Maura's Illuminated Manuscript

Ingress has eaten my mind, as I expected it would. In one week of playing I went from level 1 to level 5, and that's as of yesterday at lunchtime. Instead of staying out of the rain and doing an interval workout in my apartment this morning as usual, I grabbed an umbrella and marched around my neighborhood with my phone out. Hey, I climbed Phinney Ridge, so it's decent exercise, right?

Fun fact: not far from my lake place, at the top of Phinney Ridge, is a place called the Taoist Studies Institute in a former church. I took the (unusually) neutral portal there for my Enlightened faction. An enemy agent soon attacked it, but instead of claiming it for the Resistance, they left it neutral again. I figure the "enemy" agent is making either a statement or a joke concerning Taoism.

My bus gets up to 40 MPH for much of its route between my lake place and downtown. In most respects that's a blessing, but it does make interacting with portals harder: by the time you've told your scanner (the app) what to do, the portal's often out of range. But now I have reason to rejoice when the E line starts crawling through Belltown.

I have yet to make contact with other Enlightened agents whom I don't already know, but I'd love to do so, and not just at the Anomaly next month. If they live near me we can put the green in Green Lake and erase the smurfy rebel scum from its shores.



*XM stands for exotic matter, which is the in-game juice that powers Ingress agents. It comes packaged in cubes, which you get from - wait for it - portals.

My latest exercise jam is really long walks around Seattle. On Saturday I walked down to Fremont from my lake place in Phinney (Or is it Greenwood? Or even Green Lake?) right down Greenwood Ave. past my favorite view spots to Fremont. I was just about to snarf some caffeine before going home, when Much Younger Woman called as promised and proposed vegan Thai and seeing "The Martian" in the U District instead of going dancing in Frelard. Sure, said I, having heard so much hype from you guys.

But instead of taking the bus to the U district like a sane person, I walked to the Fremont Bridge, then past Gas Works, then up the Ave*. Call it walker's high. The only place I saw on my entire walk that wasn't new & shiny was a few houses in south Phinney (or is it north Fremont?) between 45th & 50th. Is it wrong to be relieved at seeing a group of Ave rats?

Araya's Place vegan Thai? Is good. "The Martian"? Thumbs up. I want to see it again with m'boy because of its exquisite space geekery.

Jumped on a perfectly-timed 44 and didn't feel like waiting 14 minutes for an E with people scarier than I am, so I walked to Phinney Ave. for a 5. Wait time? 14 minutes. Walked 29 34 more blocks north and then east after 0100. Saw a dude apparently living in his van and looking sheepish after relieving himself in the bushes by the zoo.

Believe it or not, I was ambulatory the next day with only one blister.



*For you non-locals, that's University Way NE, the shop-lined, pedestrian-filled arterial that parallels the western edge of the University of Washington campus. Perhaps so called because it's where 14th Ave. NE would ordinarily be.

I was almost half way through the first of my usual two laps of riding around Green Lake when there's this lady jogging in the bike lane with her little Boston terrier. I move to pass. The dog, however, is a kamikaze and runs right toward my path. I grab the brakes good and hard, naturally, and send myself right over my handlebars.

I have a bit of road rash on my hand & elbow and my front basket is trashed, but aside from that I'm OK. I've cleaned my wounds with alcohol, and I will soon pop some ibuprofen. Another cyclist who had been behind me encouraged me to exchange info, but I didn't. I just finished the lap and went home.

Happy Monday! I was thinking that basket looked kind of rusty anyway.

The Siberian Siren made a run to a local Russian store and got some candy ("birds' milk") - different brands had considerable variation in quality, with Great Russians making the best, of course - and a big block of sunflower seed halva. I already knew about the latter from when a co-worker brought it to Microsoft. It's one of those foods I want to eat until I pop, and I nearly did. In the Lolspeak, NOM. The Siren approved of my Burn stories.

By the way, if you want the good birds' milk, you need to have an in with the shopkeeper, says the Siren. It's all very Soviet.

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Partly in penance for the above, I did a couple of laps around Green Lake this morning on my bike. I'm determined to preserve the condition I got into at Burning Man. Despite also cutting out the morning caffeine - I don't buy coffee on the playa - I got to work early. Grawr!

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My Metro mojo is off the charts lately: zero waiting for either a 49 or 48 on the way home last night (with only minor jaywalking) and no waiting this morning. I may have paid for it metaphysically, though.

