Maura's Illuminated Manuscript

So I mentioned my successful experiment in sleeping with a bonnet, but that still left tying my hair back in the shower. And why? The bathroom in the old Devil Girl Pad didn't have a fan, which meant that my shower cap mildewed.

But! I've been in the Devil Girl House for not quite three years now, and it finally dawned on me a few weeks ago that my bathrooms are mildew-free. Why not try again with a shower cap? I did, and reader, it's working. My hair looks better, and the cap dries out just fine.

This may seem like the most minute of minutiae, but hey, everyone loves a good hair day.

In other news, I'm almost halfway through The Expanse series. The books, that is. See you in June sometime, maybe.

I wanted to shave my armpits this morning. I haven't shaved anything on my body in months if not years. I couldn't find my razor. It feels like a victory.

Friday night: I made it to the monthly north end munch, i.e. gathering of kinky folk in civvies for dinner. That kind of thing is usually pleasant even though an awful lot of the regulars are coupled-up boomers. And it was, except for one thing: a boomer who's in the know about goings on at the Center for Sex Positive Culture* says that the board blew what's probably its last chance to get a new space by dithering. You just can't do that in a real estate market that's (still) as bananas as Seattle's. My source ascribed it to the inexperience of the board and a misplaced desire to obtain a consensus of many members, the latter of which is so Seattle it hurts. He speculates that without its own space, the CSPC could be gone in a few years. The community's elder, richer angels are one by one losing patience with them.

Saturday morning: brunch at Lost Lake with trystbat! I consumed an awful lot of mimosa and caffeine, and had the best time I've had during the daytime in for-damn-ever. As I told her, it kills me a little that I don't live in the Bay Area, because then I could see her more often. I played tour guide around the Pike/Pine corridor and then leaned heavily on my transit luck, which was nothing short of miraculous yesterday.

Saturday afternoon: I got sugared. Sadly, the season of showing off bare legs has just ended.

Later on Saturday afternoon: Uwajimaya with Tacoma Girl. I think I have enough beer for my Halloween party, plus Asian munchies for those who unfathomably don't want sushi. Oh, and I learned something from Tacoma Girl: breaded & fried enoki mushrooms are a pretty good substitute for chicken. That's the kind of thing I would try.

One more thing: I am now among the legions of Chappell Roan's fans. Even if you're (ahem) more than double her age, her songs are highly relatable if you're any flavor of dyke. Imagine a young, queer, country-fried Kate Bush with a thing for New Wave.



*For those of you outside the Seattle area, that's Seattle's oldest and largest non-profit kink organization. They had a space of their own from 1999 to 2015, and they used it well: many educational events, and of course a whole lot of ahem. Most of those who regularly used that space miss it terribly.

One of the things that I heard from cupcake_goth during my recent visit was that Melt Cosmetics may have a replacement for my beloved but discontinued MAC Studded Kiss lipstick. For me that's the One True Lipstick, so you can imagine the excitement with which I visited their site.

I did the best I could to match colors and ordered Dark Room. Unfortunately, the internet struck again and I got something that was more berry than Studded Kiss's brick. (I'm not wearing either in the pic above, if you were wondering.) Dark Room seems to be a dead ringer for Fenty's Griselda, without the latter's annoying slimline packaging.

Melt seems to use vanillin as a scent. I'm not crazy about that, but oddly they're not the only maker that does that.

How are the look, feel, and wear? Right on! I'd say comparable to MAC, and even better, i.e. less drying, than some shades of MAC that I own. I'm going to try another Melt shade in the hopes that that's the replacement for Studded Kiss. If it is, I'll be ordering a crate of it.

I also ordered the pure black Bane lipstick, but I haven't tried it yet. I'm waiting for the right occasion.

As the last stage in beautification for my trip with the Tickler, I got sugared at long last by a lady whom sirriamnis recommended to me. I must say, sugaring lives up to the hype. It's a little more comfortable, definitely less messy, and the results are at least as good. I've made an appointment to see Ms. Sugar again in six weeks.

