friends « Jessica Janiuk

Archive for the ‘friends’ Category

Party time

Sunday, May 24th, 2009

It’s almost 3:30 in the morning, and I just felt this lingering need to blog before passing out for the night…morning…whatever. Saturday night we had people over. Chris has had monthly “board game” nights for the past six months or so, and people have raved about how fun they are. So, we were bound to have one here. Honestly, I had a lot of fun.

We played two games. The first is a long time favorite of mine called “Lunch Money”. The premise is that you are elementary age school girls beating each other up for their lunch money. It’s a lot of fun to play, though obviously violent. We had a blast. After that, we played Pit, which is a trading game much like the stock exchange. It went on for a while, and people’s voices started to go from all the yelling. It was a ton of fun though. Chris’ friend, Greg, was the come behind winner in the end.

After the games, we felt like watching a movie. So we watched “Hellboy 2: the Golden Army”, and it was fantastic. I have to say, it beats the first film of the two easily. Guillermo Del Toro is a fantastic director and was able to meld action, story, and humor perfectly. It was a good story with great characters. It also had a very satisfying last shot. I recommend it.

My only disappointment with tonight is that it felt more like Chris’ party with Chris’ friends. A lot of my friends in town are older with families. So, they’re not the type to come to a party like this. Plus, I was the only girl. It seemed a little heavy on the testosterone. I hope that the balance changes soon and we get more diverse groups.

We spent today cleaning in preparation for our guests. It was a good blitz because we got so much taken care of that needed it. Chris vaccumed like crazy. I cut the grass for the first time. We also have had a major dandelion problem. So I also spread some week killer / grass fertilizer. I started turning over the garden. We got the dishes done, bathrooms clean, and even hung my art. I feel like we’re totally settled in now. That feels really great.

I have to say, I feel incredibly relieved now that I have money in a bank account again. I know I need to find employment, because freelance just isn’t going to cut it. I’m looking forward to finding a place that I can help out, and that can truly help me too. I really want to take my skills to the next level.

I also have to say…since I’ve moved in with Chris, I’ve not had one day where I’ve felt lonely. I haven’t had nights where I’m just sitting and staring at my computer screen wondering what to do with myself either. We’ve consistently had something fun to do. Granted I was still moving in during that time, but even so, it’s been nice to have someone there. So far so good on the move.

Anyway, tomorrow may be a relaxation day. We might work on the garden. We bought seeds for vegetables. So hopefully we can get it into shape before its too late. I better get to sleep so I’m not exhausted all of Sunday. Good night all!

Tags: friends, fun, garden, party
Posted in family, friends, Movie Review | 2 Comments »

Big thanks to friends

Monday, May 11th, 2009

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone that commented and/or called yesterday to cheer me up after my rough afternoon. It means a lot. I have to say a special thank you to Leah for talking to me for two plus hours on the phone. She really helped a lot. I hope she’s not terribly exhausted today. I’m feeling much better now and just wanted to let everyone know that. Here’s a pic or two from the photocamp pool to lighten the mood:

Compliments of jennaddenda at http://www.flickr.com/photos/jennaddenda/

The second you can find at this link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/obrazu/3501812413/in/pool-photocampmilwaukee

Tags: photos, thank you
Posted in friends, photography | 4 Comments »

I really need to post more often…

Sunday, May 10th, 2009

Move preparations

I’m moving! That’s right…that time has come to move in with my best friend. Being unemployed, I can’t afford to live in my apartment anymore. So I’m off to Chippewa Falls this week. It’s going to be a difficult move too. It’s hard to justify rental fees for trucks and whatnot when you have no income.

I was originally planning on updating this website design this past week. Turns out I realized I was running short on time for packing to move. So I set the website aside to pack everything up. I sit right now with 3/4 of my apartment ready to move. The one thing I don’t know yet is if I’ll rent a trailer or a full on truck. It’s about 30 bucks a day to rent a trailer, and it’s about 360 bucks to rent a truck one way. Unfortunately I don’t think I could do the trailer thing and get everything up there in one shot. I’ll probably need a few trips. I’ll figure it out.

Scarlet vs the Bluetooth Headset

Scarlet, for those of you that don’t know, is my 10 month old red tabby cat. She’s a cutie, but don’t let her looks fool you. She’s a brat and a diva. It would also seem that she loves to bat around bluetooth headsets for cell phones. I should preface this whole thing with the fact that I’ve had bad histories with headsets. I’ve owned four of them. Normally I’m great with electronics, but these things are so small that they disappear on me.

Case in point: I recently lost my favorite LG headset upon switching cars for a car repair. I’m not sure when it fell out of my purse or car, but it did. So, I was headset-less. I decided to replace it. I went looking and found a Plantronics headset that I thought would be ok. I tried it for a few days and discovered I hated the things. It was uncomfortable in my ear, it was quiet, and the reception wasn’t all that great. So I wanted to return it.

I set the headset on my dining room table with the intention of returning it the next day. I thought to myself that it may not be wise since Scarlet may find it and play with it. I walked away and forgot about my own concern before I could do anything about it. I went to bed and in the morning…Surprise…it was gone. Scarlet had played with it.

So I searched the apartment to no avail. I looked everywhere…under the couch, in the couch, under the radiators, all surrounding the table, all across the floor, under the bed, in the closets…everywhere…twice. I couldn’t find it. I was pretty upset. After several hours of searching, I gave up.

Finally tonight…as my mother, father, and I were packing up, it appeared. My mom found it in a closet. It had been batted into the closet and around the corner edge. So, it was in a shadow and was surrounded by a small collection of toys that had also been lost. I was shocked. In fact, at this point, I had started to wonder if I was wrong and that I had lost it myself somehow. Maybe I hadn’t deserved to ever have a headset. Nope…it was Scarlet afterall. Crazy kitten…she’s curled up next to me right now looking as innocent as ever too.

Car Accident

In other news…I got into a car accident just over a week ago. I was on my way to Toys R Us to buy a gift for my older sister’s baby shower. I got off the freeway during rush hour and none of the traffic would let the line of cars coming off the freeway merge. So we all slowed to a halt. The car in front of me went. I sat waiting to go watching traffic, inching forward.

Suddenly I hear a crunch and feel my head hit the head rest. A very loud “F&%king A!!!” involuntarily came out of my mouth. I looked into my rear view to see a girl about my age in the car behind me. She looked a bit freaked out. I pulled forward a bit and put on my flashers. We got out and she was incredibly apologetic.

