purpleglitter and I sat down to write a poem together. We each took turns writing a line or two. This is what we came up with:

Salamanders alcoholic salamanders crawling up my spine you might not like the sound of that but the feeling's quite divine they come up from the frothy mud the babes no bigger than a bud their tongues are soft their feet are wet ooh, how sexy can it get? the creatures squirm in mass lay their grease upon my knees, betwixt my thighs oh! what a tease! upon the moss i lay to sleep 'neith the boughs and manders leap i hope to wake among my friends, greeted by their salacious grins

Tuesday morning, riga_mortia and I set off for Plattsburgh, New York. We got out of the house very early, and made good time to South Station. The air seemed hopeful and the prospect of leaving the city for a few days was very exciting.

Things started to go wrong when we got to the ticket counter at Greyhound. They ended up charging us a rate several hundred dollars over what they had quoted us over the phone. Not knowing of any other choice, we forked over the cash.

Quickly, I realized I had forgotten my ID. Realizing that this meant that the trip would be much more problematic, we went decided to take the next bus out, and take a taxi back to riga_mortia’s house and pick up my ID.

My ID wasn’t at her house, and we were running out of time, so we called another taxi to run back to my house, as I was sure I must have left it there.

On the way out to the taxi, riga_mortia had a nasty fall onto an evil metal thing laying on the sidewalk. She ended up with a nasty looking wound on her knee. I got our luggage together and she limped into the taxi.

My ID wasn’t at my house either. To add to the fun, we quickly discovered that riga_mortia had left her purse in the taxi.

grrldan arrived home and offered his help. And what a wonderful help he was. He patched up riga_mortia’s knee very skillfully and made us both much-needed cosmopolitans.

I decided to call the liquor store I had gone to the night before, in a last hope that it was where I lost my ID. I got on my computer to get the number for the store and found that my monitor had completely died.

grrldan looked up the number for me on his computer. However, when I called, I was told that my ID wasn’t there either.

Giving up on my ID, we called the taxi company and asked about riga_mortia’s purse. They had it and grrldan said he would give us a ride to retrieve it as well as anywhere else we needed to go. I can’t thank him enough for all the help he was to us.

riga_mortia and I figured out that it would actually be cheaper to rent a car and drive it to Plattsburgh than to take the bus, even with the 15% charge for returning the tickets. So, we called up several rental places to get a car. However, no one would rent us a car, because I don’t have a credit card or my own auto insurance (either one would have worked) and riga_mortia is under 25 and only has a permit.

We worked out a plan with katia25 (riga_mortia’s stepmother). We would wire her the money to rent a car. She would rent it, drive from Plattsburgh to Boston then drive us back up to Plattsburgh.

First thing was first, the tickets and the taxis had wiped out our cash reserves. We needed to go to my bank. As I had lost my bankcard the week before, and now didn’t have my ID, I wrote grrldan a check for the money I needed and he ran into the bank to cash it. A few minutes later, he came out and told me the people in the bank wanted to talk to me inside.

They told me that my check was suspect, because it was written out of sequence (another symptom of my absentmindedness). However, they had my signature card on file at the bank, and I was able to get the money out myself.

Next stop was Stop and Shop to wire the funds for the car. Again, grrldan came to the rescue. As the only one with an ID at that point, he had to be the one to actually send the money on its way.

After Stop and Shop, we went to the Yellow Cab office. On the journey there, we encountered a traffic jam. After waiting about 15 minutes in the baking sun, traffic began to move again, and we got riga_mortia’s purse.

Before he had to be on his way for his own scheduled activities for the day, grrldan dropped us off at the DMV so that I could get a temporary license for the trip.

When katia25 arrived, we grabbed our stuff and piled into the car. Our troubles were over, or so we thought.

We quickly got lost in Vermont. We spent a long time on the empty highways in the land of moose and bumps. After wandering and wandering, we found a hotel and asked for directions. We apparently missed our turn by an hour and a half. Instead of having to back track, we were directed on an alternative route. All in all, the 3 hour trip ended up taking more than 6, and by the time it was over both riga_mortia and I were both feeling slightly ill.

We checked into our hotel, only to find that it was a complete pit. It was more of a no-tell motel than anything else. The one redeeming quality, is that it had a rustic Bonnie and Clyde feel to it. I felt that the feds would be breaking in the door any minute.

In the morning, we carted ourselves over to the Super 8. A little more pricey, but a lot less shitty. At this point we both realized that the slightly ill we felt the night before was not going to simply go away. The slightly ill had definite plans of being more than slightly.

