Maura's Illuminated Manuscript

So I put on my sleeveless rose print New Look dress from Pinup Girl and pointy red Fluevogs to go to Trans Pride yesterday evening. And why get gussied up? Because Trans Pride has evolved into a place to see & be seen. I would have felt underdressed in anything less.

I did indeed see tons of trans friends & acquaintances, and said hi to most of them. (The others were on the other side of crowds.) Spotted:

• My fabulous stylist, Adi Chen.
• Elaine Wylie, one of the chief organizers of Trans Pride plus an officer of Gender Justice League for damn ever. I knew her when. Mad respect to her.
• Haven Wilvich, the lady who founded STANCE.
• At least one other trans Mercury regular, and there are several of us for good reason.
• My fellow Lambert House facilitator A at the house's table.

I did run into one person who I've actually dated once or twice who told me that it's good that Trans Pride is where it is, Volunteer Park, instead of the former march & rally in Cal Anderson Park*, because it's safer from non-cops. You know, if we're making things more accessible for Black & Brown people because we don't have to have cops around, that's good, but I really don't like the idea that we're hiding from everyone else.

The truth, though? I didn't stay long and got home around 2100**. My fabulous shoes were punishing my feet and I wasn't that into what they had on stage, as usual. I did what I went there to do.

Today, I slept in and thereby missed the window for my bike ride. I guess I'll just have to walk a lot, which I was planning on doing anyway on Broadway. So at least for this morning & afternoon, there will be practical hippy shoes. This evening will be... less practical with queer girlfriends.



*Call Anderson Park is right next to a light rail station. I've actually witnessed a fascist creep taking the light rail to Pride. How do I know he was a fascist? He got off the train with me and immediately joined the yelly Jesus people.
**The bus routes have been altered so that you can't take a 10 there from Capitol Hill Station anymore. Now you have to take the 49 to St. Mark's and go for a steep if lovely walk uphill. I wasn't the only person with this plan, though, and we put the trans in mass transit.

Went to the annual goth barbecue at chez C. Seldom-seen People in Black looking fabulous despite all the warm weather and sunshine. I've never not loved them.

Went to Tacoma Girl's new digs in the south end of Seattle. I must say, I'm a bit jealous of her access to the light rail. We had some ramen & gyoza that we picked up weeks ago at H Mart. I brought nice sake & mead, natch. Much punk & early techno was listened to. And a pox on Metro for reducing the late-night frequency of my usual bus home from U District station to the point where I again called a Lyft.

Maybe it was C's barbecue, in combination with the long ago Blue House parties a few blocks away, that inspired me to gauge interest in a Halloween party here at the Devil Girl House. Yeah, I used Zuckerberg's data mine. No, I'm not proud of that. I did my best to manage expectations: I cannot hope to manage the epic level of decoration and costuming that I saw every year at the Blue House. Nevertheless, response was enthusiastic, so I guess I've committed. Time to start planning. Seattle-area peeps, save the date: Saturday, October 26th.

I ended up walking from the Devil Girl House to Substation in Ballard. Why walk, you ask? Because the bus that would go right there from my neighborhood doesn't run very often after 2100. Harrumph. Ah well, at least I got to see some lovely houses on the west side of the ridge.

The first DJ I heard was local lady GriffinGrrl, who always scratches me right in my groove spot. Seriously, I don't think I've ever heard a set of hers that I didn't love. Balm for the soul.

But in the big, rectangular back room was Mark Farina, of whom I've been a fan for twenty years. He started out kind of minimal, and I thought, 'I hope the whole set isn't like this.' Fortunately, it wasn't. I think I've finally figured out where his crisp on-the-beatness comes from: old school hip hop, a la Run-D.M.C. Farina (and I) are of a generation that would appreciate it. So yeah, imagine old school hip hop party people who've travelled to the future, and you've got Mark Farina.

A note about the visuals behind Farina: they featured old footage of airline travel, and also mushrooms. Years ago he put out an LP called Air Farina, and he's done a big downtempo series called Mushroom Jazz*. I thought that was clever. Did the visual artists ask him for themes, or are they fans?

I also think I figured out where Farina's minimalism came from. Doc Martin came on at 0200 with that kind of sound. Even though one of the reasons I came was to hear him, he satisfied my curiosity quickly and I called it a night. Yeah, minimal and acidic can be nice, but somehow I wasn't feeling his sound right then.

