Saturday night, Betty and I went to a birthday party for the President of NCTE that was also an NCTE fundraiser, and while we didn’t stay long, we did manage to find Michelle and Mara Keisling – and took them with us to Silver Swan once Betty and I paid for one beer + one glass of wine that cost us $17.
We met a CD from Chicago named Rebecca while we were there, & she took a nice photo of the bunch of us, and since she got everyone’s permission to post it on her blog, I thought I’d cross-post it here:
Back Row: Betty, Michelle
Front Row: Helen, Mara, Michelle, Jamie, Rebecca.
We didn’t stay till 6am with all of them, but we did go home awfully late & awfully drunk. (Okay, well I was drunk, but that’s because I haven’t adjusted to how fast I get drunk now that I’m dieting & can’t eat a bowl of pasta before I go out = cheap date.)
& No, we’re never going back to Crobar again. Way too bridge and tunnel for me, and I hate clubs where everyone’s wearing jeans and t-shirts. BOring. Though while we were in a cab, an SUV full of party girls started emptying its contents, groups of two & threes of these trashy looking girls, & they just kept coming until it was like a skank version of a clown car. Very amusing.
The Plan – Update
I’ve lost 8 lbs., and taken off 3.6″ since I started this plan on 3/19/06. Yay for me.
Whew! We Have a Winner!
After much emailing, head-scratching, polling, and wondering, we finally have a title – and subtitle – for my new book.
She’s Not the Man I Married: My Life with a Transgender Husband
Alas, in my notes this book will always be Boy Meets Girl, because it’s just too easy to put ‘BMG’ at the top of a page of my journal when I’ve got a new idea for the book. Maybe I’ll name one of the chapters Boy Meets Girl, instead.
Wow, do I hate titles. Now all we have to do is figure out what to put on the cover… oy.
Aurora Update
I had the extreme pleasure of taking our little fireball Aurora to the vet a couple of days ago, and honestly, if she had been a human child and I her mother I would have been terrifically embarrassed by her bad behavior.
She was okay going there – seems to like the car ride, actually – and even in the waiting room and waiting in the exam room. After sniffing out the whole place she actually laid down on the exam room floor, not a care in the world. Of course the vet did show up eventually, and then… the fun began. For everyone. Aurora is apparently of the mindset that if she’s going to have a bad time then everyone else is, too.
She hisses and spits and lunges to take bites. She kicks with her clawed back feet and smacks with her front declawed paws. She growls and grumbles and howls and twists and spins and will not stay put. The vet had to listen to her heart rate between low growls (ie, when Aurora had to stop growling a moment to breathe). She hissed when she checked her ears, and then – oddly enough – was quite still when they put the thermometer in her butt. (Betty thinks she’s just smart, and knew she’d hurt herself if she moved too much while it was in her!)
Now this is a 10 lb. cat. Two adults had her triply wrapped in a towel, with one adult, experienced tech holding down her front half (the poor woman) and the vet herself holding down Aurora’s hind quarters with one hand & trying to alternately draw blood/give her shots with the other. What should have taken all of five minutes took about 20, and other techs and vets kept coming to the windowed door of the exam room to find out who was torturing that poor cat.
Ah, she is a redhead.
The good news is that she’s now fully vaccinated and all her bloods are good, which means: she is a healthy 2 or 3 year old (we’ll never know for sure). And I’m pleased. She is not one bit grateful, but she is letting me touch her and pet her today, so apparently she forgave me my part in it.
But wow. For cat lovers out there: she really was something to behold. I couldn’t help but feel a kind of perverse pride in her for taking no prisoners. But we’re also quite proud of having nursed her back to health, and having her become a healthy, cantankerous, fireball of a kitty.
Now I will make sure to make an appointment with the same vet for the boys, as a kind of consolation prize, since they are the most calm, mellow kitties a vet ever examined.
Go Oprah
She’s doing a show about class tomorrow, Friday 4/21. I never thought I’d see a show about class on American television.
Wolfpit Shows Left
Since it’s already a couple of weeks into Wolfpit‘s short run, I thought I’d post a reminder that you should get tickets now!
The remaining shows are:
April 20, 21, 22, 27, 28, 29 at 8pm
April 16, 23, 30 @ 3pm (Sunday shows are the only matinees)
May 4, 5, 6 at 8pm
So do buy your tickets now.
If you need more convincing, there’s the NY Sun’s good review, Gothamist’s expectations of a good play, and another good review from www.nytheatre.com.
Pretty Boy Voice
So Betty & I both agree that Steve Miller Band is really fun music to listen to, and maybe the kind of music that people wouldn’t expect us to like. But we do, pretty regularly, & everytime we listen to him I’m struck by how damn sexy his voice is.
But today I also noticed – while once again noticing how sexy his voice is – that it’s damn high-pitched for a guy. You might even say it’s a pretty voice. That’s his singing voice I’m talking about; I have no idea what his speaking voice is like.
Put that next to Kathleen Turner’s voice, though, and you’ve got a deep woman’s voice that’s also considered very sexy. My point? None in particular, but if I can encourage more transwomen to drop the high pitched voices I’d be pleased indeed (& in good company, finally).
Turn of the Century Tranny
The photo is of three Yale students, c. 1883, which I found courtesy of Staci’s blog, Passing Interest, where she notes that:
A Yale dean ruled that no member of the Yale Dramatic Association could impersonate a female on stage for more than two consecutive years ‘because continued impersonation tended to make men effeminate.'”
Slippery slope, indeed.
You can find more history of crossdressing at Yale at the Larry Kramer Initiative site. I recommend reading the whole of these archives of LGBT history at Yale, but if you don’t have time to read the whole thing, do at least check out the entry about two trans Yale alums.
4/17/06 = #16
NCTE’s 52 Things You Can Do for Transgender Equality:
#16 Adopt a Highway.
Trans-Trans Relationships
At the IFGE was the second time recently that I was reminded that when talking about trans relationships, I had failed to mention trans-trans ones. (The first time was at my TransNYC presentation.)
My apologies – I’ll try to get my act together on that one. I’d love to hear from any of you who are trans and who are in or who have been in a relationship with another trans person, no matter if it was a sexual relationship along the lines of a one-night stand or a LT platonic relationship/living situation, or anything inbetween.