Dispatches from the Front

It's been almost a week since my last post. I've wanted to post, but I've been experiencing a whole lot of nothing. I'm still fighting a summer cold, or it might be the flu. I wanted to get out for a bit when I was off this week, but I've felt like crap the whole time.

I broke down and gave Spot a bath this afternoon. He needed it, badly. After the bath, I administered some flea medicine, so hopefully he'll be feeling better soon.

I've been thinking about getting a tattoo, something similar to the photo above. Please to comment, one way or another.

Work is work. I returned last night after two days off to discover that they've taken away my MOD (Manager On Duty) sign. Is this (pardon me) a sign? The search for another job has so far not been fruitful, and I am extremely reluctant to leave this one until I find another. Nate just found out that his job runs out the middle of next week, so it's back to money being tight.

I think I'll go back to bed.

Not really trans news

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6836190.ece

Two friends made a pact. Whichever one of them died first, the other agreed to wear a dress to his funeral. Well, one of the lads was a private in the Black Watch, and he died in Afghanistan. I can't fault the courage of either man, but did the dress have to be bright GREEN??? I'd have at least toed the line of respectability, and worn a tasteful Little Black Dress. And tights. And heels. And...

RIP: Patrick Swayze

Patrick Swayze died yesterday after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. He wasn't transgendered, but he did play a drag performer in To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar. I thought he and his costars, Wesley Snipes and John Leguizamo, were horribly miscast (maybe not Leguizamo), but they played their parts with grace and panache. I think that stands pretty well for everything Swayze acted in, from The Outsiders and Red Dawn to Dirty Dancing and Ghost on to lower-brow fare like Roadhouse and Next of Kin. I especially enjoyed his turn in A & E's The Beast which aired last spring after he recovered from his last bout in the hospital. I thought he had kicked the cancer's tail, and I am sorry to be wrong.

Patrick Swayze was the first man-crush I would admit to, and I will miss him.

I Sleep With a Monkey

That's the horrible confession which has been eating at my insides for months. I'm not kidding. How many adults do you know who sleep with stuffed animals?

It's partly my ex's fault. She collected stuffed animals, mostly bunnies, though she had a few bears. When we parted ways, she insisted on dividing the collection evenly, leaving me with a moving box full of unpleasant memories. I gave them all to Goodwill. Actually, I found a couple that I had missed when I was packing up to leave Charlotte. They went straight into the dumpster.

A few months before that, I bought my monkey. It was May, and I was out spending my tax refund. I had just bought a few things at Torrid in South Park Mall, and was on my way out, when I came upon a kiosk selling "make your own" stuffed animals, like a knock-off Build-a-Bear Workshop. They were having a sale. I decided I wanted one.

They had several different animals on offer, not just bears and rabbits but assorted barnyard and "jungle" animals. I picked out a monkey, just because I liked the way it looked. The vendor let me choose how much stuffing to fill it with, and offered me a selection of hats and clothes. I thought that was a little much.

On the way home, I remembered having a sock monkey when I was little. Its name was Monkey. Yeah, I was an imaginative child. Anyway, to honor the toy I had when I was younger, and make light of my youthful naming conventions, I christened the little fellow "Mr. Sock". Naming it somehow made it more touchable. I hugged the little thing. It felt good. A few days later I found myself holding it while I tried to fall asleep one morning.

That was two years ago. I've found that I can sleep without Mr. Sock, but I don't like to. It's not like anyone else is clamoring to share my bed.

I'm Back On!

I'm blogging from work again! This might be a short-lived return, but I'll take it for all it's worth. This long night might not be so long after all. It's Friday night (Saturday morning, really), the weekend after Labor Day, and the hotel is DEAD. I just finished the USA Today weekend edition crossword puzzle, and all I had left to me was the next few chapters of Sam Harris' The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason. It's a good, good book, but it's dry material.

Anyway, on with the blogging.

Edit: It was indeed short-lived. I forgot that there's a window of twenty minutes or so when the network resets itself. During that twenty minutes, the Internet connection doesn't interface with WebSense, and anything goes. Or it did.

Did a Little Shopping

I was going to go out yesterday. It was my day off, but I felt rotten, and ended up sleeping through most of the day. I did wake up in time to see the President's address on health care reform. I got to see that buffoon from South Carolina make an arse of himself on national television. I nodded off watching Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves on Netflix via my Xbox. Eventually I crawled back into bed and resolved to go out today.

I wanted to dress up, but the weather was grey and gloomy, and I still wasn't feeling 100%, so I schlepped out in jeans and a tee with a hoodie. I walked down to the river and caught the ferry to Norfolk, then walked the few blocks over to the MacArthur Center Mall. I wasn't shopping with a purpose. Indeed, I was hoping to get in and out without spending any money. Hah!

I knew my friend Tracy worked at Coach, but I didn't realize she worked at the Coach store in that mall. I ducked in for a moment to say hello, then ducked out again because she had a customer. A little further along, I found a Payless store. I've been looking at a particular pair of their shoes for work, and they just happened to have a pair in my size. I got them. That's actually the second pair of shoes I've bought this week. I found a pair of l.e.i. heels on clearance at Walmart the other day. I'd lusted after them all summer, but never had the money to spare. At $11.00, I decided I could spare it.

By the time I made it back to Waterside to meet the ferry, it had begun to rain again, but it subsided when I reached the dock in Portsmouth. On my many trips through the neighborhood, I've walked many times by a little store called the Eklectik Funk Boutique. I decided to check the place out. The owner told me a bunch of things were on sale, 50-75% off, so I felt like I had to buy something, though I wasn't sure from looking at the racks that anything would fit me. To my surprise, I found a top which turned out to be a dress. That is, the shop receipt says it's a dress. I will probably wear it with jeans or leggings. I also picked out a pair of earrings designed by the owner. The "dress" was 50% off, and the earrings 25% off, so I thought I did well.

On the way home, it began to rain again, in earnest. I got some KFC on the way home and here I am again.

Going to a Meeting

It took some pleading with my supervisor, but I have Saturday off, so I'm going to attend this month's meeting of GEM, my support group. I just got off the phone with my friend Becky, and she's going to give me a ride. I'm feeling jazzed, that I'll get to see some of my friends again. I'll also have an opportunity to vent about my recent troubles to anyone who doesn't read this blog.

I think I'm going to wear a dress tomorrow, or more likely a skirt with a top. It's still warm and sticky hereabouts, but I like the feeling of the breeze on my bare legs. Speaking of which, I need to shave again.

Whip It

I just caught this on Youtube. I so want to see it. I actually wanted to do this when I was in Charlotte, but I was easily twice the size of any of the roller girls, and they said I was a guy, so...