I was afraid I'd have to get my ear piercings redone - a short post

 

I bought the above jewelry in Hawaii, and it looks better on me than in this photo.  You'll notice that the earrings are for pierced ears.  Unfortunately, I hadn't worn any earrings in over a week and a half and I had trouble getting the hooks into the holes in my earlobes and gave up before going to dinner.

Getting my ears pierced was a big thing for me, as I had been afraid for a long while of the consequences of doing this.  Having studs in my ears would be obvious while presenting as Mario, and I didn't want anyone asking any questions.  I had thought about getting my ears pierced when I first started to go out as Marian, yet didn't do so.  A job that paid well could have been at risk, and the display of ear jewelry could have made my then bosses uncomfortable with me.  As it was, I was already on their hit list, and I was let go 10 years this coming May.

After being laid off, I was free to get my ears pierced, but still afraid to do so.  What would people think?  It took me another few years before I said "F**k It!" and stopped caring what people will think.  If I go to see my brother, my ears are unadorned.  But if I go out as Marian, I will try to hang something pretty from my earlobes.

Luckily, after I got home from dinner, I was finally able to get the earring hooks through my earlobes.  Now, I know that I have to do this more often, so that the hole stays easy to find and use.

Wishes

I wish I could look in the mirror and see this face, knowing that the body connected to is would be fully in sync with the image.  Alas, this was not meant to be.  My face, like the rest of my body, shows the wear and tear of living a different life.  But I am not complaining about that, nor am I pining for something that can not be.  Life is a path, that for most of us has its obstacles and challenges, but can have its rewards for making it through without losing your mind or your humanity.

Lately, I get up in the morning and find that I have nothing urgent to take care of.  Life wasn't this way when I had a job to go to.  Just the fact that I had a job that had to get done gave meaning to life - even when I worked at that mind numbing job with the imaging company.  Now, having people to see and trips to take gives me a reason to get up in the morning. 

The other day, I saw BXM for lunch before she had to go to work.  (She has a flexible schedule.)  And she was the happiest that I ever saw her.  When I first met her, she was taking care of a father whose mind and body were gradually leaving him.  Now, she's being energized by helping children get their lives together, as well as having a good home life with her partner.

Not everyone is doing well.  I just had a letter from an old friend, and he told me that his wife had to go through a double mastectomy.  Although she's "triple negative" and going through the 5 years needed to be labeled as "Cured", it must have been hell for her.  This is where I wish my late wife had survived, so that she could console this friend's wife in her time of need.

Another person I know doesn't know enough about how to escape her dead-end "career".  Although she has been told about paths she could take to exit the dead-end, she hasn't done so.  Over time, many of these doors will be closed to her, and she may end up regretting taking the chances she needs to take to escape from a life that is doomed to both keep her poor and without a decent person to accompany her along the path of life.

For all of my friends, I wish that their lives will improve each day, and that they will be able to grasp success from the claws of failure.  As for me, I don't ask for much, as I already have most of what I want and all of what I need....

I'm glad I don't work in the city anymore.

 

Lately, the temperature has broken the 90° mark, and people are sweltering outside. If I had still been commuting to the city, I'd feel as if I needed to take a shower to feel fresh when I got to work.  Even though I went to the City this past Monday, it is not something I'd want to do every day anymore.

There was a time where I would have been glad to put up with the headaches of commuting.  Not anymore.  If I can't get to work with a short drive, I don't want to consider the job.  I no longer need the money, and work is only something to keep myself busy.  Although I will do some volunteer work now and then, I would prefer to get a job that pays me - people care more for a person's work when they have to pay for it.  People don't care much for things that have not been assigned a specific value, and "Free" is something that is rarely valued.

And this leads me to think about the current day....

RQS and I have each been thinking about buying new mattresses.  My mattress has a sagging middle, while RQS's mattress has edges that no longer provide adequate support.  Too bad we couldn't combine our bad mattresses to make one good one.  Due to the weather, we won't be doing any mattress shopping until autumn, as both of us want to look at the Saatva mattress in their NYC showroom.  This will be an excuse for the two of us to take the subway into Manhattan, and explore the city a little bit.

In cooler weather, I'd feel no problem in going to RQS's place.  But when Summer comes, traffic gets fouled up even more the closer I get to RQS's apartment.  It seems that the combination of commuter traffic, stadium traffic, and airport bound traffic brings all the roads I want to use to a stand still when the weather gets warm.  RQS and I have an agreement - she takes the train up to see me during the summer, and I will drive down to her place during the cooler weather.  So far, this has worked out well for us.  It's too bad that we don't live closer to each other.  But this can be changed at some future date.