I am proud of myself in that the first thing I asked was if she was ok. She was. I was too. Turns out our cars were fine. It was just a little bumper cars is all. I had no damage…her license plate was a little bent. That was it. She was asking about exchanging information. The first thought that popped into my head was a similar situation I caused about two years ago. The car was a lot nicer…a white convertible…and the owners were so nice to me. Since no one was hurt, and there was no damage, they let me go. So I thought I’d pass on that karma. I told her that since we were both fine, and our cars were fine…there’s no reason to exchange info. She was incredibly relieved. I just said be careful and have a good night. I hope she does the same to someone else in the future.

Friends

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention some new friends in my life. First and foremost is Leah. She’s a really cool girl from the Southeast and has had a bit of a struggle lately, but I’ve really enjoyed chatting and getting to know her. She’s really pretty, and she doesn’t see it. She’s a geek and loves music. In fact, she creates it almost nightly. It’s really impressive how strong she is and how well she’s dealing with the challenges that she’s facing right now. She’s a true role model for anyone. I hope someday soon she can see that too.

I’ve also been being a lot more social lately. I went to a couple unconferences, which I’ll talk about later. I also met a few people thanks to my friend Tracy. Tracy is an awesome tech nerd, and she seems to know just about everyone. So she ends up being this node of communication that connects people. It’s pretty awesome. I’ve met so many cool people through her recently. Plus, she’s so driven when it comes to bringing people together around causes. She also has great parties in her basement.

I met her girlfriend, Jackie, who is such a geek. It’s great. I’ve been able to talk Harry Potter with her, Star Wars, and various other nerditry. She makes for a really cool friend, AND she and Tracy are cute together. I hope they stay that way. Plus they’re fun to hang out with together.

I got to meet someone called “the Dane” for the main reason that she’s from Denmark. She was visiting Tracy. She was fun to hang out with. We went to the unconference together, and we hung out at the parties afterwards too. She is a very interesting girl, and while a little quiet, very smart.

As part of the conferences, there were several parties and events. I finally got out to the lesbian bars in Milwaukee. I visited the Pint, which is like local meat shack. As soon as you walk in, everone’s heads turn and eye you up as fresh meat. Still, I liked the ambiance. They had the Brewer game on both nights I was there. I had a good time there both times I went.

I also went to Mona’s, which is like…THE lesbian bar. It’s a happenin place with loud music, a big dance floor, a large bar, and a lot of places to sit and talk…er…yell. It was fun to people watch there with Tracy and the Dane. While there I got to meet little Jess as we called her. She’s shorter than me. She’s a very energetic woman that has a very frantic personality and a wacky sense of humor. She was a lot of fun to shoot the shit with. I really had a good time at Mona’s too.

It’s truly unfortunate that I finally feel connected to the community here, and I’m leaving. I feel like I have friends that go out. That’s exactly what I wanted the entire time I was in Milwaukee. Why now? Guess we can’t have everything.

Unemployment

Speaking of not having everything, I’m really upset with my former employer. They are fighting my unemployment claim. It figures right? I mean, they screwed me over at work, took advantage of me, totally used me, drained me of all desire and energy, and then fired me for trying to take on extra work to make ends meet. Now they want to take away a lifeline. Pardon my language here, but Fuck you, Move inc. You’re truly a bunch of blood sucking, rapists. You fired me for ethics, but you truly have none to begin with. You know nothing about how to treat people fairly and respectfully.

Queer Camp

Tracy created the first ever Queer Camp, and I was proud to be a part of it. There’s a concept out there surrounding this “Camp” idea. People come together around a concept. Sometimes it’s about podcasting, aka podcamp, or around photography, aka photocamp. Another aspect is that it’s really informal. The schedule is never set in stone. So it’s frequently called an “unconference” because of that. Queer Camp was the first surrounding LGBT issues. Tracy started the website www.queercamp.org. She also planned the whole thing. She is amazing.

This was my first camp experience. I presented during the first day and it was a blast. I did two sessions. The first was called “Gender in a slightly larger nutshell than expected”…no scrotal puns were intended. The second was a less structured Q/A session called “Ask a transsexual anything”. Both went great. I have a video recording of the first one, and I’ll perhaps post some of the video when I get settled at the new house. I also got some great questions in the second session.

There were a lot of great sessions. Some were on gay christianity, legal issues in relationships, music, paganism, polyamory, and more. It was very enlightening. Above all it was great to connect with people and have a good time doing so. I look forward to the next queer camp. It seems poised to branch out across the country too. Watch for it in your area! Or plan one yourself. Tracy would be happy to set you up with the promo materials.

PhotoCamp Milwaukee

The following weekend was quite a few events. One of them was Photocamp. I didn’t think I was going to get to go to this, but I made it for the last part. I had a few things earlier in the day that conflicted. Otherwise, I’d have been there earlier.

I got to see a neat homemade ring flash…which is a new concept to me. The result of what you get when you use a ring flash is pretty impressive. If I had another flash, I’d consider making one. It’s pretty cool.

I also participated in the evening photo walk. A photo walk is just what it sounds like…people walk and take photos of what they see. I have a few photos that I want to post, but I don’t have access to them at the moment. I’ll post them in the coming few days.

After the photo walk was the closing session. After that, I had some great food and enjoyed great conversation. Out of that sparked the idea to pull my sword out of my equipment bag in my car. Picture after picture was taken of me with the sword. I’m still hoping to see some of the cool shots. Unfortunately I’ve seen none of them, aside from the iPhone photo Tapps took. I’m hoping I’ll get to be a part of many more camps in the future. They’re a lot of fun.

Bucketworks

Bucketworks is a great place in Milwaukee that both of the camps were held at. It’s a non-profit, very versatile space that can really be used for anything. The concept isn’t unlike an idea I had a couple months back involving a shared studio space that was offered for free to use or for a small fee. Turns out they had the idea first.

Anyway, if I was staying in Milwaukee, I’d be strongly considering becoming a member. The people that run the place are fantastic. Plus, they’re nerds. They have a lounge called “Ten Forward”…the office is called the “Ready Room”. Star Trek references are always a win in my book. You can check them out at www.bucketworks.org.

Baby Shower

Showers are too much for me. I may be a girly girl most of the time, but baby showers…wedding showers…no thanks. There’s a level of girly that I won’t touch with a 20 foot pole. I guess the fact that baby clothes and babies were never all that thrilling to me probably has something to do with it. Plus, the cutesieness of the games and party favors are so hyper feminized that it actually bothers me somewhat.

