Erin's Blog

More boring stuff about my life....

Today was fun. I woke up to clear 3" of snow off of my car. I didn't expect to do this, so I was later to work than I wished to be. I always leave early, so I still made it with time to spare, but I wasn't happy about it.

Today we learned about how to use the farebox. I figured we would do this today, because on Monday we are driving our first "revenue trip" -- where we actually go on real routes and pick up passengers. I can't wait -- should be fun.

After the farebox presentation, our teacher went over the class "standings" -- where we each scored compared to other students in our class. I received 100% on all of the tests taken so far, so I am tied with 3 others in my class for first place. That kind of excited me. I asked my instructor if someone had ever gotten a "perfect" score. She said in the 8 years she'd been teaching, only one student had done that. I told her she was looking at number two, LOL.

We went driving on a route today. We drove the route 20. My driving partner, Bruce, drove out to the start of the route and drove the entire route one way. We took a lunch break and then I drove the route the entire trip the opposite direction, and then took the bus back into the garage. It was snowing all day, but it wasn't sticking to the pavement. It was sticking to grass, buildings and cars, though.

After work, C and I had dinner and went out and rented a few movies. Got home, watched the movies, and now we're off to bed.

G'night!

_erin

More boring stuff about my life....

Today was another "weird" day. I woke up at 7:30am to show up for our "late" day at work. They asked us to work from 9:00am until 5:30pm. It was snowing when I left the house this morning.

Got to class on time, had a short review of the previous day's work, and went over the homework.

Then we went out on the road. We drove all around Downtown Denver to learn how to deal with the tight spaces and turns. I had a blast. We drove out to Invesco Field, the Denver Broncos' stadium, and I took a few pictures there:





We got back to the classroom, then went out again to check out how Market Street Station and Civic Center Station operate during rush hour. This was the whole point of the "late" day today.

I came home and C and I had some dinner. C took this pic of me at dinner tonight:



We are watching TV now.

I took some pictures of yesterday's wheelchair move. Here are some of them:






The rest of the pictures can all be seen here.

Goodnight!

_erin

More boring stuff about my life....

Today was good.

I woke up at 4:30am, the "usual." I took a shower, got dressed and made my lunch. I forgot to do that last night. I got to work around 5:45am, about 15 minutes late from my usual 5:30am arrival time. I was the third person in the classroom, when usually I am the first.

Today we learned about transfers -- you know, the little paper slips that you hand people when they board? We learned how to punch them correctly and tear them off to indicate the time they are valid. Kind of neat system, really.

After the classroom part, we went to pick up passengers in wheelchairs to get practice with people with disabilities. We picked them up at a home for people with MS, and took them to a movie theater. After we dropped them off, we went to drive two routes, and then came back and picked them up. I drove them to the movie theater, and my driving partner, James, drove them back home.

By the time we got back to the classroom, it was time to go home. Our instructor gave us our homework assignments and dismissed the class.

I went to pick up my Oregon tax return check from Mel and Bonnie's. Mel was nice enough to e-mail me that it had arrived, so I arranged a time with her to pick it up. I deposited it right away.

I came home, picked up my uniform shirts and took them to be altered and pressed. C came with me and afterwards we went shopping to pick up some more groceries and things we needed around the house.

After we got home, I did my homework and helped C with some computer things she wanted done. Now I am writing this entry. It is late, but tomorrow we don't have to be at work until 9am. They want to show us what evening rush hour is like at two major stations downtown, so they asked us to come in late and stay late to watch the afternoon rush operations.

Goodnight!

_erin

More boring stuff about my life....

Today was a much more normal day, LOL.

Woke up, went to work. We had class today with Richard, as our main instructor, Loradean, was out sick. I hope she is OK, as she is one of the people who helped us out with food.

After the classroom portion, we got to drive on a real route. Today we did route 0, down and back up Broadway. Marie, one of my classmates did the southbound portion, and I took the northbound. It was nice to drive on a real route to see what it's like. We didn't pick up any passengers, we were just out practicing our driving skills.

After driving, we came back to the classroom and got our homework assignments. I am already ahead of my class in the reading, so I am luckily not having to do about half of it each night.

Well, I have to make some dinner.

G'night!

_erin

More boring stuff about my life....

Today was nice -- I could sleep in. I woke up at 6am instead of 4:30am, which I usually do.

I had to run an errand that my instructor knew about the first day of class. She was totally cool with it. I arrived at class around 10am, just as my class was heading out to the buses. I literally was walking by them into the building as they were coming out, LOL.

After joining up with them, we took a tour of the Platte division, and then checked out all of the various wheelchair lifts and tie-downs on several varieties of bus. After the wheelchair info, we ate lunch, and then worked on the CDL pre-trip inspection.

