After a quick thumbs up from my doctor on all physical counts and test scores on Monday morning I hopped into my sterling silver Chevy Prizm, loaded with kick-ass tunes, a six pick of iced down diet pepsi, and a large bag of Skittles and headed south. Sol was smiling brightly down on us high up in the sky and a slight waft of spring air was just creeping into the area as I departed for a casual week amid the warmer climes and battleground sites of the nineteenth century north-south borderlands.
Eight hours later, after having survived the grueling maze-like construction zones of Harrisburg, a lightning quick excursion into a shady-looking Germantown Taco Bell, and a by then roiling stomachful of sugar-soaked candy, I idled into my aunt's NW DC abode. After taking my aunt out for some Thai food in appreciation for hosting a majority of my visit, I slept with the angels until a 7 am alarm to start a long week of library conference workshops and presentations. Uuuuggghhhh! Actually, I learned a great deal at the conference, but 4 days was waaaaayyyyyy to long!
On a side note, on Tuesday, after taking part in an 8 hour workshop, I got a somewhat close-up view of Washington-style security. Seems the GOP was around and the grand ayatollah of the right, GW, was to make a speech just down the hall from us. As I wondered for a moment about the newly set-up metal detectors and burly looking men around them wearing tinted glasses indoors, all set to forge ahead because it was the only way out of the conference center I knew about, I was politely taken aside by a pretty young girl wearing a hotel employee tag and told that my present course was not possible. She shuffled me hurriedly up a flight of stairs with no other directions about finding an exit. I was tempted to lounge around to see if I could catch a glimpse of our proud american monarch, but fatigue got the better of me and I snaked my way through distant corridors to an exit. As a reminder of how ditzy (and lucky) can be, I arrived at my car into the underground garage to discover that I had stupidly left my driver's side window completely open the entire day! I was smart enough, however, not to leave anything actually in the car, and the stereo is just a cheap radio, so nothing to tempt a thief anyways...
On Tuesday night I managed to blurt out to my rather stunned, tired, but still supportive aunt the details of my transsexualism. It went well as I suspected it would, although she followed the same trend as the rest of my family, except my mom, in showing little interest in talking about it in much detail. But she is an awesome woman and its great to have a growing body of my relatives know about and support me!
On Wednesday, after a long day of tech sessions and Q&A, we had a little mini-family gathering at my aunt's. My cousin (my aunt's son) and my uncle (my aunt's brother) and his three kids got together for a delicious meal and brownie sundays afterwards. My aunt, by the way, is one of my cooking idols! She always makes mouth-watering dishes. I had wanted to tell my uncle about the new self, but the occasion did not present itself with the kids around. My cousin stayed after the kid pack left (3 super-fun and smart, but typically hyperactive kids, age 3, 6 and 8 - I have no idea how my uncle and aunt do it!) and I did manage to tell him (he is younger than me, and a very cool kid). Again, he was generally supportive, but I could tell he was not comfortable talking about it, which is ok.
On thursday I moved myself into my reserved hotel room across the street from the conference, the splendor of the place obviously one or two steps below what was being offered at the conference hotel (but costing far beyond what my employer would shell out for lodging). But it still had valet parking, which I briefly thought might be a problem later when I needed to retrieve my auto while dressed in full femme regalia...Details of my night time adventures in the clubs of DC will be coming in Part 2 soon. Stay tuned!
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