Thursday's Poem

Teach Your Child

I read Ann Landers the other day.
It was about transsexuals and bathrooms.
The mother saw hate.
The child saw innocence.
The mother was a good Christian woman.
The child preached love.
The old sage preached understanding.
Why do we teach our children to hate?
Why don’t we teach them to love?

3X Thursday

From http://www.hairmetalqueen.com/3xThursday.html

1. What’s your favorite thing to do? Why?
Photography, I can get lost in it. Time passes quickly and it is relaxing for me.

2. What do you do when you’re bored?
I can get board rather quickly. Especially doing mundane chores, like the wash, paint walls, etc. chores that a low level of concentration where your mind tends to wander.

3. What do you do when you’re lonely?
I have a good support network, that if I am lonely or depressed I can usually send out an e-mail and find someone to go to dinner with or out to a movie. Also, my brother is only a phone call away.

Bonus Question for Comments: What’s your favorite genre of book to read?
Science fiction, I am an avid SiFi reader, but lately I have been reading biographies. However lately I have been finding less and less time to read as I become more involved with volunteer work and politics.

Those Silly Little Quizzes (But Fun to Do)

Questions for Week Number Thirty-Two:

• Which of your school teachers had the greatest positive influence on your character?
My science teacher, he helped me focus my inquisitive mind. My worst teacher was my French teacher; I only lasted three weeks in her class. She was the teacher who always compared me to my brother.

• Think of your best friend: what is the first thing most people would notice about that person?
Easy. That she is trans.


Manic Monday

• Do you get sick often? What illness do you come down with the most frequently?
Maybe once or twice a year I come down with a cold and have to stay home from work. The worst illness was from all of the medications that I take and their side affects.

• Do you believe in “alternative” medicine? If so, what aspects of it appeal to you?
No, not really. I think you have to be very careful with “alternative” medicine. However, I was thinking about trying hypnosis to lose weight, does that count?

TMI Tuesday

1. Do you use the restroom in public places?
This is always a touchy subject for trans, you never know if someone is going to take issue with me using the bathroom. I have a letter that I carry around with me saying I am transsexual but you never know what is going to happen.

2. What is your favorite kinda porn… girl on girl, 3somes, guy/girl, guy/guy?
I don’t watch porn.

3. Do you talk to your neighbors? Have they heard you? You heard them?
Once in a great while I will talk to them and I do not think that they hear me, but I do hear them! The kid next door on my right drives a dirt bike around and around in his yard all summer long. The other neighbors I never see and behind my house is woods.(After reading the other players, I see I was rather naïve. I was thinking of loud TVs and etc.)

4. Ever maxed out your credit card? Bounced a check?
Never to both questions

5. 3 words to describe your so’s “down there”.
Does Not Apply.

Bonus: Have you ever had an affair?
No, never and I wouldn’t want to go out with someone who has. If they are not faithful to their SO, I wouldn’t trust them again not to have an affair while I am dating them.

Opps...... I spoke to soon.

Womyn's Fest Tells Trans Women to Ban Themselves

Pree release from The National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE)

(August 24, 2006) - After an openly transgender woman was allowed to purchase a ticket at this summer’s Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, Camp Trans organizers released a statement on August 21 celebrating the end of a 15-year old, anachronistic, divisive policy that served to police women’s bodies and exclude transwomen from attending the Festival. Camp Trans is an annual gathering of people dedicated to promoting inclusion of all women at women-only events. However, the celebration of this news was short-lived as management of We Want The Music Company (WWTMC), a for-profit corporation that runs the festival, issued a press release the next day reaffirming their belief that transgender women should police themselves and not attend the Festival.
While the Festival box office will now sell tickets to transwomen, according to WWTMC’s Lisa Vogel, the only people welcome are “womyn who were born as and have lived their entire life experience as womyn.” Vogel’s statement continues, “If a transwoman purchased a ticket, it represents nothing more than that womon choosing to disrespect the stated intention of this Festival.”
While trying to cloak WWTMC’s rhetoric in window dressing by calling transwomen “sisters in struggle,” Vogel erroneously continued to assert that it is not transphobic to ask transgender women not to attend the long-running Festival. In a disturbing twist of logic, Vogel acknowledges that transgender women will now be able to purchase tickets, but she stands behind the spirit of company’s recently retired policy, calling transwomen disrespectful if they choose to attend the Festival.
“All women should feel welcomed in women-only space,” said Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality. “It’s just sad to see this company continuing to police the validity women’s identities and experiences. WWTMC’s rhetoric echoes the language of other oppressors. We expect better of those who should know the pain of oppression. We’d like to see Vogel’s company get up to speed with the attitudes of the feminist community and with the vast majority of festival workers and attendees.”
While WWTMC has dug in its heels regarding which women it deems fit to welcome to the Festival, the attitudes of festival-goers and workers have definitely shifted since 1991 when a transwoman was forcibly ejected from the event. The feminist community overwhelmingly embraces the diversity of women’s experiences, from butch lesbians to genderqueer dykes to transwomen.
Camp Trans organizers continue to educate WWTMC’s management around the divisiveness of their position.

Click here to learn more about Camp Trans.
Click here to learn more about the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival

Being “Out”

There are several meanings in the GLBT community for the meaning of “Out”. There is being “Out” to family and friends, being “Out” in public or being “Out” at work. It may mean showing up at a family function with your partner, it may mean walking down the street or sitting in a restaurant holding your partners hand. There is the intentional telling someone that you are gay or lesbian or bi or trans. Then there is the unintentional “Outing” when someone you know sees you with your partner.