Disturbing thing that happened on the way to work #1: A woman on the bus whom I don't recognize at all greets me by name. I hate telling people I don't remember them. I settled into an empty seat.

Disturbing thing that happened on the way to work #2: Across the street from my building, I overhear two men talking about ten yards behind me. "Is that a guy?"
"No."
Yes, it's gratifying that one of them agreed with me, but the other can go straight to hell. I'm trans, and a woman, and not deaf. No one gets to tell me otherwise.

I haven't posted in a while not because I was in a funk but because I've been moving around over the weekend.

Tiki: Saturday was the surprise fiftieth birthday party for Nibs' Mr. Right Now. She and he had a night together on Friday, so I was staying with m'boy at the old old place. After a night and a morning of haranguing him through chores, I delivered my son, a Hawaiian shirt for him courtesy of value village, tiki torches, and fuel to Mr. Right Now's place. I wasn't invited to the party, but I don't mind. Mr. Right Now is OK with me; he makes Nibs happy and, frankly, keeps her out of my hair. If only some kind of poly marriage were legal: he makes bank, and could probably afford a second wife, even one with Nibs' prodigious medical expenses.

Speaking of fiftieth birthdays, mine is a Saturday, so save the date: January 20th, 2018. I'm not quite sure what will be involved, but there will be a dance floor, tunes, and some kind of dressing up.

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Pokey: I had my first six-hour zappy session in quite some time, possibly since before the Grand Snip. My face is currently a bit numb. Go ahead, slap me. Back in the bad old days I used to have trouble with my back and legs from lying supine on a table and trying not to move too much. Yesterday wasn't nearly as bad. The reason? Yoga, I think. My guess is that I've strengthened my core enough that long-haul zappy doesn't pose the horrors that it once did. That's good news not least because scheduling zappy around my son and my social life has always been a hassle.

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Tasty: I had a lovely late dinner with ionan, his lovely wife J, and a friend of theirs. I was surprised to discover that they live within walking distance of me; had I allowed more time, I would have walked because I live in Seattle now and I can do that, baybee. Mm, Burners who like bleepy goodness.

My Burning Man campmate J had a birthday celebration at Canlis this past Saturday. I've wanted to go there for most of the time I've lived in the Seattle area, so I thought, 'Screw the expense.' Which turned out to be considerable, by the way, but not out of line, and I'll tell you why.

1. First rate food & drinks. (Try the Negroni.) I know what I'm talking about: Nibs the foodie and I used to go to one or two top-notch restaurants a year.
2. The view from the east side of Queen Anne hill is absolutely stunning.
3. Service like you'd expect to get in Japan. For example, the people working coat check & valet identify your stuff without any mechanical assistance.

I felt as if I'd impersonated the 1% at least well enogh not to get kicked out.

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Speaking of Nibs, she says her most recent kidney function test results aren't so hot, which could explain why she's been even more lethargic than usual. Her many meds are being rejiggered - no more Mobic, for example, which is the only anti-inflamatory that really works for her.

She is not allowed to need a kidney transplant or die. I was telling a co-worker the other day about what she & I used to have together, and how grateful I was that she isn't batshit and that we work together to raise the Wendling.

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Went to see Hunger Games with Nibs, m'boy, and Natasha yesterday. I haven't read any of the books, but the movie is as good as they say. There was a girl there with hair like the heroine's. It's been said: it's nice to see a fandom spring up around a girl who kicks ass for a change.

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In the restrooms of two local establishments now - the Wildrose and Victrola on 15th - I've seen stickers that say, in white lettering on a purple background, "TRANS SAFE SPACE / Leave your transphobia at the door." They're all official-looking. Is this the result of some campaign that I've missed? Yes, bathrooms are a huge issue with trans people; is that why the stickers were there? Who decided they should go there? And Victrola's bathroom is only big enough for one, so it isn't as if anyone's going to be in the bathroom with a trans person unless they're up to no good already.

It gets better. And more curious.

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I'm attempting to snap out of the post-op funk by getting more exercise: at least some - yoga, biking to the Abbey, non-dog walking - every day. I fell off the wagon when I went Full Time, and then I fell off a cliff right after surgery. If I don't fix that, everything else will be much harder. Mens sana in corpore sano.

Fun fact: doing stretchy bendy stuff really is better saved for early evening, or at least that's how it feels to me.