I got a call from the county today 🙂 They admitted that the fault in the billing was theirs and that I don’t have to pay any extra costs outside the regular pick-up fee. They’ll have to see if they can retrieve the bill from the collection agency, or that I have to pay that and get the money back from them. Victory!
But I never got a response from the collection agency dude, which is not good customer service 🙁
So, back in late January, we got a new sofa set. Which meant our old sofas were obsolete. We stuffed them in the garage, together with some other shit. Then in February, I arranged for the county trash/recycle service to pick it all up. It’s quite convenient, you just pile it up along the road, they drive by, load it up and take it away, and a little while later you get a bill.
Except, we never got a bill. At first I thought it was late, then later I thought ‘maybe it was an automated payment’. There were some other payments for the trash service or for the county so I figured it was included in that. After all, they are the county, they have all our data.
Fast forward to yesterday. I got a call at work. I didn’t recognise the number. Normally I don’t pick up if they call with the number hidden, but this was shown, and was a regular number. So I picked up. And to my surprise, it was a collection agency. He was calling to discuss a bill for a trash pickup that had been passed on to them…
I was quite surprised, since I never saw a bill, so how did it end up at a collection agency without getting any reminders or whatnot!? The guy did some checking, and there we found the root cause. The county sent the bill to a different street address. Same neighbourhood, but a few blocks away. Which is bloody ridiculous since the pick-up, at my home address, went without a hitch. So they knew where I lived. They also have my phone number, as I had to give that when making the appointment, so they could’ve just called me…
Collection dude and I agreed that he would send me the bill via e-mail, and then I had about two weeks to pay. I received the mail almost immediately. By then, I had calmed down, so I mailed him back that, since it was the county’s fault, I had no intention of paying the extra costs above the direct amount for the pickup (€14) and what would be the best way to go about that. Then I found the county website and submitted a complaint.
And now, with all bases covered, I wait.
Yesterday, my gender statement came in the mail. This is the declaration from the people at the hospital that I am sure of my gender identity and unlikely to change my mind. With it, I can have my name and gender marker officially, legally, changed.
Since they make the changes on the birth certificate, it means I have to go to Groningen for it, as that is where I was born. So, this morning, Mom and I drove to the city to see a man about a horse a city hall person about a birth certificate. I drew a number, we sat down to wait, and wait, and wait.
Once it was my turn, it went fairly fast. The lady had to look up how exactly to do it, as the procedure is fairly new. She then changed the gender marker, and entered my new names. Before, I had two names, after both my grandmothers. Now, I chose to keep the name my parents would have given me had I been born “right”. These are after both my grandfathers. However, since my mother is also named after her father, I felt I also needed to incorporate Dad’s name. So I added his name as an extra middle name. Leaving me, very fancy, with three names 😀
The changes are then pushed through the system so they also reached my current county’s administration. Once that is done, I can apply for a new ID card 😀
As expected, LifeLines wasn’t quite prepared for me 😀
I showed up about half an hour early thanks to Mom who has a habit of showing up here on the early side and driving fast. When we got there, I went to sign in and that’s where the fun started. I gave my last name, and the woman checked her sheet and looked at me, and checked her sheet and her coworker, the actual doctor, checked as well. And they went “but it says ‘miss’ here and it’s clearly a man”. That was very good to hear, but I figured I relieve them of their suffering so I was like “it’s okay, it doesn’t match, I’m transgender”. Which instantly made them very accommodating, they crossed and fixed their sheet and I was asked to accompany the doctor to the exam room.
There she double checked administrative things and fixed what she could there, and promised she would e-mail the head about this, so it goes better next time. Then I was measured and weighed and had my blood pressure taken (which was good), breath sounds listened to and the electrocardiogram done. For that I had to take off my binder, because it requires a handful of electrodes and those require skin contact. She was very nice about it, asking if it bothered me and such. Luckily for me, since I’m on hormones, I’m less bothered by them because I know they’re only temporary now, so it was no problem to take the binder off.
Then after that I got to do the lung capacity test, although I fear it might be slightly below what I would normally score as I was already back in my binder by then. The whole thing ended with a jump test that measures muscle force when you push off the ground, it was fun 😀
The final thing this time around were two more computer things. First a memory test thing where it shows you cards and you have to press yes or no if you, for example, have seen them before, or if it is a repeat of the card directly before it. The second thing was a fairly standard stress and depression questionnaire.