If I were still working in the city, I'd leave my car in Croton for weekends and stay at RQS's during the week.  Although my commute would likely have taken the same amount of time as taking the train from Croton, I'd have had the benefit of being with RQS all the time.  Since I am no longer working, I have to think about the day that I will no longer be able to drive.  At that time, I want to live in a place where both RQS and I will be able to get around without the need for a car.  If only such places were easy to find....

I miss my former boss - a short post

 

Here is the face of a good man who meant a lot to people outside his family.  His life was cut short by a drunken hit-and-run driver,  But you may wonder, why am I making note of him here?

Well, this good man was a voice of calm in a sea of confusion.  When I first met him, the bank I worked for went through a nasty hostile takeover battle, and he was one of the people who had to earn the trust of the new people he supervised.  Over the years he worked for the bank, he did just that and was respected by all that knew him.

What most people didn't see is that he was quietly able to preserve (for a while) the careers of several people who worked for him when the next corporate merger occurred.  He made sure that the people taking over our area knew the value of a handful of key employees (myself included) that were needed to keep the technology infrastructure running.  He could have survived as well, but he didn't want to relocate himself again, this time to a city he hated.

Since that time, we stayed in contact over the years, and we met for lunch on the day that I was laid off from the bank.  (That was a weird coincidence!) We'd get together at the Cheesecake Factory in West Nyack, a place which was equidistant from our houses. And when Covid hit, we'd meet via Zoom.  Who knew that when I tried to set up the next Zoom meeting, I'd find out of his passing?

I was lucky to meet this man's family sitting Shiva.  I only wish I could have met them while he was alive. I told the family about things I knew about him, and they shard things they knew about me and the office. And all too soon, we had to part ways.

As much as I am not much of a believer in the afterlife, I do believe that if there is one, he will be a good place.  At least, I hope so....

I thought the day ended well until....

 

For the past few years, my brother has done the books and took care of the management duties for the house we rent out.  So I was glad when my brother texted me to let me know that the paperwork for 2022 taxes was ready, and that I could send it to my accountant.  I was in a good mood until I checked back on my computer and found a message from a friend's son.  His dad was killed in a hit-and-run incident, with a drunken driver leaving the scene of the accident.  If I had not texted my friend today, I'd have never known this had happened.

My former boss was one of three people that I wanted to stay in contact with after leaving the bank.  The first of these three passed away 365 days after we were both laid off in 2014.  Hopefully, he was able to collect his full pension in a lump sum payment, as he would have gotten a small fraction of that if the bank paid him the value of his ESOP shares.  The second person died about 4 years ago, and I was the only person from the bank who attended his wake.  And now, the last person has died due to some drunk's stupidity.  

Sometime this week, I expect to visit his family as they sit Shiva. Although I just had a mani-pedi, intending to spend the week as Marian, I will remove the polish and visit in Mario mode.  Neither he, nor his family knew about Marian, and this would not be the time or place to let them know.  Instead, it's the time to show respect for my friend and to try and comfort his family as best as possible.

How do I feel, now that I'm retired?

 

Please pardon the slightly blurred picture above.  I was looking for a more colorful picture of me to post, and this is what I could find with a limited amount of time.  But why was I looking for something with color to post, you might ask?  Well, the answer is simple.  I feel that the weight of going into a soul crushing job has lifted, and that I am looking forward to the future.

Looking forward to the future does not mean that everything will be cheerful.  For example, if I assume that RQS and I will have a long term relationship, I must also assume the likelihood that one of us could die of old age before the other.  Who needs grief?  But that's a normal part of life if one lives to old age.  Having lost a spouse over 2 decades ago, I'd hate to go through that experience again.  And yet, the reward for taking that risk is worth all the pain it could bring.

I now have the freedom to plan and do new things.  Most of the big things I want to do involve travel.  Yet, the little things in life can be the most rewarding.  For example, I can hear it in RQS's voice when she talks about her exercise sessions.  This may motivate me to finally get back into an exercise routine - or, at least, I hope so.  (Right now, I'm looking at doing some yoga.  I'll talk about that in a later post.)  I may also get back to the reading I've put off, as well as taking care of the tasks I've long neglected.  

