8 hours on T

Thank you all for being so damn awesome and supportive!

6.29.10

1.29.10

Once again, sorry about the extreme lack of posts (especially ones about sex/gender, the original point of the whole blog). I’m hoping to have some steadiness back in my life, so maybe then I’ll pick it back up again. Who knows?

But yeah! I got a job. I’m a theatre technician (lights, sound, stage management, etc.) for a theater in San Francisco. This has basically been what I’ve wanted to do since, well, forever, so to say the least, I’m thrilled. Officially, I start Monday. Went in for some training yesterday and it seems like a really cool, laid back, and comfortable atmosphere. The hours are a little random and I might have to get a second job, but hell, I’m excited anyway.

I have begun the “nesting” process here in California. My housing situation is fantastic. I love my roommates, the location, the fresh fruits and veggies, and even the constant rain. And after 5 months of living here, I finally bought curtains. Yep. I’m home.

My new goal is to make some friends. I love hanging out with Roxy and I love the people I live with, but it’s time to branch out a bit. With a little coaching from Roomie #1, I made an OkCupid account. So, I’m using that to initiate conversations and such, instead of awkwardly going to bars and not talking to anyone. A new year calls for a new approach. If I were to start dating someone, I’d like to be their friend first instead of just jumping their bones automatically, and we all know how well that’s worked in the past…

CORRECTION: OkCupid account has been deleted. Way Awkward (yes, with a capital A).

Also, I’m dipping my toes into the idea of starting T sometime soon. Right now, I’m doing my homework quite thoroughly about my options in this area. It will be really helpful having an income… We shall see.

Hmm. I feel like there was something else I should be talking about, but I can’t remember… Oh well.

Later alligator.

Update 11.20.09

-After filling out about a million sheets of paper, I now can have doctors appointments and prescriptions for $5. This makes me very happy. Usually, I’m terrified of going into any medical building, but this place was super friendly, and I really felt like they cared (which is rare for any kind of clinic, especially one for low/no income folks). My blood pressure was a bit high, but that might have just been from my nerves and the very cute nurse that was administered to me. Apparently, I’ve gained a lot of weight and the lymph nodes in my neck are swollen (have to get some blood work done here soon)? But yeah, two hours later I walked out of the clinic with my medicine in my hand. Hopefully the real me will come back soon.

-Wednesday, I co-taught a class on gender/transgender issues. Only three people showed up (turned out to be a diverse crowd though), but I feel like they all got a lot out of it. Need to start somewhere, right? Actually, the conversation was quite productive and they even got a little riled up about trans rights, society, respect, labels, and all that good stuff. I’m thinkin’ the next class will have more people in attendance.

We discussed passing in depth. You wouldn’t think about it normally, but social constructs (yes, even in the LGBTQA communities) force everyone to pass in their own different way.

A few examples:

1. A bio-woman is often mistaken for a man, since she is tall and has short hair. She wears long dangly earrings to avoid this situation. Passing as a more feminine presence.

2. An asexual tries to avoid talking about their asexual status by passing as heterosexual.

3. A bisexual is in a heterosexual marriage. She passes as heterosexual, not on purpose, but since society likes to make assumptions.

4. A boy likes to make baked goods. He hides this fact from his friends in order to pass as masculine.

This got me thinking a bit more about it. Why do we have to pass? What are we passing as? Can’t people stop making assumptions? Why must we be shoved in categorized boxes? And even when we’re in these boxes, why are we still ridiculed and ostracized? Why do people consistently feel the need to live up to these imaginary/binary standards of man and woman, gay and lesbian, etc.  Are we all really that spineless?

Anyway, there’s a lot more from where that came from, but for now I’m immersing myself in books. And I swear, reviews are coming soon.

 

And just in case you forgot, today is Trangender Remembrance Day. Take a minute. Think about it.