I did not walk home because that would have been a long walk uphill, and the shortest way is awfully dark at night.

Yes, I abused caffeine. No, I didn't get nearly enough sleep. Je ne regrette rien.

Notes about Substation: its owners have consistently invested in the place since it started. Signage. Video monitors for the bar offerings. A coat check. And a pro tip courtesy of promoter & DJ Ramiro Gutierrez: there's a second pair of restrooms attached to the back room where the line for the ladies' is much shorter than the one near the front.



*I have Air Farina and three of the seven Mushroom Jazz LPs. I recommend the latter especially. My fave Farina record of all time, though? I think it's still San Francisco Sessions Vol. 1. Jazz-flavored sunshine; bop 'til you drop.

Four days no write. Nothing is wrong; I just didn't get around to it.

Skipped: a techno thing on Friday night in Pioneer Square, doors at 2300, in the same basement I'd been in six days earlier. When a longtime raver, probably the one who turned you onto that crew, tells you she's not going because she's afraid of COVID, it's not good. And then there's the whole issue of being a woman alone in Pioneer Square around midnight; I'd contacted said raver in the hopes of not being alone.

Not skipped: the Lambert House volunteer social. It was in Volunteer Park and we're law-abiding queers, so no booze. Aw. It wasn't bad, though.

Definitely not skipped: the Mercury. Despite the heat I still wore an overbust corset because me, but paired with a long, light skirt and strappy shoes. seelenschwester unironically femmed up was worth the trip. That woman's a maniac who hurts herself all the time in the service of beauty and fun, so I have to love what she does.

I had really bad mass transit mojo all weekend: waiting forever for a 10 and listening to a shouting match across John St, an E line rerouted through Queen Anne, and the 44 barely running after midnight. Was the universe trying to tell me to have less fun? If so, I will resolutely ignore it.

Oh: the horns are back up, covered in red duct tape. We'll see how well that holds up to the elements.

I have once again used every station in Seattle's light rail network. I went to Northgate last night, using as a flimsy excuse needing some cleaning supplies from Target. Things I learned:

• What was Northgate Mall still has some larger stores open.
• The new Seattle Kraken hockey team has an ice rink under construction at Northgate as well. I think I remember reading that in the paper, but I'm not exactly a fan.
• That Target is not designed for pedestrian access. Bad plan for the current environment.
• The art at Northgate station is in the mezzanine, not on the platform. I missed it. That means I have to go back again for Kizuki ramen.
• While waiting for the bus home from Roosevelt station, a fellow with a Mexican accent came up to me and this other girl and told us the price he paid for these spiffy new stations that he'd helped build: the concrete dust has given him cancer. I'd call bullshit, but he knew there were three stations in Bellevue. I'm a light rail geek and even I didn't know that. I jumped on the 62 as soon it came, even though I really wanted the 45. Of course the 45 passed me on the longer walk home because karma.

As for the concrete dust, did that fellow not wear protective gear? It didn't occur to me to ask until later. If not, why not? Was this OSHA not doing its job or construction worker machismo?

I was waiting for the bus home last night at the usual time, and as so often there was a mentally disturbed individual yelling in random directions and shuffling on by. I thought I heard him say something about faggots. A few seconds later, unfortunately, I attracted his attention.

I mostly avoided eye contact in an attempt to convey to him that I wasn't interested in what he was trying to say to me. I couldn't understand it anyway. About twenty feet away, a man yelled, "Leave her alone!" I didn't see who it was.

Yelly Dude shuffled in his direction, eyeing people, but then he kept on shuffling. It was a relief to have him gone, but to be honest, I wasn't that worried. I guess I've lived in a big city for long enough to have encountered plenty of people like that, and they're mostly harmless.

I couldn't help wondering, though: what if my rescuer had been as close as Yelly Dude, close enough to see my face in detail? Would he have done what he did? Some questions are both unanswerable and best left unanswered, like this one, and how my father would have reacted to the new & improved me.

The stop in front of where I work is usually mellower than the ones just up and down the street; it's one of the many respects in which I've lucked out. (Seattle people can DM me if they want to know about bus stops. I'm the mass transit maven around here.)

Shallow fashion details: dark purple MAC lipstick but light eye makeup; dark purple turtle neck; black trench coat; lacy, black, calf-length skirt; black patent 20-eyelet Docs. It was pretty low key for me.