Yet, change does not come easily to me.  And this may be one of the biggest changes I'll deal with in life.  I could have muddled on, and continued to work at the soul sucking job.  But I'm reminded of Shirley, a woman I used to work with at the bank.  Her life ended on a very sad note.  Years ago, she worked full time, even after she reached retirement age, to have the medical benefits needed to cover her ailing husband's medical expenses.  Unfortunately, she was diagnosed with terminal cancer.  Her retirement was not one of joy, but of sadness, as she knew she would die with no one left to care for her husband. (Her retirement lunch was a sad ritual, as it was a formality that only made things worse for everyone involved.)  I do not want that fate.  This is why I chose to leave while I still have enough of my health to do the things I want to do.

I have finally retired!

 

Although I've been talking about retirement for a while, I was always afraid to pull the cord and take the leap into the unknown.  Well, the other day, an incident at work caused me to do some serious thinking through the past weekend and commit to leaving my job.

I won't say much about the incident that caused me to make my decision, save that I was very tired when it happened.  There is an acronym for things that one should be aware of for those people who are prone to let loose with their feelings: HALT - Hungry, Anxious, Lonely, and Tired.  In my case, I was tired, and bothered by someone who didn't have the ability to interact with me as a normal person would.  (This person is intellectually disabled, and I normally would avoid him to prevent him from getting on my nerves.  But I digress....)

My finances are in decent shape for my age, and I have no significant debts.  So I figured that the best thing for me to do would be to exit the job and step into the unknown.  I handed my resignation in to my boss at the tail end of the day, and didn't bother looking back  Later on, I texted several people that I had left the firm, and two of them were surprised.  One of them even gave me a call to chat, and she mentioned that people in my area were doing a hard job.  (I must agree, it is a hard job for most and one best suited to people who can perform a repetitive task for 8 hours each day. This is why many intellectually disabled people are best suited to work at this place; they can thrive in an environment where they can show that they, too, can make meaningful contributions in the workplace.)

Does this mean that I will never go to work again?  No.  But it means that I will be much more picky in the type of work I do and the amount of work I do.  I can always use a little bit of extra cash....

I don't know how I make it through the day.

 

Lately, I've been feeling very tired when I get up.  Most of the time, I can blame it on not getting enough sleep the night before.  Yet, I continue with the idea of going to work at a 9 to 5 job, as I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have to be somewhere on a regular basis.  This morning, I didn't feel like I had enough sleep the night before, and I felt lucky that I had some "extra caff" coffee available for me to start my day.

It's still nice being able to go to work presenting as female.  I wish I could have done this throughout my career.  However, it was many times more difficult being out and about as a trans person than it is now.  But I can't complain about my past.  My 40 year career in technology made it possible to effectively retire at 58, even though I've had several jobs in the past 7 years that allowed me to avoid draining savings too much.

- - - - - -

Today, I wished I could have stayed home and slept for a while.  RQS was out of town seeing a relative, and I didn't have much to do when I got home.  So I figured that I'd try to figure out why my VCR  wasn't working after I installed my new DVD player.  Somehow, I had to have unplugged the darned thing from its power supply, yet it appears to be plugged in.  If I can't figure this out, I may look for a used player at a thrift shop, just to be able to view a few tapes I can't get on DVD or Blu-Ray.

Once I gave up (for the night) on the VCR issue, I took a quick nap before calling RQS.  She'll be coming home soon, and it'll be nice to have her here again.  However, this will be an interesting weekend, as this will be the first time I'll pick her up as Mario in several weeks....

I'm afraid of being noticed for what I'm not.

 

RQS knows that I'm a little nervous about my future trip to Hawaii, as I will be flying as Marian for the first time.  This doesn't mean that I will travel as Mario.  Instead, it means that I will be aware that I may trigger alerts whenever I go through a security checkpoint and that I will need to figure out a way to keep my beard stubble under control whenever I interact with "civilians".

- - - - - -

Traveling as Marian to Hawaii doesn't mean that I'll be taking my first cruise with RQS as Marian.  For this cruise, I'll be traveling as Mario.  But, we haven't booked our cruise yet.  On Friday, I finally got up the nerve to talk to my boss about taking unpaid time off to take a trip. My boss said that this shouldn't be a problem - I should just give her the details and she should be able to take care of things.  I guess that I'm simply afraid of being seen as a troublemaker, and that's the root of my nervousness.

When I worked for the bank, I knew that I (once) had a high value to the organization and that I could usually name my terms regarding time off.  Now that I'm working as a grunt, it's hard to think about having much freedom until I retire.  Luckily, I will be forced to submit my resignation 2 weeks before my Hawaii cruise, and that I will feel good after having done so.

