It's been a hectic couple of days. Yesterday I went down to a rental agent who drew up a list of places which I might be interested in. We looked at the first 3 which were all too far from the University. The last place however was weird, in that it is the building directly behind the hotel which I'm staying at now! {Insert irony here} It's a nice place, US$650 a month which is a bit more expensive than I would have liked, but I was grasping at straws, staying at a hotel for 10 days really drains the bank account.
So, I paid the deposit yesterday and now I'm waiting for the agent to get back to me so that I can sign the lease, pay the deposit and move in. About the only piece of furniture I need is a bed, and even that is negotiable right now.
The other thing I did was to go “Trans-Nite” which was put on by the Queer Youth Connection group. It was mainly directed at people between 13 and 22, but I really needed some local contacts so I turned up at 6 pm. The neighborhood which it was in was rather run-down and scary, but I made it and only had to go past a few crazy homeless people. Most of the people there were Hispanic and Black, but they were quite welcoming. We were asked to introduce ourselves, and as a question tell the group “What do you envy most about the opposite sex?”. When it got to my turn, I said before transition I envied almost everything, but now I was fairly content. One of the lesbians there then asked “Excuse me, you're not a girl?” to which I replied “This is Trans-Nite right?”. What followed the rest of the evening was “I can't believe you're not a girl!” and “I never would have thought you were a guy!” Grrr… This kind of pissed me off, but I thought it would be a bad move to turn down their unintentional barbs at my first meeting. It was interesting first “support” group, but I'm not sure as to whether I'll be going back next Thursday. It's just that I think I've progressed beyond the problems which beset those who are only just beginning to question.
Today I contacted a CD group “Mu Beta Gamma” which is part of the Tri-Ess Society. I have an idea that it will probably be composed of middle aged CD's, but who knows. The membership officer invited me to their Winter Dinner tomorrow night, and even if I don't get any leads, I can at least go fishing for compliments. ;)
I got an interesting email from Katie about “vanity” and my thoughts in my last entry, mildly ironic since on Wednesday night I had my first session in a Tanning parlor. Suffice to say, there's pieces of my flesh which haven't seen direct sunlight since I was born which are now pink and fading to (hopefully) brown. At University I'm naturally up against young beautiful 18 year old girls, so it's hard to compete, particularly in Miami of all places. Still, I do Ok.
Illara left Toronto today on her way to Nashville, and so she called me from the Bus Station. I wished her the best of luck. She's staying there before heading on to Vancouver.
Now I just need that dam rental agent to call… *twiddles thumbs*