We didn't have enough time to do much else -- we went into the classroom, got our uniform certificates and homework, and left.

After class, I went to pick up my uniform. The uniform shop isn't too far from RTD, and I found it pretty quickly. The lady there was nice, and after trying on a few different sizes, I found the shirts and pants I was happy with. The certificate that RTD gave me was valid for $125.00. After "buying" two shirts and two pairs of pants, I still had a few dollars left. The certificate is "use it or lose it," so I bought a belt and a visor as well. I used $125.59, so I had to pay $0.59 out of my pocket. The seamstress wasn't in the building, so I took the pants and the shirts over to the other building where they had 2 seamstresses on duty. They hemmed the pants for me and sewed the RTD patches on the shirts. It took about 10 mins, but I didn't mind, as I had nothing better to do.

After picking up the uniforms, I went home. C asked what took so long. I showed her the uniforms and hung them up. They are wrinkled, and we don't have an iron, nor an ironing board. I also don't have any $$ to take them to a cleaner to get pressed. Argh. I will need to get them pressed before I can wear them to work, and they are REQUIRING us to wear them to work on Monday.

I did my homework, watched a movie with C, and now I'm off to bed.

G'night.

_erin

More boring stuff about my life....

Today was OK. We didn't really do much. C slept until 5pm. I got up around 9am and did homework for RTD and surfed pretty much all day.

We made some popcorn and watched a few movies. I have never made popcorn on the stovetop with a regular pot before, so that was kind of neat.

I packed a lunch -- using some of the food that was donated and some of the food we bought with the donated money. C used some of the money to buy cigarettes -- I wasn't too happy about that.

We lit a candle while watching a movie, and we caught a piece of paper on fire. Luckily, we caught it before it really lit up and before the smoke detector could sound. I blew the flames out and ran the papers under the sink to make sure they were all the way out. I also blew out the candle. Didn't want that to happen again.

Our friend K called a few minutes ago. She is having problems sleeping and needed to talk to someone. C went over there, and will probably spend the night with K to help her be comfortable sleeping. K has some issues -- nightmares, mostly -- and C can help her by being there to talk to, if need be. When K called on the phone, I answered it. She sounded pretty sad. Hopefully, things will get better with her.

I've been e-mailing my father the past few days. I've not talked to him in a while, and I wish to keep open our lines of communication. He said he's been unable to see my website, so we worked together to track down a DNS issue. I updated my DNS records for the domain, hopefully that will cure things.

OK, I am tired and I need to get up early to go to work tomorrow.

Goodnight!

_erin

More boring stuff about my life....

Today C and I completed a bunch of errands. Went grocery shopping, did our laundry, etc. After getting home, we made some dinner and watched a few movies. I need to do some of my homework for RTD.

G'night!

_erin

More boring stuff about my life....

Today was AWESOME.

When I got to work, my instructor had a bag lunch for me. I was surprised, to say the least. I had mentioned that I am in kind of desperate times, and that I was eating apples for breakfast, lunch and dinner because they were cheap and healthy. I had no idea that she would help me out like that. I thanked her over and over again throughout the class.

At work we went out driving in the snow today. It snowed all last night and this morning. I had to clean off about 6 inches of snow from my car before I went into work. I drove for about an hour, and was with two other students. We had a different instructor today who went with us. He told us a different way to do our pre-trip inspection vs. the instructor we had yesterday.

After we got back from driving, we went back in the classroom. Our homework was waiting on our desks. I finished the homework before all of the students came back from the road. While I was finishing the homework, my instructor, Loradean, said she wanted to see me in her office after class. "Uh-oh," I thought.

After class, I followed her to her office. Awaiting in the office were three other instructors and four boxes of canned food. Apparently, she had mentioned my problem to the other instructors, and they all brought in some canned food for me. I started crying and hugging everyone in sight.... I was so moved. I thanked everyone.... I brought my car around and they helped me load the boxes in the car.

When I got home, C helped me bring the food inside. She was just as touched and surprised as I was. In addition, my friends V and J from Virginia had sent us a care package, and it was waiting for me when I got home. The package from VA was a nice selection of food and vitamins, as well as some cash. The cash will help us get gasoline for our cars and groceries that we need to make the donated foods (milk, butter, etc. to make the macaroni and cheese, instant rice, etc.).

After we unpacked all of the food and put it away, we both took a nap. I was falling asleep when I was riding the bus back to the offices, so I was pretty tired.

After the nap, we went to the GIC and saw a meeting with a guest speaker from Colorado Anti-Violence. He was a female-to-male transsexual who gave a presentation about the history of his organization, and he talked about current laws regarding domestic violence and hate crimes. It was a good presentation.