In the Trans community being “Out” has a broader definition, when I am “Out” I could be just walking down the street or eating in a restaurant by myself. Everything I do in public people know I am Trans; if I am pumping gas, I am “Out”; if I walk into a mall, I am “Out” as soon as I step out of my front door I am “Out”

If I decide to be “Out” at work, they call an “all employees meeting”, they try to figure out what bathroom I should use, they try to figure out what pronoun to use, they try to figure out how I should live my life at work.

I have a friend who is planning on transitioning* early next year and we were talking about what she is planning on doing at work. What it will be like the first day on the job. To walk in the door and sit at her desk. What will it be like attending her first meeting, when all the men are sitting around the table. We were talking not talking about what it will feel like coming to work in a dress, but what it will be like facing all of her friends she has known for the last fifteen years. She is lucky in one respect, she works for a larger multinational corporation and they have a non-discrimination policy that includes gender. Also she will not be the first to transition there; another has done it in a different division.

I was reading a blog by a gay man who was writing about the transsexual that he had met and he said they all seem to two things in common. 1. They are incredibly courageous. 2. They are deeply empathetic. I would have to agree with him.


*transition – the process of changing one’s gender. The standard of medical care that governs the treatment of Gender Identity Disorder (GID) requires a person to live in the desired gender for at least twelve months before surgery. It is also the process of changing your legal documentation (i.e. name change, new driver license, credit cards, etc.)

You Come a Long Way, But There Is Still a Long Ways To Go.

The right of citizens in the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Today is the 86th anniversary of the 19th Amendment that gave women the right to vote. What a radical concept! Imagine given women that right to vote! It was never heard of before and I wonder if they had to pass such a radical legislation today would it pass? In today’s conservative climate would they even consider such a bill, after all the founders of the nation never considered it, the bible states that women shall be sub servant to men, how dare they think themselves as equal to men!
Now think about sexual orientation, gender and gender expression, what radical ideas those are.

Thanks to Helen for point out that today was the anniversary of the 19th Admendment.

Today Work Sucked!

I had to fire someone that I hired way back in 1982. He had three warnings already but when he went and did it again I had to report it to HR and the let him resign. I had to escort him to his desk to get his things and then escort him to the door.
I felt like I was marching him to the gallows.

Women’s Space

On Monday I wrote about the fact that the Michigan Women's Music Festival ended their policy of discrimination against Transwomen and I think that the topic deserves a follow-up.
I think the whole topic of women’s space vs. transmen or transwomen really boils down to one thing, respect. Respect for one another. If we want to share space with one another we must show respect for the space we are entering. If I go into a lesbian bar, I go in behaving like a guest. I shed any male privilege that I have. I do not go in and plop myself down in chair, sit there with legs a mile apart in a skirt or go to the bathroom, pee standing up and leave the seat up (Yes, I have seen some TG’s do all of this and they haven’t have the slightest clue that they have just alienated the whole bar against us.). We have to realize that most butch dykes do not want to become men nor do most feminine gays what to become women.
I was amazed that the Michigan Women's Music Festival changed their policy on transwomen. I never thought that they would have done it, but they did and we have to show them that we are worthy of the honor.

Thursday's Poem

The Question
You never asked.
I always wondered.
But, I never asked.
It was our little secret.
The question unasked.
Little things that let me know that you knew.
But never asked.
The little hints here and there.
But the question remained unasked.
Hints just loud enough for my ears.
Oh, I always wondered about the question unasked.
Would our love survived.
If asked.
What would it have been like with the question asked?
What might have been if you asked?
What might have been if I asked?
But now is too late for you or me to ask.

* * * * *

I wrote this just after my mother passed away. I had always wondered what it would have been like if we talked about me being Trans. Would she had hated me, would she understand, oh I always wondered what would have been. I know that she knew because she found my stash of clothes a couple of times, it vanished and then I had to go out and get more clothes.

Trans Health Conference

Tonight I went to the Advisory Committee meeting for a Trans Health Conference in April at the University of Connecticut Medical Center that we are putting together. I think it is exciting because this would be the first conference of its kind in the northeast. The conference will be for healthcare professions; doctors, nurses, physicians assistances, mental healthcare providers and family counselors and we will be providing CEU’s through the university to the attendees.
Now the fun part begins, lining up corporate sponsors, speakers, vendors, figuring out the schedule, webcasting and the host of other things that have to be done, it should be challenging and interesting for me. It will be great starting at the grassroots and seeing what fruit it will bare.

(¯`'•.¸(¯`'•.¸A Lizzie Quizzie!¸.•'´¯)¸.•

Stopping Traffic
August 20

1. How much sleep do you need a night?
Four or five hours and it is not by choice.

2. Do you like a fluffy pillow or a flat one?
I have two, Fluffy and a Dacron.

3. What kind of mattress do you have? I need a new one...
A king size waterbed.

4. Do you think it's wrong to leave a dog alone from 7:30am-4:30pm every day?
I wouldn’t, but that’s my opinion. I don’t really see anything wrong with it.

5. What is the worst mistake you've ever made at work?
Being in electronics, I have made some interesting ones that have going up in smoke with a bright flash. One time I hooked up a $15000 instrument wrong, big flash, a lot of smoke and a $15000 piece of junk. Oppps....

