Chatting with an Ex-Girlfriend, followed by Drag Queen Bingo

 

Why does the image at the top of this entry focus on health issues?  The answer is related to the first part of my day, when I had the chance to speak with my ex-girlfriend from 25 years ago.  She has been dealing with health issues which the doctors have been unable to diagnose, and I'm glad that I was able to catch up with her.

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The day started with me feeling lethargic, and unwilling to go out for an exercise walk as planned.  Given that I had walked 3 miles the day before, I figured that I could catch up on my walking tomorrow.  By the time I decided to have something to eat, it was already afternoon.  So I made a Tuna Melt sandwich and got back to chilling out in the apartment.

Around 4:30 pm, my Ex called, and we chatted for a while.  She told me of her hospital visits, her tests, and her doctors' unwillingness and inability to do much for her, save to prescribe some medications to help reduce some of the pain she was experiencing.  Although I won't go into all of her symptoms, I will say that the pain in her knees that she experienced when standing up made her dread each time she had to transfer herself from her bed to the bathroom to relieve herself.  If her medical problems weren't enough to ruin her summer, the health of her family and friends also was a factor in making this her summer from hell.  In addition to scuttling plans to vacation with a couple of friends due to that friend's health, my friend is currently unable to visit her ailing sister in her hospital.  And with all of this going on, she had to scuttle plans for a "bucket list" vacation.  (Hopefully, she'll be able to reschedule this vacation when she's feeling better.)

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By the time I got off the phone, I was starting to run late for the second thing scheduled for the day - Drag Queen Bingo.  (The first would have been lunch/dinner with LK, but she wasn't feeling well.  We've tentatively rescheduled a lunch for Friday.  We'll see what happens on Friday.)  So, I got shaved, showered, dressed, and made up, and was out the door by 7:00 pm.  Bingo was fine, although the place was almost empty.  For a change, I won something cheap - a gilded "Dust Collector" figurine shaped like a left hand with fingers crossed.

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This wasn't much of a day to talk about.  At least it wasn't a total "nothing burger."

Finally, the first chance to go out en-femme in 2 weeks.

 

It's been a while since I've been able to go out as Marian.  The logistics of my most recent vacation in California made it impossible for me to switch back and forth between male and female gender presentations.  Now that I've been home for a couple of days, I can finally go out as Marian and interact with the world as my authentic self.

Yesterday, I was supposed to go out with my meetup group to see another session of Drag Queen Bingo. After taking care of a couple of things, I decided not to go - using GI Tract issues as my excuse.  The one problem was that this was true - I didn't want to need to rush to a toilet and find out that I had to wait for it.  As it was, I got home, and barely made it to the toilet before soiling myself.  (I guess that I picked up a mild bug towards the end of the cruise.)

Today, things were better.  I was able to meet one of my friends from the Census and have a leisurely lunch.  Again, my GI Tract acted up a little bit.  But this time, I had a minute or two to spare.  After I was done, I ran down to Micro Center to pick up some Sugru (to repair a fraying power wire on my CPAP machine) and a 30 watt USB-C power plug for use in rapid charging my cell phone.  Although one of the people from my game night meetup was having game night at his house, I had to bug out - I didn't trust my GI Tract.

It was nice to be able to finally go out as Marian.  But this weekend, it will be several days in Mario mode again....

Another night of Drag Queen Bingo

Drag queen bingo.  It's not my normal cup of tea.  But it was part of a mid-week meetup, and I had nothing better to do this evening.  Given that there were 6 of us ladies there (myself included), it was nice to get together for something mindless and entertaining.

Like a typical Hibachi dinner, once you've seen a drag queen's performance, you've seen it all.  There is very little variation in the performance from show to show. But, in small doses, it stays a pleasant diversion when you have nothing to do.  And I certainly had nothing to do today. I was bored, so I might as well get bored with friendly people. And what is it about these performances that I find so boring?  With Hibachi chefs, it is the limit to the routines they can do with food being cooked. With drag queen performances, it is excessive exaggeration combined with lame sexual jokes.  It gets boring when one sees the same performer repeat an act with little variation from performance to performance.

Yet, I consider myself lucky.  I live in a state which protects the right of a drag performer to put on a show.  This is very important to me, as we've already seen several states ban drag performances in the name of public decency.  Who is being harmed by drag queen story hours at the local library?  The children?  I doubt it.  I'd rather have my young child read to by a drag queen than be given religious instruction by a Catholic priest.  (Yes, I know that 99% and more of the ordained priests are people I can trust.  But, in the past, the church has protected that evil 1% and rotated pedophiles from parish to parish and kept them from being held to account in a non-religious court.)  I've never heard of any drag queens molesting children, but I have heard of religious leaders doing so.

If I'm back by the time of the next show, I may end up going again.  In my way, it is a form of support for these performers, letting them know that they are appreciated.  And I hope that more people will join me in supporting their right to perform their craft without interference from the state.

Drag Queen Bingo!

 

It's been a long time since I've been to a meetup with this group, so I decided to attend a gathering at a bar where Drag Queen Bingo was going on.  I guess I'm confident enough in my presentation that I wouldn't been seen as anything but a lady (albeit transgender) when in the presence of a man exaggerating feminine mannerisms and styles.

Drag is an art.  And, as such, should be protected by the US Constitution.  Unfortunately, anything that is "Gender Variant" is being attacked in GOP states.  Attacking transgenders is easy for them to consider, as many of us simply wish to be left alone to live our lives and do not yet have the critical mass of defenders to repel these attacks.

Many transgender children are at risk because of laws being passed in the GOP states.  Their religious leaders are preaching messages of hatred, giving their parishioners permission to unleash their hatred at these defenseless children.  Many parents are both taking these children to other states for gender related treatment, and are moving their families so that their children will not become victims of the cultural war.

As much as I would have liked to visit my cisgender female friends from Texas in their home town, I could not assume I could safely take the risk.  Texas has passed a law requiring that people wear "gender appropriate" clothing - and as a pre-op/non-op transgender person, I could get into serious trouble.  So, we're meeting up in Chicago instead.

But back to Drag Queen Bingo....

In a way, it takes balls for a man to go on stage and present as a female.  The art of drag has been with us for ages, and is quite entertaining because it pokes fun at gender roles.  It subverts those roles while allowing us to examine what is real, and what is not.  As such, it is fun to watch when it is done well.  

In the long term, I will try to defend those drag queens - especially when they are reading stories to children at the local library.  Children are not afraid or offended of what drag queens are.  Why should the rest of us be so?