Oh: Ms. Sugar has a new baby. I could hear but not see the little guy*. I'll have to remember not to schedule anything too soon after sugaring appointments for a while because mother and child are going to need breaks at unpredictable times. It's a longer bus trip, but between the better service and the knowledge that I'm not supporting Wax On Fremont's crummy labor practices make that worth it.

It occurs to me that Espresso To Go, my fave coffee joint in Fremont not least because it bakes its own pastries in a tiny space, would make an excellent weekend or holiday bike destination.



*At least, she thinks he's a guy. That's fine as long as she Just Deals With It Properly if she finds out otherwise.

For the first time I waxed my own legs this morning. Well, I waxed about the bottom three quarters of my legs. It's not as if I've got any hot dates planned, so I didn't feel any pressure to achieve maximum smoothness. The results? Pretty decent; I got a few stray hairs with my razor. And it's hard to beat the price - $10 for more than I need for a full leg wax - and convenience. I think I may go this route for the duration of COVID-19.

I spent last night and the night before unclogging sinks in my apartment. I'm hoping that now that I've run out of sinks, I'll get a break this evening. Don't even think about my toilet & bathtub. I mostly love my adorable late '50s apartment, with its built-ins of doom, flesh-colored tile, and vintage range & toilet, but the plumbing leaves something to be desired.

I was asking my style guru cupcake_goth about a replacement for my beloved Studded Kiss lipstick which MAC has of course discontinued. She suggested Colourpop, so off I went to get three shades that are new to me. Right now I'm wearing Colourpop's Tiana from their Disney-inspired line. So here's the review.

• Color: ¡Me gusta! It's just a hair brighter than Studded Kiss, I think, and not (as?) matte. I may like this look even better than what it's replacing.
• Durability: MAC wins narrowly, at least on me with my eating & tea habits, but then again MAC outlasts damn near everything else.
• Feel: Colourpop wins. A lot of MAC shades, at least the matte ones, really dry me out.
• Price: Colourpop wins by a lot! Dayumn! I did not expect that.
• Animal testing: Colourpop wins.

The good news is that I've found some excellent new makeup. The bad news is that I now have too many lipsticks, if that's possible.

At least a couple of facial feminization surgery procedures, namely the ones I want most - chin and eye orbit reduction - may be within reach for me this year. I shall ponder.

So I went to get my legs waxed this afternoon. I was even a little early thanks to good bus mojo. But once I got nearly nekkid and lay on the table, Ms. Waxy said I didn't have enough hair despite waiting as long as she asked. "I haven't touched it!" I said.
"I know," she said, "but I can't give you a good service."

I felt bad for her, so I made another appointment two weeks hence for legs, booty, and a basic bikini wax. My excuses for the latter two are New Year's Eve and going to the beach in Florida, respectively. Ms. Waxy asked me sotto voce, "This is a delicate question, but... you're post-op, right?"
"Oh yeah. I have a couple of scars under my pubic hair that I'd rather not make visible."
"No, that isn't it. I'm not allowed to do male Brazilians [sic], and I just needed to make sure."

Leaving aside the awkwardness and the hilarity of sounding like a discriminatory policy against the men of one Latin American country, I wonder why that is. I didn't ask, and now I regret that. It can't possibly be a safety issue, can it? I suppose all of the hanging bits could easily chafe, and that's something Ms. Waxy told me to guard against in the first few days after a bikini wax, especially the first.

By the way, the hip trans kids are starting to chafe at the term "post-op", not that I told Ms. Waxy that. There is a certain amount of undue pressure within the trans community to seek out sex reassignment surgery - another term that's in the process of revision, even if there isn't much consensus on a replacement. And those of us who do get SRS tend to have - wait for it - money, so there's definitely a classist and maybe even racist tinge to the above term, or rather the cachet associated with it.