6. On a scale of 1-10, how easy is it for you to ask for help?
I ask for help very easily, so around a five. But I have to admit that once in awhile I do get stubborn and try to work it out myself.

7. What do you use most, check, cash, debit, check card or credit?
Debit for small purchases and credit cards for more expensive stuff.

8. Do you watch the stock market?
Yes, like a hawk. That’s my retirement fund.

9. Do you prefer to stay home on the weekends, or get out?
Go out, every weekend is booked now and until the third weekend in September.

10. Whine or wine?
I whine for wine.

Manic Monday

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

•If you were to pick the one thing that always makes you smile, what would it be?
A couple in love.

•If you were to name the most clear proof that evil exists in the world, what would you say?
I was going to say Bush, he’s bad but not that bad. I would have to people who hate other people with all their body and soul.

•If you could trade your derriere for that of someone else, whose would you want?
No, I like mine. It is shaping up quite nicely since I started hormones. ;-)

Gender Confusion Distresses Teens

Family Health
Gender Confusion Distresses Teens
By
Aug 21, 2006, 07:00

... Rob never felt like he fit in. The 16-year-old high school student didn’t like “masculine” interests like sports, cars or gaming like the rest of the boys. He felt more comfortable around girls. And he knew it sounded strange, but he felt like he should be a girl.

That is how I felt.

This cycle of isolation and experimentation may result in troubling health and mental health consequences. Teens with gender identity disorder (GID) feel or believe like they should be the opposite sex of what they are. A biological girl feels like she should be a boy. A biological boy feels like he is a girl. That disconnect between brain and body can be troubling to teens already struggling with their identity.

GLBT youths have one of the highest suicide rates of any other group of teens.

While the condition is rare--an estimated one in 35,000 males and one in 100,000 females have gender identity disorder—Dr. O’Malley has treated a number of teens with GID during his more than 20 years at The Menninger Clinic.

I think those numbers are out dated, they are based on studies conducted in the seventies. I think they are more like 1 in 2,500 for both MtF’s and FtM’s based on the number of surgeries done in the U.S. and on surveys done in Sweden.

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Will Miracles Ever Cease?

Camp Trans Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 21, 2006


Michigan Women's Music Festival ends policy of discrimination against Transwomen

After 15 years of controversy, supporters welcome trans women to 'the land'

HART, MICHIGAN - The Michigan Women's Music Festival began admitting openly trans (transgender/transsexual) women last week, bringing success to a longstanding struggle by trans activists both inside and outside the festival.

"Seeing trans women inside the festival for the first time brought me to tears," said Sue Ashman, who attends the festival every year. "It's restored my faith in women's communities."

Ashman said "I have friends who have already committed to bringing themselves and others for the first time next year."

Organizers of Camp Trans, the annual protest across the road from the festival, say that every year at least one trans woman at Camp Trans walks to the festival gate with a group of supporters, explains that she is trans, and tries to buy a ticket. In past years, the festival box office has produced a printed copy of the policy and refused.

"This time, the response was, 'cash or credit?'" said Jessica Snodgrass, a Camp Trans organizer and festival attendee who spent the week reaching out to supporters inside the fest. "They said the festival has no policy barring any woman from attending."

The woman purchased her ticket on Wednesday and joined supporters inside the festival. Another trans woman, Camp Trans organizer Emilia Lombardi, joined on Friday to facilitate a scheduled workshop discussion on the recently-retired policy.

"This kind of discussion has happened before inside the fest," said Lombardi. "But for the first time in years, trans women were part of the conversation. Over 50 women shared their thoughts about what the inclusion of trans women means for the Festival and how we can move forward."

"We didn't expect to change anyone's minds in the workshop - but in the end we didn't need to. The support we found was overwhelming."

Both trans women say they were moved by how friendly and supportive other festival attendees were.

"We spent all day inside the festival, talking with other women about how Michigan has grown to embrace the diversity of women's experience," Lombardi said. "The attitudes of festival goers have definitely shifted since the early 90's."

With their original mission accomplished, organizers say Camp Trans will continue to be a place for trans people and allies to build community, share ideas, and develop strategies for change. And they will keep working together with festival workers and attendees to make sure trans women who attend the fest next year have support and resources.

Camp Trans will partner with a group of supporters inside the fest next year to establish an anti-transphobia area within the festival. Representatives from Camp Trans and A group of festival workers and attendees, organizing under the name "The Yellow Armbands," plan to educate people on trans issues and provide support to trans and differently gendered women. Festivalattendees have worn yellow armbands for the past three years as a symbol of pro-trans inclusion solidarity.

Both Camp Trans and supporters at the fest say they are excited to be working together to welcome trans women and support a trans-inclusive, women-only space.

"This is not about winning," said Snodgrass. "It's about making our communities whole again. The policy divided people against each other who could be fighting on the same side. We want to be part of the healing process."

Camp Trans (camp-trans.org) is an effort to end discrimination against trans women within women's communities. For 14 years, Camp Trans has been a site for trans people and allies to protest the policy, build community, and develop strategies for change.

BACKGROUND

The festival's policy against trans women was first enforced in 1991, when festival security ejected Nancy Burkholder from the grounds of the festival.

As the largest women-only festival of its kind, and as one of the few remaining women's events to openly discriminate against trans women, the festival was well known for its policy, drawing criticism from trans activists and festival attendees. Two years ago, a group of attendees deployed a 25-foot banner opposing the policy during the headline act.