C and I came home, and now we're watching a movie called John Q, starring Denzel Washington.

I'm pretty tired, so I will go get some sleep.

G'night!

_erin

More boring stuff about my life....

Today was interesting. Several things happened at work that I thought were funny, yet sad.

Today we were learning about the pre-trip. Our instructor was pointing various things out on the bus, telling us what to check, and what to tell the instructor who was administering our test. He used me as an example when talking about the wiper arm. He said, "you're a girl, and because you don't know about cars and stuff, you don't need to use the proper terminology for all of the parts on the bus. For example, you can point to the wiper arm and tell the instructor that you would check to make sure that 'thingy' is evenly holding the wiper blade to the glass. You don't need to know it's called a 'wiper arm.'"

The second thing was after the pre-trip intro, I drove the bus for almost two hours. After my driving period, the other student in the bus with me told me that I "...drive pretty good [sic] for a woman." I thanked him. He is from Bulgaria, so I know for a fact that he wasn't trying to insult me -- that is just how Slavic cultures treat women.

The third thing I thought was interesting was that I was asked out on a date. Another female driver, who came into the classroom with us to observe, came up to me after the class and asked if I'd like to go out with her and the other girls. She invited me to a gay bar, so I am assuming she is a lesbian. I passed this time, but she gave me her phone number.

Tonight C and I went to our friend's "book group," as we call it. We had an interesting discussion with our friends CJ, K and E regarding CJ's book. Around 9:45pm it started to snow. We left because of the snow and because I am getting up at 4:30am these days.

OK, it's late and I need to get up early.

G'night.

_erin

More boring stuff about my life....

Driving buses ROCKS. I am loving my job more and more, and today was only our second day driving.

The driving is a lot of fun -- I got my CDL a month after my 18th birthday so I could drive for Shuttle-UM, the University of Maryland transit system. Shuttle is a student-run system -- every job is filled by a student taking 12 credits of classes or more. I drove there for 4.5 years, the whole time I was at Maryland.

While there at Shuttle, the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games recruited me to drive buses for the Olympics in Atlanta in 1996. That was a blast -- I got to drive transit buses that were donated from all over the country, including some Washington DC's metro, Baltimore's MTA and even Denver's RTD buses, LOL. I told my current instructors that and they were impressed.

After Shuttle, I took a several-year hiatus from driving. When I ended up in Portland jobless, I put the CDL to use and drove for Raz Transportation/Gray Line of Portland. I drove charters for them, which was a great job. I got exposed to several new models of buses, too.

I was bored the other day, so I wrote down all of the various bus models I've driven. Sixteen different models including the Orion I drove for the first time yesterday. Pretty crazy:

1. Flxible Metro
   
2. Gillig Phantom
   
3. GMC RTS II
   
4. Thomas coach
   
5. Bluebird transit
   
6. MCI MC-8
   
7. MCI MC-9
   
8. MCI A-model
   
9. MCI C-model
   
10. Prevost LeMirage
    
11. IH school bus
    
12. National 24-passenger mini-coach
    
13. Ford E-series mini-buses
    
14. Shuttle-UM's "Trolley" bus
    
15. Raz's Bluebird "Trolley" bus
    
16. Orion
    

This morning in the classroom, we learned about the various route types and how to read the route schedules and maps.

After class, we went to the local Amalgamated Transit Union to sign up. RTD is a union shop -- every bus driver and mechanic are members of the union. It was interesting to listen to their pitch and to learn about our benefits and everything. It will be good to be back on health insurance after more than 18 months without it.

On the road we drove the Orion some more. Considering it was only my second day in it I impressed the instructors. There were two instructors on my bus today. They asked me to parallel park the bus in a space already setup with cones. I pulled up to it and they asked if I wanted guidance in. I was like, "no." They looked at each other and seemed surprised. I parallel parked it just like I learned 11 years ago when I first got my CDL. They asked me if I hit any of the cones. I said, "I bet you $10 per cone I didn't hit any," and then we got out and checked. Luckily, I didn't hit any and didn't have to pay up, LOL.

When we got back into the building, the instructors talked to each other in another classroom before coming into our classroom. When they came in, they pointed out to the whole class how I'd nailed it the first time. I said, "damn right, my instructors drilled that into my head back when I got my CDL eleven years ago!" The lead instructor asked if I might want to be an instructor someday, and I said sure! She said that they take applications after you've been driving for one year. I think I will apply for that position if I'm at RTD that long.

G'night.

_erin

More boring stuff about my life....

Wow, I haven't blogged in a few days. ::slapping myself on the wrists::

Today was fun. It was our first day driving buses at RTD. I got to drive an Orion. It was my first time in this type of bus. I was thinking about it, and I was wondering just how many models of buses I've driven. I wrote them all down. Including today's Orion, I've driven 14 different models of buses. There will be more to add to that list by the time I'm trained on all of RTD's various bus types.

