I'm tired of talking politics, and I hope that the new year is better than this one.

 

Today will not be an excuse for a political rant.  I am thankful that the year is almost over, even though I have a few chores left to take care of before baby new year comes a calling.

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I'm very thankful that I've been able to take 5 different cruises this year.  It's nice to have someone to share experiences with.  After being widowed for 29 years, it feels a little strange to be with someone I can trust to be there when I need her.  (She feels the same about me.)  It's a blessing to have someone in my life who can accept me both as Marian and as Mario.  Unlike former relationships, I don't have to hide the feminine side of me from her.

I've tried to keep in touch with people, but some of them have fallen by the wayside.  One friend is assumed to have died, or he is unable to keep in touch.  Another friend is doing OK, and we have to find time to get together during the new year.  Yet, unlike most cisgender females, I do not have a typical woman's network of friends.  This is the price a transgender person pays for being assigned male at birth.

In spite of what is going on in the Orange Snowflake's mind, I have been able to live most of my life untouched by his evil nature.  Yes, I get angry when I hear his voice.  But I know to change the channel and catch up on the news in ways where I don't have to hear evil words come out of his hateful voice. Yet, I still have faith that things will get better sooner than later.  However, I know that I have an exit plan underway, just in case things get really bad.

When I look at things going on with my co-op, I worry about things that could cause our complex to fail financially.  Luckily, I have a voice in things, and use it as much as possible,  I publish the co-op's website, as well as manage the co-op's zoom presence.  (Zoom is nothing much to talk about.  But I handle all technology issues for the co-op.)  There are some accounts that are in arrears, and I am looking to get these shareholders to pay up, so that others don't have to carry them.  Hopefully, 2026 will be a better year for the co-op, as I don't want to take on any more responsibility than I have now.

After a year of having no tenants in the family homestead, it looks like we will have some soon.  This year, 2025, the house became a money pit for my brother and I, and neither of us expected that we would sink as much money into the house as we did without rent coming in to pay the expenses.  Assuming we get someone good to rent the place, I'm hoping that we will sell the place 5 years from now, as I expect I'll need a cash infusion by then.

So, I'll close this entry with a simple wish - have a joyful and prosperous new year!

 

It's hard to believe that this year passed so quickly!

 

The image of a hurricane from space.  It seems like a fitting metaphor for this chaotic year.  We went from relative calmness, steered by a caretaker president, to a lunatic who is steering us into the middle of a global storm.

For a transgender person in the United States, we were the first targets of Trump's hatred.  He tried to erase us from history - even at the Stonewall Memorial site.  Yet, he has failed to silence us and force us into the closet.  Although people like me are staying in stealth mode when we interact with the Federal Government, others are openly challenging this corrupt administration.  We were the canaries in the coal mine.  Next, he targeted women, people of color (I hate that phrase), anyone who looks Latino (they were in the Southwest before the Anglos), and now anyone who stands up to oppose him.

Yet, life has gone on as normal for many people, save that they have to make hard choices because of our president's foolish actions: pay rent, pay for food, or pay for medical care.  Everything has gone up in price for the average person, and yet, the president claims that "Affordability" is a hoax created by the Democratic party.  

What many people aren't seeing yet is the debasement of the legal system.  Promises to deport the criminals among the "undocumented" (I call them illegal aliens, as am not politically correct) have been broken, and now it's a numbers game to round up as many of these (generally) law abiding people as possible, herd then into prison camps without the rights to challenge their detentions, and then shipping them off to places such as El Salvador's CECOT, where these people are treated worse than most farm animals.  The DOJ is trying a third time to indict James Comey, simply because he did his job and investigated the crimes committed by Trump.

Fortunately, people are waking up. It's hard to believe, but even MTG is now on the president's shit list because she opposed him on releasing the Epstein Files.  In special elections held recently, the Democratic party has over-performed.  The snowflake knows if we have a fair election, the GOP would lose big time.  Even if the election is rigged slightly, they have no guarantee of winning in the general election.  I'm sure that my congress critter will be voted out - he has done nothing for his district, save make meaningless promises.