Fish & Chips

 

Today was a strange day for me.  I was late for work because I left my cell phone at home, and decided to go back and get it before arriving at work.  As much as I was going to lose an hour's pay, I treat my cell phone like people used to be admonished to treat their American Express Cards - "Don't leave home without it."  I certainly didn't want to do that....

Work was the usual dull grind, and I was trying to keep myself awake all day.  It was harder than usual, as I noticed that I didn't remember little steps I took while in the middle of indexing a document.  (How did I get to step C, when I didn't recall doing step B and the evidence showed that step B was completed properly?)  As usual, I started waking up towards the end of the day, realizing that RQS would soon be here for the weekend.

RQS and I have been trying out different cuisines each week she comes up here.  We're almost at the point of repeating restaurant types - but not yet.  I told her that we had another food category to try out - "Atlantean Food" (food now eaten in Atlantis.)  It took her a minute or two, and then she picked up on my reference - Seafood!  And we then proceeded to have a nice fish dinner in a place where one would not expect good food - a nondescript strip mall just outside of downtown Ossining. Afterwards, it was off to the blue Pig in Croton for dessert, and then we called it a night.  A great way to end the day....

Marian was a very busy girl today.

 

Work kept me busy for most of the day.  But my evening was busy too....

- - - - - -

As my readers know, I go to work presenting as female.  Weekends are usually spent presenting as a Male, as I have a girlfriend who prefers to date a male.  So, today was a rush - I had to get home and change into a male presentation to spend an hour zooming with my ex-boss.  And even then, I only had an hour to chat with him, as I had to make it to the drug store and pick up my prescriptions.

Changing from Marian to Mario is normally a 30 minute task.  First, I have to remove my makeup.  Next, I have to strip, then put on a masculine outfit. Finally, I have to switch wallets.  And I did this in time to tell my ex-boss that I'd be late for our zoom meeting.  But once we connected, I wish we had more time to chat - my visit to CVS had to be made before 9 pm to pick up my prescriptions, and  I had to get my clothes into the laundry, so that I'd be done by 10-10:30 pm.

At CVS, I found out that my insurance had transitioned to the new insurance plan.  However, there was a problem with my test strips.  No wonder why people sell glucose test strips in a black market - there is no reason why I have to pay 10 times as much for something that costs pennies to make.  Next time I choose a Part-D plan, I'll look for one that covers these strips - if they are available in a Medicare plan.

By the time I was done with CVS, it was time for laundry and to put my ID back into my female wallet. This is a gift I could use at Xmas time, as the coin compartment is always opening when in my purse.  However, I'll have to buy this for myself when the holidays come.  At least I'll have it before going to Hawaii....

Boy, did I need a day off to do nothing.

 

 

It was a great relief not having to go to work and spend 8 hours at a mostly mindless task.  The reason why my job exists is that machines do not yet have enough pattern recognition ability to locate specific information in an almost randomly formatted document, nor do they have the ability to figure out what data has been captured incorrectly in an automated OCR scan of the page.

For example, take the business information below:

Dewey, Cheatem and Howe, Esqs, LLP
101 Vesey Street, Suite 10L
New York, NY 10007

Often, a person's signature may obscure some of the text.  So we have to figure out what text is underneath the signature.  Sometimes, letters are mixed up with numbers and vice versa.  Suite 10L might be scanned as LOL, 101 or 1OL.  We have to fix that error as well.  And then, some of the information we need to enter into a database is not found on the main page, but on a second page.  A lot of micro decisions are made throughout the day, and I am exhausted by day's end.

When one does work like this on a daily basis for months at a time, one's mind gets a little fried.  I do not have the energy to read books anymore.  Instead, I surf the web for short articles worthy of a skim.  Lately, I'm watching YouTube videos for information related to cruising, car purchasing, and other information I find of interest. (I'm lucky to be able to filter out the people who don't know what they talk about, leaving only decent sources of information in the areas I've just mentioned.)

Soon, I plan to leave this job.  It's a little scary to shift into a new phase of life.  But it will be rewarding.

- - - - - -

On a side note, my company asked me to supply a picture for a new ID card.  This picture was emailed overnight.  I'm very glad that they didn't ask me for a copy of my driver's license!

Oh, how I hate to get up in the morning....

