Son of a Witch!

When I posted yesterday morning, I was suffering from a definite lack of imagination. I needed a different perspective.

My plans for Friday were blown out of the water when it was revealed that the president of our company was out of town Thursday, so our pay checks weren't signed. He was expected to return to work sometime Friday morning, and the checks were expected to be available by noon. I got my check about 1330, zipped back to Olde Town to the credit union, then hoofed it around the corner to pay the water bill. On my way to the credit union, I passed a little group of women in Friday business casual. One of them was carrying a fancy witch's hat. Eureka!

After I paid the water bill, I swung by my neighborhood WalMart, and found a selection of different hats for $8.00-10.00. At one end of the spectrum was a simple hat with black tulle draped around the crown, while at the other, they had one covered in glittery sequins. In the middle, I found a simple black hat, trimmed around the brim with black marabou feathers. Perfectamundo!

I also grabbed a set of lush fake eyelashes. I've had mixed luck with these in the past, but I figured I'll give them a shot. I normally wouldn't wear them, but this is a costume. I also grabbed another bottle of 60-second nail polish. A traditionalist would wear black, or maybe blood red, but not me. I went with a glossy indigo.

Happy Halloween!

Nothing to Wear

Well, not exactly. Halloween is tomorrow. It's generally recognized as the one day out of the year that trans folks can dress any way they please and not get pounded just for being who they are. I've dressed up for Halloween before, but most of those occasions I just wore womens' clothes. Back in those days it was such a thrill just getting out of doors in a skirt that it never occurred to me to wear any sort of costume. If I did think of it, I couldn't afford what I wanted.

My stints in the Ren faire business sort-of spoiled me on costumes. A couple of years ago, when I was a few pounds lighter (and less self-conscious about what I was carrying), I had my heart set on this sexy pirate costume I found in a catalog. My three months out of work killed that dream, and I moved home to live with my parents, to boot, which put a crimp in dressing up for about six months.

Last year, I worked. This year, I decided I needed a release. Unfortunately, my current finances won't support any kind of a fancy costume. I get paid today, sometime, but the funds in this week's check are almost all spoken for. So I'm having to improvise. I was thinking of one of my Purgatory outfits, a corset top with a pleather mini, and boots. Because of the minimist outfit, I'll have to turn the makeup up a notch or two. I was thinking of something like this:

http://www.abrilliantbrunette.com/2009/06/eris-goddess-of-strife.html

I could even use that name, "Eris, Goddess of Strife". That sounded like a winner until I did some reading. Eris is associated with a pseudo-religious philosophy called Discordianism. She even has a symbol, rendered like so:

-)(-

or

-><-

It's called the "Hand of Eris". If I had a little more time and money, I'd try to run down some earrings like that. I still might, sometime down the line. Maybe my thinking's too elaborate. I've got a plaid skirt, and some patent heels... If I can run down a white blouse. Wear one of my longer hair pieces (the strawberry blond, maybe), with the back pulled into pigtails. I've never thought of rocking the naughty schoolgirl look. I am awfully conscious of my size when I wear anything revealing. I'll think of something.

Floating Along...

All around me, at least on the net, I see people in transition. At least two people I know have had SRS in the last couple of weeks. Others are at various stations on the road to transition. A genderqueer friend of mine was voted the Junior class Homecoming Queen at the College of William and Mary last week. All very cool. All very depressing.

As for me, I am stuck in idle. This feeling of being trapped in my male identity is gnawing away at my being. I get out en femme every chance I get, but not being out all the time is chafing. Not moving forward is chafing. Feeling like I have to set everything aside while I deal with one crisis or another is driving me crazy. Feeling like I'm the only one who knows I'm trans...

All of my net friends know I'm trans. All of the people I've met through my support group know. A teeny handful of people outside of those circles have at least seen me dressed up. The rest of the world doesn't see. When I'm out of doors in my male garb, most people only see my pierced ears, or my nails. Some notice my waxed eyebrows. Most write me off as gay, or metrosexual. I'm not sure which hurts worse, being taken for something I'm not, or being written off because of it.

Halloween is Saturday. I'm planning to dress up and go to a party. This coincides with the pagan day Samhain. It's a day of endings and beginnings, of changes and transitions. Decision time is coming. Maybe by Sunday morning I can make up my mind, cast the stones, figure out where I'm going and what I'm doing.

