Maura's Illuminated Manuscript

I went to Lambert House for the trans group as usual last night, and it was a good group, if small: trans yoof youth talking about trans things. One thing that made it more pleasant than usual was that nobody connected to the online meeting; everyone was there in person. I just find it harder to divide my attention between the screen and the room, and the audio is always terrible. If the purveyors of online video hardware & software really want to take over the world, they're going to have to solve that second problem.

And while I'm complaining, I'm tired of the setup and teardown needed for the video calls. We can't just set it up and leave it up because we're still at St. Mark's, not in our own house. However, says Ken the director, we're moving back in July. I'm oh so ready, and the yoof youth are too, I found out last night.

Just two more trips to St. Marks for me, I think: I'll be in San Francisco in early May. It was pretty damn fantastic of St. Mark's to rent us that much space for that long, complete with use of a kitchen. Like many if not most queers I'm deeply suspicious of most conventional religious organizations* because they're full of people who crave being told that doing horrible things to queers is OK. Nevertheless, the Episcopal church in general and St. Mark's Cathedral in particular have won my grudging respect.



*Hence the popularity of woo among queers. If I could roll my eyes in writing right now, I would.

I knew when the news app on my phone chirped in the small hours of this morning that something bad had happened. The Wendling lost sleep last night about the brand new Iran war, and I find myself wondering if a 28-year-old with AuDHD is likely to get drafted. The Persian Princess, now living on the far side of the US from me, has mixed emotions to say the least.

And in a sign of approaching spring, the motorcycles are back on the highway near my place. Believe it or not, I like them, ss long as they're riding at reasonable hours as usual for the large groups.

I made it to the Blue Moon last night, having arranged to be there with Blue Moon Lady. Go me! It's a short bus ride for me, but for her it's a long drive. I appreciate it.

It was digital open decks night. Good: Hazel Zen for sure, and maybe Krystal? It took me a while to find the whiteboard on which Brit writes down the set times. Less to my taste: River, a young 'un who's about 90% limbs and 100% trans. River's hyperpop-flavored set was not what we olds wanted, and indeed, no one was dancing. I speculated that it was because the youth of today are doing the wrong drugs. BML's friend J concurs, saying that the increase in ketamine's popularity and the decline in MDMA's has led us to this pass.

Was it a date? Well, it didn't feel like a date. But! We agreed that we should keep each other notified if we're going to the Blue Moon or a north end munch. She runs the munch in West Seattle, if you'll recall. So, vict'ry?

I left at 2130 because I got paged for work. It was kind of a convenient excuse, though; remember, I get up at 0600.

Transphobia on the bus home. I don't think I was in any danger, because the bottle-throwing fool was getting off, but still, not fun. That's the second time I've had aggro at that stop. Some people's children.

But first, the leather dyke munch. Had an agreeable time talking with fellow trans folks. Yes, again. Finally asked B the organizatrix, "Where are all the people over fifty?" She said that she'd been considering throwing an event earlier in the evening for us elders. Sort of like the Hot Flash dance nights an Neighbours, she said, only freakier. Shoot, I'd go. I would have stayed later at B's fundraiser on the other side of CC's, but I had plans for today, namely...

...I took a bus route that was new to me a loooong way south to White Center for my first Burning Man camp meeting this year. In attendance were Burner R (not to be confused with any earlier R's) and leenerella. Neither of them are planning on going to the playa this year, but this wasn't just a meeting for planning for Burning Man; there are other Burner-flavored events various subsets of the crew are going to, some of which I'll be medically unable to attend due to surgery.

It's been eight years since I went, and unlike my last several trips to The Thing In The Desert, I don't have my own vehicle anymore. I've been worried about logistics because how could I not be? R put my transportation fears to rest: the gang is used to carpooling, and has a trailer for moving the vast quantities of gear and infrastructure that we haul into the desert.

As for my smaller worries – camp dues, if any, and gasoline for the inevitable generator, etc. – it's too soon to ask about those. I'll just have to do what doesn't come naturally and take care of those questions later.

But overall, it's an experienced group of people who know what they're doing and also have fun. Hell to the yes. I'm feeling even better about this crew – Astro Shack, by name – than I felt earlier.

But first, and this does come into play later: on Friday evening I got a COVID shot, etc. at CVS, no fuss no muss, a historically normal drugstore experience. There was a time when I would have taken that for granted, but not anymore. Pity CVS is kind of a hike from my place, unlike the cursed Walgreen's.

On to yesterday afternoon. I had coffee with dianala! Whom I hadn't seen since before the pandemic. She's one of my oldest friends in the Seattle area, and she's also the one who plugged me into MOO and thereby the kink community, LiveJournal and thereby Dreamwidth, etc. So you could say she's had an outsize influence on my life. She didn't work as hard at it as, say, cupcake_goth, but she administered some crucial course corrections at a few points in my life.

