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Friday, 10 February 2012 (the sound of forgetting) 2:15pm The second of the history-of-kittypr0n articles for the weekly is up. It's always nice to get two posts in a single week. This evening, Marta and I are venturing into the wilds of Oakland to attend a rope bondage workshop at Mills College, which is apparently part of their Sex Positive Fair. In spite of the fact that at one point I seemed to be largely surrounded by people who'd graduted from there with MFAs in Poetry, I've never actually set foot on the Mills College campus before. Go figure. 6:13pm The local lesbians, they sure do like them some Pnomh Penh. 11:22pm The class was fun. Not a lot that we haven't been taught before, but we don't practice nearly as much as we should, so reinforcement (so to speak) always helps. And the instructor's demonstration model liked my shirt. | ||
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Thursday, 9 February 2012 (a pair of doves) 9:13am Dig me, I'm an obvious writer! From Derpy Hooves News: San Fran Weekly Reviews S1 Ep 1 & 2I'm assuming they mean "this person obviously knows how to write", rather than "this person writes things which are obvious", but hell, I'll take either one. 10:36am Just finished the phone interview with the journalism student. I think I may have blathered a little tiny bit, and there was probably also a smidgen of rambling and aimless extemporizing. She said she'll be at Bad Movie Night this Sunday, so I'll be sure to apologize to her then. 5:24pm Heading out to pick up Marta so we can go to Davina and Mouse's for dinner. The primary goal is getting the key to their place so I can catsit for them while they're gone this weekend, but Davina suggested that we join them for dinner. Sounds like a perfect excuse to me. | ||
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Wednesday, 8 February 2012 (the heretics) 9:32am On top of my other adventures in telephony these last couple days, I've also been on hold (or, more accruately, kicked off of hold) with the San Francisco General Hospital Pharmacy. Finally got through last night, and they told me that my spironolactone was ready, but not the estradiol, since the insurance won't pay for it until next week. So I picked up the former today—it was a very short, quick line, thank fucking Christ—and have to go back next week for the latter. I also have to go to Lyon-Martin to renew my Healthy San Francisco account, which itself would have required a followup trip to the Pharmacy anyway. I now have even less time to waste at the Pharmacy than I did before, but that's my problem, not theirs. Good lord, but I miss corporate insurance so much right now. Even Kaiser. Really, Kaiser was the best. They're probably evil, but who isn't? 5:12pm Worked from home this afternoon, went to NakedSword to pick up the textbook (Management Basics for Information Professionals, Second Edition, fun stuff), and am now at Athleta. Thankfully, the first four chapters of this book is all I've missed thus far in terms of required reading for the new class, so I intend to get caught up before Raphaela's pilates class tonight. 9:42pm Okay, whew. I don't think I'm going to have a problem with this class at all. In addition to the fact that I find it interesting and it's related to the field—which kinda goes without saying, it's not like I had to add Trigonometry or something—the workload is relatively light, as these things go. I'm going to be okay. I might (might!) even retain that 4.0 at the end of this semester. And if I don't, it'll have been a noble battle. | ||
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Tuesday, 7 February 2012 (great bird of prey) 7:55am Emailed the four professors. Of course, 8:44am Right out of the gate, I got a yes: although I have room, if you have another class, that would be great. you have missed a great deal. if nothing else works, of course you may join us. Whew! I promised them I'd get all caught up, and they said, okay, cool! Welcome aboard! I replied that I still need a consent code to enter into the system—which I'm sure they now, but it's weird how simple requests coming from me can be so difficult to understand, like the blank looks I frequently get at taquerias when I order something that's on the menu directly behind the server's head—and once I get that, I'll contact the Bursar's office, and they will (hopefully) remove the Past Due Hold so I can enroll for real. Plus I need to sign and mail the Student Information Update Form, without which I still won't get the financial aid. So, so many details. 9:50pm The first of the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic recaps for the weekly is up. One down, many to go. 1:13pm While waiting for the consent code from that instructor, two of the other instructors have declined me—and yet another said sure! and included the consent code in the email. We have a winner. I called the Bursar's office, they removed the Past Due Hold yet again (and have been very sweet and helpful through all this, I must say), and I officially enrolled in the class. Holy fucking shit, that was a close one. There are still cogs that need to turn without me before everything is okay, specifically involving the Student Information Update Form (which is in the mail) and the Financial Aid Office doing their thing, but at least now I can exhale, which I haven't been able to properly do since yesterday morning. Thankfully, this class only has the one textbook, which I'm having rush-delivered to Sister Edith at NakedSword. But I'm in, damnit. I saved myself from my own incompetence. What a rush. My workload has doubled, of course, but that beats the alternative, and what the hell, maybe I'll actually get my degree sooner rather than later. 5:56pm At Marta's place. She invited me to come over last night as the shit was hitting the fan, but it was late and raining and I was crying and driving over there just felt like way too much work. (Much to my surprise, though, when I got in bed I fell asleep quickly. That hardly ever happens, let alone when I'm distraught.) Feeling much better now. Also, a journalism student at San Francisco State University wrote to ask if she interview me about Bad Movie Night for the Golden Gate Xpress. Oh, college kids. | ||