Ready to Be Fired

Actually, I don't know that it's going to happen, but it seems a distinct possibility. Since my write-up in August, I have done my level best to maintain a low profile. I've tried to keep my interaction with management professional, when I have to interact with them at all. I've done all my work to the best of my ability, whether it's the paperwork or guest service.

A gentleman came up to the desk a little while ago and asked if it was possible to change the channel on the TV during breakfast. I told him that we could put the TV on whatever channel he wanted. Yesterday morning, it was tuned to MSNBC. He told me he prefers Fox, because he likes to hear "the truth". All I said was, "If you say so." I didn't defend MSNBC. I didn't blather on about my own liberal views, or all the negative press Fox have garnered over the years. I didn't call the channel "Fixed News" or "Fox Noise" or anything. I certainly didn't say anything about their blowhard hosts. No, I just said, "If you say so."

The gentleman went out to his car. When he returned a few minutes later, he thanked me for "the information" and went upstairs. I have little doubt that's going to come back to bite me on the ass when the gentleman fills out his guest satisfaction survey. It might amount to nothing, but I have to be prepared for the possibility.

When I'm working, I'm not supposed to have opinions about things, but I'm having ever more trouble suppressing my need to be, and express, who I am.

A couple of weeks back, a big sedan rolled up to the front of the hotel around 0400. A nattily-dressed gentleman climbed out, and I was all set to sell him a room. As it happened, he came in and handed me the latest issue of The Watchtower, a publication of the Jehovah's Witnesses. We were standing under a sign on the wall which prohibits solicitation or "distribution of printed materials...by non-employees". I smiled and told him, "No, thank you." He started to say something about preparing me for "the End Times". Again I said, "No, thank you," and added, "I'm an atheist." The gentleman gaped for a moment before composing himself. He then asked if I didn't want to read it "for entertainment". I said, "No!" He took the hint and departed.

I half-expected that incident to generate some negative feedback, but nothing came of it, and maybe it won't this time, either. I'm just tired of pretending to be someone I'm not. It wouldn't be so hard, I think, if my employers had been a little more understanding about me transitioning. My search for another job continues to be thwarted. There are five hotels within five minutes of my apartment, and none of them are hiring. There are another six in the general vicinity of my current job, but four of them are owned by my employer. There are jobs at the Beach, but I'd eat up a good chunk of my wages driving back and forth to the Oceanfront. So I toil on.

EDIT: 0505 here. I switched the lobby TV over to Fox in order to head off any potential hooha. As I speak, they're showing a repeat of the Glenn Beck program. I've seen bits and pieces of his material on Countdown, but I've never watched it raw and unfiltered like this. The man is scary. Eeeeeeeee...

Pictures of Mom, Part 2

This one dates from about 1982. Coincidentally, Mom is now (in the photo) about the same age as Granny in the previous photo (and I was ten or thereabouts, too). She's sitting at the teeny table in Granny's kitchen. You can see that infamous hostility towards the photographer. I'd like to think I look half so evil when someone rubs me the wrong way.

I never thought of it this way before, but Mom could have used a little pressed powder. Her face is too shiny. If anyone reading this thinks I'm being too harsh on my late mother, the first time she saw a photo of me en femme, she told me my lipstick was too red. And I was wearing a berry shade!

Anyway, Mom is often in my thoughts. Much of the time I see her as she was at the end. It's nice to refresh my memories of happier times.

Pictures of Mom, Part 1

I was sorting through some things this morning when I found a couple of photos I thought I'd lost forever. When Mom died two years ago, there was a mad scramble amongst my cousins and other relatives to divvy up the family photo albums. Dad kept a few that had pictures of their wedding and early married life. In with some things I wasn't interested in, I found a couple of Mom.

Photos of Mom are rare, because she didn't like being photographed. She treated anyone (even relatives) with cameras like celebs treat the paparazzi. I lost an entire box of photos during my move from Charlotte to Virginia. Thus I only have a few I took in the months before she died, and these two from out of the family trove.

This photo is from April of 1959. Mom was a couple of months shy of her tenth birthday. Her mother, my Granny, stands behind her. (It's hard to think of anyone so young and vital as "Granny" isn't it?). Mom was a cute little girl, wasn't she?

Hurry Up and Sign the Damn Bill!

In case you've been living in a cave for the last twenty-four hours and didn't hear, the Senate voted to approve the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes amendment that was tacked onto the defense appropriations bill. The President said he'd sign it. He'd better.

In a couple of the news stories I've read, the conservative backlash has been a little stiff. The Religious Right are saying that they're afraid that including gays and trans folk in a "protected class" will limit others' religious freedom. They're just upset because no one will be able to gay-bash and then say that God told them to do it.