Sadly, I've had to stay in stealth mode when taking cruises this year.  Normally, I'd present as Mario when sailing to the Caribbean.  For convenience, I'd have sailed as Mario when we went to Alaska.  But I'd have sailed as Marian when going to Bermuda and on the New England/Canada run had the snowflake not weaponized branches of the government to terrorize people.  

Sometime late next year, I'll be filing to renew my passport and my global entry card.  I wonder what that process will be like, considering what he's already planning to do with ESTA applications which foreigners must submit before coming to the US.  (I'm appalled that we may soon be demanding to know foreign tourists' Social Media history and all Email addresses used in the past 5 years.)  What will his henchmen dream up to limit what US Citizens can do, especially their right to leave the country.

Earlier this year, I applied to be registered in a foreign nation's foreign birth registry.  If things get really bad here for transgender people, I will marry RQS and take her to Europe with me, hoping that I can bring enough financial resources with me to start a new life there.  

It's amazing - in less than a year, America has changed from a democratic republic into a fascist state.  Hopefully, we'll see this change soon....

What a difference a few years can make.

 

It's been about 12-13 years now that I've been going out in public as Marian.  I've cruised as Marian and have flown as Marian.  However, things changed in January 2025 when the Orange Snowflake took power.  Now, I'm careful NOT to interact with any employee of the Federal Government presenting as Marian, as I can't trust anyone in the Federal Government to respect my rights as a human being, much less a trans person.

The other day, I received an email from a pen pal in Canada.  She said that if she knew that I was going to be on a cruise with one of her other friends, that she'd have made the effort to be on the same cruise as well.  If a Democrat had been elected last year, I'd have felt no qualms about taking my next cruise as Marian.  However, I'm playing it safe by presenting as Mario.  So, I will avoid meeting this fellow, as I would avoid meeting my pen pal on the ship.

It's sad to think that it's not just transgenders that are under attack.  It's anyone who doesn't fit the snowflake's Aryan idea of what an American should be.  He calls countries such as Haiti, Somalia, and Iran as "Shit Holes", and hates people from these countries because they are not Aryan.  Even when people have assimilated into American life, he'd deny them the opportunity to become full fledged Americans simply because of their race and nation of origin.  If the man hadn't so much evil and hatred in his heart, I'd almost feel sorry for him.  Stress the word "Almost" here, because he's one of the few men I can't say a good word about.

I'm glad that some Republicans are finally feeling safe enough to start challenging the snowflake.  But that doesn't affect my level of respect for any of them - they haven't earned any yet.  If a bully were to choose 1 victim out of 101 people, 50 would side with the bully out of fear, 49 would hold their coats and say nothing, leaving only one person who'd help the victim.  I hope that I'd be that 1 person who'd help the victim, even if I had to go "all-in" to do so.  Since 99 of the remaining 100 would not help the victim, I have no respect for them, as I have no respect for any of the GOP members who Kow-Towed to to the snowflake or ignored the victim's cries for help.

Sadly, all I can do is talk today.  I am not willing to be a sacrifice on the altar of the snowflake.  But if things get worse, I will try and help others avoid his wrath.  I don't know what will happen if things get worse, but I will try to be prepared, as well as having an escape route if I need one myself.

Going from one cruise to the next (a short post)

 

Somehow, we seem to be going from one cruise to another with only short breaks on land.  Although this is not true, we've compressed a lot of cruising into a short time - 5 cruises in one year.

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As I write this, we will be taking another cruise in a few weeks.  This cruise will be on one of the more boring routes I could think of:

• New York - Start
• Port Canaveral
• Nassau, Bahamas
• Cruise Line's Private Island
• New York - End

All this on a 7-day cruise.  This trip is not one where we plan to do any exploration.  I've been to all 3 destination ports before and found them all boring.  There is "no there there" in Port Canaveral.  The only good reason to stop  here may be to visit the nearby Space Center.  Nassau is a bore.  And that leaves the private island, a place where the cruise line can pick even more money out of one's pocket.

One of the things we like about cruising is that, as RQS says, "All one has to do is show up, and the rest is taken care of for you."  It's a chance to turn off, tune out, and chill.  As long as the cruise isn't one where there are too many kids and not enough sober people, we usually find ways to relax in comfort.  Whether we chill out watching movies in the ship's theater, sipping drinks in a lounge, or grabbing food at the buffet, we relax.  And if one lives in the NYC orbit, one needs to find ways to relax.