__________________

Spot the Trannies..........

Once a month an art gallery has a cocktail hour, it’s the “In” place in Hartford. They usually spotlight a new artist each month at the cocktail party. Each month I attend it and it kind of neat; it’s up scale with a wide diversity, where no one minds a bunch of trannies. And it is a nice night out; I usually go out to dinner first with some friends and then head over there. One of the things they also do is go around photographing the people there, so once in awhile my pictures appears. Especially if one particular guy has the camera that night, I think he has a thing for us.
So see if you can find me this month on their photos montage.
This month’s artist is Sigrid Jakob and her exhibit is “Bears” or big hairy gay guys. I will put it nicely; it wasn’t my cup of tea. Some exhibits I like others and others you stand there scratching your head trying to figure it out and this was one of the latter.

She Got It Right!

From Dear Abby’s column of August 18th

MAN DRESSED AS A WOMAN IS NO THREAT IN LADIES' RESTROOM

DEAR ABBY: Yesterday I made a visit to a city larger than the one in which I currently reside and encountered a problem I have never had before.
I was in a women's restroom when a man wearing a wig walked in. It was obvious that this 6-footer, with a large Adam's apple, deep husky voice, dressed in a floral print dress and high heels, was a man.
Should a transvestite be allowed to use the ladies' restroom? And if sex change surgery was performed, are there any visible signs? -- BEWILDERED IN ADA, OKLA.
DEAR BEWILDERED: There is a difference between a transvestite (someone who feels compelled to wear the clothing of the opposite sex) and a transsexual. A transsexual is a person who feels trapped in the body of the wrong sex. Before a transsexual is allowed to have gender reassignment surgery, he or she must live for one year in the role of someone of the opposite sex. This includes using the restroom facilities of the opposite gender. It is not against the law, and it was no threat to you. (And it was probably safer for the pre-op transsexual than using the men's room would have been.)
When sex change surgery is performed, the surgeons have perfected their technique to such a degree that it can be difficult, if not impossible, to tell that it has been done.

Weekend Musing - August 19th 2006

From Weekend Musing;

• V-8 or tomato juice?
Neither, both are high in Potassium.

• Do you like to add hot sauce to your food? If so, do you have a favorite brand?
No, not really and if I do add hot sauce it is usually Tabasco.

• Jalapenos or Habaneras?
I’ll take Jalapenos over Habaneras

• How many web sites, if any, do you have?
Two, one of them has my name for the domain name and the other is a Geocites site.

• How many blogs do you visit each week?
About fifteen.

• How many memes do you participate in each week?
About three or four a week.

• Why did you start blogging?
On my Geocites web site I couldn’t add comments. I also felt I had something to educate the public about which they knew very little about.

• Do you visit specific blogs because of their content? Or because they're a friend or relative?
Mainly GLBT sites and a few others that have something to say that I am interested in. also sites that memes.

• Questions Swirl Around JonBenet Suspect. Are you following the latest developments in the murder of JonBenet Ramsey? Have you formed an opinion on whether or not the police now have the right person?
Just what is on the evening news and I have not formed an opinion about the case. I don’t know if he did it or if he is just seeking publicity.

Splish Splash, I’m a takin’ a bath

I went over to a friend's new house that they are building and camped over night with them and a few other friends last night. They are building their new house on a hill over looking a pond.


Part of their yard where we camped

Today when I woke up I took some photos of the fog on the pond and then later I canoed around the pond and took a few more photographs. When I was getting out of the canoe I fell in, :-( I recognized that I was going to have a hard time getting out of the canoe so I put the camera ashore before trying to get out. I was looking for a place to breach the canoe but the shore was all rocky. The canoe got stuck on a rock and while trying to get it off the rock..... over I went, splash! Yuck, the bottom was all muck and I got covered in the smelly stuff. The muck went every where, in my wig, all over my cloths and in my shoes.
Needless to say, I didn’t stay over tonight and instead I went home and took a nice long hot shower.

Toddler Dies While Being 'Toughened Up'

From GenderPAC

~ "He wanted to turn him into a little soldier..." ~

Special to The Press EnterpriseWASHINGTON (August 17, 2006) Teaching a three-year-old boy to be "a soldier" and not a "sissy" proved to be a fatal lesson for Mikey Vallejo-Seiber. In a preliminary hearing in Riverside, CA on Tuesday, Judge Elisabeth Sichel ruled that there was sufficient evidence to try Alex Mendoza for first-degree murder in the death of his former girlfriend's child.

"Children pay a high price when parents and caregivers insist on raising boys to be 'real men' or girls to be 'little ladies.' The cost was tragic in this case," said Taneika Taylor, Director of GenderPAC's Children As They Are program.

Mendoza, who was openly critical of Mikey's upbringing, attempted to "toughen up" the toddler by calling him a "sissy" who needed to be toughened up, slapping him, and urging him to beat up his Elmo doll, according to the toddler's mother. The three-year-old died in the hospital after suffering massive internal injuries from being kicked, punched, and dropped on the head while in Mendoza's care.

"He loved the child. He wanted to turn him into a little soldier," said Mendoza's attorney to The Press Enterprise after the preliminary hearing.