Protected: Update 11.18.09

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Update/HNT

Update:

Ok. So there’s really nothing to update. I should be hearing back about a job by the end of the week. Super jealous of all of you going to the NY Sex Blogger Calendar Party. Sleep is hard to come by. Making friends is extremely difficult. Finished crocheting a strap for my ukulele. I am breathing.

HNT (Half Naked Thursday, although its more like an NT this week):

I feel like posting one. It’s been a while. Sorry to my real life friends who read my blog.

Update: Travels

Ok. So I officially fail at keeping up with my blog.

WARNING: This post is ridiculously long. Read if you want. If you don’t, I won’t be offended.

Chapter 1: Heading west.

I guess I left off when I was in the LA area visiting Jezebelle and M. Well, the last post was in their adorable home, but I didn’t really elaborate too much. Hmm lets see. I stayed there for a week. It was really really really nice to see them. Ate a lot of good food, did a lot of crotcheting, saw a lot of cool things, got brain damage from Six Flags, did touristy things in LA. OH AAAND we went to Pleasure Chest and lots of exciting things happened there. I got carded three times in the store by three different employees. It never gets old.We attended a Bondage 101 class by Midori, where we learned the brilliance of scarves (you can use them for EVERYTHING!!) and that she was a lovely, funny person. They’ve got a really nice set up there at Pleasure Chest. The staff there were knowledgeable and friendly (when not carding young boys) and they had a wide variety of products. Not one bit sketchy. Seems like right after I got there, I had to hop on a Greyhound once again (I swear, I practically live on those things) and head off to my next destination.

Chapter 2: Pleasant Hill really is pleasant.

For the last month and a half (minus the week of Oregon) I’ve been staying in  Pleasant Hill, CA with a long long long time friend (C) and her family. It’s a little weird being back to the state of having a family. Like, you know, a mom and dad and brother and sister thing. But it’s slightly comforting, to be honest. I’ve basically been adopted (without all the legal stuff) and so now I have a little brother and a (technically by 6 months) little sister (who I’ve dated… so that’s odd). But yeah, we do all this family stuff that I’ve never done before like big ol’ church camping trips, dinner at the table, working out at the gym, civil conversations, and the like.

OH speaking of camping! We went up to Mt. Tam where Muir Woods are and it was absolutely beautiful, like the kind of beauty that makes one cry, and we went on a 12 mile hike up and down the mountain to a beach and slept in a redwood forest. My friend C and I thought it would be good to camp in places that weren’t actually in the campsite. The first night it was fine and dandy and bathed in moonlight blah blah blah, but the second night was a different story. We found this little grove of trees and were hunkering down to go to sleep when all of a sudden we hear this growling noise. “Was that your stomach?” I asked, because C has a notoriously loud belly. And of course, it wasn’t her stomach. Then out of the darkness (about five-ten feet away) we hear this growl/cough/loudscarynoise. We had been warned about how there were potential mountain lions in the area, so basically we ran as fast as we could. C lost her glasses and I dropped (but then later found my phone. We slept in a tent the rest of the night. Shaken up was kind of an understatement. First thing I did when we got home was look up the sound of a mountain lion. It wasn’t a mountain lion, it was a bobcat. Big difference, just as scary.

Anyway, seeing as I didn’t get torn to shreds, I can give you a brief history of C and our past stuff. We met in 7th grade, she was the first out queer person I met (and that scared me to death). In 10th grade I told her I might like girls, and in 11th grade we tried to date, but I kept backing out because I was too afraid. Blah. Blah. We’ll be living in the same house starting in September, which is very exciting. Exciting because: there is a tree house, there is a garden, unlimited cookies, there is a pie restaurant nearby, etc. Hell, I’m moving to Oakland!

There’s more to say but I can’t even think how to say it right now.

Chapter 3: Oregon?

