IDKE EEEEEEEEEEE!!!

OMG the International Drag King Extravaganza has hit Tucson! It was so amazing and inspirational. Drag King Aidan Justus convinced me to perform, so Damien Chase hit the stage with a punk cover of 500 Miles. My partner made me a kilt out of an old pair of cargo shorts and I made a shirt that says, "Mom, Dad, I'm Gaelic." I also rocked a mohawk with lines in the side. I look kinda bada$$ and adorable at the same time. lol. I'm not sure how good all the other performers thought it was, but my friends liked it and it felt awesome to perform again. I think I might try to hook up with one of the troupes in town and do it some more. Something interesting is that my drag numbers seem to all turn out pretty masculine and I'm a pretty femmey guy in real life. I guess that's why it's performance, but I would like to do some more prancy gender-bendy pieces sometime. I don't want to do the same thing every time. The workshops and stuff were cool too and I have a bit of a boi crush on Jac Stringer (aka Jac McFaggin'). The purple/pink hair and the sparkly cons make me swoon. There were so many gorgeous people there. I'm a bit sad IDKE is over now, but at least I can finally get a good night's sleep =:-)

TransForm AZ

I just got back from the TransForm Arizona conference in Phoenix and had a really great time. It wasn't as big & fancy as Southern Comfort, but I met a lot of great people and it was a more close-knit type of unifying energy. Everyone, including the speakers and performers, were very friendly and down-to-earth. I wish that there were more young people and more non-trans people at the conference, so hopefully next year will be even better and we can work on more concrete strategies for uniting the T with the LGB!

Old Folks Home

I had my first day of docent training at Tohono Chul Park today. It's basically an outdoor museum with lots of awesome gardens, cool plants, & wild animals. The training program is 18 weeks long and it will certainly be a challenge learning all the names of the creatures and plants of the desert so that I can give excellent tours. I'm by far the youngest in the class. There is one lady in her late 30's and most everyone else is a retiree. One lady mentioned to me that I must feel like I walked into an old folks home and I was like, "Oh, I'm used to being the youngest person in a group. I do craft projects at the library." LOL. I hope that doesn't make me sound too weird. Anyway... They are definitely an interesting group and our trainer is super funny & goofy, so class is interesting. There is a lot of reading and a lot to take in, but the grounds are beautiful and I think this will be good.

Time to Dye

I'm not new to dying my hair. It's been all sorts of colors over the years, but I've always gone lighter than my natural color. So, I thought it might be fun to go dark. I got some $3 blue/black hair dye from Wally-World and got the brilliant idea that maybe I could dye my facial hair too in order for it to stand out more (it's pretty pre-pubescent). So, I successfully dyed my hair, my facial hair, and all of the surrounding skin of my "sideburns." Brilliant! I expected that might happen, so now I have to wash the dye off my face sometime before I have to go to work and be around people. My hair is kinda shaggy in the front, so everyone thinks I look like one of the Beatles at the moment. Fun fun!

Trained Monkey with Lasers

Oh man, I am soooo tired. I had to go out of town last night for an inventory at the Victoria's Secret in Sierra Vista. So many panties.. So many panties.. I never want to see another pair of panties.. or huge bras. I didn't get back home until 3am (I was at the meet site at 4pm!) and I had to work at the bookstore at 11 this morning. Need to sleep.

Random awesome things that happened lately: I got a super nice new bike! I got a free bike at the bike coop (BICAS) when I moved here, but it was pretty bad & it was sucky to get to work, so I found a nice one at Boutique Targay and it's gonna be sweet! I'm excited to ride with the LGBT bicycle group on Sundays soon =;-)

Also, Octopussy got a bunny today named Umlaut. Ze is the sweetest things & is super cute and soft. Oh, and my sister's 2 boy hamsters had babies the other day. Yay pets!

Extra Long Chili Cheese Dogs

I currently live in a hobbit hole house in a beautiful apartment complex surrounded by mountains. I live here with my partner, her good friend, "Octopussy," and her boy toy, "Hunter." My partner and I also have a shelter kitty named Cricket. Today was Hunter's 20th birthday and we celebrated by going to Sonic and getting extra long chili cheese dogs. ugh. I may die.

Being a Scanner

Nope, this isn't about RGIS. This is about my being interested in so many things. I'm currently reading a book called, "Refuse to Choose," and it's about how people with many fleeting interests aren't flawed, they're just wired to be renaissance people. This is why I have a hard time sticking with something. I'm not ADD or lazy. I'm just not interested after I've learned whatever it is I wanted to know. I want to be good at many things, not just one or two. I want to be a professional student and the world needs to stop telling me to focus and get a decent job. I can't picture myself doing anything for 20+ years. So, I'm going to try to follow my passions (however impulsive & temporary they may be) and write about them here. I'm going to own my adventures instead of feeling bad about not seeing things through. I have a notebook that I'm using to try and identify my interests and my reasons for thinking the way that I do. So, I may write about that from time to time in this blog since I can type a lot faster than I can write by hand.

Work

Since moving to Tucson, a lot of my time has been spent trying to find a job. I have some savings, but I'd like to not go in debt while I'm having adventures. I've been job hunting since July, but nothing came out of it until early September. I spent less than 2 weeks working for the City of Tucson doing early morning maintenance at Silverbell Golf Course. It was pretty fun and a very beautiful place to work, but I had to start work at 4am and use my partner's car because it was too far for me to bike. Everyday I came to work, my boss would look at me and say "Oh, you're still here?" So, I didn't feel too bad leaving. I would have stayed a bit longer, but I got another job that started early in the morning.

My partner and I both got hired at RGIS Inventory Specialists. It's kind of a sucky job where we have to count every piece of merchandise in the store, but we do get to wear LASERS, which is pretty bada$$. I'm super fast because I've worked for them about 5 years ago in Tallahassee and know what to expect. Hopefully I'll get promoted to the next pay level soon. I never want to be management, but it would be awesome to get paid more for scanning fast. Since RGIS is variable time and piecemeal, I did need another more stable job.

I finally got hired at a bookstore as a barista. It's only seasonal for now, but hopefully they'll like me and make me permanent after the holidays. I have orientation and cafe training this week, so we'll see how that goes. I'm super excited about the benefits. I can take out books on loan, take home promo books for free, and get a 33% discount on most everything in the store! I can also bike to work, which will be fun I think. So, I'm going to do the bookstore job mostly and RGIS on the side. I can't help but still be on the lookout for more jobs, even though I have enough for now. I'm just interested in so many things, but I'll explain more about that in another post.

My partner got a part-time AmeriCorps job teaching kids about water in the desert. I think that will be awesome! What would be even more awesome is if one of my roommates gets a job at Jamba Juice. Umm Yumm!!!

Adventure

I grew up in upstate NY, went to school in Tallahassee, FL and now decided to randomly move to Tucson, AZ just because I've never lived in the desert. This blog will contain stories from my travels, interesting things I've learned, life updates, and anything else I feel like writing about. Here we go!