Good Things

43

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10502009_10204165969603136_4946591070366997143_n. 28-10jpgToday is my parent’s anniversary, they’ve been married for 43 years. I went to visit them this morning, brought some roses, too 🙂

I also got another confirmation of how awesome social media can be. I’ve been looking for this one book I read as  a kid. For years, I couldn’t remember the title, so I would occasionally look online to see if I could identify it. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I struck gold and identified the book as Kind zonder naam by Anna Cool.

Unfortunately, it’s out of print, and despite checking book markets and second hand sites, I could never find it. Inspired by the story of Koos, I decided to give Facebook a try. So I posted the cover, and basically what I just wrote above here on my wall. Normally everything is sealed to just friends, but I made it public to facilitate sharing. Some friends shared it, my mom shared it, and from her wall, some of her friends shared it.

10422959_10152487441383155_4479292488066434203_nLater in the day, Mom commented saying that a friend of one of her friends might have it, she was going to check. And today, I heard that indeed that friend has it, and is willing to part with it. So I’m getting my book, after years of looking for it 😀

I’m ecstatic! It might be a week or two, though, before it gets here as Mom’s friend will be picking it up when she goes to see her friend, who lives elsewhere in the land. No matter, I can wait 🙂

Koos, Thomas and Robert

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Social Media can be a really useful thing 🙂 After my birthday party last Sunday, my little (second) cousin lost his favourite stuffed animal Koos while on the way home. He was seated on the back of the bicycle and fell asleep and probably dropped it. Since it was his favourite, he was devastated. Monday I discussed this with Kim and later that day she sent me a link and said “isn’t this it?”

The link was to a Facebook post in a a local group, someone had found a stuffed animal and was looking for the owner. It sounded just like Koos. So I posted there, saying it was probably my cousin’s and warned my cousin that it looked like Koos had been found. She contacted the lady and indeed, it was Koos! Yesterday they picked him up there.  Lucky for them he’d already fallen off the bike still in town, and luckily there are people that are willing to put in some effort to return lost goods. Faith in humanity restored 🙂

Monday I also went to the movies with Kim. We saw The Mazerunner. It was entertaining, but a bit too fast and easy. It also reinforced that it’s really not a good idea to read the books that close to seeing the film (I finished the book that morning). The differences really stood out, and I think if there had been a week or twee between, I would’ve liked the movie better. Not that it was bad, but was okay-good, not good or good-good.

Then yesterday I went to see The Equalizer with Gert. I don’t normally watch straight-up action movies, but I’d seen the trailer for The Equalizer a few times among the previews before other movies and it seemed interesting. I’m glad to be able to say that the movie lived up to my expectations.

The story revolves around Robert, a middle aged man with a hidden past, who lives a quiet life with set routines. During the day, he works at a big hardware store where he tries to help his co-workers. At night, when he can’t sleep, he goes to a diner to read his book and talk with another regular there: Alina, a young prostitute. One night, he sees her being abused by her pimp and stands up for her. When she is then so severely beaten that she is hospitalized, he decides to act.

He seeks out Slavi who ‘owns’ her, and offers his savings to buy her freedom. Slavi ridicules him and declines the offer. Robert then kills Slavi and the four other gangsters present in about 16 seconds. Later, Robert is called in by the authorities and we learn he used to be a special ops agent who is now retired, and that the gangsters he killed were hotshots in the Russian mafia.

This is the start of the main action. Robert is pursued by a mafia hitman named Teddy and has to use all his skills and wits to outsmart him. Of course he succeeds, but the twists and turns in that are interesting, and not always as expected.

Blog About Me [11/52] Some of My Favourite Things

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I love many things. And my favourite things change often. However, have here a few of my enduring favourite things, and a few current favourite things (that might end up being enduring favourites 😀 )

Books

There is nothing material that I love more than books. Books are my friends, my escape, my dreams, my refuge, my calm in the storm and my storm in the calm. Without books, I cannot be.

Words

Not actually material, but words are what shapes my world. I love many other forms of expression, colours, music, but words are my preferred form and through them, I am.

Texture

I’m a very tactile person. I always have this need to touch things, to experience them, and in that, few things delight me more than all the different textures of the world. I marvel how two things that are basically the same, can feel so different. How my one cat has a more coarse feeling fur and the other feels silky smooth. How minor things can completely change how something feels. One stroke of paint on a canvas can feel completely different, even though made with the same brush and the same paint. But the paint may be slightly thicker, or it might be in a slightly different direction.

