A 27-year-old man from Ethiopia was arraigned today at East Boston District Court on a charge that he made a false threat to "blow things up" at Logan International Airport. Ermiyaf A. Asfaw, a taxi driver who lives in Washington, D.C., walked up to an AirTran check-in counter Saturday night and was asked by an agent why he had stickers on his luggage from Dubai. Asfaw responded that he had been there. The agent asked, "Were you there on business or pleasure?" According to prosecutors, Asfaw responded: "No. I'm Al Qaeda. I'm with them, and I'm here to blow things up." The agent responded that his statement was not funny and was against the law. Asfaw laughed, prosecutors said, and walked away from the counter. The ticket agent alerted a supervisor, who notified State Police. full story

What is it about Boston that attracts this special brand of idiocy? Sure, maybe the agent's questions were invasive, but I knew when I was 6 not to joke about bombs at an airport. They take these things very seriously. This is not some new post-911 thing, this is the way it's been as long as there has been high traffic commercial airports.

I just have to wonder "What the hell was she thinking?" She was asked by an airport employee about the strange device she was wearing and walked away. What did she expect to happen? People who are already blaming the police for this should put themselves in their shoes: they didn't know what the device or the putty she was carrying was and she refused to answer questions about it. What were they supposed to do? She's lucky be alive after a stunt like that. Use some common sense.

I'm back in Boston. I had a great deal of fun with My sister, niece, brother-in-law, and mom. Maddie is a little ball of energy. Well, not little, she's quite big for a 7 year old. Smart and creative, but I just can't keep up with her.

The day I arrived, Thursday, we pretty much stayed around the house and relaxed. My mom had already been there for several days and was already settled in.

Friday, Christian stayed home while Maddie, Bridgette, my mom, and I went down to Georgetown. We hit Lush and Godiva and went to Dean & Deluca for lunch. While I've seen central meter machines in parking lots, I'd never seen a central machine for street parking before. I guess it is more efficient than having a separate parking meter for each spot, I'm just not used to it. The biggest disadvantage I see with the central machine system is that if it breaks down it disrupts the use of a number of parking spots at once.

Saturday we drove into Virginia through wine country and went to Linden Vineyards (nothing to do with Second Live). That was my favorite part of the trip down. Relaxing doesn't even begin to describe the place. Surrounded by rows of grapes and vine watching the clouds shadow-dance on the Blue Ridge Mountains. The cigar Christian gave me to smoke at the vineyard not only went perfectly with the cheese and wine, but also with the surrounding tranquility.

Sunday, I got up later than I had planned, but not so late that it caused any hassle in catching my flight. Upon leaving, Christian gave me some cigars, along with a 15-pack of Rocky Patel vintage 1992s, one of my favorites. My mom gave me a wonderful dragon cane when I arrived at the house and I was a bit worried about getting on the flight with 2 canes, but I didn't have any hassle and the return trip from Reagan National to Logan went smoothly.

I had hoped to get some good bird pictures, but unfortunately my birding camera is not working. I noticed it my first day there. It seems to be a connection problem with the battery prongs, which should be repairable. But, I was glad to see that Maddie loved birds and birdwatching despite her father's hatred of them.

Heading off shortly. I'm a bit worried about the possibility of falling at the airport. I've been having less vertigo episodes the last couple weeks, but I'm still having at least one severe one daily and I won't have a staff or cane with me at the airport. Most of my time at the airport will be spent sitting and if I'm sitting an episode won't be a problem, so my chances of a good trip are pretty high. Nevertheless, I'm worried. I don't want a huge hassle at the airport. Nothing I can do about it though. Qué será, será.

I arrived back in Boston yesterday afternoon. The trip home was relatively uneventful. My flight left St. Louis at 7:05, and I have found that morning travelers tend to be far less eager to strike up a conversation than evening travelers.

I saw my Uncle Dizz for the first time in many years, Thursday. When he saw me he exclaimed "Haven't seen you in a long time. You've got breasts!". He's a very nice guy, who is apparently doing quite well these days. It was nice talking to him again, even if my visit to his house was brief.

That evening I stayed up until 2am talking with my mom on the back porch. We discussed many difficult issues and I still feel a bit not-here, but I'm glad we had the talk.

purpleglitter, zarthon and I were planning to go to a reading by Augusten Burroughs yesterday evening, but I was far too exhausted having only slept 2 hours the previous night. Maybe some other time.

I wasn't doing well yesterday before I got to the airport, and when I realized I didn't have the correct information with me after purpleglitter dropped me off, I broke down. However, I called purpleglitter who connected me with my mom on a conference call via purpleglitter's cell phone and I got the information I needed.

From that point on, the trip went pretty smoothly. The people on the planes and at the airports were extremely nice to me. I was worried about going through security as a dissident tranny, but I passed without any problems. Perhaps that I was dressed conservatively and pass well these days helped in that regard.

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Jonas is extremely cute. He knows his states and can say the alphabet and count to 100 both in English and Spanish. He just turned 2 last month, and he's wikkid smaht. I'm going to introduce him to Indian food this afternoon, we will be having methi mutter malai for lunch.

I'm leaving for the airport right now.

i see my endocrinologist yesterday. since she is in the same hospital system, she looked up my eeg results for me. they came back normal. i'm not very hopeful about my upcoming neurology appointment tomorrow. even though it often takes a series of eegs to find seizure activity, with the problems i already have had with people dismissing me because of my psych record i'm almost convinced that it will inevitably happen again tomorrow. i don't even feel like going at this point. i'm processing so many things right now to deal with another asshole in the medical system. however, if i don't go i might not have another shot for a long time.

my endocrinologist stated that she was hesitant to give me my scripts if i wasn't seeing a therapist and told me she was concerned that i didn't want to take the psych meds the doctors on the psych ward wanted to give me. i reminded her that she had given me scripts before when i was without therapy and she did end up writing them.

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i had canceled my thanksgiving trip to missouri as i did not think with my current problems that i should be flying. not because i think the traveling itself would be unsafe; but because with me twitching, falling to the ground, and becoming unresponsive i might attract a large degree of unwanted attention from airport security. couple that with being a left-wing radical tranny and i'd in for a bad time.

i am not going to attempt to go to my grandmother's funeral in chicago. even if i wasn't concerned about security, i neither have the means or a stable enough mental state to make the trip.

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my therapist called this morning asking if my decision to quit therapy was firm. i wasn't feeling particularly together when she called and couldn't really give a definitive answer to her. she is going to call me monday to check in on me and find out if i've changed my mind. i'm torn, because while therapy might be a good thing right now, being involved with the psych system is negatively impacting my medical care. i'm not quite sure what path to take on anything right now. everything seems to be stirred up, inside and out. i need to get away from everything.

i've been up for about an hour and a half
early to bed, early to rise
i usually take two or three naps during the day
my meds make me tired
so i sleep more than i used to
i don't know about my sleep schedule
part of me likes being up so early in the morning
but another side of me likes being up late at night
unfortunately, unless one stays up all night, it's hard to have both

in 8 days i'll be boarding a plane for missouri
that's a day i'll have to be up in the morning
i need to get a new id before that
mine has expired
i'm worried about getting shit about that at the airport

i want to write at least one poem today
i haven't been writing near enough poetry lately
just haven't been too inspired
i need to go sit somewhere and just look and feel and write
they're doing work on the grounds around spy pond, so that isn't a good place to go right now
maybe i could head to the great meadow or mount auburn
or go people watching in harvard square or davis square
i've become too addicted to cut-ups as a creative inspiration
i need to branch out