talking about what they smell like
- Threatening murder or castration or people’s families

I completely understand why we do this, or at least, I think I understand why we are tempted to do this. We want to bully the bully, thinking that’s the only way he’ll understand. But the truth is that he’s probably not going to understand, whether or not we stoop to the low ground. He’s not going to understand because he is likely a sociopath. 

But we’re not doing it for him. We’re not pr0testing for him. 
We are pr0testing for Ian in Iowa who is a bit messed up and kind of confused and doesn’t really get the impact that this is having on, say, WOMEN, who opens up his news app and sees thousands upon thousands of, let’s just say women, pr0testing with signs, and maybe he goes, hm, why might they be pr0testing when they could be home having pancakes? Why might that be? And maybe Ian gets a little more informed that day about the plight of, hell, let’s say, women, and maybe just maybe he starts to act a wee bit differently, and then the whole butterfly effect thing is possible.

When pr0testing evildoing in its many many oppressive forms, I want to focus on their harmful ACTIONS, and CHOICES. 

I want them to rot for being rotten.

I’m interested in dismantling their ARGUMENTS
Proving false their IDEOLOGIES
Laying bare their HYPOCRISIES
Exploiting their INCONSISTENCIES
Disproving their FALSEHOODS

Cont’d on Substack
I want to share with you something in the famous @ I want to share with you something in the famous @elizabeth_gilbert_writer speech on creativity. It’s one of the most famous @ted talks in the world, and she talks about how ideas come to people. 

The way that I, that ideas come to me, is I will get a line of something and then I will get another line, and then I get nervous because I, if I get a third line, I might be okay, but the fourth line is gonna push the first line completely out. And it’s gone. 

So I have to, I have to get my, to my paper. I have to get to my paper and I have to write it down or, or, or whatever it is, my notes app in my phone, anything. I have to get it down or I’ll lose it. 

She talks about @tomwaits the famoso musician, driving in his car and a bit of melody comes to him. And he goes, “Can’t you see I’m driving? If you wanna exist, go bother somebody else. Go bother Leonard Cohen or somebody.” 

I don’t suggest you talk to your creativity that way, because as Elizabeth Gilbert likes to say, it is like a cat and it doesn’t understand you and your face looks funny when you do that. 

[4 of 5] 

The speech is available in bits here, or in its entirety on my horizontal with lila Substack — link in my bio. Love you. Go make art.
These are a few of my notebooks from over the year These are a few of my notebooks from over the years. Here are a few more. You’re invited to flip through them. These are my (not so private anymore) ideas, thoughts, classes, poems. I have no idea what you’re looking at. I don’t even remember most of what’s in these notebooks. But they’re there, because I captured them.

Anybody have a date in theirs? There should be dates. Can you call it out? 

[people call out dates]

So this is my work! Beginning in 2009 was the, the earliest date. There is so much that comes out of a creative brain, and I know that your brain is not dissimilar. I know that you are all creative beings.

One of my favorite books on creativity, and I don’t know if it’s been mentioned tonight because sadly I missed the first part, but it is a book called “bird by bird.” 

Oh, I didn’t mention it, but I love that book. 

By Anne Lamott. Are you the only one who’s read it? Has anybody else read this book? “bird by bird” It is one of only two books on creativity I would actually recommend. Otherwise, I would recommend you just go out and make stuff. 

In this book, she says, and I have carried this quote with me because I have been this way throughout... I mean, it must be... it’s, it’s my entire remembered life, it could be as young as 5 years old, a perfectionist. She says, “Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor. It will keep you cramped and insane your entire life.” 

The voice of the oppressor. 

I think about that all the time. I do not want to be oppressed. No! Viva la revolución! You know, I don’t want that for myself. And so I have been internally oppressing myself. Most of what you see in these books, and that’s not all of them, right? And that’s only from 2009. Most of what you’ve seen in these books has not seen the light of day. 

[3 of 5] Full “Are you an artist, tho?” video & transcript on Substack

Subscribe there and make a Lila happy! Link in my bio, bb.

#toastmasters #publicspeaker
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