Maura's Illuminated Manuscript

Saturday: got my hair done, then took the train down to Tacoma Girl's place for mead, beer, Chex mix, and epic chat. How epic? I didn't get back to U District until 0020, well after the bus to my neighborhood starts running hourly. I think Tacoma Girl likes getting together as much as I do.

Sunday: finished all the Sunday chores — beans, bins, buy groceries, laundry — early, and crashed early. Got an unusually good night's sleep. I haven't had much energy or inclination for circumflatulation lately.

The gathering of the coven that I'd scheduled for last night didn't happen at all because Tacoma Girl was unwell. My one effective means of contacting namoda, namely Discord, has mysteriously stopped working. The other two of us don't know what's going on there, either.

I had some new decorations to show off, and stories to tell. Le sigh. Welp, at least the house will be fairly clean when I get back from Virginia. I already became one with the snacks I bought. And the Wendling is buying me lunch today.

I went to a gathering of the coven at namoda's on Friday night. It had been too long. Much talk of queer woman stuff, drinking all the beer & sake left over from my rebirthday, and petting a highly pettable kitty.

I stayed in on a Saturday night. Don't faint from the shock, but I Just Wasn't Feeling It. Drinking just one cup of tea for all of yesterday, in the morning, may have had something to do with that.

I'm considering KEXP's MLK Day thingy because I get tomorrow off; I used to go pretty often back when it was on Capitol Hill or in Columbia City. Unfortunately, this year it's at the Clock-Out Lounge, a perfectly reasonable venue that would add a bus to my usual bus-and-train each way. When I am Imperatrix Mundi the trains will go everywhere: Airport Way, Beacon Ave., Rainier Ave., Delridge, Madison St., Lake City Way, N 45th St., N 85th St., Aurora Ave., Northgate Way.

I'll do this in chronological order. It makes a better narrative.

Yesterday afternoon, Volunteer Park in Seattle Featured two events I wanted to go that overlapped in time and were within 200m of each other. The first was the second annual trans picnic. Once again, several hundred trans and non-binary people converged near the Asian Art Museum and... had a picnic. Yeah, it was pretty low key. Some people said it was bigger than last year, but that wasn't obvious to me. There were certainly hundreds of us there, along with food, which I missed, and more importantly, water & soft drinks. It was the kind of event that makes me want to kidnap random geezers from conservatives areas, get them out of the trunk, and go, "See?!"

But instead of random geezers I got to see D from back in my Microsoft days. Her life sounds weirdly like mine: another trans techie. I put the heart sticker on my name tag that meant it was OK to flirt with me, but that didn't happen, and I didn't make much of an effort myself because...

...there was the Goth clothing swap just north of the stage. The eye candy is a major attraction. I swear, clubbers could learn a thing or two from young people who go all out for a booze-free (but, surprisingly, not food-free) event in the afternoon. I saw Shiny H looking way too fabulous for a clothing swap; I swear that girl is as big around as one of my thighs. Did I need clothes, though? No. But did I get some anyway? Yes, but only a couple of small items. I might have snarfed more if I'd shown up earlier. Then I would have been faced with painful decisions after getting the clothes clean.

I texted the coven that I was heading for the Hill to the Merc* unless somebody came up with another plan. namoda was already there and in need of eetz, so Witness it was. Pity Tacoma Girl didn't come with us, but I always have a good time with the coven and any proper subset thereof.

And then I got home on the bus around midnight, which is when my son texted me a photo of his positive COVID test. Right now he's isolating in the apartment underneath the Devil Girl House. Luckily, Ex was at the beach and hasn't been in the same room with him since Wednesday. I haven't, either. It was providence that we got his apartment all furnished just a couple of weeks ago. It's not the use for that apartment that I'd prefer, but it's very, very good to have right now. Ex asked me to get him Pepcid & Zyrtec or generic equivalents to forestall long COVID. I did as she asked. He complains of chest pain when he breathes, which I found alarming until Ex said that she sometimes gets that with colds. Poor kiddo. Seeing as he's not the social butterfly that I am, he almost certainly got it at work.

Oh: ( mild kink )




*It may have been a good thing I didn't go to the Merc. They had an open membership night that filled up the joint. It was a sardine scene, which I'm OK with, but it was all new people. Good for the Merc, though.

Hit Uwajimaya with namoda yesterday. I'm proud of myself for finally finding Sichuan peppercorns. They were labeled "wild pepper" in English, but the characters matched the ones I found on Wikipedia for Sichuan peppercorns. Soon I shall make proper ma po tofu that makes my tongue go numb.

Back at the Devil Girl House, namoda was talking about her dating travails from the last few months. She was a little apologetic about it. "That's why [Tacoma Girl] and I exist," I said. "You and [Tacoma Girl] exist because I get lonely. And you and I exist to..."
"...get [Tacoma Girl] out of bed," she finished, accurately.

It is to laugh.

Tacoma Girl reeeeally wanted to go to the zoo lights last night, and her enthusiasm overcame my meh. She's been struggling with depression even more than usual lately, so it seemed right to jump at this opportunity to get her out of her apartment. TG, La Fashionista, and I with some effort met up at the surprisingly crowded zoo and walked around until they kicked us out at 2100. The lit-up sculptures couldn't help but remind me of Burning Man, only with fewer people on psychedelics and way more young children. Not bad!

Afterward, La F proposed going out for drinks with her new squeeze C. There were canoodling and cocktails at Oliver's Twist. I think Tacoma Girl & I forged and unspoken agreement not to disturb the other two too much; the schmoop field felt dangerously strong. I'm happy for them, really*. La F has had some tough times with romance in the last few months, so she has it coming. And C seems like a decent person who doesn't leave me scratching my head or set off any alarm bells.

Thence to La Fashionista's place, another beer that I shouldn't have had, and a walk home around 0100. Thanks to having run out of progesterone, I got a decent night's sleep.

Shallow fashion details: Red Evil Princess coat from Dracula Clothing, red turtle neck, long black taffeta skirt with... fins for lack of a better word, riding boots, black Stetson. MAC makeup except for two Melt lipsticks.



*And not even hugely jealous because Comfy Lady and I get our schmoop on with some regularity if not La F's frequency. Plus, CL is coming over for dinner tonight.

Last night the Coven – that's La Fashionista, Tacoma Girl, and I – had planned to introduce TG to the Wildrose, which is surely her jam. The trouble was, Tacoma Girl had run out of the psych meds that would reduce the risk of her having a panic attack in a public place, she said. (!) So we switched to a perfectly lovely plan B: music videos and a horror movie at La F's, with overly strong beer courtesy of yours truly.

As much as I love the 'Rose, I've seen people have panic attacks. There aren't many people I'd wish that on. It's worth asking why TG has so much trouble getting the meds she needs; in a civilized country that wouldn't happen.

Oh, and Tacoma Girl is all about destigmatizing mental health issues, which is commendable. I wish her success.