Decidedly Obscure Human Complaints.

I love San Diego, California with all of the beaches, perfect weather, and water. It's extremely refreshing and beautiful. Especially for a native of Utah, where beaches and unsalted water are a novelty. Sunshine. Joggers. Beach. Waves. Surfers. Dog walking galore. A DOG BEACH. An actual downtown with pedestrians and night life. On and on. I just went on a road trip there with three friends of mine - Erin, Jude, and Autumn. One night we stuffed ourselves silly with delicious Thai food prior to our plans to go dancing at a lesbian club. On our way we stumbled a really neat, independent CD store. I found numerous CDs I remember owning back in my junior high school days - for instance, from the Cranberries, Salt n' Peppa, and Crash Test Dummies. While basking in nostalgia city, the Thai food hit me like a crashing wave slapping against rocks. I darted off to the employee and asked him, the urgency in my face, if there was a restroom I could use. He was a reluctant. He relaye...

Article in Next magazine: It’s a cold Friday in March and I’m trudging out to Sugarland for a party. Original Plumbing, a quarterly magazine celebrating trans male culture, just published its second issue and the editors have flown in from San Francisco for an East Coast celebration. After warming up with a drink, I find myself jostling through a sea of flesh. Read more  >

Earlier today I had my first day of work as a barista down at the Utah Pride Center's Cafe Marmalade. Slinging coffee is a definite change of pace for a tech geek like myself, but I've caught on quick enough. Right after my shift ended I peddled across town to Costco for an eye appointment. I got there right in the knick of time, eyes all blood-shot from expresso shot testing (part of the training process and another story entirely) and red-faced sweaty. The receptionist handed me some paperwork to fill out. Once I had that completed, she requested my membership card which has my full first name on it - Melanie. This prompted her to ask how I pronounce my first name. In that moment and on the spot amongst strangers galore, I replied, "Mel-on-eye." I told her that I prefer Mel. And just like that, she asked no further questions. After waiting for a few minutes the doctor called me in, tested my eyes, said something about how phobia of contacts-vs-glasses is more ...

You'd think, by now, that the DMV would have a more efficient process for funneling people in and out. Long, tedious and torturous story short, I bicycled to the DMV earlier today to acquire a learners permit. As I mentioned before, I've never had a drivers license. Even though I got A's in my high school driving course, I ended up with an incomplete at the end of the semester after showing up late three times. Since I bicycle and have never had a desire to own a car, I never took it upon myself to jump through any driver license hoops. But I finally ended up wanting one now that there's a car share program in Salt Lake City. With this schnazzy program, there are cars parked in various spots around the city and members can reserve one, use their card to get into the car, "rent" it for a few hours or a day, and then park it where they picked it up. Having this option could come in handy. On my way to the DMV I considered stopping at a gas station to empty m...

Look who was interviewed on CNN last night: I thought that Chaz handled himself phenomenally well. I can't imagine how uncomfortable it would be to talk about something so personal on a conservative news program being aired to millions of people. I also noticed and appreciated how Chaz relayed his own experience gender-wise, like saying, "I wore exclusively male clothing...", but then re-directed the focus, explaining the agony of disconnect, "... lived a lot of my life in my head. It wasn't connected to my body.", and how he went on to ask how Anderson Cooper may feel if he were to wake up tomorrow in a woman's body. I like this, because the gender component is something that is entirely separate from what's described as the "disconnect", the - in my own experience - hard-wired brain map which seems to be mismatched. There are trans men who are hyper-feminine in their gender expression, for example; but who also transition to match...

One of my greatest concerns with the aesthetic changes associated with hormone therapy? Ending up in male-only spaces, like locker rooms and public restrooms. Why? Because apparently individuals in these spaces have the potential to be downright weird, bizarre, and creepy. Just yesterday I spent some time studying at the downtown library. Eventually, I had to use the restroom. There were a few stalls leading back to a fourth, larger stall. Since the restroom only had one occupant (a guy sitting in the stall directly next to the larger stall), I darted to the larger stall. As I engaged in my business, my phone vibrated. I checked it, selected "ignore" with the intention to call them back - and then I noticed something unusual in my peripheral vision. I caught a glimpse of activity beneath the stall divider to my left, near the floor. It looked like the top of a head, upside down, darting up quickly. What!? I was stunned. And stuck, wishing that I could just stop ...

Taking a road trip to San Diego was so refreshing and much-needed. I'll post more about it with pictures in the near future. Earlier today Jude and I went in to a local pharmacy for our h1n1 and flu vaccinations - FINALLY. I've been lazy and negligent about it all flu season. After seeing so many fall like flu-ridden flies around me, I was compelled to finally prioritize vaccination and dragged hir with me. Jude has health insurance and I don't, but we both ended up paying the same amount since, for some reason (they always think of something, don't they?), hiz insurance refused to pay it. And then came the paperwork. Like most medical paperwork, there was a section asking about gender with two options: O male O female . I circled " female ". I don't appear female-typical, but I circled it out of just randomly picking between the two. They also asked about allergies, pregnancy, and so on - and one portion asked about medications; including "...