So many things going on I don’t know where to begin. I have several deadlines looming over my head at the moment and I’m under some pressure from many sides at the moment. So, I’m trying to pace myself and juggle all that needs to be juggled while smiling brightly : )

This week has also brought some insights that I have been mulling over:

TG Leadership:

It seems that there are a few new(ish) leaders that are coming into their own: Chris, Alex, Vanity and George. I’m really glad that they are stepping up and I wish new folks would continue to get involved. There are a few folks that I have some real hopes for: Ellie (both of them), Melissa and Vashante. I am excited about their enthusiasm and the notions of inclusion, support, passion and community they all seem to have in common. I hope that when Carolyn and I leave HACS, we will be able to hand the program to folks that are primed and ready. I’ve been thinking about the past year or so and I realized that in many subtle ways, I’ve been trying to encourage folks to get to the point that they can take this community to the next level. I also realized just how much I want to chill out with all of the work that I’ve been doing over the past decade or so. I am really ready to concentrate on getting affordable transgender healthcare, emergency housing options and emergency funding support for the community… and I think I’ll be done. All of those things are in the works right now. I am very hopeful (now) that by the time these things come to pass that there will be many competent folks who will have the practical skills to continue to attend to the community’s social needs.   

Knowing when a friend has stopped being your friend:

There is someone in my life that at one time was someone I considered to be a close friend. Sometime… I would say about… a year and a half ago, this friend became pushy and demanding. For instance… they began to dominate phone conversations. Ninety percent of the time, when I would say something, they would talk over me – cutting me off, and then continuing… non-stop with whatever point, idea or story was on their mind. About a year and a half ago, they kinda stopped asking me how I was doing or… if they did, it was only a perfunctory inquiry stated to allow themselves the opportunity to list off the things that were wrong with their life. Many times, I felt some sort of vague resentment or maybe some other powerful negative feeling subtly directed at me during conversation or written dialogue. Then, all hell broke loose. This person began playing games to see just how far they could push me. They would say inflammatory things meant to hurt to see if I would react in someway or another. I confronted the behavior and kept my boundaries. I didn’t see that person for several months until bumped into each other at a party. Since I wanted our old friendship back, I engaged them in conversation and tried to hold out the olive branch. Since that time, this person has been at the periphery of my life. Since they had tried – in a very direct way to hurt me – I was not up for being best of buds right out of the gate… as if this person’s behavior had never hurt me. What I was up for was being open for some healing to take place through time and dialogue. This week, I have discovered that I was looking for something that is probably not possible. I see that the person that is walking around today is not that same friend I had years ago. I really get now that they probably believe I have somehow wronged them and that they have so much anger that it probably isn’t really even physically safe for me to be around them now. So, now I’m mulling over how to close that chapter in a mutually supportive and respectful way. 

I spent some time at my grandmother’s house this past week:

This is my niece, my nephew and my grandmother : )

SICKO:

What a great movie! I can’t even begin to say how glad I am that it is out. I’ve known about a bajillion nurses, a number of doctors and a ton of other medical folks in my life… hell, I coordinate the care of several transgender patients. Everything I’ve heard, seen and experienced seems to back up just about everything this movie puts out there. SEE IT!

Bullshit:

I am one of those silly people who walk around with potable water. This is the back of an expensive Fiji Water bottle. I was bored, so I read it. It made no sense to me:

First of all, you can plainly see that the “Artesian Aquifer” is surrounded by “Impermeable Rock” – impermeable means that you can’t get through – however, I can clearly see from their diagram that they have indeed permeated the impermeable rock. The first line clearly says that junk is added to the water as it permeates the “Impermeable Rock.”  The second sentence clearly contradicts the first by stating that the “Impermeable Rock” protects the water from “external elements.”  If this is so, then how did the “vital minerals” get through the “Impermeable Rock” and into the “Artesian Aquifer”??? Then to top it all off, the last line states that the water is “Untouched” – when the diagram clearly shows that the “Artesian Aquifer” is being touche