Yesterday:

1. E line downtown
2. light rail to Othello station
3. walk to Ex's to fetch my car
4. fetch my car, crankily crawl up I-5 to...
5. ...cupcake_goth et al's yard sale, where I buy an IKEA bag full of stuff I like but don't need
6. take stuff home, try it on, it all fits, yay
7. E line to N 46th St.
8. 44 to the Ave
9. buy birthday present for the Tickler, and spend more than I'd planned, but hey
10. 70 to Fred Hutch, where I got off too soon, so I walk around confused until I...
11. ...take the streetcar to Thomas St.
12. walk to REI, get flip flops & sunscreen
13. walk to Westlake
14. C line downtown
15. E line home

That's eight different mass transit rides in one day, which I'm pretty sure is a personal record. I could have driven most of them, but I didn't. Go. Me.

Had a lovely time at Diminutive's birthday party last night. Yes, lovely ladies, but tragically straight, for the most part. I told lots of people what TERFs are; when you know tons of trans people, it's easy to assume that everyone knows. They don't.

SFDs for all day yesterday:

• Short black lacy dress with cap sleeves - and on me, it's really short.
• Fluevog Truth Brittany boots. Diminutive says they're what cowboy boots should have been.
• What I think of as my heavy metal belt. It does have lots of metal on it.
• Black leather fedora
• MAC makeup, as usual

Wearing this around town got me some... attention on the bus and maybe even from a policeman. No regrets.

ETA: I talked to Mom a few minutes ago. She blames Evil Sister for her inability to find the bonds. I changed the subject. She's still mad, but she's talking to me. Victory, sort of.

Party weekends like Pride leave me with a messy apartment. I can't not clean it at the earliest opportunity, which is how I spent all my non-work waking hours yesterday. My apartment is spiffy, and I am at peace. Am I hausfrau* material, or what?

But before I could finish cleaning, I had to take the bus home. As I got up to get off, I spotted my neighbor B. He asked how Pride weekend was for me. I said, "It was..." and racked my brain for the right words.
"The end of the game," said some skinny blond dude next to us as he looked at me intently.
"The end of the game?" I didn't quite believe my ears.
"The end of the game."
Mercifully, the doors opened right then and B and I got off without our interlocutor. "I don't know what he meant by that," I said, "and I'm not sure I want to."
"Yeah," said B, "I noticed him earlier. He's on something, and I'm pretty sure I know what." It isn't hard to guess: meth. You see, my bus spends most of its route on an ugly arterial that runs the length of Seattle's lily white north end, with one concentration of substance abusers downtown, another one at the far end of its trip, and relatively more tech industry stiffs like B & me in between**.

From the Dept. of Happy Thotz, when the Tickler bailed on Pride she said we should make plans. You know I don't sleep on that stuff; we have a hot date planned for Saturday.



*I once referred to myself as a hausfrau in front of my first queer kiss. She told me that her mother did the same. Holy Oedipal Lesbian, Batman!
**I speak of Lake Union, Queen Anne, Fremont, Wallingford, Phinney, Green Lake, and (south?) Greenwood.

Dinner at Cafe Ibex with the Tickler: not-bad Ethiopian food with some dishes I'd never had before, but I think I like Meskel better. Also, the service isn't great. We were the only non-Ethiopians in the joint, which didn't start to get at all busy until about 2100.

Then dancing with the Tickler last night at a big, crowded, super hippy night thrown by the Ents in Tents crew. This show had some of the best decor and other visuals I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot. There were quite a few vendors selling some really nice things, too. The DJs, though? Distinctly meh, even if the Tickler liked them more than I did. Eye candy? Quite good. Happiness is having someone you can be a dirty old woman with. Not that dirty, though: when we got back to her place, her tummy started to rebel. Aw.

Bus happiness: when you get on a bus that takes you all the way from West Seattle through downtown to the north end, changing route numbers along the way, so you don't have to change buses. Aw, yeah.

Shortly after I got home, I had a work situation that lasted about three hours. Moral: automated provisioning is a good thing, so do it early in your project's history.

Met with Grenade. We have... plans for each other. Artistic plans. More or less.

I've been so all over the place this weekend that I haven't worked out, not even a walk around the lake. Time to get back on the horse tomorrow.

Last night's bus-to-train-to-bus trip to and from a party in the south end of Seattle - I live in the north end - inspired me to write a little mass transit personal history. That's right: to the best of my recollection, here's every bus route I've ever taken in the Seattle area. I used King County Metro to fill in gaps in my memory. Unless otherwise specified, "downtown" means downtown Seattle.