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Monday, 6 February 2012 (oraculum) 8:45am I don't remember signing up to run a daycare for Alaskan Malamutes, or even just one Alaskan Malamute. And yet. 11:37am Something else I don't remember signing up for: more than three units in school. Because I totally didn't, instead opting to just take one class again this semester like I did last semster, except that I didn't take just the one, I took the two, the initial single-unit "here's how this online class thing works" class and then the three-unit actual class. Those four units gave me the absolute bare minimum necessary to receive financial, provided that I sent in a Student Information Update Form, which I did. So it was no problem. But this semester, I not only didn't send in a Student Information Update Form, I didn't even sign up for the bare minimum of units. And my account is now showing a Past Due Hold to the tune of about three grand. Uh-oh. I contacted the Financial Aid office, who explained the situation to me: I need to sign up for at least one more class (and a three-unit class, since I've done the single -one-unit class that's available at my level), and pronto, or I'm quite well frakked. So I tried to add another class (the last day to add classes until a week from today), and got this error: "You have a Hold on your record. The hold on your record must be removed before this transaction can be processed." I contacted the Financial Aid office again, explaining this particular pickle where the Past Due Hold won't be removed until I send in the Student Information Update Form stating that I'm enrolled in six units, and yet I can't enroll in six units until the Past Due Hold is removed. So very many 22s to catch. They told me to contact the Bursar's office. Which I've done, both over email and phone. And now, I wait for their response (which their own hold message said might be delayed up to forty-eight hours during peak periods at the beginning of the semester) and try to not stress and/or panic. Instead, I will be productive. 12:44pm At long last, "Finding Sister Midnight" has been accepted into the WhoreLover anthology. I need to shorten it and they don't care for my use of footnotes, plus as always the final decision of what gets into the book is made by the publisher, but still, yay for good news. 3:32pm In the lecture I'm currently listening to for the class I'm enrolled in, the instructor keeps using the phrase "Wookiee mating habits." Grad school rules! I hope I get to stay in it. 4:15pm My editor asked me if I would be at all interested in writing a post on the word "tranny", since one of the other Exhibitionist bloggers is getting taken to task for using it. I politely declined, becuase goddamn, I am soooooo over that subject, and I don't know that I have more to say on it than I did in what unexpectedly turned out to be my final post for the PrettyQueer. Quite frankly, I'm happy to remain relatively apolitical, and I'd rather take my chances with the "lol bronies are gay" trolls than the "YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO SAY THAT!" police. So. 4:34pm The Bursar's office lifted the hold, no problem. I found a class with open seats—the last of the required courses, the ones that most people get out of the way in their first semester—and tried to add it, only to be told that I need to get the instructor consent. Urk. Okay. How difficult can that be? I mean, the final day to add classes is next week, so I'm not too late, am I? 9:03pm Yeah, apparently I am: the instructor said that they are not accepting any new students at this point. Okay, that's one down, but there are, like, four other sections of the class that have open seats. Granted, they all (now that I look closer) say "Instructor Consent Required", and clearly that consent is by no means a given—those who are tardy do not get fruit cup!— but hey, if I contact all four at the same time, well, that increases my chances, right? And if they all say no? Well, I'll deal with that when it happens. Which it won't. But if it does, I'll deal with it. At least I'm getting a decent tax refund, because I was doing the estimated payments last year. The refund will cover a month's rent and Comcast, so that's good. But the "not stressing and/or panicking" plan isn't going well at all, since I'm currently doing both. Fuck fuck fuck, this is a bad situation, and it's nobody's fault but my own. The fact that my UI claim is about to run out isn't helping, either. Maybe the marketing guy will suddently have that abundance of good-paying work he'd originally said would last November. Could happen. | ||