Maybe it bothers me also because it’s just such a heterosexual experience…for now. Gay couples haven’t been able to get married until recently. Or maybe it’s just that I know I’ll never have a shower. I don’t date and don’t want kids. I’d sure like the blenders, artwork, and house supplies that are given out as gifts though.

Anyway, as usual, I was on photographer duty. It’s good that I have that, because otherwise I’d be bored. Though it’s nice to catch up with family…still the focus is supposed to be on the showeree…not the showerers. Plus there were so many people in a small space. It was hard to hear and hard to focus with all the noise. I’m glad the shower is over and done.

Visiting Chippewa

I visited the new house about a week ago. It looks nice. It’s not very big on the outside, but on the inside, it seems a lot bigger. It has a galley kitchen with a larger dining area. The three bedrooms are comfortably sized. I won’t have any problems in that space. The living room is a bit cramped with all the stuff Chris put in there. I think that’ll change over time though. The basement is nicely finished with plenty of room. I love the wood burning fireplace. My office is actually back in the corner. It’s going to be a nice refuge to get work done. I will call it the “Nerderarium”. There will be few to no distractions. I’m looking forward to it.

One of the things that really stood out in my mind though…the response from friends in the area. I have a reputation in that part of the state, but it’s still surprising to have people shake your hand with two hands and say “It’s so good to have you back, Jessica.” It feels good to be wanted. It makes me feel like no matter what, I’ll have success there. Here’s hoping.

Anyway…this is unbelievably long for a post. I apologize. I need more fiber…maybe then I’ll be more regular. Maybe it doesn’t work that way for blogging…who knows. Still…this one was over 2500 words. Looks like writing a book will be easy enough. Haha. Sweet dreams and Happy Mothers day!

Tags: bars, bucketworks, camp, friends, lesbians, LGBT, Moving, photo camp, queer camp, unemployment
Posted in Employment, family, Freelance, friends, photography, Web Design | 2 Comments »

The update you’ve all been waiting for…part 1

Friday, April 24th, 2009

The time has come!! And by that I mean I finally got my blog working again. Apparently a plugin for twitter broke things somehow. Now you won’t see the “Tweet this” button. Oh well. Maybe it’ll come back later when it’s fixed fully.

The latest news in my life…I’m unemployed! I know I know…you’re thinking “What?!! When did this happen?!! Why?!!” Well let me tell you the story. Three weeks ago today I was walked into the office yet again. I was surprised because it was a total blindsiding. I had to speak directly to HR via the phone. Apparently someone had reported my freelance work anonymously, and since I was doing work with a home builder, there was concern it was a conflict of interest.

They asked me to describe my relationship to the client and why I never reported the work to management. The work I took was video editing for a local client. I made my decision to take the work based on several reasons. The client had recently dropped a big production house contract. So they weren’t interested in working with another big house. Specifically, they wanted freelancers. They didn’t have the budget to pay that much. So I knew they couldn’t pay the rates the company I worked for charges. Most importantly though, they wanted Full HD utilizing a very modern camera. The company I worked for did not have the capacity to work with the footage at all. So it was in no way competing with my employer. I felt very assured that it wasn’t a conflict at all. So I never reported it.

I explained that to HR and they took the information and perused over it for several days. They came back to me the following Wednesday, April 8th. They said that they did believe it was a conflict. I was presented with a memo that stated that I would have to drop my relationship with my client and sign to continue my job. I took a couple hours to figure out if this was what I wanted to do.

I truly felt that I had made the right decision. I did not feel this was a conflict of interest at all. I even had my logic confirmed to me by management locally. So I was at a loss as to why corporate felt differently. In my heart, I knew I had done nothing wrong. To add to that, I really enjoyed my freelance work. It was about the only thing in my life revolving work that actually fulfilled me creatively and personally. Plus, I needed the extra income. This work was basically digging me out of a hole that I needed to dig out of. My budget was monthly in the red without the work. So I had to choose between financial difficulty or more financial difficulty. For me it was a catch 22 all along.

What it came down to for me is a moral decision. I felt that by signing the memo, I would be admitting wrong doing. I couldn’t do that when I know I didn’t. I realized that no matter what, I had to be happy with myself. Anyone that had been talking to me a lot lately knew how unhappy I was working there. So with both my morals and my happiness in question, I chose to not sign knowing full well I’d get fired.

I came back and told them I wouldn’t sign and why. I thought I’d be pretty much fired that day. Instead, I was told that it had to go back to corporate for them to think about again. Here I’m going…ok…what’s there to think about. Turns out their was, and I will respect the wishes of the company and say nothing other than the next day I was told information that changed things. I was given a few more days to figure things out. I had until Monday 13th to decide.

In that time, I was contacted about a possible job in Eau Claire, my college town and also where my best friend lives. So Thursday the 9th, I drove all the way up to EC to go to a job open house. Turns out it wasn’t my cup of tea, but I decided to take a vacation day and really think about the situation over the extended weekend. I sought the advice of close friends in the EC area, like a former professor and some close advisors. They seemed to reaffirm my feelings.

So I came back home and on Sunday night, I wrote out my official statement, which was two pages long. Basically it just fleshed out my reasons for not signing. So..I went to work on Monday and low and behold…my boss was out for the day. So…I used the day to get my software into shape knowing that I wasn’t going to be doing much more work on it now. Tuesday rolled around and I finally got the chance to sit down with the management and give them my statement. I could tell they weren’t thrilled by my response. Again, I was expecting to be fired right there, and nope…it had to go back to corporate again.

For the rest of the day I found myself twiddling my thumbs. There wasn’t any reason for me to start working on anything knowing it was my last day of work. Turns out it wasn’t. We didn’t hear back that day. So I prepared to go to work on Wednesday the 15th. On my way in, I got a call from my boss saying I didn’t need to come in. They hadn’t heard back yet, and really there was no sense in my coming in with nothing to do. I was told I’d still get paid. Ok…no problem. Later that afternoon I got another call. Turns out legal was out until Friday. So, I didn’t have to come in Thursday with pay either, and I’d be called when to come in Friday. It surely seemed this was dragging on at this point. We all knew where it was going.

Friday I was called, and I was told the decision everyone knew was coming. My employment was terminated. I was able to come in and pick up the last of my stuff….I had already packed it up anyway. I said my goodbyes. I actually choked up a bit when saying goodbye to the two editors. I’m going to miss them. I may have had my issues with the job and so forth, but for the most part, the people were great. It’s unfortunate the company treats their employees the way it does though. That’s another topic for another day.