The driving went well -- my instructor told me I need to work a little more on watching my mirrors in turns and on taking my turns slower. He said I was driving this bus like I'd been doing it for years. Um, yeah, I got my CDL 11 years ago, LOL, so I have been driving buses for years.

After work, I came home. C was asleep. I woke her up, we went out to Boulder for her therapy session. I got to meet her therapist last week, and this week I was doing my RTD classroom homework when she poked her head out and said "hi."

I took some pictures of some various RTD buses yesterday and posted them on my site.

There will be more to come of these pictures. I am taking my camera with me to work every day. Figured I could take pics of anything cool I happen upon.

Anyways, I need to get to bed. Gotta get up at 4:30am again tomorrow to make it to class in time.

G'night!

_erin

More boring stuff about my life....

Today was nice. I got an e-mail from my good friend G in Portland. I just came out to her recently, and she's being very cool about it. She Gets It(tm), unlike most people that have known me before my transition.

Today C and I ran a bunch of errands. We got everything on our list done, so that was good.

We visited our friend K and hung out with her a bit. Then we went to the GIC for game night. We watched 3 movies while we played a marble game called "aggravation."

After the GIC meeting, we went to Denny's for dinner. Haven't been there in a week or so. C and I had a pretty deep talk.

Just got home and checked e-mail. Not much interesting, just spam.

G'night!

_erin

More boring stuff about my life....

Today was an AWESOME day for me. I started my new job at RTD, Denver's transit system.

I got up at the buttcrack of dawn to be there at 5:22am. I was supposed to be there at 5:45am, but they mentioned if you are one minute late, that you would lose your job. I wouldn't want to do that on my first day, LOL.

I was the third person of the new "orientation" class to arrive. 12 of us would become the entire class. We filled out a ton of paperwork. Watched a few "welcome" videos and talked with various trainers about our itinerary. Training will be 8 weeks, 7 of which will be spent 50/50 in the classroom and on the road.

We went through a sexual harassment class that was an absolute blast. Our instructor was fun, and she made us all laugh, even on such a mundane topic as sexual harassment. I told her so, too. :-)

We then went to the main offices on Blake St. to get this:



They are totally cool with using my "new" name, even though it isn't legally changed yet. Soon it will be. Soon. :-)

Then they fed us some pizza. Free lunch is good, considering I'm broke right about now. Luckily, we'll get paid full wage for training, and the first paycheck isn't too far away. Because of our budgetary problems, I've been eating one meal a day. Last night it was ice cream. Not my favorite, as my ex-wife can attest to, LOL. But, we gotta do what we gotta do to stay alive.

After lunch, George, an instructor we had at the initial testing session, taught us about the RTD drug policy and federal law regarding drug testing. George remembered me from the testing session and kept calling me by my old name, despite my new name being on the name badge and a name placard made of cardboard sitting on the desk in front of me. Argh. I will talk to him about that on Monday for sure.

Other than that minor annoyance, the day went very well. Very well indeed.

When I got home, my friend C and I went over to another friend's house to help her remodel her kitchen. She is making the cabinetry and countertops all by herself -- from the raw materials. I helped her assemble that last few doors tonight. The kitchen is really starting to look great. We promised to come over on Sunday afternoon to help some more.

We got home late. I've been feeling sick (congested, fever), so I've been blowing my nose all day and drinking lots of water. My nose is stuffy and sore, which sucks. I'm physically tired, as well. After all, I did get up at 4am this morning so I could shower and get to work on time.

G'night!

_erin

More boring stuff about my life....

Explanation for the lack of posting the past few days: I was kicked out of the house on Monday. I've been staying with my friend C. She was kind enough to let me stay here with her.

Things are going well. Today I spent all day at the homeless clinic to get a refill on my Wellbutrin. We arrived at 8:30am and didn't even get seen until 3pm. I got my refill at 5pm. Argh. Waste of a day.

I went to C's therapist with her. It was a nice ride out to Boulder. Beautiful weather today. Got to meet her therapist -- very nice lady.

Today C and I spent a lot of time talking. She's a great friend, and I appreciate her help in this time of trouble for me.

V sent me a nice e-mail, and I replied to it.

Shpammy and Shawn are having fun in my chatterbox, check it out with the "chat" link at the top of the page.

That's about it for now.

_erin

Link/Tip of the day:

Bubble wrap, Skittles, and worry fill the world of obsessive-compulsive artists.

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More boring stuff about my life....

Woohoo! Today I got my employment letter from RTD.

