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Girlyman's concert at Passim last night was one of the best of their shows that I've been to.  They sounded amazing, and given that I've been listening to their new songs as recorded live at Passim for the past several months, I think I can say confidently that they were better last night, something was just right about it.

Of course, they were also hysterical and charming as always.  Nate was telling a story about seeing Mario Battali in NYC, and somehow salivary glands came up, and Ty said she didn't like talking about glands, so could we move on. Then of course, Nate insisted on singing a tuning song about glands.  It all got very silly and Ty decided to cut it off by saying "This is a song about YOUR glands!"  and broke into singing Young James Dean.  Whoah.  That was intimate.  I blushed, I thought Maria was going to faint.  Somehow later there was a discussion about whether or not nipples were glands, and Ty said she tought they were nipple glands, then she got ridiculously embarrassed about having said those two words together on stage.  It was a bit ironic because the entire show was like a Ty flexes her flirt show - she was shameless in a way I've never seen her before, she's usually subtle and a bit shy, but she was in rare form last night.  Ok, maybe that's why it was my favorite show yet. :)

Lisa, Maria, Julia and I go back for show #2 tonight!  Hopefully I won't drop my cell phone in the MBTA stairway gutter again tonight, although I did make a new friend in the MBTA employee who helped me pry open the grate and fish out my phone.  Never boring, often flawed, that's me.

So Elinore is a first year med student at Harvard.  She's doing a little project interviewing physicians asking 1- If they've ever treated a transgender, genderqueer, or gender variant patient. 2- Did/would they feel they had the adequate training to treat that patient? 3-What kind of training would they like to help them if they did have a trans or genderqueer patient?  This one physician said no, he had never had a trans patient, but he was very interested in her project because he is an HRC member.  Huh.  A little googling revealed that this doctor is the parent of a trans adult child.  So why would he think that dropping the HRC membership would signify a level of understanding, and moreover why would that be more significant than talking about his own child?  Certainly there are a million reasons why he might not have wanted to talk about his child, he may be closeted about it, may have been in the wrong place to discuss it, etc.  However, the five of us who were there as Elinore talked about this instance were truly puzzled that people who belong to the queer community don't have a clue that the HRC has a long history of not being trans-inclusive, and that the HRC is an organization that alienates and offends a vast portion of the queer community. 

Last night, Maria and I were at the Girlyman concert, which was fantastic, as is their new album to which I am listening right now.  All that aside, someone saw Maria's old school Girlyman t-shirt and came up to her after the show.  He said, "You've been a Girlyman fan for a long time haven't you?"  She said yes and he replied, "Then you know Ty's real name, don't you?"  WTF?!?!  Her real name is Ty, because that's the name she uses.  Period. 

So, what's the deal?  How has it gotten so bad that the visibility campaigns for LGBT rights have misrepresented so much of our community for so long that most people who try to do the right thing and be allies end up being offensive?  It angers me that so many people out there want to access information, want to show their support, be active, and create change, but the organizations that most people know to go to are so wildly out of whack with most of the actual queer community that it ends of diminishing the trust people are trying so hard to build. 

So then on my way to work today I saw the local paper in which the cover story is how Kennedy announced he "supports ENDA even in spite of the exclusion of transgender people."  Honestly.  Thanks.  Way to throw the baby out with the bathwater.  I am making a bit of a leap to say it is that queer visibility orgs are to blame... but I think I am right.  I'm going to do a little research and get back to you on that.

I headed over to Dad and Jim's place after a lovely nap, and we took the bus over to have dinner at Blu in the Ritz.  Since its restaurant week the dads did it up with three courses each, I had soup, and panna cotta - it turns out I'm just a girl who can't say no.  To dessert.

Then we were off to the theatre for Avenue Q, with most of the Broadway cast, it was hysterical, sweet, moving, raunchy, you know, like any good night out with dads. 

So then it was on to Encore - a fun little piano bar in the theater district - for drinks and a little cabaret.  I was on cloud nine with the evening already, but then to hear a fierce rendition of "When You're Good to Mama" from Chicago and a bluesy version of "On the Street Where You Live" from My Fair Lady, I was in heaven.  And then John Ambrosino came in.  And then Jordan Somethingerother who played Zanna in the Speak Easy's production of Zanna Don't came to the door.  I grabbed my dad's arm and said "It's Zanna!"  He saw me doing this and he came right up to me and introduced himself.  I was swooning - I mean Zanna is the most famous COLAGE type character ever and he rocked the part. 

We shivered our way home, and Jim was off to East Longmeadow for Easter and Dad was off to NYC for a memorial cocktail party for a friend's cat, Fluffy.  Oh yes.  And me?  Off to the cinema to see Horton Hears a Who. 

It is Spring.  It is sunny.  It is freezing and windy.  I'll take two out of three.

All things promising seem to be in the air... I hope.

Obama did as well as anyone could have hoped addressing the current realities of racism in America.  To hear a politician say that segregated schools are inferior and that now, 50 years after Brown vs Board of Ed - isn't it about 53 years? - that we haven't fixed it, well, that just about gave me faith that politicians care.  To shed my bitter sarcasm for just a moment, it is thrilling to hear a politician with just about everything at stake, in what was potentially the most significant moment of his career, refuse to bow to the trend that the only thing politicians can criticize is each other. 