1 - It goes up the steep south slope of Queen Anne Hill, a.k.a. the Counterbalance after the old trolley, but I just used it to bop around downtown.
2 - From downtown to party with friends in the Central District (CD).
3 - To get off Queen Anne Hill and go to work, where I parked during the Super Bowl victory parade.
4 - From downtown to party with friends in the CD.
5 - Goes down Phinney Ridge near my lake place to downtown. Also good for getting my legs waxed in Fremont, or to dates in the numerous bars & restaurants.
[I wish I'd taken the 6 before it was discontinued in 1999. It mostly went around Green Lake, so I had no need of it at the time. It sounds like a useless route so it should be gone, but what a lovely trip that must have been.]
7 - Back in my day, whippersnapper, it went from the UW, down Broadway, then through downtown all the way to the south end. They've amputated the north end of the 7 and replaced it with the 49, which is of course 7 squared. I can't help but wonder if Metro has some mathematically inclined punsters working for them.
8 - Part of this route goes near Lambert House, but I also jumped on it with m'boy near the Seattle Center.
9 - Probably? It goes on Broadway, so it's likely.
10 - Used to go right to Lambert House, and still goes pretty close. These days I mainly take it between Lambert House and Capitol Hill station.
11 - Goes near Lambert House. Before the train I would take the 10, 11, or 43 from 4th & Pike, depending on which one came first, how big a hurry I was in, and whether any cute women got on.
12 - The bus to Dr. Leather Bear.
16 - Discontinued. Green Lake-Wallingford-downtown, so I took it to get my hair cut and probably to dates in Wallingford.
17 - Discontinued. Went from downtown to Ballard. I lived in Ballard with Ex during the mid '90s.
21 - Goes from downtown to the Tickler's in West Seattle.
26 - Downtown to Fremont via the Fremont Bridge, which unlike the Aurora Bridge is a drawbridge and therefore slower. I remember taking this at least once when an accident shut down Aurora.
28 - I needed to get closer to home in Ballard, so I jumped on this one.
29 - Another Queen Anne route. I think I've taken this.
32 - Goes up Elliot past the old CSPC.
40 - Goes from downtown up Dexter through Fremont through Ballard. Good for errands in the north end.
41 - Maybe I've taken it in the tunnel downtown, but no further. For you non-Seattle folks, there's a tunnel for buses and light rail trains that runs underneath downtown, mostly underneath 3rd Ave. ETA 14-Nov-2016: Took this one all the way to Lake City for a little clubbing action.
43 - Another one to Lambert House. It used to go between Downtown, Capitol Hill, the UW and Ballard, but I think the UW-Ballard leg became the 44.
44 - Today's UW-Wallingford-Ballard route. Much Younger Woman's place is near this route.
45 - Green Lake to the UW, where there's now a train station. 'Nuff said.
47 - Goes up Capitol Hill. Duh.
48 - From the CD, about 10 blocks from Lambert House, to the UW. It used to go all the way to Green Lake; that segment of the route is now the 45. There's a song about it!
49 - Goes up Capitol Hill right to the Siberian Siren's. My bus of choice for that before the train.
50 - If I need to go between Ex's & Othello station, maybe I can catch this. It's infrequent & nearly empty, which is reflective of the rich neighborhoods it goes through.
55 - I think I took this to or from nerdvana once.
60 - Another Broadway bus, so it's likely.
62 - The replacement for the 16, so yeah.
66 - Downtown to Northgate, for shopping with the Siberian Siren!
70-74 - All routes between downtown and the UW. I lived on these when I was in school. The 74 express goes right to Much Younger Woman's.
82 - A night bus that goes from downtown and winds its way through Wallingford and Green Lake before eventually going more or less near my place. Colorful!
101 - Another tunnel-only bus for me.
106 - Took it to the party in the south end last night.
107 - Took it from the party in the south end last night.
124 - Took it to the body shop where they took the poor Sanctimobile last week. It goes to Georgetown, where artists (used to?) do their thing and where there's fun to be had.
194 - Discontinued. Took this to the airport once, I think, in the pre RapidRide days. Or was that electrolysis? Goes way south, down 99.
221 - Downtown Redmond to Crossroads Mall and points south in Bellevue. Yup.
230 - Discontinued. Crossroads to downtown Bellevue if I remember correctly. Just getting around the east side, which by the way really sucks on the bus after 1900.
234 - Kirkland to Bellevue. I only took this one a few times because ew, Bellevue.
238 - Totem Lake to south Kirkland. Errands.
245 - My regular commute for much of my Microsoft days. Kirkland to Crossroads to south Bellevue.
248 - A newer route through Kirkland. I took it once to run errands.
251 - Discontinued. It was my regular commute route twice, once in the early '90s and later when I lived in Kirkland, pre-Microsoft. Back in the day, it went way out to east Redmond and crossed the 520 bridge. It also wasn't heavily used and drivers would go like bats out of hell all over the east side.
254 - Discontinued. My old backup east side commute route. In the mid-2000s in downtown Redmond I saw a small metal sign indicating the 254's route, affixed to a utility pole, bearing the original Metro logo from the 1970s. I'm sure the removal effort missed it. I kind of want it.
255 - Still a workhorse for Kirkland to downtown Seattle. I used to take it with m'boy to the end of the line, then get weird ramen at the Seattle Uwajimaya. He rides it to & from school now.
271 - Downtown Bellevue to the UW. I think I took this one once or twice? I definitely wasn't a regular rider.
358 - Discontinued. My old commute route from here at my lake place to downtown. Good: the stop was maybe thirty feet from my front door. Bad: the damn thing filled up at least once a week. Worse: a driver was once shot to death on the bus, leaving the bus hanging partway off the Aurora Bridge. That's when they changed the route number from 359 to 358. I wish I were making that up, but I'm not. The 358 was notorious among drivers for being a sort of hazing experience for new drivers. It has been replaced by the RapidRide E line.
[Route numbers in the 500s are Sound Transit express buses.]
540 - Redmond to the UW. I've taken this for long lunches with intrepid_reason.
545 - Redmond to downtown. I've taken this one to Pride parades, and met other queers on it.
550 - Bellevue to downtown. I've taken this to Emerald City Comicon with my son.
560 - Bellevue to the airport. Ex just couldn't believe I didn't mind taking this to the airport, but really, the ST buses are pretty comfy with their plush seats.
594 - Electrolysis in Tacoma.
[I've discovered, thanks to an old & buggy version of Metro's arrival screen software, that the RapidRide routes are internally known by route numbers in the 670s. RapidRide A is 671, and so on. I'll use their external names, but in internal order.]
RapidRide A - On 99 well south of Seattle. I've taken this from the airport train station to Norwescon.
RapidRide B - Bellevue-Microsoft-downtown Redmond. A former backup commute line.
RapidRide C - Downtown to West Seattle. I've taken this to the Tickler, and possibly to aaminahlefae's.
RapidRide D - Downtown to Ballard. I've taken this to the CSPC or to see friends, but it didn't exist when I lived in Ballard.
RapidRide E - My usual commute bus, the replacement for the 358. Fairly colorful, but usually dependable.