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Sunday, 5 February 2012 (we could wait forever) 6:08pm There's an almost shocking amount of parking in the Mission today. I can only assume it's because of the Superbowl, but damn, it's like Burning Man weekend around here. 10:53pm An aggressively average turnout at Bad Movie Night for Thor, but thankfully, the people who did show up didn't mind that the price has gone up from $5 to $6.99. | ||
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Saturday, 4 February 2012 (revealed in the thaw) 3:52pm Spent the night at Marta's, came back home to work while she Marta was at school—didn't try the new coffeemaker, because it scares me and I'm going to wait for tomorrow morning so Marta can show me how it works—and have now returned to her place. My main project right now is the first of the series of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic recaps, and I've also been taking with a friend of mine who's has several books publisher by the publisher who approached me for a collection. I'm probably being overly cautious, but the friend had only good things to say, and I feel much better about it than I did. I just want to do this right, y'know? 9:11pm Finally showing Marta Blade Runner. At least now she gets what the Pris business is about, not that I expect it was ever much of a mystery. | ||
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Friday, 3 February 2012 (a viable construct) 12:52pm Just got my Village Voice Media 1099-MISC (they own the SF Weekly, and while it's actually just a company that acquired the name isn't really the Village Voice itself, it still makes me happy to see those words), and the latest issue of the The Moving Image, the Association of Moving Image Archivists' journal. It's a good mail day. 10:13pm Marta and I had a very San Francisco-y night: went to an art opening at SomArts (the first time I've been to such a thing at SOMArts since October 2007, if memory serves, and I don't think I've set foot in in the place for any reason since that New Year's Eve a few months later when everything changed), then to the Bed Bath & Beyond around the corner to buy a coffemaker for the Black Light District, and then, since we were out in the world, decided to be adventurous and go out for dinner. Of course, us being us, we headed into the Mission (which may not qualify as "adventurous" for either us anymore beyond trying to find parking on a Friday night) and ate at Udupi Palace, which isn't particulary new to us, either. But it was a good evening out all the same. | ||
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Thursday, 2 February 2012 (another way of caring) 2:15pm No pilates last night. Instead, I picked up Davina and went into the Mission to see Marta read at a show. Davina and I arrived fairly early, however (and Marta was getting there under her own power), so we went into the El Rio for a drink first, and kinda lost track of time. We got to the show well after it had started, and after Marta had arrived (as had Porter) but she hadn't read yet, so it worked out fine. She was the highlight of the show, naturally, and afterward the four of us returned to the El Rio and stayed until midnight. It was the fun late night out with friends that neither Saturday nor Sunday had managed to be. I've been mild sleep-deprived today, but it was worth it. | ||
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Wednesday, 1 February 2012 (parallel timeline with alternate outcome) 9:46am The first (of what will be well over two dozen posts, if my math is right) about My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is up. And in a little while, I head to Lyon-Martin. 12:56pm At It's Tops, enjoying Susan's Spicy Spuds again. And I'll probably do it again when I return to Lyon-Martin yet again for a Healthy San Francisco re-up. Blood was drawn to check on the whole liver enzyme thing, but my doctor doesn't seem too worried, since I'm healthy otherwise (my cholestrol is in the double digits!) and don't really have any signfiant risk factors. They're also going to call in my prescription refill to the Pharmacy, and issue me a new "certification from an attending medical physician that the applicant has undergone appropriate clinical treatment for gender transition" thingy. Well, the same one as they gave me in 2010, but one with a more current date, since only a terrorist would try to get a passport in 2012 using a document dated 2010. Also, I clocked in at 179 lbs, and that was with not wearing my boots or jacket. Not bad at all. 3:12pm Oh, I think I may just get pancakes next time. The Spuds are feeling unpleasantly heavy in my stomach—which, I suppose, is something of a good sign. There have been very few responses to the Pony article, but unsurprisingly, the recurring theme is "bronies lol". I expect a lot more of that, even if I never use the word. I've been talking to with the publisher who contacted me last night, as well as one of my friends who's been published by them. So far, it all seems on the up-and-up, and My Agent says I should go for it (though she's going to of course continue representing me on Bottomfeeder and Landing on Water and whatever comes after that memoir-wise). So. I also got a Friend request on Facebook from the woman who played the daughter in Manos: The Hands of Fate, because she liked my article about the restoration in the weekly. To quote Barefoot yet again: ah, life, it's just so fucking weird. But in the best way possible. | ||
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