So…I left. I have to say, too, that despite what most people would feel upon getting fired…I have no remorse. I’m thrilled its over. I’ve wanted to get away from the job for at least a year and a half. It’s finally done. It didn’t happen in the way I had wanted it to, but all things happen for a reason. I’ve gotten a few more freelance gigs, and quite honestly, I love the freelance lifestyle. I feel so much more freedom and control. I’m still making money, and I’m feeling fullfilled creatively. I’m not feeling tied to a cubicle. I can take a break if I want to. I can sleep when I want to and get up when I want to. This is what I’ve wanted for so long. It just took me getting fired to get here. I’m actually really happy now.

Before I move on, I do want to say something important. I don’t know if Scott or Julie are reading this, but I just want to say thank you. I know you both pulled for me with corporate. I especially want to say thanks to Scott because I heard some of your back and forth with HR, and it told me how much you cared. I really and truly appreciate that. I wanted to express my thanks to you in person, but unfortunately you weren’t around when I came in to say my good byes. I’m sure we’ll talk again, but now it’s officially in writing.

So…where do I go from here? My plan for moving in with Chris is moving forward a bit earlier than expected. I’ll be moving in mid May instead of late June. I’ve got a part time job lined up that starts in July. I’ve also got plans to talk to some people about using the city business incentive programs in the Chippewa Valley to get myself a camera. I also plan on moving forward with my non-profit. So, I think it’s time to let my dreams happen. I’m very excited.

In the meantime, I’m working on getting my new web hosting lined up. After that, I start work on my professional websites. Then I get genderverse underway. At that point, I start the book. During that time, I want to podcast again. I’m looking forward to it all.

So that’s part 1 of this 2 part series. Stay tuned for part 2…

Tags: Chris, dreams, Freelance, job, Moving, non-profit, unemployment
Posted in Employment, friends, Goals, Uncategorized, work | 4 Comments »

Onward to success

Monday, March 30th, 2009

The freelance seems to never end. OK…well it sort of does. As of today, I got final approval on two 30 second spots I had been editing last week. The producer and I had gone back and forth on fixes and I think we’re both really pleased with how it turned out. With all this editing work, I feel like I’m starting to feel that creative groove come back slowly. It’s that groove I had when I left college. Now that I’m shooting and editing all the time, I am just in the moment more. It feels good.

In other freelance news, I’ve decided to dump the flash web project. It’s a bit too much for me, and I’ve been really stressed out about it for a long time now. I have yet to hear back from the guy I asked to take it over, but I’m sure regardless, it’ll all get worked out. The web is good for me when it’s a personal thing that I have passion about, but I have trouble finding my creative drive for a web client. I think I’m just going to remove it from my freelance offerings unless it’s simple. I’d rather be editing or shooting.

Once I get the final ok on that switch, I’m going to start working on Genderverse.net. I’ve got the database structure set, but I haven’t felt comfortable donating any time to the project while I’ve got other responsibilities. So, hopefully with much of my video work done and the web project off my plate, I can get moving.

I feel bad that I haven’t had time to work on my podcast. I’ve done nothing but work for the past several weeks, which is a good thing. It just means I’ve had to put other things aside, and that included the podcast. The good news is that I wrote up the rundowns for the next podcast this weekend. I’ll be shooting it this week. I’m aiming for a two podcast a month release schedule. I have the next two already blocked out. Let’s hope that schedule works.

I’m doing a photo shoot this weekend. For once, it’s not me taking the photos. My friend Ken asked me about a year ago if I’d want to do a shoot with him. It’ll be a little different being in front of the camera. I fully expect to be uncomfortable at first, but I think I’ll loosen up and have fun as time passes. I’m bringing a bunch of fun clothes to wear. I’ll have a whole bunch of fun as well as professional pictures after this. I think I’ll use some of them for this site’s design.

This past weekend I got something I really really needed: Down time. I spent most of my weekend catching up on movie watching and some TV. I’ve caught up on all of the Legend of the Seeker episodes out there. The show has gotten better. It was good to begin with, but I really like it now. I also watched “Super Size Me”, which has helped me commit to never going to McDonalds again. I didn’t like the place to begin with and rarely went already. So it won’t be hard. I also watched Chocolat, which was a charming and beautiful film. The next two on my list are “The Invisible” starring Justin Chatwin, and Chicago with Rene Zellweger.

I feel a little bit of a need to respond to a lot of the comments I got on my last blog post about my voice. I don’t have a bad voice by any means. I realized recently that if I wanted to, I could sing. I might subject my podcast viewers to that too at some point. I feel like I should explain. I have a strong history with music. In college, I actually got into the University of Wisconsin: Eau Claire school of music, which is actually a very good music school. The Jazz band has won many a Grammy. While majoring in music wasn’t for me, I did enjoy the subject enough to complete the music theory classes. In that time we had to do some singing in class, and I was surrounded by women with these beautiful Soprano and Alto voices. I’ve always wanted to sound like that…to sing like that. Instead I would sing along with the class and feel embarassed that my voice didn’t really fit in either the male or female categories. I felt kind of awkward.

So that’s where my vocal discomfort came from. It’s taken me a number of years, but now, while that jealousy is still there in some form, I am comfortable with the way I sound. I have a unique voice that people have often complimented me on. It’s just another aspect of myself that I’m proud of.

The joys of cooking have continued for me. This Saturday I made myself a lovely dish. It was chicken coated in Italian breadcrumbs, baked in olive oil to a nice crisp, browned exterior. The inside was moist and delicious. I had sugar snap peas and broccoli as the vegetables. I also had some long grain rice to complete the meal. My dessert was a package of fresh strawberries. What a fantastic meal.

Tonight was not as fantastic. I was going to make spaghetti, which I don’t make often. I bought some sauce on Friday when I went grocery shopping. One of the jars was on clearance. It was Barilla Roasted Garlic pasta sauce. I love garlic. So naturally I thought it would be great. It wasn’t. In fact it was terrible. I was shoving the sauce out of the way to try to just eat the noodles. Now I know why it was on clearance. Let’s hope the recipe I have for homemade mac and cheese turns out better.

I don’t know why I didn’t mention this earlier, but I had a meeting with Chris and another one of my good friends, Erika, about starting a non-profit and what it would take. I have amazing friends. They want to help and were guiding me in the right direction. I think the most amazing thing was that throughout the whole meeting, the term in use was “we”. It’s as if there was no question that they would be directly involved in the cause. I can’t believe sometimes how awesome my friends are. I’ve been asking around to some friends who are close to both me and this cause about being on the board when we get going, and they’ve been all for it. I’m excited to see where this door leads.