Each route has its own personality. The E is full of dour commuters, sharing a bus uneasily with the mentally ill and homeless of the far north end. The 5 often features women who are either drop-dead stylish or going to & from yoga. The 45 is full of college kids. The 545 is full of Microsoftees with their laptops open. The 10 is almost as young as the UW routes, but queerer.

I've alluded to the route numbering system, so I might as well tell you all I know: the single- and perhaps lower double-digit routes are the old trolley lines, maybe tweaked in a few places. These days they are trolley buses. That's right: some buses in Seattle are powered by electrified cables above the streets.

• The single- and double-digit routes don't stray too far from central Seattle.
• Numbers in the 100s run to or exclusively in the area south of downtown.
• Numbers in the 200s are east.
• 300s are north.
• There is no west because that's Puget Sound, Vashon Island being served by 100s.
• 400s are run by Snohomish county's Community Transit and therefore go way the hell up north.
• The 500s are, as I mentioned, the long-haul express buses run by Sound Transit, the same agency that runs the light rail & commuter trains.
• The 600s are (Shhh!) the RapidRides, so called because of their fancy card readers at stops and streamlined routes.
• There are a few 800s in the stupidly rich parts of the east side which are apparently used as buses to private schools.
• I believe the 900s are Dial-A-Ride for the disabled.

I may have some kind of mass transit mania, but I will resist any attempt to cure it.

ETA: I keep remembering more routes, so I have to add them. Have to.
ETAA: I can't believe I forgot the 245!