 

Yesterday, I went into work when I should have stayed home, only because it was a beginning of a work week after a 3 day weekend.  A last of sleep the night before made it impossible for me to function at 50% on the job, and it was a miracle that I got anything done. Right now, I'm glad that it is not bright and sunny outside, as I just called in sick to the office so that I can recharge my batteries.

I have found that the occasional day that I can get up late helps a great deal.  Our American style of work is not a healthy one.  We treat workers as if they are disposable parts of a machine, and most have no idea that they would be treated better if they lived in many other developed countries.  I consider myself lucky that I can afford to retire, and that I don't need this job for the money it provides me.  (Money does help, as I haven't needed to drain savings lately.)  

Soon, I will retire for good.  I am worn out as a worker, and I plan to leave things for the younger folk to take care of.  It is the normal course of life.  Yet, I am envious of the people who have more years ahead of them than years behind them.  There are so many things I'd do differently now in my career that I didn't do way back when.  And now, I look forward to the next stage of life....

A quick note about my office

Two women I know are likely to have delivered their babies by the end of the week.  One of them is my former student voice clinician, and the other is the office gofer.  It is the second woman I want to talk about today.

The gofer is visibly pregnant (how could I have doubted it for an instant?) and is working at the office into her last week of pregnancy.  From what she says, there is no one designated to take on any of her responsibilities when she goes on leave.  We're already seeing what happens when she is not in the office, as K-Cups, paper coffee cups, paper towels, etc are not being replenished in the break room. Given the way my office works, I doubt they will do much of anything to deal with her absence until she's been gone a few days.

Before leaving, she complained about how this firm brings on new hires.  First, a person works for an employment agency (think of "Kelly Girls" and the like) for the first 3 months, and then another 3 months for the firm itself without benefits.  (This may have changed since new management took over the firm, but I digress.)  This woman's employment start date is listed as some time early this year, and her position is protected for only 6 weeks.  If she desires to come back, she will not be too happy leaving her baby in care of someone else.  If she desires to leave, we will have a 6 week gap until we can find a new worker to replace her.

No matter what, I have a feeling that this may be a factor in when I choose to retire....

Starting to catch up with people

 

Harpo Marx has nothing to do with this post, save this is my favorite picture of him, and that he is my favorite among all the Marx Brothers as people. (Groucho is my favorite on screen.)  

- - - - - -

Today was my last day of work before the weekend.  And my schedule included dealing with a phone call from the Medicare Insurance Agent (for my Part D coverage) and having dinner with a friend from my meetup groups.  What I didn't plan for was a 90 minute phone call with my ex girlfriend Patty, as her hubby was busy with a gig.  So, bu the time I reached RQS, it was getting close to midnight.  

But first....

I haven't been sleeping that well, and I could have used another 2 hours of sleep before going to work.  But I was awake and alert all day.  I guess it relates to me having more liquid when I get up and some calories (in the form of carbs) to burn before leaving home.

After 8 hours at my workstation, it was time for me to leave and get ready for dinner.  Dinner was scheduled for 6:30 at a nearby restaurant.  Since I had the insurance agent scheduled, I pushed the time forward to 7 pm.  And this was a good thing, as the insurance agent didn't bother calling me.  Luckily, the restaurant is 5 minutes away from me and I got there at 7 o'clock sharp. My friend and I had a nice meal together.  She is young enough to be my daughter and she sees me as if I were a cisgender woman.  And that is how I relate to her.   

Once I got home, Patty and I had a nice long chat and caught up on things. I won't go into any of the details here, save that we talked about family members with similar issues, medicare issues, and residence issues.  We could have talked more, but her hubby got home and she wanted to spend time with him.  So I suggested a dinner foursome with RQS, and let her spend the end of the evening with her hubby.

Next was RQS.  We caught up on what was going on for the day, and then it was time to go to bed.  At this point, I picked up some clothing I'd need for the next day, and packed for an overnight with her. However, I made sure that I transferred everything from Marian's wallet to Mario's wallet.  The last thing I want is to have no ID in my wallet when I need it - as happened with XGFJ several years ago....

The beginning of an interesting weekend

 

It was a very interesting weekend indeed!  At least, it was for me.  

I had told RQS that I'd pick her up at the train station in Marian mode.  Would she be shocked?  Or, would it be a non issue.  In a way, this was make or break time for us, as she needed to find out how she'd feel about seeing me in Marian mode.  So, it was with a little trepidation that I got ready for work on Friday. I wanted to look my best for when I met RQS in Marian mode for the first time.