On that note, it’s time to head to dreamy land. It’s an early night for me…just past 11:00, but I need the rest. With all the sleeping in over the weekend, I didn’t sleep much last night. Thanks for sticking with my blog post until the bitter end. Haha…g’night all.

Tags: cooking, creativity, Freelance, friends, Genderverse, Goals, movies, non-profit, podcast, voice
Posted in Freelance, friends, Goals, history, Podcast stuff | 1 Comment »

Food Poisoning

Sunday, March 22nd, 2009

A few weeks ago I had the flu, and I was glad to see myself get past it. Being sick isn’t fun at all. Then this weekend happened. Saturday was a blast. Chris was in town, and we went to the Milwaukee Art Museum. The Calatrava is a stunning building, and the artwork inside is also. Afterwards, we went to a restaurant on the east side called “County Clare”. It’s an Irish food place. I’ve eaten there before, and it was good.

This time I decided to get a burger. I know…not very Irish, but I hadn’t had red meat or a hamburger in quite a long time. I figured…why not. Seems it wasn’t cooked very well. A few hours later, the toilet and I were spending some quality time together. It was a one way conversation mostly…I don’t vomit very often, but I managed to do so a lot last night.

Sunday we had planned to go see “the Watchmen”, but I was just drained. I ended up sleeping most of the day. Finally at about 6:00 I was up and moving around. Here I am…not 5 hours after that already in bed again. I hope I’m back up to 100% tomorrow.

I’ve been meaning to blog all week, but my free time disappeared. I’ve been working on freelance all week, and it looks like this next week will be no different. I guess that’s a good thing, but my personal life has taken a dive because of it. I didn’t really have time to do much of anything besides work and eat. Even my sleep was cut short. The check will make it all worth it though.

I had something interesting happen over the past week in regards to gender. I’ve been thinking about my voice and how it’s still somewhat gender neutral. For the longest time that bothered me. If there’s anything that gives me away, it’s my voice. But why do I care if I’m “given away” as trans? As the past few weeks have progressed, I’ve thought about this a lot, and I’ve come to the conclusion that I like my voice where it is. In fact, I think my voice being gender neutral is great.

One of the things that bothered me is that when i went through voice training, the entire purpose of it was to teach me how to conform to the social expectations of female speech. Basically it was forcing me into a gender binary normative behavior. But I don’t accept that gender is a binary. So, my voice truly represents me as the transwoman that I am, and I’m proud of that. I like the fact that when I’m around, I make people think. Screw gender norms.

In other news, I did my taxes last weekend, and I was relieved to discover that I am getting a return. I thought I was going to have to pay due to my business, but I had enough items to write off and not nearly enough income to have to pay. So that’s good. I also will be finally paying off my medical bills. Apparently my account went to collections, which I felt bad about, but since I was willing to pay them straight away with my tax return, they were willing to give me a discount. So that’s great. I’m soon on my way to having less monetary stress on my plate.

I have plenty more to say, but I think I will save it for another day this week. I am rather tired despite my sleep. I better get some rest so that I’m recovered for the work week.

Tags: food poisoning, Money, sick, taxes, voice
Posted in Freelance, friends, sick | 3 Comments »

Helping those in need

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009

Well it certainly seems like Tuesdays are my blog update days. Maybe it has a lot to do with it just being the only day of the week I don’t find myself swamped….wait…no that’s not true.

I’m almost completely over being sick. I’m at about 93% right now. All I have left is a little bit of a runny nose and a slight cough. I think I’ll be back up to 100 % soon. All things considered…I’m not surprised at all about getting sick. I’ve been super stressed and I’ve not been getting enough sleep. I get sick once or twice a year at most. I guess it was just my time. At least this time I didn’t get a sinus infection like last year’s nasty cold. Yuck.

Today wasn’t bad after a string of days that just sucked. I wish I could tell you why too. There’s a lot of reasons, and I’m not allowed to talk about them. Yeah, I’m being serious. Let’s just say…there are a lot of things I’m not happy with right now and there are a lot of possible things that may change that in the near future.

Anyway, back to today. I stopped to help out two people today, and it made me feel great. I was at the grocery store, and a woman was calling for some help. I looked over as I was walking, and it was a woman in an electric wheelchair. She needed help getting something. No one else was paying her any mind, and that really bothered me. I walked over and helped her. She was a very nice woman and was very gracious. Why don’t people stop to help others more often?

Also, I went to check out and swiped my two items at the self check station. I looked at the price and was like “Gah!!”. It was several dollars more than it should have been. I had two items: a pepsi and a donut. The bill was six dollars for some reason. Turned out someone had scanned dishsoap and forgot to void it. So I did. I went to swipe my card afterwards, and the receipt was already on its way out. Turns out someone had gone through but didn’t finish their transaction. So instead my two items were on that person’s card. Most people would walk away claiming a freebie. I have a conscience. I told the clerk, and she took care of voiding that transaction. I rang my stuff up and paid. I was thanked for my honesty.

That transaction was the last one I’ll get this week. Payday is Friday, and I am literally flat broke until then. When I got home from work today, I opened my mail box to find a collections letter in there in regards to my medical bills. I called the number and had a long conversation with the man on the other end. They expect me to pay back $700 in five months. I have literally no room in my budget, and they want me to pay 150 a month or so. I have no idea how I’ll manage that. I don’t get it. So many people hold off on paying medical bills. I was specifically told to put that last on my list. Why am I dealing with collections? How do other people manage when they have bills outstanding for much longer and at much higher rates? I hate money.

At least there’s some light at the end of the tunnel. I have some new freelance lined up. Another editor backed out, and I got the gig instead. That’s always good for me. The videos are 3 minute clips for a set of restaurants in the area. There will be five of them, and they pay $350 each. Starting this month. Maybe I will make it through ok. In fact, I may come out with even my furniture paid off! Who knows. Maybe in a couple months…I’ll even have some money in savings?!!

I have to do my taxes yet, and I’m not looking forward to it. I may have to pay. Due to my sickly financial situation, I never was able to put any of the money I earned through freelance away. I overpay on my full time job taxes and I can write off a lot of things for my business. So we’ll see. There’s also a possibility of a return. Here’s hoping. I’m putting money away for taxes this coming year. That’ll make me less stressed next March.