Woke up. Mel and Bonnie weren't home. Surfed a bit. Made a fresh pot of tea.

Took a shower. Just as I was drying off, Bonnie and Mel got home.

Surfed some more until they left.

Went to the GIC meeting. Tonight some folks from Cheyenne, Wyoming came down to the meeting. They're great.

After the meeting, C and I went to Applebee's. We had a great waiter and had a good time talking.

Came home and everyone's asleep and all is dead.

G'night!

_erin

Link/Tip of the day:

Bubble wrap, Skittles, and worry fill the world of obsessive-compulsive artists.

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More boring stuff about my life....

Woohoo! Today I got my employment letter from RTD.

I will post follow-ups later. I was just very psyched and figured I'd post this.

_erin

Link/Tip of the day:

It really is a small world after all.

(Requires QuickTime)

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More boring stuff about my life....

Today was OK.

Went to the homeless clinic yesterday to try to get a refill on the Wellbutrin. I got there at 7:25am. The doors opened at 8:30am. By the time I got up to the registration, they said they were full, and to come back today. I set my alarm for 5:30am. I turned it off when it went off. I woke up at 11am. Oh well. I was tired and didn't get to sleep until almost 3am because of the book meeting last night. Argh.

Woke up. Showered. Surfed a bit. Talked with a good friend from Portland via IM. Made the last Lean Cuisine for lunch. It has been raining all last night and this morning. Turned into snow. Turned back into rain. Turned back into snow.

Made a Totino's pizza for dinner. Went to the GIC meeting. Only three people showed up, I am assuming because of the snowy weather. It was CJ, C and I. We talked about random stuff. We talked about last night's "incident" where E went off on C at E & K's house. We talked about C's motivations for coming to the GIC meeting.

Afterwards, we all went out to Denny's, where we talked some more about everything. Actually kind of neat. CJ and I "geeked out" C. Kinda felt sorry for her.

On the way out of Denny's, CJ said she had something in her car that might "suit" me. I asked if it was the fluorescent green and orange skirt she was talking about the other night, LOL. It wasn't. They were a pair of breast forms that were too big for her. She said they'd been sitting in her car for "I don't want to know how long." I accepted them graciously. They are a little smaller than the ones I currently have, which is good. My breasts are growing now, and when I wear the forms I have now they look a little *too* big. The smaller ones are a bit more natural.

Drove home in the snow. Came in and Mel was still up, which i thought was a little surprising.

It's still snowing. There isn't any sticking to the streets, but it is sticking to cars and lawns.

Okie, tired.... G'night!

_erin

Link/Tip of the day:

WTF?!

Hint: try the following words/phrases:

stand on your head
backflip
lay an egg
Riverdance
do the funky chicken
turn off the lights
Air guitar
break dance
macarena
hop on one foot
strip tease
the sky is falling
hunting rabbit

or anything else you can think up! :-)

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More boring stuff about my life....

One year, six months and eighteen days. Five hundred sixty-five days. Thirteen thousand, five hundred sixty hours. Eight hundred thirteen thousand, six hundred minutes. Forty-eight million, eight hundred sixteen thousand seconds. All of these are how long Melissa and I were married.

Today, April 8th, 2004, around 2:30pm, we signed the divorce papers. We were married on September 21st, 2002.

To be honest, I am happy. We have decided to move on, to go our separate ways. Our "dreams" go in divergent paths. To continue to be together would just cause more stress than it was worth. I don't think she understood why I was quite happy when I signed the papers and had a big grin on my face all the way home and for the rest of the day, for that matter.

In any case, this chapter of my life is over. For me, this is a Good Thing(tm).

Goodnight!

_erin

Link/Tip of the day:

I wrote up a buying guide for digital cameras. A friend of mine asked me what to buy, so I wrote this up. I figured it was good advice to the general public, so I now offer it here for your enjoyment/education.

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More boring stuff about my life....

Today was OK.

Woke up, watched Starting Over. Didn't eat breakfast because my yogurt is now all gone (see yesterday's post for my feelings on this).

Surfed a bit. Made a Lean Cuisine for lunch.

Read some more of my friend CJ's book. I made it about halfway through. Tomorrow night is our book group, where we will discuss our edits. I have found a lot of what we call "fluff" -- sentences, phrases, even words that aren't really necessary. I've found a lot of grammar and punctuation errors, too. But that I imagine is normal in a first draft of a work that hasn't seen a copy editor yet.

Bonnie asked me to leave tonight. I asked for more time to get a job, and she said that she's given me a lot of time already. I told her I start at RTD on April 16th, and asked for some time to save some money. She was pretty adamant that I need to leave sooner than that. She wants to remodel the upstairs and I and my stuff is in her way. Great.