This legislation is long overdue, but knowing it's (nearly) done is a nice feeling.

Up to Nothing

Saturday morning saw the end of my nine-night stretch and the beginning of my mini-vacation. I had a standing invite to come visit some friends, but I elected to stay here, because I had plans. I went home, did my nails (Rimmel 60 Seconds in Torrid) and went to bed for a bit. I got up late and spent an hour doing my best headless chicken impression trying to get ready to go to Ericka and Linda's to watch a movie. I wore my new sweater dress with black tights and ankle boots.

Sunday morning I rose early and drove out to NAS Oceana for the air show. I don't remember if I said anything before, but the weather this past weekend was nasty, cold and rainy. The Sunday forecast was only cloudy, with a40% chance of rain, but it was pouring by the time I reached the base. Turnout was poor, and a lot of the flying didn't happen, but what I did see was thrilling, and I got a few good photos. Because of the low attendance, a lot of the tee shirt vendors were selling their products cheap, so I got one for myself and one for my roommate. I went straight home and crashed. I didn't rise again until about 0300 this morning.

It was sunny today, but still not very warm, so I stayed in and camped out with Netflix over XBox Live. I watched Underword: Rise of the Lycans, Vanishing Point(1971) and a couple of episodes of Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex. I got a carry-out pizza from the Hut, and am about to turn in for the night.

Somewhere in the middle, Nate called to tell me that he won't be back until Wednesday. That means I get one more whole day to myself. I'm trying to work out an outing for myself that won't cost me much, but nothing's forthcoming. Part of me is eating up the solitude, but I'd set that aside for someone to hold. Mr. Sock is cool, but he's not much of a sub for a warm body.

I Love Dots!

It's Google's fault, really. You know how in Gmail, if you're reading a message, you can read little ads on related topics in the header or the margins? I was reading an email from Newport News one day when I noticed a little ad for Dots. I don't remember the wording, but the words "affordable prices" were particularly eye-catching. About the only time I can afford to shop at Newport News is when things are on clearance, and by then, they often don't have my size.

I used to shop a lot at Torrid. When I lived in Charlotte, I used to hit one location or the other every other week. Of course, I was making $12/hour then, and I could pay all my bills and splurge on clothes too. Now I'm plugging along with a lot less, so I've been on the lookout for something more affordable. I've occasionally shopped at Cato, and their prices are pretty reasonable, but I don't always like their styles.

I clicked through the link to dots.com. I loved the clothes I saw. Their size range was appealing too. "Sizes 0-24," it says on the door. I signed up for their email list. They always seem to have good sales, but moeny was tight almost all summer, so I never managed to get out to one of their stores. I decided to change that today. I made sure to print out this week's email coupon before I left: $10 off any purchase of $30 or more.

The weather left a little to be desired, cool and rainy, but it wasn't horrible. I wore a couple of layered tops (a pink and black striped top over a black Tactel tank) with jeans and a pair of Tommy Hilfiger ankle boots with a black sweater jacket. Other than the boots, my whole outfit was built out of things I purchased at Torrid.

Upon arriving at the store, I was immediately greeted by a salesperson (always a good sign). I told her that this was my first time in the store, and she gave me a little tour, pointed me at a few items that she thought would look good with my colors, then turned me loose. I was determined to not spend more than $40, but I must tell you, I could have spent the rent! In another time, I would've spent $300 in there without blinking.

Not to demean Dots, but it was like walking into a Torrid where everything was 50% or more off. They had all the same styles, at the same quality, but at dramatically lower prices. Dresses for $18. Jeans for $12. Ever since I saw The Devil Wears Prada a couple of years ago, I have wanted a pair of over-the-knee boots. Dots has 'em, for 26 dollars!!!

Like I said, I could have gone crazy in there, but I restrained myself. I bought a red, black and grey sweater dress, a purple sweater/tunic and purple argyle tights, plus a handful of little spring-loaded bangle bracelets. With my coupon, I got out of there for $39 and change. Mission accomplished!

I think I've mentioned before that people have usually been pretty tolerant on my shopping excursions. This was no exception. A few people gave me "the eye", and one fellow I passed on the sidewalk laughed, but there were no unpleasant encounters. There was a customer in Dots who looked like she wanted to say something, so I said, "If you want to say 'Boo', go ahead." She said, "No. I like your hair." I thanked her, and everything was okay after that.