The follow-up appointment is August 14, courtesy of their full agenda and mine. Then they take my blood, and I get to hand in a giant-ass canister with urine. I also got e-mailed another questionnaire to fill in-
Today I discovered sugar buns 😀 I already knew (and love!) Frisian sugarbread, but today I went with Kim to the supermarket during lunchbreak and there they had sugar buns instead of a whole loaf. The texture is the same as the bread, but it has the typical top layer of a bun. The sugar is mostly in the bottom part and along the edges. I bought some small packets of butter to go with it and had these, later on the day, for dinner. They are glorious!
Tomorrow I have my second actual appointment with LifeLines. After the original intake a little over four years ago (may 2010) I have done a couple questionnaires, but this is the first come back appointment where they will retake blood and measure things and so on. Tonight I realised I’d forgotten to fill in the digital questionnaire they included with the appointment e-mail. Since it has to be done before the appointment, I quickly wrestled through it. I usually hate them since they are often unclear in their questions, and I find many hard to answer. The typical questionnaire has sections for what you’ve eaten the past 4 weeks and their intervals are kinda sucky as they go from 2-3 days a month to 1-2 days a week which is a different kind of measurement to the similar 4-10 days a month.
My eating habits are fairly irregular, so for me an answer like 4-10 days a month is much more likely than 1-2 days a week. Take those vitamin yoghurt thingies. I buy them occasionally, in six-pack. And since I share that with Nienke, it means I get three. I then drink those on three consecutive days. Then I might not buy another for two or three weeks. Then, when I do buy another, it’s another three consecutive days. So all in all I’ve had them 6 days a month, but not 1-2 days a week.
I give that same feedback on the questionnaires every time, but I’ve never seen a change. Ah well, one can always hope.
And another thing that pissed me off: my gender. The first page is always double check info. So I re-enter my date of birth, my gender and my weight. However, when I chose Man, I got an error message saying it didn’t match the previous entry (from 2010) and I should check my answer. In itself a valid thing, if you make a typo or a misclick, it’s good they force you to recheck. However, I could not progress past this page of the questionnaire unless I changed that answer. Eventually I did, I do want to give them all the data they need, but they will be getting a talking to, tomorrow.
I had already asked them to change my initials and gender when I mailed them a few months ago to change my address. I got a nice mail back saying it was changed. And the e-mail I got was nicely addressed with the right initial. But it still sad Mrs. *sigh*
It’s almost August. It’s almost August.
And a bonus: the hardships I have to endure when I want to type things 😀
Into the city today with the Mom 😀 First I had to go see the medical social worker again as one of the required parts of transitioning. Most people see her regularly, but I saw her last in January. We’d agreed then that I would contact her around March for a follow-up but I forgot and when I did remember it wasn’t a priority for me as I don’t feel the need. Everything is going quite splendid.
But in May I finally mailed her, and then she maybe lost it or something as I never heard back. On itself not a problem, at least I could say I did my part. But as July came around and the new law about name and gender change came into effect, I needed some form of contact to figure out what to do to get the needed statement. So I mailed again, and now I got a response and we set a meeting for today. And she referred me to another person for the paperwork.
When I mailed that person, I got the auto-mailer informing me they were on holiday but here’s a link with info. Which was nice as I learned how it works. The piece of paper is €65 *gasp*. And if you haven’t been in to see a psych or the social worker in the last six months, they consider you no longer in active treatment and then you have to pay another €250 for a consult… o.O So I was particularly glad I had set that appointment as January is about six months ago…
Anyway, it was a nice chat, took an hour just as before. And also just as before I am a well-adjusted, grounded person with a well developed sense of self and such. I have no problems she can help me with and I feel excellent. With an agreement to contact again after I have an appointment with the Plastics dude (if all goes well I get a referral in August), I left.
Before that, at the end, we spoke briefly about the name/gender change and the paperwork and she put me on the list, which saves me an extra phone call later this week. Unfortunately, not only is the admin person on holiday, so are both the psychiatrists who are vetted to give the required statement… Which is kind of embarrassing for the gender team, and means it will be August before they get around to work down the list. I hope they hurry up then, I need my data changed, especially seeing as how I’ve finally decided on the how and what of going back to school.