A problem we've had with cruising is that there is so much nickel-diming going on with cruising.  Instead of selling "all-inclusive" fares, most lines don't include so-called gratuities in their fares.  This is a deceptive practice that is annoying, as one has to perform an extra calculation in one's head to figure out the true base price for a fare.  I'll buy soda packages, as it's cheaper for me to do so, than to buy each soda individually.  I'll buy fare packages that include dining and adult drinks for the same reasons.  In short, I'll pay a little more for simplicity in pricing, as I always seem to break even on the deals.

As I cruise more, there are fewer places I want to travel to via cruise ship, and more I want to travel to by train.  Soon, I'll be planning another trip that involves riding the rails.  Until then, I'll be on the waters.

It was a busy day and evening

 

Today would be a busy day.  I didn't have the time or energy to clean up my apartment before RQS came up today So, all I could do is get some little things out of the way, so that she could feel more comfortable while here.

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I woke up early, but had little energy to move.  My back was bothering me a little, and I didn't want to spend what little energy I had cleaning up my place.  So, I moved things out of the way and got ready to go out as Marian for the first time since before my last cruise. 

Getting ready as Marian involves several things.  First, I have to shave very close.  Then, I have to apply my makeup.  And that has a routine that I try to follow: (1) Clean my face, (2) Apply beard concealer, (3) Apply dark makeup to disguise my chin bones, (4) Apply foundation, (5) Apply brow makeup, (6) Apply setting powder, (7) Apply blush, and finally (8) Apply lipstick.  There are times that I am in a rush and skip a step - but that's usually when I'm in a rush.  It's a production, but worth it to go out as Marian.

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My friend from the imaging firm and I had a lunch appointment scheduled for noon at Panera Bread in White Plains.  So I wouldn't have much time in the morning to putz around and all I could do would be to get up, get ready to go out, and drive to White Plains.  By 11 am, I was running late, and was about to call my friend.  Then I read a test on my phone - my friend would be late.  She "got credit" for asking for a delay, and this suited me just fine.

We met at Panera at 12:30, and had a nice chat.  I talked about my recent cruise, and she talked about her Thanksgiving day dinner disaster.  All too soon, lunch had to end.  Part of me couldn't wait - this place was much too loud in which to hold a good conversation.  So I went home for a while, waiting for RQS to come in.

At 4:30, I picked up RQS at the station, and we went to a local "Red Sauce" joint for dinner.  But neither of our dishes were covered by red sauce: she had shrimp scampi, while I had chicken scarpiello.  Yum!  The food was tasty, plentiful, and filling. We lingered a bit at the restaurant, and then it was off to the Westchester Woman's Chorus perform at a nearby church.

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A friend of ours performs with the chorus, and we were there to hear her (and others) sing.  It was a nice performance, and  we were glad to have gone.  We met DS there from game night, but she didn't have a lot to say.  Soon, it was time to leave, and we were home for the night.

Still recovering from my cruise

 

As I write this entry, I've been on land for 3 days now.  And reality is catching up with me.  I've had to write out a fistful of checks (actually, they are ACH Payments for the most part) , and my bank account is the lowest it's ever been for a while.  By tomorrow, my monthly Social Security payment will be credited to my account, and I will be mostly whole again.  

Catching up with this is always a pain in the butt.  Last night, I laundered 2 baskets of dirty clothes, with another basket ready to go today.  Today, I paid bills.  And tomorrow, I'll likely do some apartment cleanup before going out for lunch with a friend and going to game night for the first time in a couple of months.

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Today, I went to the radiology center in town to get a liver scan.  Now, I have some understanding of how a woman feels as her belly gets slicked up for the ultrasound scan, and for the device to be rubbed over the skin.  (No, there's no sensory comparison.  But there is a procedural comparison, and only that, here.)  In a week and a half, I expect that my doctor will be giving me some bad news as the results of this scan comes in.

Once done with the liver scan, it was off to the bagel shop to get breakfast.  Being without food or water for 10 hours made me hungry and thirsty.  And I dealt with that need before going home.  Then, I relaxed for the rest of the day. 

Merry Christmas 2025

 

Merry Christmas!

(See you tomorrow.)