Using violence to enforce expectations for masculinity is extreme, but not the exception. In January 2005, another three-year-old, Ronnie Paris, died from head injuries received during brutal boxing bouts that his father hoped would prevent him from growing up to be a "sissy."

"Little boys should be little boys, not soldiers. Any father who need to make his son strong, silent, and hard should be adopting Clint Eastwood, not raising a small child," added Taylor.

Mikey's mother, Pamela Seiber, pleaded guilty to child endangerment charges and was sentenced to the maximum term of six years on Monday, August 14, 2006. Mendoza has entered a plea of not guilty.

Thursday's Poem

Enough of about gender for now, here is a poem I wrote about being a kid.......

When Life was Fun

I remember when life was fun,
with games, blocks and balls.

I remember when life was fun,
with yelling, laughing and giggling.

I remember when life was fun,
with smiles, winks and nods.

I remember when life was fun,
with running, skipping and jumping.

I remember when life was fun,
with snakes, spiders and frogs.

I remember when life was fun,
with peeking, hiding and seeking.

Pop Quiz Answer

Here I thought no one would get the answer, but every one did.
It is Daddy’s Bush little summer cottage.
I guess that next time I will have to think up a harder question.

Monday Music Mambo

From Raistlin's Scrolls

1. If you were old enough to go to the original Woodstock, would you have gone? If you are old enough, did you want to go or did you go? (If you DID go, you better tell us a good story about it).

Oh my God, does that bring back memories! Yes, I would have gone but by the time I found out about it they had already closed down the New York Thruway. Some friends tried to go but only got as far as Poughkeepsie NY before they had to turn back.

2. Other than Jimi Hendrix, what group or artist would you have absolutely not missed at Woodstock?

All of them! John Sebastian, Canned Heat, Richie Havens, Country Joe & The Fish (Who can forget the Fish cheer; Give me an F......), Arlo, Joan Baez, Crosby Stills Nash and Young, The Who, Joe Cocker, Sanata, Jefferson Airplane....

3. If you were in charge of the lineup of an all new Woodstock, name at least two acts for each day of a three-day event.

I wouldn’t know one group from another today. You like the music that you grew up with, the music of you era. It would be those groups that are still alive today from the sixties and seventies.

Manic Monday

From Manic Monday

1. Where are you in birth order in your family- first, last, middle, only?

Last, but then again I only have one sibling, a brother and he is five years older than me.

2. Do you think that has any affect upon your personality?

Most definitively, I think it has a strong influence. The first born gets all the attention until their younger siblings come along. With a five year difference between my brother and me, I have learned to fend for myself. I was always picked on by my older brother who ruled the roost until I came along. I am quite and reserved, but if I feel I got the short end of the stick, I speak up (As you all know from reading my Blog.). I pick my battles and don’t go off trying to tilt windmills (Well maybe, my brother thinks so but I don't think I do.).

3. Do you buy into the stereotypes of birth order?

Yes, I can see it in my brother’s family. The oldest, she is a type A personality, the next oldest he is the mediator. The third oldest, he is the musician of the family; carefree, easy going, had everything done for him by his older siblings. And the youngest who is ten years younger than his older brother and almost twenty years younger than his sister is a blend, he had all the attention of a first born, but was picked on by his older siblings.

Just for fun, you can read about birth-order bias - research on birth order stereotypes in Psychology Today here.

Pop Quiz

Ok class here is another pop quiz. Do you know who lives in this summer cottage in Kennebunkport, Maine?



The picture is not that good, I took it with the sun back lighting it and also out the window as I drove by.

This Weekend's Get Away

This weekend I went up to my brother’s and sister-in-law’s to baby sit their dog Mattie and I had grand plans that I was going to go out to dinner each night and wandering in the shops at Kennebunk, Kennebunkport, Ogunquit and Kittery, well just about none of it took place for several reasons. First and for most, it was too damn crowded, traffic was horrible and there were lines at all the restaurants that I want to go to. What a change from when I went up there just before Memorial Day weekend. Another reason was well.... I got called “Sir”, that in itself wasn’t the cause, I got called “sir” before but it was on top of all the traffic and trying to find a place to park. It just brought me down; she didn’t call anyone in line before or after me “miss” or “sir”. She said “May I take your order ‘SIR’” and “Thank you ‘SIR’”. What made it even more ironic was the trash cans on the sides of the front door said, “Tolerance” and Equality”. Anyhow, I went to the grocery store on Friday for food for the weekend.
This morning I went down to Cape Porpoise and took some photographs of the Goat Island Lighthouse. So with out further ado here are some of the photographs........



Mattie

When I got to Cape Porpoise the tide was almost at low tide. As I got near the ocean you could start to smell the salt flat, that smell brings back so many childhood memories. We used to live on a tidal river by Long Island Sound and the smell of salt flats and the cry of the gulls always bring back a calm feeling. Cape Porpoise is one of those quant out of the way fishing villages, with narrow winding roads and old weather beating houses. The road winds it’s way down to the harbor and end abruptly on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean.



Goat Island Lighthouse





Cape Porpoise Harbor

More Photographs of Cape Porpoise and Goat Island here.