Wow. Oregon. What? I randomly had an urge to go to Portland one day, so I did. I took a Greyhound up there and bummed around for a little while. There was this awesome 24 hour pie restaurant (thanks Kenna!) and a hell of a lot of homeless people that I befriended. Originally, I thought it would be a good idea to hitchhike back. It turned out to be 110 degrees outside. Woo. So, I hopped out on I-5 and made a little sign and all that jazz. A few people stopped to see if I was ok. Then I got stopped by a State Trooper. For a minute I thought he was going to arrest me, but he just wanted to check on me because someone called in saying that there was a 12 year old out on the interstate. He was very nice and told me to be careful and then left. I got off the road to go get more water and to pee and stuff, when I saw some train tracks. Automatically, I thought it would be smarter to hop a train. But no. The train didn’t come. I made friends with this homeless guy who lived under the overpass. His name was Johnny and we talked about life for a while and he told me to be a prostitute and then he gave me a sleeping bag and then I took off on the road again. By that point, I had walked about 10 miles and gotten really sunburnt. Good times. Then this guy and his son picked me up. They said they could get me to Salem and I said that would be lovely. They ended up letting me sleep on their couch in their really fancy house. I had a shower (they offered their jacuzzi, too, but I declined) and food and wow everything was so nice. They definitely did NOT believe my age, and they definitely didn’t catch on that I wasn’t a boy. What? Really guys? The next day, they dropped me off in Salem and I decided it would be best to take a Greyhound instead of hitchhiking more, because it was still 110 degrees.

So I hopped on the bus and went down to see Amber and M.They are lovely, lovely, lovely people. It’s always really nice to put a face/personality to my internet friends. Nothing kinky or overly extraordinary happened, but it was a good time none the less. M and I discussed gender stuff and transitioning whatnot for a while, which is always interesting, ya know, getting other people’s viewpoints and experiences. But yeah, it was awfully nice of them to let me stay for a bit. Thanks guys.

Greyhounded back here. Have had many adventures since. Whee.

Chapter 4: “it” and other business.

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Chapter 5: The East.

On the 24th I’ll be going back east to retrieve my belongings and to see people for the last time. Happy and sad all mushed together. One of my old friends is taking over my room in VA and that is good. He should fit in quite nicely there. But yeah, I’ll be driving back across the country with a former roommate who is moving to Olympia, WA (watch out Kyle). So that works out magically. I won’t have to mail as much stuff and I’ll get to travel. It’s all kind of falling together. Win. Win.

Update

As you may know, I’ve been gone for a while. But, I’m back! I spent the last week in Manchester, Tennessee, working security at Bonnaroo music & arts festival. It’s something I do every year. An easy job with relatively good pay. I mean, come on, I just got paid to see a whole bunch of amazing bands (Kaki King, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Animal Collective, etc. ) and to play with hippies. So yeah. It was nuts.

Here are some photos for your enjoyment.

Lots of people go to Bonnaroo.

Normal people,

Strange and exciting people,

Spandex people?,

Painted people,

Drumming people,

oh yeah, and horses go there too (mounted police).

we had a mantis problem this year…

but yeah. I’m alive and sunburnt. I just moved into a bigger room downstairs. Hooray for privacy. Tomorrow I go see Metric in DC. Next month I’m going to go on over to California to visit a few friends. It will be an adventure.

Missed you all very much. Hope all is well on the internet. :E

Update: Spring 09

Ok. I will admit that I have been rather bad about posting lately. Lots of stuff is going on. Some good things, some bad things. Ya know. Life.

-Finally out of debt to my mother. That took a load (and about $4,000) off my shoulders. In any case, it feels good.
-Got my Conch pierced. For free. Apparently it pays to just hang out in a tattoo shop.
-Earned some money and drum lessons in exchange for yard work (hence the massive amount of poison ivy).
-It is raining. A lot.
-Unfortunately, I had to sell my piano, which absolutely broke my heart.
-Almost everyone I know is going home/away for the summer. Lame.
-Had a picnic on the front porch today.
-Terribly behind on my reviews. Red Ripple, Throb, and Flexi Felix coming soon.
-I’m sure there were other things that I wanted to mention, but alas, it’s 2:30am and it is time for sleep.