After Dots, I trekked across the shopping center to a wig shop to look for new hair. My favorite red piece is looking a little ratty, but I didn't see anything that was in my price range.

On the way home, I zipped through the Wendy's drive-thru and went home. I tried on my purchases and hung them up, cleaned off my makeup, ate, then crashed. Now I'm back at work, on the last night of nine. This was a good day, and I think I've found my new favorite store.

Before I forget, the title has a link to their website.

A Long Weekend

I mentioned a couple of days ago that I was going to be off this weekend, Saturday and Sunday. Well, I discovered last night that this has been extended. Due to scheduling difficulties with my relief, I've been given Monday and Tuesday as well. That's a four-day weekend! If I had known of it a little sooner, I could've made plans for something more involved than what I was already looking towards, like a road trip or something.

Did I mention I'm going to be all alone this weekend? Yeah. Nate's getting on a train in a couple of hours and running down to Florida for Nick's seventh birthday. He's going with Eddie, our nice neighbor who watched the boys over the summer when Nate was working and I was sleeping. They won't be back until sometime Tuesday evening. What am I going to do with myself?

I'm going to try to get in a little shopping this morning after I pay a couple of bills, then off to bed. My "vacation" doesn't start till tomorrow. After work tomorrow, I'll crash for a bit, then off to Movie Night in Virginia Beach. No idea what the movie will be, but it'll be nice to hang out with friends.

Sunday's the air show. The weather is predicted to be crappy again, but both the Blue Angels and Snowbirds say they can work with ceilings as low as 1000 feet, and most of the rest of the performers won't notice the lack of altitude. Sunday night, if I'm not completely wiped, I might check out the Hershee. They have karaoke on Sundays. What? Don't look at me like that.

Monday and Tuesday, though. What am I gonna do? On the one hand, I've got two extra days to be myself 24/7, so no running about in drab unless I want to. I can even paint my nails if I want! Take that, Boss!

Technical Difficulties

I wish the IT people who reguate my company's internet access would make up their minds. From the end of last year until the middle of July, I had free access to Blogger to create and update this blog. Then, all of a sudden, I either got "The page can not be displayed" messages, or "Generally Blocked" blockpage messages from the company's proxy system. That prompted my "End of an Era" post, and marked the beginning of a slowdown in the writing of this blog.

Over the weekend, I was reading one of the blogs I follow, and I wanted to comment. Without thinking, I hit the little Google account button to log in so I could post the comment, and next thing I know, I'm logged into Blogger: full dashboard access and the works. It's worked every night since.

I wasn't able to get online at home today, so when I arrived at work tonight, I logged into my Gmail account, then Googled Blogger from there. I got a "Streaming Media" blockpage. A little bit later, I was able to log in by going through the long way, but when I try to view my blog, I still get the "Streaming Media" blockpage. I even disabled the Imeem media player that was embedded in the top right, to no avail. Because of this, I'll have to look at my comments later.

News, Part Two

I almost forgot: Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. That's an accomplishment in itself, but I really wish they'd waited until he actually accomplished something important, like, i don't know, ending the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan, or brokering a lasting peace in the Middle East. Something momentous like that. It's like they've given the award in anticipation of things to come. He called the award "a call to action", and it is. Get your ass in gear, Mr. President! Show me I didn't vote for you for nothing.

News

None from me, sorry. It just occurred to me that it's been weeks since I commented on anything that's happened out in the world. I did a little blurb when Patrick Swayze died, but nothing else.



I wrote to my friend Chrissie weeks ago asking about the UK's United Healthcare system. I wanted something to compare to when I wrote about the ongoing debate here in the States about the proposed reforms to our healthcare system. I never got around to writing the piece, and the big Senate vote is supposed to take place tomorrow. I hope they pass a plan that includes a public option, but I'm not holding my breath.



Supposedly different bills are making their way through both houses of Congress regarding ENDA, but I haven't heard anything new on that front. To be completely honest, I'd rather have ENDA than public healthcare, but the public option would make my future life easier in the event that ENDA passes.



The President talked to the HRC this past weekend, but once again, he made no promises. I'm beginning to wonder what I saw in that man...



Roman Polanski is currently sitting in jail waiting to hear if he'll be extradited to the US. At first, I was in the "Free Polanski" crowd, but then I went back and researched his case. The whole incident makes my skin crawl. It makes me feel vaguely skeezy because I enjoyed some of his movies. Now I hope they throw him down a hole he can never crawl out of.