I met C for some dessert and a chat. I asked her if I could move in, as she had promised. She didn't give me any date as to when I can move in. But we had a good session where we each vented our recent frustrations. The service wasn't very good, and we only left a $1 tip. The waitress was polite, but it took her forever to get our orders, and for refills. The killer was when she left the bill. We didn't see her for more than 10 minutes, and finally had to ask another waitress to find her for us.

Got home and surfed some more. Got an e-mail from a good friend back in Portland. We've been exchanging e-mails for a few days now. She's not feeling well and isn't liking her job. I wished her well in her health and job search.

Now I'm up writing "el blogo" and chatting with a friend from San Francisco on AIM.

Strangely, I noticed that the timestamp on the previous entry is the same as tonight's. The blog timestamps the entry based on when you start writing it, not when it is posted. Kinda neat.

G'night!

_erin

Link/Tip of the day:

Wow, and I thought American emoticons were awful.

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More boring stuff about my life....

Today was OK.

The phone woke me up. I got a call from RTD this morning asking what USA TODAY's phone number was. I couldn't remember the number when I was filling out the application. I told them the correct number.

Came out and watched Starting Over with Mel. I missed the first 20 mins or so, but Mel was nice enough to start taping it for me. I thought that was sweet, and was even thinking that we _can_ have a good friendship even though we are splitting up.

Took a shower. Just before taking the shower, Sarah came upstairs. She quickly glanced over at me, saw I was still in my nightie, and then pretended she didn't see me. Sarah is funny like that, because she was wearing her pajamas too. I guess she gets embarrassed about seeing that kind of stuff. Whilst I was getting ready to shower, Mel talked with her mom on the phone. After the conversation, she said to Sarah (with me in the room) that she was going to meet her mom for lunch, and she then asked Sarah if she'd like to join her. She didn't even look my way.

I got in the shower. While in the shower, Mel knew I was upset and threw two glasses of cold water on me before I told her what pissed me off. It was the whole ignoring thing again. She invited Sarah, but ignored me. Argh. I told her what it was that upset me, and then she said "it would be better" if I just left. She feels that our relationship would improve if we weren't nearby to each other all the time. I agree. Completely. I want to get out of here, ASAP. Slight problem though: I have no place to live, nor do I have any money to move right now.

I got out of the shower and got dressed. Made myself a Lean Cuisine and had a yogurt (I need the calcium according to my nutritionist, so if I don't eat it for breakfast, I eat it as dessert for lunch). It was the last yogurt in the fridge, which pisses me off again, because someone is eating the yogurt besides me. I specifically get the yogurt to fulfill a dietary need, and now there's none left. Argh. I wanted to get more yogurt at the store the last time we were there, but Mel said no. We only got 4. And we won't go shopping to get more anytime soon. Last time it took almost 2 weeks to get some of the stuff I put up on the grocery list. Our cats went hungry for a day because Mel had ignored the cat food on the grocery list for two weeks straight.

Later, I got an e-mail from the HR rep there at RTD, Monica. She said that she'd confirmed my employment history and was just waiting on a fax from Raz, my past employer, regarding my drug screens. I could have saved her some time by telling her I didn't have any drug screens because I was never in an accident and my name never came up for a random test. The only test i had there was the pre-employment test, and considering I got hired, hmmm, I wonder what the results were? :-) In any case, she said when she gets that fax back from Raz, I will start training on Friday, April 16th. Woohoo! :-)

I checked e-mail and surfed. Mel asked me to help her cut some wood she bought for some window treatment in her room. She had already set up the sawhorses, and had her piece of wood laying across them. I told her we didn't have a table saw to cut them straight, but she was adamant that we cut them with the tools we have -- a circular saw. I warned her the cuts wouldn't be straight. I was right. I did my best to make them as straight as possible, they just weren't. She should have had it cut at Home Depot when she bought the wood. Now the pieces are in the kitchen area, being held together with glue and a clamp.

I worked on getting more of my CDs MP3'd. I actually did about 9GB worth of raw music files today. Now all I need to do is edit the ID tags with all of the proper information.

Mel started making some kind of bean/chili dish. I asked her what she was doing, and she said she was making dinner. Hmm, OK. Dinner time rolls around, and she didn't ask me if I wanted any. I figured that it wasn't being made for me, so I made another Lean Cuisine. Probably healthier for me, anyways.

After dinner, I went to the GIC meeting. Tonight was the group for transsexuals. It was pretty nice. We talked about a bunch of issues. One girl is leaving for Thailand in a few days to get her SRS. We were all clapping for her! C came in late, as she usually does on Monday and Tuesdays.

