I suppose I should start with the biggest and worse news. Friday night my car was stolen.
The little green car which I had treasured and tried to look after, was stolen from the front of Toad hall at about 11:00 pm. I was up early on Saturday for the big beach trip, and I headed down with my towels and food and accessories, and… no car.
The visit to security and to the police station, calling Burt St to let them know what had happened and calling home to tell Dad all took barely 30 minutes. Just long enough for the shock to start setting in.
What could I do? Nothing. It was as much out of my hands as if a supernatural force had transported it to the Gobi Desert. I tried not to stress, simply because there was no point. Either the car would be fine, or it could be a write-off. Either way I had no way of knowing.
We left for Pebbly Beach and got there as the day became to turn hot. At 11:00 am Susan and Jules arrived, alas with no Red or Janet in tow. I was nervous, the new swim-suit was getting it's first outing as I slopped the 30+ sunscreen on with vigor.
No-one stared, no-one commented, I felt nervous, then happy, then free. I watched my shadow swish in the sun as I made my way down to the water. I just felt so natural. True I wished for bigger boobs, and true also I wished that I didn't have to check my tuck before I waded out of the water, but those were small prices to pay to simply be a tall girl on the beach.
The day passed quickly, lots of body surfing, paddling about, lying on the sand catching the sun, lunch, more swimming and then just sitting on my towel being at peace. In all, it was a perfect distraction from the horrible realization of the early morning.
Upon my return home the police had left a message saying that the car had been located and towed. I rang to get whatever details I could, and then barely managed to wash the sand and salt from my hair before I collapsed into bed.
The next morning I awoke early, hoping to ring the Smash Repairer to which the car had been towed and find out more details. I laundered, I cleaned, I had breakfast and returned library books. Finally at 10 am I rang. The car couldn't be accessed until Monday but it was currently not able to be driven, but what this meant wasn't specified. Unfortunately this bad news set my mood for the rest of the day.
At midday was the BBQ at Peta G's place and though I tried to be talkative, and friendly, I couldn't make it work. I was happy to be distracted, but glad to get away. These were close friends, but I was too… "gutted" to make contact.
I cycled home in the tepid October rain and tried to keep myself distracted for the rest of the day with the book Peta had given me to read "Trans-sister radio" by Chris Bohjalian. Gender related writings do one of two things to me, piss me off or make me depressed, in this case it was the latter. I couldn't get through to the phone at home to talk to my parents for the longest time, and when I did I could only speak for 5 minutes because I had to go.
More later…