Queerty (tongue in cheerk) predicts Memphis will reach out to the trans community as a result. I doubt it. They’re 2nd in homicides in the country, which means everyone - not just trans people - have been victims of violence (via Grand Divisions).

What a way to start a new year.

So hold tight, & they’ll be back.

I still have very limited internet access here in snowy Wisconsin, but should be up & running at home by Saturday. Hopefully, fingers crossed. If you’re trying to get a hold of me, for whatever reason, please be patient.

and here’s one for the dog folks (h/t to Lena):

I, on the other hand, am sick as a dog. I got my flu shot, so I’m assuming it’s just a bad cold. I hope so, anyway. Drinking a lot of tea, sucking on Ricolas, sleeping on Nyquil. It’s not a real pleasure to travel like this but as someone who is allergic to everything I am way too used to being congested a lot. I’m sure it’ll be over in the next day or so. Hopefully. Classes start 1/5 so I have a little time to get well, at least.

& In the meantime, a very happy 10th anniversary to my sister and brother in law! 10 years ago I was newly married and in Vegas for their wedding, and if you’d told me then that in 10 years I’d be in a hotel room in Kenosha… okay, I might’ve believed you. I’d done enough inexplicable, unexpected things in my life by then that Wisconsin wouldn’t have been *that* surprising, but now I’m trying to think of what woudl have been.

Thanks all for your good wishes. We do the short drive (2+ hours) to Appleton tomorrow.

We’re leaving today for Appleton, Wisconsin, where I’ll be living for the next six months. It’s so odd that I have never lived anywhere other than the NYC area my entire life, only to end up living in Wisconsin for months at at time, to teach. It’s surprised me, in a good way.

We do an overnight near Akron, OH, & then another in Kenosha, WI.

I am really looking forward not just to teaching but to being back in Appleton. I really enjoyed my last stay there, & I really loved the area around Lawrence. What is weird is that I remember feeling sad when I left, but pleased to get back to Brooklyn, and now I’m doing all those feelings in reverse: feeling sad to be leaving my much-loved Brooklyn, but excited to be going back. I have decided that I have to figure out a way not to miss things so much, or to be as sad about leaving, and focus more on the going to than the coming from, but then I’ve always been a little bit this way: melancholy & maybe a little sentimental.

Either way, the boys are coming with me, and I’ll be incredibly busy, and that is an excellent combination for me.

By the time you’re reading this, we will have started the long Westward Ho that is the state of Pennsylvania. We’ll end the day just on the other side of Ohio’s state line.

I am packed for six months for me & the boys: six pieces of luggage, three boxes, two crates, two backpacks, and one laundry thingy. Plus Betty’s stuff, the cats in one carrier, & some other odds & ends (litterbox, cat food). Good thing we rented an SUV, no?

We also cleaned the apt for the catsitter.

The worst thing about being Helen Boyd just now is knowing I have to bring a ton of my books because no one else will have copies - like Esther Newton’s Camp & Rottnek’s Tomboys & Sissies. The books are one crate, and one of the boxes is photocopies of handouts of other chapters & essays on gender.

But other than that, I’m ready. Just have to pack the computer & the cats tomorrow. We leave at 10am.