After the meeting, we went to Denny's to work on her resume. I brought my iBook, and we tweaked her resume to the point that we were both happy with the text. Now I will work on the formatting a little bit, and then I can start sending her resume out. Hopefully I'll be able to get her a job making decent money, where she actually enjoys what she's doing. Sweet.

I just got home and am writing this entry. It's late, so I will be heading to bed.

Good night!

_erin

Link/Tip of the day:

An internet classic site.

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More boring stuff about my life....

Today was OK.

Woke up. Watched Starting Over with Mel. She had taped it, so luckily I got to see it even though I woke up at 11:30.

Ate a yogurt. Surfed. Watched some TV.

Mel went out to get some more stuff for her room.

Started working on MP3-ifying my CD collection again. I decided that 192Kbps wasn't quite good enough. I am doing them at 256Kbit this time. Hopefully I will get the majority of the collection MP3'd before I start my job.

Speaking of which, I haven't heard from either RTD or Gannett. I will call them tomorrow.

Bonnie brought home Arby's for dinner. It was nice of them to ask if I wanted anything. I appreciated it, and was sure to thank them.

After eating Arby's, I left for the GIC meeting.

I met a few new people. We talked about a lot of stuff. Good meeting.

Afterwards, I went to Denny's with K and C. I had met K at a previous meeting, but this was the first time I got to spend with her outside a meeting. She's a nice person, and funny, too! She is the pun queen, that's for sure. I was "booing" all night practically. I wanted to work on C's resume with her, but she was tired and had to go to work early, so we promised to work on it tomorrow night after the meeting.

I came home and Mel was asleep.

I'm working on MP3'ing my CDs again on my Mac, and using my PC to surf. The keyboard on the PC is a little different, but in a good way. I like using it to type. I think I can actually type a little faster on it.

Anyways, g'night!

_erin

Link/Tip of the day:

If you do not understand, or cannot read, all directions, cautions and warnings, do not use this product.

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More boring stuff about my life....

Today was just OK.

Woke up. Showered. Checked e-mail and surfed. Mel and Bonnie and Sarah all left early in the morning.

Surfed pretty much all day.

I mailed off my taxes. I'll be getting a few $ back, which is nice. Turbotax rocks, if you don't have it.

Read some of my friend CJ's book. She is writing a book called Trangender Myths, Transgender Secrets. She's given some pre-production copies to her friends for review. I am using a red pen and marking up a lot of what she's done. We talk about it at "book group" on Thursday nights. There we get together, and explain our edits, and 5 people get to vote on whether to change it or not.

Mel, Sarah and Bonnie got home around 6pm or so. They made dinner and went downstairs. I continued to surf whilst they were making dinner for themselves. Then I made some dinner for myself when they were downstairs.

I surfed some more. Joined a chatroom about my type of car. Had a good time talking to everyone.

Someone there linked me to this movie (994Kb MPEG). It is FUNNY! I was literally laughing so hard my belly hurt! I know, it's cruel, but oh man... Please DO NOT e-mail me about how mean I am! I love cats! I have three of them, and would never think of doing anything like this to my cats... That being said, enjoy the movie! :-)

I'm tired and writing this entry now.

G'night!

_erin

Link/Tip of the day:

You know on airlines, those little cards in the seat pocket in front of you? The ones that tell you about the safety features of the aircraft? Airtoons knows them. Airtoons knows them well.

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More boring stuff about my life....

Today was OK.

Woke up. Ate a yogurt. Distributed my pills into the pill organizer. I'm almost out of Wellbutrin, so I need to go to that free clinic so I can get a refill.

Surfed, checked e-mail.

Mel left with her mom to run some errands. I called Camille and we worked on her resume.

Then I went to the GIC for the monthly movie night. We watched an anime series called "I My Me Strawberry Eggs." I had never heard of it before, but it was OK. Even considering I'm not an anime junkie.

The movie ended around 9pm (it was 4 DVDs, 13 episodes worth). C and I went to Applebee's and sat and chatted for a while. I got home around midnight. When I got home, Bonnie, Sarah, Rachel and David were all here and up.

I logged in, checked some e-mail, reported spammers, and now I'm writing the blog entry.

G'night!

_erin

Link/Tip of the day:

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD has a cool website called the Astronomy Picture of the Day.

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More boring stuff about my life....

Today was OK. I awoke around 11:30am. I don't know why I slept so long. My clock on the nightstand was wrong because we were installing electrical outlets yesterday and switched off the circuit breaker. I forgot to set the clock, so when I awoke, I had no idea what the actual time was. I had to ask Mel. Bummer because I missed Starting Over.

Came out to the living room. Ate a yogurt, checked e-mail and surfed. V sent me three e-mails today, I think that is a record for one day! She even joked in one that she could only give me one "hug" because she was running out! LOL.