There's a story in the latest issue of Esquire about the ongoing story of John Demjanjuk. Mr. Demjanjuk is a Ukrainian immigrant who was a German POW during WWII, and may or may not have worked as a collaborator at one of the German death camps. His arrest in the 80s made international headlines, because the authorities said he was "Ivan the Terrible", a camp guard at Treblinka who inflicted all manner of horrors against the people who were being herded into the gas chambers. He was extradited to Israel, where the high profile trial found him guilty, convicted him and sentenced him to death by hanging. Then a piece of evidence appeared that proved conclusively that he wasn't at Treblinka at all, and he went free. Now he's sitting in a prison in Germany, awaiting trial as an accessory to the deaths of 27,900 people at Sobibor, where he may or may not have been one of the Wachmanner, some sort of a collaborator. He's 89, and his health is failing. He, I think, should go free.

Movie Review: Zerophilia

Zerophilia (2005)

Director/writer: Martin Curland

Starring: Taylor Handley, Kyle Schmid, Rebecca Mozo, Marieh Delfino

Zerophilia is a fantasy movie that posits the existence of rare humans with a third "Z" chromosome. These individuals are capable of changing their sex at will, but the ability doesn't manifest itself until they become sexually active.

Luke (Handley) is a college student. He's out camping alone in the woods when he's nearly crushed in his tent by a Jeep with camper barreling through the woods. The driver is Kelly LeBrock, and to make up for nearly killing him, they have sex. It's Luke's first time.

A little later, Luke meets Michelle. Michelle is smart, funny, and gorgeous to boot. They hit it right off, but when they go out to dinner, Luke gets a little aroused, and starts to grow breasts. What follows from there is a classic comedy of errors.

I first learned about this film a couple of years ago on a Yahoo TG Fiction mailing list. The writer/director joined the list to promote his movie, and he even credits a couple of known TG fiction writers in the credits.

It's an indie film with a limited budget, but I thought it very well made. The script is good, the actors all give solid performances, and the plot flows pretty evenly with no awkward spots. I got the movie via Netflix when it first came out, but it debuted last night on Showtime 2, and I watched it before coming to work. It'll be on again on the regular Showtime channel sometime over the next two nights, so set your DVR. I promise it's worth the effort.

Fleet Week

We now return to our regularly scheduled blog, already in progress.

Today marked the beginning of Norfolk's Fleet Week. Norfolk is a big Navy town, and I've always felt like it's Fleet Week all the time, but this is the first time I've noted the actual event. I suppose they've had it before; I just never noticed.

As part of the festivities, there's a guided missile destroyer tied up at the Nauticus Pier, the USS Nitze (DDG-94), and they're offering free tours. I have a lot of friends who are interested in naval subjects, but live far away from major bodies of water, so I took it upon myself to catch the ferry over and take pictures for their benefit. I'm a military hardware geek myself, so it wasn't any hardship. For anyone here who's interested, I'll have the best shots up in a gallery tomorrow, and I'll put up a link.

The event concludes next weekend with the Air Show at NAS Oceana. By some miracle of scheduling, I managed to get next weekend off, so I'll be able to go. The Blue Angels will be there, as well as Canada's Snowbirds and a number of other performers and static displays. I will most likely attend in my male guise, because it's safer that way.

Thinking of You

Yes, I'm thinking about you, and it's driving me crazy. So crazy, in fact, that I'm having trouble hammering this out. But I promised I'd write about it in the blog, and here it is.

I'm flattered by your attention, and flustered by it all at the same time. I've got friends, but no one I've met in a long time has been so fascinated with me. It's an ego booster, but it makes me insecure at the same time. I feel like everyone is looking at me, even if it's only one person. I'm accustomed to being something of a spectacle out in public, but it's different feeling that way behind closed doors, with the person who's looking at me 200 and some miles away.

There's more I want to say, but I can't articulate it right now, not with my mind in such disarray. There'll be more when I can compose myself better.

Quick Movie Review: Powder Blue

Powder Blue, 2008

Director: Timothy Lin Bui
Starring: Jessica Biel, Ray Liotta, Forest Whitaker

I pulled this from Netflix last week because the site suggested it to fans of Beautiful Daughters, which was GEM's movie selection last month. When I read the description online, it didn't sound familiar, but I like indie movies with A-list actors, so I added it to my queue.

