Welcome to SRP from a fellow Sacramentan! Did you go to TAOS at arden or the galleria? As for strops...even though a belt is good to build muscle memory, instead, you can buy a decent practice strop for cheap (which is a good investment if you think you might end up knickin' your strop). A couple of places to buy a good practice strop include: poorman kit from larry @ whippeddog.com (Whipped Dog Straight Razor Shaving Equipment) or the filly from ken @ ruprazor.com (RupRazor - Strops)
there are a few of us sacramentans on here (as well as the other shaving forums)...we should all have a meet and greet...talk about wet shaving over beer or something.