Yes, I have 😀 I have been searching for what to do in regards to learning for quite a while now. I wanted to do another university level thing because, even though I rationally know HBO is also very good and offers many options, I’ve done a university BA and half of a Master’s before. And it would feel sort of like settling if I didn’t do it again. Problem then was, what and where. I realised pretty quickly that a regular BA wouldn’t work, what with the new laws regarding how fast you have to do things I can’t squeeze that in to my life after working 36 hours a week. So part-time it had to be, however the official part-time options Groningen offers kind of suck. And what I do like and is available part-time, is all in Amsterdam and such and therefore not doable in terms of travel.
But last week my brain remembered the thing that is the Open University. An accredited university that offers distance learning, lots of online/digital stuff with,if so desired, the option for contact hours and more guidance. So I looked at their offerings and saw individual classes that I liked and then I stumbled upon the Bachelor’s program for Cultural Sciences (Algemene Cultuurwetenschappen). After reading it through, I realised it matches my interests very much, and is also a program with a lot of options for customising. So, I have decided to enroll. However, I first need my name and gender changed to have as little confusion as possible and no issues later on with names on certificates and diplomas.
Oh, and after my appointment, Mom and I then went on to the mall for a wee bit of shopping. Bought some books, some fake flowers and a mail holder for Nienke and we stopped for a late lunch. We had a good time 🙂
I filled in and posted the House Acceptance form. Now to wait for the Housing Cooperation to get back to me to say whether or not they approve of it (I don’t foresee any issues with that).
I’ve already made a list of things I’m gonna need, which is, furniture wise, not much, just a couch, a dresser and a coffee table. I’ll probably go to a thrift store for it as it doesn’t have to be perfect for just this starter place. I’ll get decent furniture once I’ve graduated and got a job and a normal bigger house (some years ahead and stuff). As for small things, I’ll mainly need kitchen stuff, pans and cooking supplies and such.
In other news, the repair guy came this morning for my TV (which was broken, it wouldn’t show anything anymore and the built-in DVD player would freeze and such) and he just replaced it and it didn’t cost me a dime as it fell well within the guarantee period.
So afterward I spent half the afternoon to get all the channels on the proper places and such and decided to watch a DVD. So I took out my Charmed Season 1 box to continue where I left off only to find that while the TV worked fine, the DVD player didn’t.
It would take almost 5 minutes just to work itself through showing the paramount logo (which normally takes what, 5 seconds?) and then it showed the language menu and refused to respond to any button.
So I ejected the DVD and tried another Charmed disc, same story. Then I tried a Deep Space Nine disc and then it just didn’t do anything, it remained black. And before you say anything, I know the discs are correct, I have seen them and they never malfunctioned before.
So I gave up and called the repair people again and now they’ll come around again.
*Sighs in frustration*
So I went to see the house today. It’s nice, it’s an older house with more character than the newer ones around it although it’s slightly smaller than I thought as I was expecting it to be one of those newer ones. The interior looks good, the flooring in the living room is laminate and can be taken over from the current resident. Only issue is a bit of dampness in the storage room but that’s not overly serious. All in all I like it very much and I am going to accept the Housing Cooperations offer of this house. Now all I need to do is fill out their form and get some proof of my income to send along and then hope they approve it (which I don’t really doubt).
It’s likely that I’ll be moving out next year. At the moment I still live with my parents but would like to move out and be on my own (4 months abroad and taking care of yourself gets addictive :D) and now it seems to be happening.
I registered myself with the Housing Cooperation in my area last year and they have now made me an offer of a nice little house in the next town (about 5 km from where I live now). I have to decide before the 22nd (technically by the weekend as I have to return the acceptance/decline form by the 22nd) and am very tempted to take it.
I tried calling the current occupant to make an appointment to come around and look at the place but her cell number that was in the letter is out of order so I take it she changed it. Tomorrow I’m going by there to see if she’s home and talk to her then.
The weather was not too pleasant today, halfway the afternoon it started to rain, and not just drizzle, no, a rain that was getting close to a pour. I was planning to go down to the soccer field here as it’s been flooded (in winter the soccer field is the skating rink) in preparation for winter and frost and I wanted to take some photographs. Perhaps I’ll get a chance tomorrow if it stays dry. Personally I don’t mind too much being outside in the rain but it’s not very good for the camera.
So, in remembrance of better times, a sunny picture taken early October, which was unusually warm for the Netherlands.