The end of the work day approached, and I got ready to take a long weekend off.  At exactly 4:30 pm, I shut down my work station, grabbed my handbag, and out the door I went.  After taking care of a couple of things, such as filling up the gas tank, it was time to meet RQS.  She didn't recognize me at first, but she recognized the car.  And, she saw it was the same person inside - but she had to get used to me wearing a wig and speaking in a more feminine voice.

Once we got back to my place, I switched back into Mario mode for the rest of the evening.  We had passed our first test with me presenting as Marian, and I didn't want to overwhelm her.  There would be more to come over the weekend.

A quick note about someone convicted of a minor crime or two.

 

How many of you have listened to the "Alice's Restaurant Massacree?"  

Arlo Guthrie's most famous song was written about a real life incident in his life.  There was a real life Alice who ran a restaurant near Stockbridge, MA and there was an incident where Arlo did have to clean up a mess of garbage.  He did clean up the mess talked about in his tune.

Regarding his visit to Whitehall Street, less is known from other sources, save that the building still exists in mutilated form. Arlo Guthrie has stated that much of the film "Alice's Restaurant" is based on real events.  I can only imagine what he went through at that time in his life.

- - - - - -

Why do I bring this up?  Well, I have been listening to his tune on a regular basis while I do my work at the office.  The simple pace of the tune distracts me enough from what I'm doing to make doing my job more bearable.

So, if you want to deal with a highly repetitive task, I suggest finding a tune which matches the pace of the work you are doing, and then playing it in the background for a while.

Normalcy

 

What is normal?  For a trans person, it is being about living a normal life for the gender for which one identifies.  This means that after a period of transition, a trans person will live an uneventful life in issues of gender, save for those issues specific those people of that gender.

Once one has transitioned, all of the other issues in a person's life still go on.  The issue of gender dysphoria has been removed, but all other issues remain.  If one is prone to anger, one will still get angry quickly after transition. If one is warm and affectionate, this personality trait will still remain after one shifts to a new gender identity and presentation.  If one has family problems, they will still remain after transition.  In short, transition is not a be all and end all.

Why am I noting this?

For the past 15 months, I've been working at a job as Marian that I've grown to abhor.  It's not the job itself, but what I've let it do to my life.  I no longer have the energy to read in the way I once did.  I no longer have the time to prepare my own "healthy" meals.  And I no longer have the time to keep up with my friends.  This is not a normal I like to live.  Yet, it is the normal that many of us are forced to suffer for much of their lives.

Lately, I have identified a date for which I will be submitting my resignation, so that I have a chance of enjoying a summer spending time with RQS.  I will miss the extra money I get from working my job.  But I will be able to get back to a normal that I enjoyed more than the normal I have now....

Time in my life

 

Tonight, RQS and I were discussing how tired I get after a full day of work.  My exhaustion makes it impossible for me to take care of things during the week.  If it needs energy, I am not able to respond the way I used to after a full day of work as a computer technologist.  I only get one day during the week to get things done, with almost nothing done during the week.  AARGH!   I can't wait to retire for good, and that will take place soon.  I have a date set, but won't announce it until I have handed in my paperwork.

There is a part of me that keeps looking for new dresses to wear.  I was very surprised to see this dress on Avenue's site, as it is all cotton, and not polyester as their usual wont.  Will I buy this dress?  Possibly, but I have several similar dresses in my wardrobe that would make this a superfluous purchase.  Do I want to waste money?  Probably not.  Only time will tell.

A weekend without RQS

 

No, this is not bad news.  RQS is going to fly South to see a friend.  As for me, I'll be able to take care of things that I normally wouldn't do because we'd be keeping each other company over the weekend.

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I've been putting off shopping for a car for a while.  This will be a good weekend to go to several dealers and take some test drives.  With over 180,000 miles on my car, I need to make sure that I have reliable transportation - especially when I drive all over the place in my feminine presentation, but carry ID in my male name.  The last time I had a problem, it was midnight and I was able to change into male clothes before AAA came to tow my car.  I don't ever want that experience again.

There are people I've wanted to see for a long while. And now that I have a girlfriend plus a job that sucks the life out of me, I have even less time to see these people.  So, I might just try to see one or two of them over the next few days.  Since I may be in Mario mode, it will likely be with people who know me in both modes, unless I change into Marian mode after car shopping.

Even with this, the 20 at 20 deal is on this weekend.  I want to get in to NYC to see one of these off-Broadway shows.  So what do I do?  I may need a weekend to rest from the activities I schedule for this weekend....