There’s some potential change coming in my future. I’ve been thinking about what I want to do in the coming year, and one of the things that has come up recently is grad school. If things continue, I may have a lot of my debt paid off by the time I could start grad school. I’ve missed the deadline for applying for this coming fall. That’s actually ok. I still have to take the GRE. I am thinking about two options. The first is the more likely of the two. I’m considering the Mass Comm graduate program at the University of Minnesota. My major would be Mass Comm with an emphasis on communication processes, structures, and effects. The minor would be in feminist / gender studies. The second option would be at the Annenberg School for Communication, which is part of USC. That’s like…the premier of schools for communication, and it’d be difficult to get in…and pay for. But I might as well try, right?

There’s a position opening up in Chippewa Falls at a dentist office. It’s not glamorous. It’s a receptionist position. I know the owner / dentist, and she’s a really awesome person. She’s a friend of mine and Chris’. She actually mentioned it to me. It’ll be opening up in July. If I apply and get that, I’d move in with Chris. He’s moving into a house that costs $700 a month to rent. It’s much bigger than my current place and is cheaper. We’d be splitting costs. So bills would be cut down by a significant amount. I’d go from $760 a month in rent to $350. Plus, I’d be living with my best friend. We’ve done that before and we know it works. So neither of us is worried.

It’s a big move, but at the same time, I think it’s the right one. I’ll be happier. The job is much lower stress. Paying bills will be easier. And with the lower stress job…I might be able to get more done on goals of mine. Right now, I work my job and when I come home, I don’t want to go back to work. So nothing gets done. If I had a low stress job, things might be different. So I’m strongly considering it.

My big concern has been freelance and whether I’d keep it. Honestly, I can’t see why I’d lose work. I have an ftp site, and most of the work I do has web delivered content. I’ll probably be down in Milwaukee once a month to meet with people and work on some longer term projects. It could prove even more lucrative than staying here. That’s my hope at least. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Podcast news…I’m working on an ambitious approach to my next few. This upcoming one will be about the difference between gender identity and sexual orientation. I’m going to start shooting this weekend. I’ll probably shoot some of the middle of it during the week, and hopefully it’ll be online sometime late next week. I’ll post about it. The ones after that one will be a three part series. Aren’t you excited?!! I am.

OK…I have to get up early tomorrow. I’m leaving work for an early lunch tomorrow to help a friend go to a doctor’s appointment. I want to get to work earlier to make up for the time. Hopefully I’ll find some time to post another update before next Tuesday. Have a good week otherwise.

Tags: Freelance, friends, grad school, helping, job, Money, Moving, sick
Posted in Employment, Freelance, friends, Goals, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Drag show

Monday, March 2nd, 2009

That’s right. I went to a drag show. If you’ve read any of the posts from years ago, you may have noticed that I’m not a fan of drag shows. I’ve often found them to be degrading and insulting to the trans community. Of course, I was watching drag shows done by college students…specifically the college students at UWEC. Needless to say those weren’t very good.

The show I saw on Saturday night was performed by a group of professionals that put on these shows regularly. There wasn’t an offensive aspect of them at all. For the first time, I was able to see the statement that drag shows were intended to make. I had a good time. A few years ago…I don’t think you’d hear me say that.

This show was a little different. It was a drag king show. For those of you that don’t know, a drag king is a female identified person that dresses as a male identified person. As with any drag show, the goal is to make fun of stereotypes while entertaining the viewers. The performances were fun and I laughed a lot. I have two friends that are directly involved with the group, and they were also thrilled to see me there. I believe the statement made when I came in the door was “YOU FINALLY CAME!!!”. Haha.

I was invited to go to the show by my friend Tracy, of whom is awesome. She’s nerdtastic like I am. She knew so many people there. I’m not very connected to the community here at all. I felt a little awkward, but turns out I know many of the performers. I shot the video for the wedding of my two friends that are members. So I saw a lot of the performers there. I doubt they’d remember me though. One or two did, which was nice.

After the show, Tracy decided to go to the after party. So I went with. I haven’t been out to a bar in ages. Aside from the usual cloud of smoke, it was fun. In fact, I ran into a friend there. Kate, a girl I met on myspace about a year and a half ago, was also there. Oddly, despite us living near each other and being friends for so long, we’d never actually met in person before. It was really cool getting to say hi and talk for once. Turns out we have good in person chemistry. It’s always the worst when you have a friend from online, and in person you have nothing to say. She’d like to get coffee sometime. I’ll take her up on that. It’d be nice to have another friend to hang out with in the area.

The other random thing that happened…the drag group has a person shooting video of the events with a Sony HDV prosumer grade camera. It’s a V1U type variety. I’ve used them before. I was eyeing it up, and later on I said hi to the camera girl. We chatted and she gave me her business card. Later, she was at the after party, and we got to talking. She seemed really nice. We chatted a lot about the biz and what kind of work we do. It was a good conversation, and I think she likes me. She told me to e-mail or call. So I will. Though it’ll be difficult if she is interested. As I pointed out in an earlier post…I’m not really dating.

I’ve started work on the next podcast. I set up a more standard format as suggested by my friend Mike. I think it’ll work very well. I also have started brainstorming future podcasts. I’m thinking it’ll be fun to start doing series of podcasts on one subject. Like…do one episode, expand on the concept the next, and complete the issue on the third. There’s so much to talk about, and it’s hard to pick each one.

Oh I have to write about this since it’s so karmic. I tend to make myself nice meals on the weekends. I figure, I have the time, I’m relaxed, and well…I need good food once in a while, right? So Saturday I set out to make myself some szechuan beef and chicken. I found a great recipe online and went out and got the few ingredients I needed. It took me about two hours to prepare with the mincing of the ginger root, garlic, chopping up all the vegetables, slicing up the meat, etc. It was one of the best meals I’ve ever made though. I had to have a kleenex box on the table with me because my nose was running due to the spiciness. Holy crap was it awesome.

Sunday night I decided to make myself a Chicken ranch pizza since I don’t make those often. I started making the crust dough in my bread machine, and for once, it wasn’t turning out very well. The recipe was short on water. That was an omen right there. I used the dough anyway. I prepared the pizza like I always do, but this time, it got very overcooked. What a waste! I ate the food anyway, but it wasn’t the most fantastic thing ever. What a contrast between Saturday and Sunday!

