MeghanIsMe

I am so close to being able to play through Prelude in C without making one or two little mistakes along the way. So close!

I'm also starting to work on The Sunlit Garden from Revolutionary Girl Utena a little bit. That's the song that Miki plays on the piano. But...I might switch over to the intro to Watermark instead? Dunno.

The job hunt is proceeding. I haven't heard back from anything I've applied to yet, but I'm still trying.

I'm going to be driving to Wisconsin on the 23rd to visit my mom and folks there. I'll be back in Hamilton on the 30 and Miriam and I will spend NYE with a couple we met through queer community events here who are also Covid cautious. That will be really nice! It's been a long time since I've been with friends on a NYE.

And lastly...

It's true. As Miriam said today, I'm very bad at hookups. 😂

I've been talking more with Mississauga girl and I have a crush...

Which doesn't mean it will go anywhere in particular. But yeah. I'm seeing her again on Friday.

People who know Canadian policy think-tank organizations:

I'm looking at a job opening with The Vanier Institute of the Family. In the US, it would be highly likely that an institute with a name like this would be right-wing bigots. Miriam and I looked at some of their stuff: this publication describing the consequences of change to gender in the Canadian census seems promising.

Do any of you know of this organization? Would I be selling my soul to work for them? Thank you!

https://vanierinstitute.ca/metrics-to-meaning-gender-diversity-and-families-in-canada

Because people with mental illnesses can be really bad at following up on things, I was out of my meds for about a week. I finally got in to see the doctor who is managing my HRT and she renewed all the things for me and I'm hoping I will be a bit more stable being back on bupropion as an anti-depressant. Seeing Dr. Clark was affirming and reassuring and just wonderful as always. She really is a provincial treasure.

I was still kind of crashy yesterday evening even though I had a fantastic experience at the optometrist.
The doctor and her staff were all wearing masks. This is why we chose the place, but it was still just fabulous to see. Everyone was super supportive in their interactions with me. Being with Miriam, we both talked a bunch about face appearance stuff with one of the staff members, and she gave us a recommendation for somewhere for eyebrow threading. All my interactions with them were positive and gender affirming and it was just wonderful. I told the doctor about what I was doing in grad school in Syracuse and she asked me to "please run for mayor." *laughs*

Still, there was a lot of social time when I'm not used to that and it was kind of exhausting. I napped when I got home and then did a bunch of laundry (or maybe it was the other way around?) and that helped, but I was still down afterward. I sat next to Miriam and tried watching an anime series called Dragon Goes House Hunting because it seemed fun, but it actually made me cry a lot. The dragon, who is written as though he's about 10 years old, gets kicked out of his house and is attacked by various groups, including dwarves who want to vivisect him. He keeps getting away, but he's so sad and scared and lonely and just wants to go home and it hurt my heart.

At the end, he meets the elf he's been looking for who runs a construction and real estate company (I think?). The elf finds him while a group of self-proclaimed "heroes" is harassing him and shooting arrows at him because he is an evil creature who must be destroyed.

At the end of the first episode, the elf uses some kind of magic that near instantaneously leaves the heroes as a smouldering pile of bones and armor, and I was pleased. I still cried on Miriam's shoulder for a while after. Maybe it'll be less hard on me when I'm in better headspace and am more regulated by meds.

Miriam and I drove to Saskatoon to see a second rheumatologist in the ongoing pursuit of a diagnosis for her. We are both cautiously optimistic about her. While we were in Saskatoon, we went to the zoo for an hour before they closed too! Over the winter, they do admission by donation, and there is a lot of outdoor stuff that's pretty Covid safe. Little Meghan has wanted to go to a zoo for a long time (I used to bike to Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago sometimes and I really miss that), and we both had a really fun time looking at cute aminals. The dingoes kept trying to sniff and lick our hands through the glass of their enclosure.

So now I'm waiting to hear back on the job, and trying to be a bit less crazy. And making cookies. Right now, this moment, I am cooking cookies!

I am job searching. Oof.

The idea of a "narcotic nanny" for a tour group that visits Dutch coffeeshops is really funny. Absolutely not a job for me, but funny.

(In the Netherlands, you get coffee at a café. Coffeeshops sell weed.)

"Munchies Food Tour: Tour guide/storyteller/narcotic nanny
Hi!
We are Rachael and Alexandra, two female entrepreneurs and owners of the World's first Munchies Food Tour, a tour operator based in Amsterdam. Our mission is to give travellers who are curious about Amsterdam's coffeeshops and food a safe and fun space to be themselves, explore local culture, and experience an unforgettable time in Amsterdam. We do that through witty and high-quality small-group walking tours which combine two of Amsterdam's most iconic topics - coffeeshops and food. We work together with Amsterdam's best local eateries and coffeeshops like Boerejongens and Coffeeshop Amsterdam. Currently it’s high time for us to expand our team with a new guide/storyteller/narcotic nanny."