I talked to my friend Neil from USA TODAY. He actually called my mom. I haven't talked to my mom since my wedding, in Sept. of 2002. He said that she is sad, and would like to re-engage our relationship. He also said that she still loves me as her son, and is not happy about my gender transition. Neil also talked to my brother, who had a similar opinion.

I took a shower and got dressed. Mel left to run some errand or some such thing. I continued to surf.

Mel came home just before I left to meet Jennifer, a woman from the GIC. She was running a meeting at her house to do some research on T* people. I arrived a few minutes late because it started raining just as I left and traffic was awful. I got there before Jen did, though. We had some pizza, talked a lot about our experiences in the real world as transgendered individuals, and then answered a short written survey. After the "official" meeting, we all hung out and talked with each other. I didn't leave until almost 10:30pm.

Got home, talked with Mel about my meeting.

Came out and checked e-mail and surfed.

A few days ago, I made a copy of the two Linkin Park CDs that I have for use in my car. I actually fit the 2000 CD, Hybrid Theory and the 2003 CD, Meteora all on one CD. This is nice, so now I won't destroy the originals, and also because I didn't use up two blank CDs.

Well, tonight on the way home from the meeting, I was listening to Meteora, and actually listening to the lyrics. I decided to write some poetry using the already written lyrics. I know, it's weird. I didn't actually write the poems myself, I just took existing lyrics (which are actually quite applicable to my situation and how I feel) from several different songs, and arranged them in a different order.

Here is one of the poems:

When this began I had nothing to say
And I'd get lost in the nothingness inside of me
I was confused and I'd let it all out to find
That I'm not the only person with these things in mind
Inside of me

With all the vacancy the words revealed
The only real thing that I've got left to feel
Nothing to lose
Just stuck, hollow and alone
And the fault is my own

I want to heal
I want to feel
What I thought was never real
I want to let go of the pain I've felt so long
Erase all the pain till its gone

I want to heal
I want to feel
Like I'm close to something real
I want to find something I've wanted all along
Somewhere I belong

I can't pretend this is the way it'll stay
I can't pretend I'm who you want me to be
So I'm running away from you

No, no turning back now
I want to be pushed aside so let me go
Let me take back my life I'd rather be all alone
Anywhere on my own 'cause I can see
The very worst part of you, is me

I remember what they taught to me
Remember condescending talk for who I ought to be
Remember listening to all of that and this again
So I pretended up a person who was fittin' in
And now you think this person really is me
and I'm trying to bend the truth
'cause the more I push the more I'm pulling away
'cause I'm running away from you

I want to be pushed aside so let me go
Let me take back my life I'd rather be all alone
Anywhere on my own 'cause I can see
The very worst part of you is ME

_erin

Link/Tip of the day:

FakeCounter works just like "real" page counters. With every visit to your page it will display a new number, except that this number has no connection whatsoever to the amount of visitors.

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More boring stuff about my life....

After writing my blog entry last night, I couldn't sleep. Around 2am I got out the iBook, took it into the bedroom and wrote Mel a letter. The letter basically stated how I feel about everything. I cried throughout the letter writing. I probably used half a roll of toilet paper to contain all of the tears and nose-blowing. I finished it around 3am, shut down the iBook and went to sleep.

This morning I woke up to my friend from USA TODAY calling. He said that the Gannett people had asked for a recommendation letter from my former boss. My former boss said he'd give me a glowing recommendation letter, which is great.

After the phone call, I grabbed a yogurt and watched Starting Over with Mel.

After Starting Over, she asked me if we could talk about my e-mail. We did. It was Good(tm). We are getting along much better now that we know where each other stands on certain issues.

After this, I helped her install a light fixture and two electric sockets in the office, now bedroom. We needed to run some errands, so we headed out. We went to Home Depot to return some pull handles for her dresser that were too small. While there we found some replacement handles. We also bought some other stuff, too.

After Home Depot we went grocery shopping. Got some yogurt and some Lean Cuisines. This is pretty much what I am living on these days. I usually have one yogurt for breakfast, then a Lean Cuisine for lunch and another for dinner. We bought 8 today, so that will keep me for 4 days.

When we got back, we started putting things away. Mel called her mom and made some plans to meet her at some carpet sale. I left to meet with some of my TS friends about a book they're writing. Basically, the meeting was an editing session. There were 5 of us there, and we all made comments and talked about how to edit the book, as we were reading it. They gave me a copy to take home with me, so I can mark it up for next week.

I got home around midnight. Checked e-mail Surfed a bit. Checked out an April Fool's joke I posted on the car message boards I'm on. Hehe, I got some people. :-)

I'm getting pretty tired. Ready to head to bed.

G'night.

_erin