Can You Say "Flip Flop"

Santorum rescinds support for employment diversity statement

Less than a week after becoming the 170th member of Congress to affirm that his office does not discriminate in its employment practices based on an individual’s "sexual orientation or gender identity and expression," U.S. senator Rick Santorum, a Pennsylvania Republican, on Wednesday rescinded his signature on a diversity statement. "Every person deserves the opportunity to pursue their career and succeed, regardless of whether they are gay, transgender, or fit expectations for masculinity or femininity," said Riki Wilchins, executive director of the Gender Public Advocacy Coalition. "We were surprised but pleased when Senator Santorum affirmed that his office does not discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity or expression. We are disappointed by the senator's new decision and hope he will reconsider in the future."

The diversity statement is a joint project initiated in 2003 by GenderPAC and the Human Rights Campaign that has received bipartisan support on Capitol Hill from members of the House and Senate. Santorum's signature came after a meeting during the week of July 24 between the senator and GenderPac volunteers. After the meeting, Santorum posed for a picture with them. A copy of the senator's statement was faxed to GenderPAC on August 1, and the signature was confirmed the following morning by Santorum's openly gay senior aide, Robert Traynham.

On Wednesday, Santorum faxed GenderPAC a new statement that read in part, "To be clear, my office has not adopted the proposed 'diversity statement' nor the agenda of your organization.... My name should no longer be reported as having adopted the 'diversity statement.'"

"I am very frustrated with my senator's flip-flopped message to his constituents," said GenderPac volunteer Adrian Shanker. "Pennsylvanians deserve representatives that have a strong record in supporting equality for all. This latest move doesn't come close."

Currently 24 U.S. senators and 145 U.S. representatives—19 Republicans and 148 Democrats—have endorsed the diversity statement. (The Advocate)

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Thursday's Poem

Gender

Gender,
for some it is like a lake in winter,
for others it is like water in a steam.
Gender,
for some it is like the oak,
for others it is like the willow.
Gender,
for some it is like clay fired into pottery,
for others it is like clay on a potter's wheel.
Gender,
for some it is like steel,
for others it is like mercury.

Pop Quiz Answer

Ashley was right in that they are growing tobacco, but there is more to the story then that. The tobacco they are growing is Connecticut Valley Shade tobacco which is used for cigar outer wrapper mainly in the finer grades of hand made cigars. They grow it under the tents so that the leaves become wide and flexible. Then they dry it in the special barns in which they can control the moisture content to keep them soft and pliable.
Back in the sixties there was a movie about it called “Parish” staring Troy Donahue, Claudette Colbert, Karl Malden and Connie Stevens made about the tobacco plantations of Connecticut. Back in the fifties and sixties when you drove through the Connecticut river valley all you saw were endless fields of shade tobacco and now they are far and few between. In their place are rows and rows of condos and homes.
And here you thought tobacco was only grown down south.

Lamont Won!

No surprise there, in the last couple he was leading in the polls. It was the largest turnout for a primary in Connecticut’s history around forty-five percent, it even beat percentage wise some November’s elections turnout. There were 24,000 people who registered as Democrats (13,000 from new voters) for the election, including me. Who says there is voter apathy, all it only takes are candidates who can motivate the voters. The election was covered by reports from all over the world (BBC and a Japanese new screw) along with C-span, CNN, Fox, NPR and others. It was a forest of satellite trucks in front of the state capital.

I voted for Lamont because;
1. I didn’t like that Lieberman voted for the Energy Bill, it took away state control of energy projects in the state. As a result we are getting a huge natural gas plant floating out in the middle of Long Island Sound. It also gave the oil companies a giant tax break (As if they needed it).
2. Lieberman voted for the Samuel Alito's and John Roberts Supreme Court confirmations and I think Alito brought the Supreme Court too far to the right. We need a centrist court not one that bows to the Christian Right wingers.
3. I didn’t like that Lieberman voted to intervene in the Terri Schiavo case. I think it is a private matter and the federal government should stay out of make that decision. I know because I had to make that decision and it is hard enough without getting tangled up in Congress.
4. Lieberman was also in favor of privatizing parts of Social Security. I don’t know about you but as I near retirement I want to be able to count on the little fixed income that Social Security provides instead of the ups and downs of the stock market. Right now I am watching my 401(k)’s and IRA’s dropping like a rock with the stock market.

It’s going to be a long battle to the November election, Lieberman has entered the race an independent candidate. So much for him being a “true” Democrat as he was saying during the primary race. All the votes weren’t even counted when he announced that he would run as an independent.

(¯`'•.¸(¯`'•.¸A Lizzie Quizzie!¸.•'´¯)¸.•

From Stopping Traffic

1. Make up a man-law, or list a favorite one from one of the commercials.
All men are pigs!

2. Who was your favorite teacher ever?
Mr. Downer, my science teacher in High School.

3. Is there anyone in your life you "spoil rotten?"
Nope, no one.

4. What time do you normally eat dinner? Who cooks?
Six P.M. If I don’t cook, I don’t eat.

5. Baths or showers?
Showers, but once in awhile I like to take a Jacuzzi bath with Lavender oil.

6. How many surgeries have you had in your life?
None, cross my fingers. But I hope to have one this December and the big one in about three years.