I’ve been fighting with Scarlet lately. She’s been being naughty. I can’t seem to get her to stay out of the couch. She climbs inside thinking its a play area, and she chews on parts of it. She’s surrounded by all the mechanicals of the couch too. So it’s not very safe in there. She’s not quite associating getting put in the bathroom by herself with what she did yet. I think I may have to get some animal repellent and put it in the couch on a rag or something. I need to somehow associate negativity with it. If you have other suggestions, let me know.

I’ve had a lot of ideas lately for site designs. I get very frustrated trying to see them into fruition. My perfectionism holds me back as usual. I can’t get it to look exactly as I see it in my head, and due to that, I get discouraged. I’ll press on though. It’ll just take me longer. I know what colors I’m going to use for my JessicaJaniuk.com site design. It’s going to be a much brighter palette than is there now. I think once I get it done, I’ll feel a lot better.

OK. I better leave it here. This post is almost as long as “Twitterpated”. Sorry Adam…it’s still not 1337 words long. I’m short by a couple hundred. Maybe next time.

Tags: cooking, drag show, friends, party, perfectionism, Podcast stuff, Scarlet
Posted in friends, Goals, Podcast stuff, Web Design | 2 Comments »

Twitterpated

Sunday, February 22nd, 2009

Yes, it’s been a while. Fair warning…this is a long post. I took a break after the last podcast. First things first, I joined twitter. You can follow me using the username janiukjf. I hope you enjoy all my pointless musings during my average day.

In the time since my last post…I got older. I’m now 28! I feel pretty much the same as I did at 27. I have to say, it was a nice birthday. I took an extra day off from work and had a four day weekend for it. It was very relaxing. My family also took me out to dinner. The food was family style Italian, and it was fantastic. I also got a few meaningful gifts. My sisters gave me a shadowbox picture frame that is really nice. My parents gave me to gorillapods (bendy and flexy camera tripods). It was a lot of fun.

I have to be very vague here, but I spent a year and a half working on a project at work, and it’s finally…finally…launched. It feels really awesome to know I saw the project through to completion. Though, its easy to say no project is ever complete in my mind. I also am going to start using something I call the JSI, or Job Satisfaction Index to which I will create an arbitrary color scale to represent my feelings. Today’s JSI is orange with yellow polkadots.

While I talk about work, let me mention freelance. The flash project I took on seems to be a bit troublesome. I think I bit off more than I can chew. I learn from examples, and I haven’t had anything to launch off of here. I just don’t know where to start, and since I’m learning actionscript 3 from the beginning, it’s tough. I decided to work with someone on the project, and from there, I’ll use that code as an example. I think getting past this project will help me move forward with stuff I’ve been sitting on. I’ve felt guilty working on other projects while having this on my plate.

Speaking of other freelance, I’ve had several meetings regarding the puppet video, and it’s been almost all non-stop frustration. It’s hard to get through to the other video person that we can’t work with the footage we have. So, I’ve written a script and a rundown for a short video showing the differences between analog and digital video and the progression of technology in video. I’ll post it on here when I’m done with it. We’re having a meeting in a week to discuss the project. If we can’t move forward the right way, I’m not sure I want to be involved with it.

Things I do want to be involved in is the arts organization that I’ve been connected with lately. I’ve been asked to produce a 30 minute film with them. They’re applying for a grant and production would start in June. It’s not a lot of money, but it would be a lot of fun for me and everyone involved. I think it’d be a great portfolio piece too. More on that as it develops.

Jumping back in time a week, Valentine’s day, or as I like to call it, Singles Awareness Day, was a week ago. I had a party for all my single friends. It was a huge blast. I made hand tossed homemade pizza for my guests. We played Rock Band and Boom Blox until 3:00 am. In fact, we managed to turn Boom Blox into a dirty game. I haven’t had fun like that in a long time. I plan on throwing another event in a couple months probably to a made up holiday. Maybe it’ll be the blorthog party Chris and I have been thinking about for a long time.

My friend Tracy, who came to the party, had so much fun that she and I decided to plan a weekly gathering. We’re going to do something like bowling or Rock Band. Not sure exactly what yet, but no matter what, it’ll be a lot of fun.

Random stuff going on, my friend Adam came over a week ago. Instead of doing geeky things like Rock Band, we did geeky things like build a TV antenna from plans we found online. Amazingly…it works! Better than my powered antenna from Radio Shack. We also started to build a PVC frame for a portable green screen. I finished it to the plans, and it looks like it’ll work great. I have a few modications I’d like to make. I also need the green fabric yet. Way to be a nerd, me!

Speaking of nerdish things, I’ve gotten back into the video game “Okami” of late. It’s very much like the Legend of Zelda. I’ve spent a bit too much time with it lately, but I had some somewhat negative things happen recently. So as usual for me, it was escapism.

I’ve been kinda sad lately that Conan O’Brien has ended his run on Late Night. I’m a big fan. I know he’s going to be on the Tonight Show, but its still sad to see him leave the venue we know and love. I just watched the final episode today. It’ll be a couple months until we see him again. I’ll be interested to see how Jimmy Fallon handles the reins of the show from now on.

Another show that I’ve been watching a lot lately is Exosquad. If you don’t know the show, it was one of the best American animated series ever made and not seen. It aired back in the early 90s, and it was more like an anime. It was episodic and followed a briliant story arc. They now have it on Hulu and recently added season 2. I’ve been re-watching it, and it’s actually still as good as I remember. There was even a moment that brought tears to my eyes. I recommend it.

Of course, tonight I’m engrossed in a once a year TV production known as the Oscars. I really like Hugh Jackman as host. I love seeing the sing and dance routines. Otherwise, the Oscars are pretty dull this year. I know they’ve tried to make major changes to bring new audiences and change things up. I think they need to do something else though. It seems too much like every other Oscars. The only thing that is different to me is the switched up order of awards. We’ll see how viewership is.

Unrelated, but very interesting…my 10 year high school reunion is supposed to be this year. Since there’s been no official communication about it, someone started a facebook event surrounding it. So, it should happen at some point this year. I think it’ll be very interesting.

In that same vein, I got an e-mail today from a friend I haven’t talked to since High School. He decided to look into old friends and looked me up. He saw everything out there on the web about what I’ve done in regards to gender and found this blog too. His message was very complimentary towards all my work and what I’ve done. It was wonderful to hear that, and I found myself inspired. I really need to move forward with personal projects to get myself out there more as a gender activist.

This sparked a conversation with my mother about making a career out of this. She actually thinks its what I should be doing! I have always thought my mom wanted me to do what makes money. She’s always said things that suggest that. I think after seeing me speak once back when I was in college, she saw what I can truly do. It makes me happy to know I have the support of my mother.

