In Which Joy Muses on "Casual" Sex

I over-intellectualize things. I know this. It's a fact. So, if you're not into mental strife, go ahead and skip over posts with the keyword "ponderings".
So.
My first instance of acting on my newly-gained Permission came about over my Fall Break, when I went to visit some college friends. I ended up receiving all manner of beautiful attentions from one of my wonderful, succulent woman-friends, hereafter known as Shakti. It was a single event - the night before I went back home -with no indication of a future repeat. And I was perfectly and utterly OK with this.
My next instance was with Mars, a boy I met via OKCupid. We met; we flirted; we drank coffee; we explored comics shops, and after two weeks, we kissed. Oh, man, it was high school all over again. A month later, we had sex (after Apollo and I thoroughly discussed it). We have had sex twice....and I'm not sure how I feel about it.
The difference here has a lot to do with my definition of what is "casual" and what's not. The first instance does not get classified as "casual sex". Rather, because it was with someone who I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, loves me whether or not I'm fantastic in the sack and whether or not we sleep together again, this is friend-sex. We're friends first. And that's not a casual thing - that's important, vital. Thus, our sex is not casual - it is drama-free, stress-free and obligation-free, but it was and is a part of our larger relationship. But, with Mars, I don't have that assurance, that closeness. He's thrilling, exciting, flattering - but afterwards, I still wonder: Is the thrill enough? Oh, I like Mars. He's fun to talk to, fun to hang out with, and a great cook (and a FUN lover). But I could let him out of my life without missing him too much. He's not a Friend, a Beloved One.
My original intent, in opening up my relationship with Apollo, was to make space for friend-sex/flirting/cuddles. But, this casual-sex thing has been fun. Intellectually, I hold that more casual sex is perfectly acceptable and a valid practice, if done ethically. I find myself desiring fewer and fewer limits on what is "acceptable sex" - and celebrating the differences in Relationship-Connection-Sex, Spiritual-Sex, Friend-Sex, and Fun-and-Pleasure Sex. I'm Ecclesiastical - to everything there is a season, and a time for every type of sex under Heaven. Yet, at the same time, I'm confronting the persistent conviction that it is worthier to limit one's sexual possibilities (to people that I have a given level of intimacy with, to a certain group of friends, etc) than to be open to all kinds of sexual interactions. Tied up with this is the assumption that casual sex, by being what it is, devalues other, more traditionally "meaningful" forms of sex. I think this is a very flawed assumption, but I have to admit that I'm still struggling with it. I want to be able to genuinely believe that, just as the love I have for Neil does not diminish or lose value in the fact that I love my other friends (and lovers), neither does the sex I have with Neil (or with Friends) depreciate in value or meaning because I have casual sex with Mars.
Spiritual connection has value.
Human connection, love, and communion have value.
Pleasure and Fun also have value, and should be valid ends in and of themselves.
Ideally, my sex life would reflect these priorities. I think it can. I think part of my hesitations and misgivings surrounding my experience with Mars may center on Mars himself, rather than the fact of the "casualness" of the encounter. However, specific thoughts on Mars, and why he makes me a little less than comfortable, must wait for a later post.

How I Got Here

...the Abbreviated Remix.
Over the summer, I finally worked up the courage to tell my boyfriend of two years that I was curious about the possibility of a polyamorous relationship meaning, really, "I want to be able to snuggle and kiss freely with my existing close friends." I also made it clear that these friends were not just of the opposite sex (I think I have a harder time thinking of myself as bisexual than he does), and that he was free to have the same privileges. He was game, and very game, and two OKCupid accounts later, the definition I started with is no longer quite the definition I'm working under. Casual (ish) sex, my unexplored submissive tendencies, and a fascination with kink have all become relevant issues...and I'm not so sure how I feel about most of them, in practice at least. This is all happening rather fast for the girl who'd had penis-in-vagina sex with one boy, and that in her current long-term relationship.
So there are questions. There are concerns.
But, Damn! This is a helluva lot of fun.

Lovers of Joy

So, because this is a sexblog, here a brief list of descriptions and contexts for the more regular players in Joy's Sex Life:

Joy: Hi! I'm your hostess. Naturally blonde, blue eyed and freckled, I'm always taken for younger than I am...though my Venus curves would give it away, you'd think. Apollo maintains that I remind him of Bottecelli's rendering of the goddess...with less hair and more breasts.

Boys:
Apollo: My primary partner. He's blonde and blue eyed, like me. If we ever have children, they will sizzle in the sun. I met Apollo while we were both in college, and he's a great one to wake up to. And a great, great one to go to bed with!
DragonCat: Shakti's primary partner who lives in the College Town Metropolis Area. DragonCat is skinny with shaggy brown hair, a soft beard, sparkling blue eyes, and very red lips. He also has objectively amazing hands. I met DragonCat via Shakti, whom I met via the group of Frequently Poly Pagans that I hang out with when in College Town.
Mars: My sometime-lover who was my first male experience after Apollo and I began opening our relationship. Dark of eyes and hair, Mars is cute, but nervous. Something in his manner sets me ill at ease, and the jury is still out on whether or not this is a relationship I want to continue. But damn, is he a fun lover!

Girls:
Hobbit Ladies: Demeter and Luna are partners, who are kinda-poly (Luna is, Demeter's figuring it out), and my dear friends from my years in College-Town. Also, now, my dear lovers. They like full-bed snuggles and are big, beautiful women in every sense of the terms.
QWB (Quabbalist Water Brother): The gorgeous metal-head harpist who's one of my Favorite People Ever. Another inhabitant of the College Town Metropolitan Area, QWB is deliberately and indefinitely celibate. But that doesn't stop her from being willing to help me explore BDSM and submission.
Shakti: Curvy Goddess whose door bears the sticker "Registered Companion." It fits. She's priestess even as she's lover. Another of the CTMA crew, Shakti, perhaps more than anyone, has provided support, encouragement, and sometimes reality checks as I've run from, run towards, and in general run around with this journey of sexuality.

To be updated as more folks appear....