7. When was the last time you had a check up?
I see about three doctors for a total of four times a year.

8. About how much time do you spend on the internet every day?
No comment, if my boss found out...... ;-)

9. On a scale from 1-10, how content are you?
About a six, I have my good days and I have my bad days.

10. Nothing is certain but ______ and ______.
Well I have to go with the standard answer..... Death and Taxes

On a Lighter Note

From Fleur de Lisa

1. Where were you 1 hour ago?
Eating supper and doing five loads of towels that our renters left at the cottage.
2. Who will be your next kiss?
I wish I knew.
3. What is the largest amount of money you spent in one store?
When I bought my car, if that doesn’t count then when I bought my computer.
4. Where did you go on your last date?
I can’t remember that far back.
5. When is the last time you went to the mall?
About three months back when I had to go to the camera store to replace a lens cap.
6. Are you wearing socks right now?
No, slippers
8. When was the last time you drove out of town?
Hmm....... I don’t really know how to answer. I went to city where I work, ran some errands in two neighboring town, but I don’t think those count because if you need to get something you have to go to another town. That’s the nature of the suburbs everything is somewhere else.
If you mean getting away from home, last weekend was the cottage in New Hampshire and this weekend is my brother’s and sister-in-law’s condo in Maine
9. Have you been to the movies in the last 5 days?
Nope, I am not a movie person.
10. What are you wearing right now?
A sleeveless tee shirt and a demin skirt
11. Do you wash your car or let the car wash do it?
The rain does it.
12. Last fast food you ate?
Friday night on the way up to the cottage after work.
13. Where were you Friday night?
On the way up to the cottage.
14. Have you bought any clothes in the last week?
No. Maybe next week, I think it’s sale tax free week.
15. When is the last time you ran?
This afternoon crossing the main road at work to get to our warehouse
16. What’s the last sporting event you watched?
I don’t watch sports.
17. What was your favorite class?
Web design.
18. Your dream vacation?
Sailing the Maine coast in a windjammer.
19. Last persons house you were in?
A friend’s house Sunday for a cookout
20. How old are your parents?
Ouch! My father pasted away last year he was 95 and my mother passed away on December 19th 2002 she was 89
21. Are you in love?
No.
22. Do you miss anyone?
I miss my father. ;-(
23. Last play you saw?
It was the Varla Jean Merman performance of "Anatomically Incorrect" at the Hartford Stage Company
24. What are your plans for tonight?
Watch the elections results
25. Who is the last person you sent a message to on myspace?
I don’t use MySpace I use Yahoo Messenger (diana_57_us)
26. Ever go to camp?
Back when I was a pre-teen for one summer to the YMCA day camp
27. Were/are you an honor roll student in school?
Yeah...... Right
28. What do you want to know about the future?
The Powerball numbers the next time it’s $200 million
29. Are you wearing any perfume or cologne?
No, I don’t wear perfume that much.
30. Are you hungry?
No, I have been nibbling.
31. Where is your best friend located?
Maine
32. Who is your best friend?
My brother.
33. Do you have a tan?
I have been working on it, very slowly.
34. How old do you want to be when you have kids?
I think I am too old to have kids, they are for the young. You need all the energy to keep up with them.
35. Do you collect anything?
No.
36. Last time you got stopped by a cop or pulled over?
1974
37. Have you ever drank your soda from a straw?
Yes
38. How do you like your drinks?
In the summer, cold. In the winter, hot.
39. Do you like hot sauce?
A mild sauce.
40. Last time you took a shower?
This morning, before work
41. Do you need to do laundry?
Yes, all the towels from the cottage.
42. What is your heritage?
50% Italian and the other half is a mixture of English, Swiss and German
43. Are you someone’s best friend?
I hope so.

Hmm.... we seemed to have skipped 44 through 48

49. Are you rich?
Let's just say I can retire at 59 1/2.

Whew!

Back To School

From Manic Monday

1. Did you look forward to going back to school each year or did you dread it?
I hated school with a passion, starting with first grade all the way through college. My first day at school, my mother and grandmother literally had to pry me off of anything I could grab, stop signs, telephone poles, etc. all the way to the school.

2. What was your favorite item of school supplies to purchase each fall?
See answer number one, does it sound like I liked anything that had to deal with school?

3. Did you go shopping for new clothes for school, and if so did you enjoy the process?
Ditto. My mother bought me clothes for school.

Truthfully it wasn’t all that bad, I had friends at school that I played with and in high school I join the science club and helped out for the school play with the lighting. In college, well it was the late sixties and early seventies; there were plenty of drugs of all types around and a war on so you stayed in college no matter what to keep out of the draft. I managed to graduate with an engineering degree in ‘74
But the one thing I really did hate was the fact that my brother was an “A” student and the teachers use to say, “Your brother could do it, why can’t you?” If there is one thing teachers shouldn’t say it was that, it always made me very rebellious.

Pop Quiz

I went up to the cottage this weekend and on the way home I snapped these pictures as I drove by.
Can you identify what crop they are growing?

No fair answering if you are from the Connecticut River Valley!



Hint: the produce is shipped all around the world and the Connecticut River Valley grows the best crops in the world. They are grown under tents of a cotton gauze fabric.



Another hint: the crop is dried in these barns whose sides open up to keep the right moisture levels. You can see a harvested field to the left of the barn.

I will give you the answer on Thursday morning before I leave to go up to my brother’s in Kennebunk to dogsit their dog Mattie while they are away.

Thursday’s Poem

Here is another one of my poems.......

Butterfly

The caterpillar craws along
It’s dull green body
Hides among the leaves
Pauses to eat here and there
If it could look into a mirror
Would it see a dull green caterpillar
Or a beautiful butterfly
Does it see the beauty within
Does it have the urge to change
Will it spin its cocoon
And fly off on multicolored wings

3x Thursday

Life’s Little Headaches

1. Have you ever had a migraine headache? If yes, do you get them often? How long do they last? How do you get rid of them?
Yes, I get them from time to time maybe once every four or five months and they last anywhere from a couple of hours to little over a day. To get rid of them I sit in a dark quite room and take two Advil.