As an aside, I've got to say that Netflix added to Xbox Live is a winning combination. Netflix by itself (getting movies by mail) is great. When they added streaming video from the site at no extra cost, it was a nice bonus. Streaming movies directly over the TV from an Xbox 360 is the piece de resistance. When the feature was first added, all you could do was watch. Now you can browse through thousands of titles, rate them, and even watch movies with a party of your friends, over the Live network. Sometimes they add programs that haven't come out on DVD yet. I'm currently working my way through the first season of Legend of the Seeker, and it doesn't hit DVD for a week or two. Anyway, back to the movie.

Powder Blue tells the story of the intersection between a handful of characters in the days before Christmas. Ray Liotta is Jack, just released after a long prison sentence. Jessica Biel is Rose, an exotic dancer with a comatose child. Forest Whitaker is a former priest mourning the loss of his wife. Kris Kristofferson, Lisa Kudrow and the late Patrick Swayze all play supporting parts. Injected into the middle somewhere is Alejandro Romero as Lexus, a transgendered prostitute.

I read a handful of reviews both before and after watching the movie, they all compare this film unfavorably with Crash, which I am embarrassed not to have seen. The pacing is a little awkward. Ray Liotta and Jessica Biel's story arcs intersect fairly early, and their story then connects with a third arc. Forest Whitaker's story, which involves Lexus, takes place almost in another film. Those two characters never interact with the rest. I kept waiting for the "Aha" moment which would connect it all, but it never came.

Afterwards, I remembered this film being promoted over the winter as the "Jessica Biel stripper movie". There were some videos shown of her dancing for the film, and I'll admit, her scenes on stage are pretty hot. If only the rest of the film was that good. I gave the film three stars on Netflix, but only because there's no option for "Meh". Needless to say I will not be recommending this one for Movie Night.

What a Weekend!

I told y'all in my next-to-last post that I lucked into a weekend off. I put said weekend to good use. Friday I rested, then stayed up to watch the premiere of Stargate: Universe and Real Time with Bill Maher.

Saturday morning, I cruised through the monthly neighborhood flea market and bumped into an old, old friend. The flea market itself yielded a mother lode of teeny, tiny model airplanes, which will soon be winging their way around the world to various friends who collect them.

Saturday evening I attended my second consecutive GEM (Gender Expression Movement). I like the new name. Before going to the meeting, I checked out the nail salon in my neighborhood, and got them to wax my eyebrows. They're now higher and more prominently arched than they've ever been before. The meeting was a little different, from previous, in that LLLLL presided over the meeting, instead of De. We spent a couple of hours going around the room talking about everyone's perceptions of sex and gender. By the time my turn came up, I felt like everything I feel had already been said (a cop-out, I know).

Sunday I was set to go back to work, but Athens Boys Choir were performing at the Hershee Bar in Norfolk, and I had to go. The show was awesome! On top of that, I saw some old friends, met some new people and had a good time.

Good Enough

I'm behind the times, I know. No MP3 player here. I still buy CDs, if only intermittently. I don't even listen to the radio all that much anymore, so I tend to be behind the curve when it comes to discovering new music. Leave it to me to fall in love with a song that came out two years ago. I was watching a Sheryl Crow video on YouTube yesterday, and this popped up as a suggestion. How did I miss this?

As an experiment, I added the song in an Imeem player on the right side of the screen.

The lyrics have me a little twisted inside. The submissive in me knows how it feels, while the liberated indie in me wants to know "WTF?"

Under your spell again
I can't say no to you
Crave my heart and it's bleeding in your hand
I can't say no to you...

Another Dispatch

I've been away from my computer at home since Monday, and I've only snuck into the business center at work for a quick update, in case anyone thought I'd fallen down a well or something.

Monday afternoon Nate was in a car accident. His job was ending this week (yesterday in fact) and his boss decided to treat his employees to lunch. Nate was in the back seat of one of two vehicles on the way to said lunch. Turning into the restaurant parking lot, their vehicle was struck by a car trying to beat the traffic signal. Their car was flipped around 180 degrees or so and slammed into a concrete signpost. Nate dislocated his left shoulder and suffered a torn ACL in his left knee. Fortunately, the other driver's insurance will cover it all. Nate was okay, just a little shaken.

Tuesday Nate was off, and Wednesday he was laid off.

On the positive side of things, my supervisor is trying to be more accomodating at work, and she scheduled me off Friday and Saturday this weekend. This means I can attend my support group meeting for the second month in a row! I'm also going to try to attend the Athens Boys Choir show at the Hershee on Sunday before work, so it should be a fun weekend.

Note: I'll be sticking with pants for my outing this weekend. ;)