Postcards

On to slightly more mundane things. I love postcards. Both to keep and look at, or frame and hang, and to send to people. They’re the perfect size to let someone know you’re thinking of them, and in choosing which card to send, you give thought to the person and who they are. I always try my best to find cards that really fit a person. I have a small pile of cards that I particularly love. Once moved, I will be able to hang these so I can look at them more

Hoodies

I love to take my bigger hoodie and put it on, especially when it’s slightly colder, and to just let myself disappear in it. Hoodies are warm, and comfortable and protective. They’re the embodiment of hugs.

Cheesecake

This is the pinnacle of deliciousness 🙂

We’re Moving!

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Yesterday Nienke and I went to view a house. One of the newly built houses in the town about ten minutes away from were we now live. We’ve both been really sick of our current (way too small) houses, and these new ones seemed really promising. We’d already called the Housing Cooperation about two weeks or so ago to indicate that we were interested, and then again the week after. Then they sent us a form to fill in, and Monday I called them to ask if they’d gotten it.

To my surprise, they had not only received the form, but the lady had been about to call us later that day. Turns out someone withdrew, and we were next in line. So we set up an appointment for the viewing for yesterday afternoon. It only confirmed what we already thought. It’s an awesome house. Nice and big, lots of light, lots of space, big backyard, and a garage for crap and a (future) car.

Afterwards, we went to the Housing Cooperation’s office to confirm with them and get the first bits of paperwork squared away. And! Since they’re new houses, and we’ll be the first renters, we get to pick the kitchen cabinet doors and handles. We went with this grey-light brown colour and chrome handles. Now the Housing Cooperation will order the kitchen and have it placed. However since it’s the summer, this will take approximately six weeks. She’ll let us know as soon as there’s a definite date for it. At that point we discuss the actual moving dates and so on.

It’s actually quite fortunate that it will take a wee while, that gives both of us the opportunity to do some major organising and throwing away of stuff in prep for the move. I do expect that we’ll be moved before my birthday, which would be nice, since otherwise I can’t even seat all the family 😀

We’re moving!

The ‘Real’ Shrink :D

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This afternoon I finally had another Gender appointment, after having been wait listed for almost a year. To recap; after getting the Gender Team referral last year, I saw a regular psychiatrist two or three times. Their job was to determine if I was in general mentally healthy and if there were maybe other underlying issues that would need dealing with first. They deemed me perfectly healthy and referred me on to the actual Gender Team. Then I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited some more…

I knew the wait list was gonna be about eight months, but since eight months was, well, in March somewhere, I got worried. Eventually I called them in early May, I think, to ask. Turns out the wait list had grown in the mean time. At that point I was number 9 on The List, and the prognosis was that I would be seen before July. So I settled in and waited some more. May went, June came and as we got closer to the end of June without appointment letter, I started to doubt them.

But! Lo and behold, Friday June 21st came the letter informing me of my appointment. On Thursday the 20th…

After the weekend I called them to verify and turned out the desk people had made a tiny mistake and accidentally printed the date on which they wrote the letter instead of the actual appointment. The appointment was Thursday June 27. Which is today.

I’d gotten leave from work for the last few hours of the day so I could go. Nienke met up with me outside work aroud 14:30, where my Mom picked us up with the car. After an adventurous drive through the inner city, which is a total mess in renovations of road parts and so on, we reached the hospital’s psych building without trouble. Especially since it was the same place I’d been last year.

After checking in at the front desk we sat around and talked for a while until my ‘real’ psychiatrist showed up. We spoke for about an hour, most of it rehashing of what I’d discussed last year. How long have I been feeling this way, what do I want and basically how I approach life and such. It’s his job to determine if I’m serious about being transgender and wanting to transition, and if I can handle all the shit that comes with it. Luckily he didn’t foresee any problems. I will have to see him twice more, as three is the required minimum number. He said he didn’t think we’d need more sessions, so that’s looking good.

After the third session, if all goes well, he will then refer me on to the physical part of the Gender Team so we can get hormone therapy sorted. My next appointment isn’t until August (stupid holidays) but I’m hoping, based on how it went last year, to then have the third session in September, and appointment with the hormone people in October. So, fingers crossed!