2. What’s the one thing in your life that stresses you out the most? Why? How do you handle it?
Work! Well because it is not fun anymore, I use to be a hands on supervisor and help out the technicians. Now I am a paper pusher. I handle it by counting down to the day I retire, only 798 more days.

3. What’s your worst personal habit (biting your nails, not putting stuff away, etc)? How do you work on making it better?
I don’t put away stuff or clean the house. Every couple of months or so, I get discussed and go on a cleaning binge. I think it is a form of mild depression.

Bonus Question for Comments: How was your day yesterday? What did you do?
So, so. This week is a rare week that I’m not busy every night after work. I just ran errands after work.

Thursday Threesome

::Time to Fill::

Onesome: Time– wasters in your life… Just a brief jump onto your soapbox: What is the biggest bother you have in this department? I mean, something you can post without incurring familial or job related problems.

Electrolysis, one hour a week for the last four years. The lady who does it is nice, but it is twenty minutes over there and either an hour or a half hour once a week laying there as she zap each and every hair. Sometimes I wish I could just magically get rid of them.

Twosome: to– beat the heat! It seems like it’s all sort of hot all over the Northern Hemisphere this Summer! What are you doing to handle the heat? …and for those Down Under? Well, your turn may come in just a few months; do you have any plans for then?

I managed to keep my exposure to the heat to a minimum, go from an air conditioned building to my air conditioned car to my air conditioned house and I pay to have my lawn mowed so I can sit back sipping lemonade watching him work (I’m bad!)

Threesome: Fill– your cup with a cold something! What are you drinking this summer to keep cool? …and if you’re a tea drinker: is it “ice tea” or “iced tea”? Just curious…

Water, lemonade and iced tea.

~~~~~

It’s funny, I wrote the answers during break at work and email them to myself at home. When I got home the second answer was no long true. As I drove up the driveway pressing the garage door remote control, nothing! No power. The house was sweltering, 85F and muggy so I stayed down in the basement recroom until I got hungry, then went out to dinner. When I got back from dinner, the power just went on as I was driving down the main street to my house.

Permission

This short video was the Official Selection in the Gay / Lesbian category at the sixth annual "Media that Matters" film festival.

An Evangelical Who "Gets It"

Another good posting by Dr Becky Allison about not all evangelical are right wing conservatives, some of them do “Get It”. I am not very religious but I have always liked what she says.

Nature Does Not Make Mistakes

I was reading another Blog and someone posted a comment about “Nature does not make mistakes”
When someone makes that comment to me about “Nature not making mistakes”, my reply is, “Your right, nature does not make mistakes. That is why I am here to teach you, compassion, understanding and tolerance.”

Along those same lines, here are three articles that I found interesting. The first article is about birth order and the correlation between being the youngest brother and being gay. It seems like the more older brothers that you have the more likely you will be gay.

The next article is about the brain being hardwired for gender and sexual orientation. Scientists have found 54 genes that seem to be related to gender and orientation.

.... “Our findings may help answer an important question — why do we feel male or female?” said Dr. Eric Vilain, assistant professor of human genetics and urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a pediatrician at UCLA’s Mattel Children’s Hospital. “Sexual identity is rooted in every person’s biology before birth and springs from a variation in our individual genome.”...

In the article I do have one disagreement.

...“If physicians could predict the gender of newborns with ambiguous genitalia at birth, we would make less mistakes in gender assignment,” Vilain said.

I do not feel they should do any gender assignment at birth; it should be up to the individual to decide when they are old enough to decide for themselves.

Lastly this article about shampoos, soaps and body lotions containing lavender and tea tree oils how they might cause breast development in young boys. How those sources of environmental estrogen like compounds affect growing boys.

I Don’t Talk Funny!

From "Every Days a Monday" Blog

(Pick the word that is familiar to you or add one of your own)
1. Soda, Soft Drink, Soda Pop or Tonic: Soda
2. Hoagie, Sub, Po Boy, Grinder: Sub or grinder
3. Goobers or Peanuts: Peanuts, goobers are what you pick out of your.......... Oh never mind.
4. Candlepin or Ten-Pin bowling: Ten-pin
5. Dungarees or Blue Jeans: Just Jeans
6. Shopping Carriage, Shopping Cart, Buggy: Shopping Cart
7. Frappe or Milkshake: Milkshake
8. Jimmies or Sprinkles: Sprinkles
9. Hot Dog or Frankfurter: Hot Dogs
10. Relative or Kin: Relatives, kin is when your dead ( As in next of kin )
11. Soda Crackers or Saltines: Just Crackers
12. Rubbish, Trash or Garbage: Garbage
13. Rotary or Traffic Circle: Rotary
14. Barbeque, Grill Out or Cookout: You go to a cookout to have a barbeque
15. Funnel Cake or Fried Dough: Fried Dough
16. Flapjacks, pancakes, or griddlecakes: Pancakes
17. Bedroom Suite or Bedroom Suit: Just a plain bedroom
18. Bundles, Sacks or Bags (of Groceries): Bags
19. Front Entrance or Front Stoop: Front Door
20. Frying Pan or Skillet: Frying Pan