In the very late afternoon, we finally got over to see riga_mortia’s family. They were all very accepting and nice. I got along with all of them very well. We all got quite floopy, and Chantea (riga_mortia’s sister) got quite a bit too floopy.

katia25 dropped us off near the beach, where riga_mortia and I splashed together on the beautiful shores of Lake Champlain. It was probably the most beautiful part of the entire trip, however being wet in the chilly night air probably didn’t help us with our developing colds.

By the time we woke up the next morning, both riga_mortia and I were really feeling sick. Not only that, having spent so much time in close quarters with all the stress of the trip, we starting to get on each other’s nerves. We never yelled, but we definitely weren’t getting along very well.

Pat (riga_mortia’s dad) and katia25 took us to Ponderosa in the afternoon. I was worried there wouldn’t be anything to eat, but to my surprise the buffet had a selection of vegetarian options.

The food did not sit well with riga_mortia, who was rapidly getting more ill than me. She ended up getting sick all over the bathroom of Ponderosa. Afterwards, we went back to the hotel so she could get some rest.

In the evening, we went back to katia25’s and Pat’s house and watched The Way of the Gun with Ryan Phillippe. I enjoyed the movie, and definitely recommend it.

Back at the hotel we decided that with both of us feeling ill and the trip generally not going very well, that we should head back home Friday as originally planned, instead of Saturday morning as we had been considering.

On the ferry across Lake Champlain on the way home, I decided to take a picture of the mountains above the water. Of course, I dropped the camera. It bounced off the deck, and I watched in slow motion as it splashed into the water below. At least it wasn’t the one I had taken the pictures on earlier in the trip.

Back in Boston, I hoped that we could finally relax, but new drama has come forward. Things just don’t seem to settle down nowadays. Like the Energizer bunny, it just keeps going and going and going.

Yesterday, grrldan took me to a free conference for transgender folk put on by the Fenway. He told me that there would be information about therapy options there.

I was very disappointed to find that none of the many tables were offering information on therapists. However, I networked with the other people at the conference. I met another trans multiple system. I was also introduced to a social worker at J.R.I. that told me that she could work with me to help me find a therapist. Since she's dealt with both trans people and multiple systems before, I believe that if there are any recourse out there for us, she'll have access to them.

grrldan also convinced me to go to an IMPACT Model Mugging workshop at the conference. I'm very glad I went, even though it was very difficult at points.

I broke down into a full fledge cry after the "mugger" said some very personally painful transphobic things to me. They needed to create a realistic situation, and they did. There have been so many times that exact scene has happened to me in real life. I'm very proud that I was able to keep my hands in front of me and repeat "Back off!" louder and louder until he left me alone. I didn't know my voice could get so loud. I didn't break down until after it was over.

I pulled myself together before the physical training part of the workshop began. I was taught a powerful eye strike technique as well as how to knee somebody really hard. There was only time for a few people to practice the physical techniques with the incredibly padded mugger. I felt it very important to be one of those people, after my breakdown. I think that the instructors could see that, and they allowed me to be one.

Practicing, I was amazed that I was actually able to lift someone from the ground with a proper knee to the crotch. I imagine it would probably be effective at dissuading an attacker. I felt a wonderful self esteem boost after leaving the workshop. I felt that if I am attacked on the street (which isn't something that is at all unlikely), I'll have at least a fighting chance at making it though.

I'm going to take the 20 hour course they're offering in October specifically geared to mtfs. It's a couple hundred dollars, but amazingly, at this point in time, I can afford it. I was disappoint that there are going to be separate classes mtfs and ftms. While I think there are many good reasons for the classes to be separate, I wanted to try to convince grrldan to go with me. It was so nice to have him there, especially when I had my break down, and he seemed to enjoy the workshop as well.

Bebe just walked in the door. She say's that they didn't send her to rehab. That she spent the whole week in the hospital. They didn't have any beds at rehab. She told me she is planning to go into rehab as soon as a bed becomes available. She told me that they spent most of the week checking out her foot, ankle, and knee from her skiing accident a month ago.

I thought it was odd that they'd release her so late, so I asked her what time she was released. She told me that she was released in the afternoon and it took her all this time to get home. Home is two bus rides, so I'm dubious. Her story seems a little shaky, but I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.

I just hope for her sake, after all this, that she's not going to just pick up where she left off in the realm of drinking.