That means its time. TransLife is going to be my non-profit. Let’s get this thing started!

OK…that’s it for this novel. WordPress tells me this is 1336 words long. I don’t think writing books is going to be a problem. Until next time…

Tags: activism, birthday, family, Freelance, friends, gender, high school, nerd, non-profit, twitter
Posted in family, Freelance, friends, Goals, Transgender | 2 Comments »

60 thousand e-mails

Thursday, January 29th, 2009

Remember a couple months ago when I was recently broken up with, and I remembered back to my college days. Remember when I talked about how it was great to be busy all the time because it kept me from feeling lonely? Remember how that was my plan…to keep busy all the time? Well guess what? It happened. As they say, be careful what you wish for. I am busy as hell. I’ve got shit going on every day. And when I don’t have shit going on, I have freelance to do. All of that is good though…right? I think so. Anyway, on to the news.

Today in Iraq….wait…not that news. I meant the news about my past busy week. I’ll start with Tuesday. Have you ever sent yourself 60 thousand e-mails in a matter of say…15 minutes? I can now add that to my list of accomplishments. There are a few things you’re not supposed to do in programming. One of them is to close your database connections when you’re done with them. Another is to not eat Cheetos and then mouse or type getting cheese all over the keys. Probably the most important one though…DO NOT RUN AN INFINITE LOOP. Guess what I did on Tuesday? Can’t guess. Oh yeah…infinite loop. I forgot one key line that’s all of 11 characters: rs.movenext. That line says to the loop…great…we’re done with this item, what’s the next one now? So due to that, it never got to its end point. The loop I ran sent out an e-mail to myself each time through. I managed to completely back log the e-mail smtp on our web server. We had to reboot the dev server and stop the smtp, clear out as much as we could, and then restart it all. At least I didn’t manage to crash anything. Oh…and of course, it was the last function I had to code before the software was ready to go. Figures huh? There’s nothing like that feeling of “Oh No” when you hit run, and suddenly your e-mail inbox is flooded with e-mails that say “FAILED” in big capital letters in the subject line. How fitting and…when I look back on it…hilarious. I should have taken a video and posted it on the failblog. Oh well.

I want to clear up a controversy in my life, which is an intended dramatic overstatement. In my last post I suggested that I may have had a date this past weekend. Well, I lied. Sorta. A friend of mine bought a shiny new car. In fact, it was a Mustang. I was offered a ride in it. This also happens to be a trans friend of mine that I’m somewhat attracted to. So…call it slightly wishful thinking. Ultimately, neither of us had time. So it didn’t happen anyway. That should clear things up.

Speaking of relationships, I had an odd one start recently. I got a facebook e-mail from someone I hadn’t seen in years. It was one of the girls that lived in the neighborhood when I was in grade school. I remember hanging out with her sister a few times. I didn’t really spend any time with her though. So it was a little odd. It was basically saying hi and that she heard about my transition and thought it was cool. She wanted to chat. She IMed me through facebook and we talked. During the conversation, it came out that she had a crush on me back in the day when I was a grade school boy. I said that it was interesting and told her I was pretty oblivious to that stuff back then…cause I was. We continued to talk and she made mention that she apparently still has those same feelings. This came as a shock because I don’t even know this girl. I really don’t remember even talking to her. I don’t know her now. She doesn’t know me. So I was a little creeped out. Then after that, she was like…you drive a green focus don’t you? I’ve seen it parked at your parents house. Yeah…at this time here’s what’s going on in my head: *red lights flashing* *alarms going off* warning!! warning!! Yeah…way creeped out at that point. She offered me her number and wanted me to call her so we can meet. I’ve stayed off facebook and I didn’t write the number down. I’m now up to two creepy stalker types, and one of them lives within driving distance. That’s no good.

Random stuff…my car passed emissions testing. I made sure my credit cards are officially enrolled in the payment plan (for some reason, one wasn’t being included). I’ve been eating well lately. And I’m making a lot of business contacts. So that’s good stuff.

Speaking of the business, this past weekend was a video shoot for the Children’s program I’m involved in. I have to say, I was not impressed with the technology brought in to shoot this promo. We had three Hi-8 cameras…not digital 8…just good old analog Hi-8. There were no lights. The microphones weren’t bad, but the guy wanted to route a wireless lav into a cassette deck. Wow. I used my hand held camera to shoot some behind the scenes footage, and I found it sad that my tiny little camcorder captures a much better resolution than the Hi-8 cameras could possibly get. This will be interesting. Anyway, the puppeteer for the show wanted me to meet with an arts organization for possible involvement. So we set up a meeting for Monday.

At the meeting Monday night, I got to meet the man who founded the organization and heard more about what they’re looking for. Turns out I’m just what they want. They are looking for someone with video skills that knows the net. I can use them for grant applications, and they can use me to boost their marketability and visibility. Turns out they want to produce a children’s show too. This one would be a traditional half hour program with segments. I’m excited! I think we could easily get a grant to produce it. I’m all for it. It’s a non-profit organization too. I’m covered under their liability insurance, and I’ll get a share of the gig money when I shoot the video for it. How awesome is that?! Doors opened and none of them closed. So I’m all in. In the meantime, they’re also going to help me search for women in business grants too. Maybe I can get a red!

Lastly, tonight I finally got to meet a trans friend that I’ve known for several years. We started talking when I was in college. Apparently her son was going to UWEC too. I went over to her house and met her and her partner in person. They also have a cute boxer puppy! We talked, had dinner, and watched a movie. It was nice. It’s not often I get to meet friends like that. We’re very different in age. Both of them were about as old as my parents. It was fascinating to me to see two trans people so religious too. One would not expect to go to a trans family’s house and say grace at the dinner table, but it happened tonight. It was interesting to hear them discuss the movie too, which was “A Walk to Remember” starring Mandy Moore and Shane West. They would make comments about how one was meant for the other to heal them and what not. I remember making comments like that back when I identified as a christian. It was different for me, and yet in a lot of ways, it was refreshing. It makes me happy to see that not all transpeople go through the negativity I internalized after getting kicked out of a church. So yeah…I had a good time…and did I mention the food? Steak? Damn!

And here ends the reading. I’ll be doing my best to get the next podcast out this weekend. It’s been hectic! I’ll get to it though. Until next time…

Tags: Freelance, friends, Money, programming, relationships, religion, stalkers, work
Posted in Freelance, friends, Money, spirituality, Transgender | 1 Comment »