I believe that Americans and probably Westerners on the whole, have a distorted understanding of Tibetan relations with China, and I absolutely include myself in that.  I do not presume to understand what is really at stake, but to see Speaker Pelosi once again step up with her measured yet direct concern, thoughtful and insightful suggestions and advice, is wildly refreshing.  I am smitten with her.

And what would a bright sun-shiney day be without having woken up to a girlyman email announcing that I can buy the new 29-track (!!!!!) album at their concert on 4/2? 

Oh yes, and this week was only three days long.  And!  Mike and Francois have courageously taken over one of my major responsibilities to ease my March Madness, and are doing an amazing job with it, totally showing me up, I am thrilled about it. 

Going to Avenue Q tonight!  And...the free tickets to Broadway in Boston and a night at the theatre with Daddio and Jimmy are exactly why living near my dad is something I'll never give up.

Things that didn't make into round one if the gush post:

a- (or should it be 1 prime? - 1 squared?)  I took a sneak peak at the units next door to my condo, all part of the same development, but i was phase one, they are phase two (two more to go after that).  They are slightly bigger than mine, and some will have garage parking, and going for 50 -90k more than mine.  I didn't like any of them as much as mine.  I have a deck, a loft, and two stories plus the third floor loft.  They were square little flats, they had a deeper tub, higher cielings, and more closet space.  On the other hand they felt smaller since there were no halls or stairs, and they were rather generic and usual units.  Its nice to feel like you did well on the biggest deal of your life. 

b- (I'm just going to go with the letters) Pure food and wine IS opening a cafe in Boston - hooray!  It will be in Wellesley which is quite a schlep - but it'll be worth and, and easier than a trip to NYC.

There's more, I just can't remember it at the moment... Just like before.

The title of this blog entry also happens to be the title of my favorite Elinor Lipman beach read - read it, its a blast.

So its Shura's birthday today, and I think I'll take this moment to do a little of what she and I do best together:

Bitch.

Democrats:  People, its a game, it takes a strategy, you have to play to win.  Y/our endearment for the underdog is charming, but it is also the reason the reason you/we ALWAYS end up as one.  Clinton can't beat McCain even with his nail-in-the-coffin endorsement from Bush.  She's flailing.  She's complaining about Obama's campaign of rhetoric, but it seems someone forgot to tell her that politics and rhetoric are synonymous.  Meanwhile - her entire campaign is to slander him these days.  Obama's current message: You're still here?  So democrats, read the writing on the wall, unite behind the winner, play to win, get it done, use a strategy.  It isn't rocket science.

Work: When your boss announces he is retiring, no matter what their rapport at work it, it puts things into an urgent state.  March is hell for me at work, I have SIMS reports due at the beginning and end of the month, and MCAS stuck in the middle, plus preparing for our midcycle review in early April.  Now that the head of school is leaving, everyone is scrambling to get their contracts in order, we are working to get the architecture for our new site set in stone, get the deal on the building done, etc.  In short, its nutty, I've had the flu, and really, I'm not sure I want to be burdened with all this high stakes transition stuff on top of my regularly insane job.

And the family drama in light of the upcoming wedding is guaranteed to inspire a made for tv movie on lifetime.  I'm not even going to get into it, its painful, its sad, its heartbreaking, and its ridiculously cruel.  I f-ing hate it.

Ok, there.  Got it out.  Tomorrow I'll have lots of gushy good things to say.  Promise.

I can always count on Aaron to provide me with an opinion, if nothing else, as illustrated by our emails below:

On 2/25/08, Elizabeth Castellana wrote:
your opinion:
cove molding or crown molding?

i think i'm leaning toward cove, its softer and more gentle looking.
your thoughts?

On 2/25/08, Aaron Follett wrote:

cove + recessed + modern=good=happy=clean=godliness=yes.  crown=bad=shame=dirt=no.

So... phew I guess I was leaning in the right direction.  He makes it so simple, what a peach.  I love that my leaning was toward godliness.  I wonder what he'll think of my new "Keep calm and carry on" poster in baby pink - so uber trendy it hurts.

I am sick, and I blame Ralph Nader.

I have been marveling, and knocking on wood about how virus-free I have been this cold and flu season, but alas, I seem to have been caught by the flu.  That's right, I didn't catch it, it caught me, I tried to outrun it but here I am with a high fever, bad headache, and weird intense body aches.  Argh.

And... I blame Ralph Nader, he makes me want to ralph, and here I am, sick as a dog.  Honestly, running for president?  Didn't you punish the world enough in 2000? And ever since, I might add?  What kind of arrogant, self-aggrandizing, pompous, short-sighted loser doesn't think there's a better way to leverage the system to make a subversive point?  Eight years of war, bloodshed, economic decline and international humiliation didn't convince you that the presidential election just might not be the venue through which to make your point?  There's something seriously wrong with you Ralph.  I think you might just be the world's biggest hypocrite.  Yup.  There it is, I said it.  You really piss me off.  You believe in the little guy but you are totally willing to screw over the world so you can play political chess in what is a game to you, and has perceptibly real implications for our welfare to us  - those little guys you love to claim to be on the side of.  Way to stand up for the little guy, dickhead.   You suck.  And I'm sick.