Odds and Ends

I've used my solitude to the fullest to celebrate my 32nd birthday, and in the process, explore things relevant to Sarah's story. Here are some things that happened:

• Hung out at Oxwood Inn's Shine transgender nightclub, where I socialized with lots of people - including a Los Angeles Gender Center based group named Social Butterflies. I signed up for their email list.
• Collected information on TransUnity events coming up at the end of the month.
• Enjoyed LGBT-themed humor from Margaret Cho.
• Attended service at Neighborhood Unitarian Church in Pasadena, which had been very vocal about its support of gay marriage. In fact, today's service felt a lot like a wedding in itself, in honor of marriage equality.
• Went to belly dancing festival in Glendale. Belly dancing doesn't have much to do with my novel, except that my mentor Gayle Brandeis was one of the performers (see the blurry iPhone photo below). We caught up on our life stories, and talked about our current class together. Gayle's suggestion: send Sarah to a belly dancing festival (even though she won't dance herself), to work on her distrust of homophobic Middle Eastern cultures. I'll give it a try - when Sarah's airline starts flying to Dubai and Sarah works the route. I truly enjoyed the experience myself.

Saahira's Gypsy Soul performing

• Gayle also told me that her sister-in-law is working on a transgender novel of sorts, herself, centering around a baby with ambiguous genitals who is "corrected" to be a girl. I'd love to read that someday.
  

I'm practically knocked out now, but I enjoyed the weekend, and look forward to more.

One bad news though - I tore the crotch on the inner liner of my favorite pair of slacks (part of a 3-piece J. Crew suit), just before I took them off. I guess I don't have a pantsuit anymore...