We're all living with the aftermath of the pandemic. Her two boys, now young men, have got the 'tism like whoa, and that's basically consumed her life since the pandemic started; the pandemic made it significantly harder. Her husband lister, who I actually think is cool, seems to be fighting depression, and she recognizes that she needs to get out & be more social. I'll do what I can, natch, but neither clubbing nor kink nor bleepy goodness are her thing. There's art, though.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that we've grown in such different directions since the turn of the century – she was the self-styled Big Dyke On Campus back in the early '90s – but I confess to being a little sad about it.

It's funny how she & I have both given into do-gooder impulses: I mainly through Lambert House, and she by starting a non-profit that does micro-grants fast, which is often of the essence. I'm impressed.

Fun fact: the user pic I used was taken in the very early aughts inside what was then dianala's house.

I went to the Mercury briefly. I enjoyed the Valentine's Day decorations as only seelenschwester would do them, plus all the femmes femmed up more than usual. (J of A&J fame confirmed my suspicion.) But the COVID shot kicked my butt and I left early. I swung by Pony on the way to the train station; I didn't feel the music, but I did start feeling a sore ankle. That was Goddess telling me to go home already, which I did.

Oh: of course one of the Merc DJs played a song that I first heard at one of dianala's parties. Kind of perfect, really.

Oh oh: the train to the north end announced itself as a 2 line train*! Hurrah! The automatic station announcements were for stations in Redmond, so the conductor had to get on the PA and give out the real ones for, you know, north Seattle. It is to laugh.



*For you out-of-towners, our light rail network isn't quite networked just yet: the two light rail lines are disconnected. The 1 line runs the length of Seattle and then some, and the 2 line stays on the east side of Lake Washington. That all changes on March 28th, though, when the world's only rail over a floating bridge opens to the public. They were testing things out yesterday. You know I'm psyched about this.

Remember way back in early December when I submitted my art to the Seattle Erotic Art Festival? It’s been accepted! Well, for the exhibition shop, because I was too chicken to submit it for the main exhibition. But still, it feels pretty good. I’m, like, an artist or something.

So now I need to make another a trip to the craft store to get sleeves for my art, and then get them to SEAF. Unfortunately, delivery might not just be a bus trip downtown, and why?

Because I’ll miss SEAF this year in favor of recovering from facial feminization surgery. Yes, which will contain my art piece about gender dysphoria. The irony is not lost on me.

Tacoma Girl came over to the Devil Girl house. Mental note: she likes Friday night KEXP more than Groove Salad on SomaFM; much local hip hop ensued. And unlike the poorer parts of Tacoma in the aughts, I can pick up KEXP over the air at my house just fine.

She actually apologized for drinking all my beer. "Nonsense," I said. "That's why I bought it." Indeed, I get Kolsch if she's coming. It's pretty good, but not my fave, and I'm not supposed to use it for making rarebit.

Did not overindulge, except in cheese popcorn.

Spent yesterday evening nomming teriyaki courtesy of the Wendling, shopping for snacks for future visitors, hoping I had an excuse not to go to Lambert House, and then going to Lambert House. The director had a random query to come up with a list of invitees for a particular activity, and the volunteer coordinator needed me to update income ranges. Yes, we have to collect data on how much youth, if on their own, or their parents earn.

Fun fact: you can do all kinds of gnarly multi-table operations (“joins”) inside one query against a real SQL engine. Microsoft Access’s subset (Ptui!) of SQL is more restrictive, but it appears to support named subqueries, which in many cases will get you where you want to go. I miss real SQL date handling, though.

The director has finally agreed with me that maybe getting off Access 2010 would be a good thing, and not even for the above reasons. It went out of support six years ago*, and the UI library that it comes with has bugs that'll never be fixed. Those bugs are what the director is responding to. I have a long list of my own reasons.

The director drove me home for the second time this week. Much appreciated, because that would have been two chilly waits for a bus otherwise.



*Ten years of support for a particular product isn't bad by industry standards.

I need to:

• Buy my Burning Man ticket tomorrow if at all possible.
• Do two database-related chores for Lambert House, one of which promises to be a pain because they're using Microsoft Access and not real SQL. The other promises to be a pain because Access shuffles the Z positioning of UI elements if you touch anything.
• I need to clean house because both Tacoma Girl and Dancer are coming over this weekend. (Not together.)

I've also committed to showing up for latex dinner; I could back out in the next 30 hours or so, but I don't waaaanna.

Oh: have any of you folks who've ever had highish estrogen levels ever had a day where you seem to... stop retaining water? That is, you pee a whole bunch and then you're suddenly lighter? That happened to me last night. Curious.

Another oh: Lambert House groups seem to be reaching the point where in-person attendees outnumber online attendees. I'm OK with that, honestly. Just three more of these for me until we're back in the house.