Andrea

05:48 pm: Diane Schroer won her discrimination case!
Diane Schroer won her discrimination case!

http://www.aclu.org/lgbt/transgender/36872prs20080919.html

"In a groundbreaking decision, the court ruled that discriminating against someone for changing genders is sex discrimination under federal law."

I love it!

09:13 pm: Busy
Things are starting to get seriously busy and stressful.

This week/weekend we...

Arranged a special weekend rate at the Marriott for the wedding guests. Registered for gifts at Crate & Barrel. Bought Brooke's wedding dress, shoes, and veil. Order the Maid of Honor dress and shoes. Arranged for travel for the maid of honor (from the UK). Ordered favors. And got the maid of honor list of who to invite to the bridal shower (she's decided we need a bridal shower).

Because there isn't enough stress in our lives, we're starting to get serious about selling our place and buying a new place. Which means we're redoing the kitchen appliances and upgrading to granite counter tops. And we've been looking at places that are for sale.

Of course we've still got SCC to get ready for. The TGEA holiday Gala to help plan. The NCTE 4 year anniversary dinner to help with. And the IFGE 2009 conference to plan.

Oh yeah, to keep things extra interesting, Brooke and I are both doing a lot of travel for work in the next month of so.

I'm not sure how to juggle it all, but so far I'm managing to not screw anything up. I figure with all the other stuff going on, I won't get obsessed with the wedding plans!

09:18 am: Wedding status
Venue is booked. Piano player on contract, and her travel logistics in work. Cake ordered. Photographer almost on contract. Got my dress - going for alterations on Thursday. Favors in work. Maid of honor dresses ordered. Invitations ordered.

Still to be done - Hotel for out of town guests to stay in. Officiant. Brooke's dress. Hair. Makeup. Flowers. Decorations. etc...

Busy, busy with it all!

05:15 pm: Shopping
Bought my wedding dress today...

http://www.davidsbridal.com/bridal_gowns_detail.jsp?stid=3334&prodgroup=159

Going for Brooke's on Friday. Should be fun!

04:54 am: Dinner with friends
Had dinner with Donna Rose, Mara Keisling and Roxanne yesterday evening (Brooke had to work late). It was lovely to hear the stories, the cheesy jokes and all the community happenings. So much going on. Couple of questions came up in the course of conversation - "How do leaders at the local level get involved at the national level?" And the one I was particularly interested in - "How do we harness that leadership potential?". No clear answers, but plenty of discussion!

I'm hoping to connect with Mara and a few others over the weekend for some social time and more pleasant conversation.

08:59 pm: Venting for a minute
I'd like to vent for a moment about stupid trans people. I'd like to qualify things by saying - I'm a trans person, and I'm not bitching about all trans people, just the stupid ones.

Stupid trans people include those -
( Read more )
*Deep Breath*

Thanks - I just need to get that off my chest...go back to your regularly scheduled program...

08:36 am: Sunday morning update
Saw Mamma Mia last night. Wonderful feel good movie. Who knew Meryl Streep could sing so well!? Very fun.

Life is up and down. (so what's new with that!?) Work is still a big bag of crazy. I like the money I make, but on a day to day basis, I am bored to death with the work. I've done the same exact thing for over 10 years. My boss looks at me as a square peg in a square hole - and doesn't want me to do anything else, since I do a good job. Something needs to change but I'm not sure what.

Kids are great. Turns out my daughter got straight A's for the year! And my son - well, he passed! He'll be a senior in High School this Fall - time to start working on his college plans. We've talked about maybe a year a community college, to help figure out what he wants to study. Brooke and I had the kids for the 4th of July weekend - which was very fun. Took them into DC, did a few things there. Ate some good food. Played guitar hero (the kids kicked my ass) and bowling on the Wii (the kids kicked my ass). Relaxed and goofed around. Nice.

Brooke and I are doing very well. Still working on a wedding plan for October. Have the place, have the cake, have the music. Still working on the dresses, photographer, flowers, rings and a zillion other details. Keeps me busy!

T stuff - always keeps coming at me in waves. I'm the President of TGEA for the next year. I'm helping plan the NCTE 5 year anniversary dinner, and the IFGE 2009 conference. I've done a couple of outreach events with Equality Fairfax, Equality Virginia, and have been asked to participate in a local group who will be meeting with the local HRC folks - to let them know what we think. (that should be an interesting meeting! Still a whole lot of T folks pissed at HRC - myself included)

Anyhow, that's the big stuff. Today we're heading to the farmer's market for some fresh veggies and meat. They have a lady who trucks in chickens and another who does beef - processed and frozen - but fantastic flavor! Much better than anything you can get in the grocery store. Later on - we're going to help a friend pack up and load a Pod (he's moving to San Francisco).

05:57 am: NCTE Lobby days
Lobby days got off to a good start yesterday. Roughly 100 people in from over 26 states. A day of training and education on the issues, how to lobby and all that sort of stuff. Last night we had a reception to honor several senators and congress people who were supportive of a trans inclusive ENDA last year. It was at the National Press Club in DC - very nice!

Yesterday I also connected with a documentary film maker from San Francisco - turns out we have a whole lot in common (eduation, places lived, etc...). She did a film a couple of years ago, following a trans family through the coming out to the kids thing. Won several awards, went to Sundance, etc... So I got her an insider's tour of CNN, which she seemed to enjoy.

*edit* forgot to mention that at CNN, We got to hang out in the Green Room and listened to James Carville hold court with some folks - very fun! *edit*

Brooke and I hooked her up with some audio gear, she's going to be doing interviews with T people as part of a new project she's working on.

Today is the rally in Taft Park - that we're doing audio for. Then lobbying in the later morning and afternoon. Should be fun hiking all over the senate and congressional office buildings. I'll be holed up in the Dirksen cafeteria when I'm not out lobbying (if anyone is in the area and wants to say "hi").

09:42 pm: Update on the happenings
TGEA is keeping me especially busy these days. Membership meetings, Board meetings, Outreach events and the like. I'm running for the position of President again for next year. I'm just now to the point of knowing what I'm doing, so I figure having a year to do the job while I understand it, might be good. We'll see.

IFGE is going to have their conference in Alexandria VA, next year (Feb 2009). And I'm on the planning committee for that. TGEA is the local host organization, so we're wrangling up many of the volunteers for the event. Hopefully we'll get it all pulled together!

NCTE lobby days are tomorrow. I've been coordinating with Mara's staff (Steph and John) about helping out. Training tomorrow, then Tuesday is the actual lobbying. There's a NCTE sponsored reception at the National Press Club tomorrow evening that Brooke and I will be attending, should be fun to schmooze with everyone. Tuesday morning is a rally in a park near the Mall. Brooke and I own a PA system, so we're going to be running the audio for that. Several TGEA folks will be lobbying after the rally, so I'll be joining them.

Aside from all that, I've been doing a lot of travel for work, Brooke's been doing loads of travel for work, we're helping Brooke's Dad (who is in an assisted living facility) and I'm trying to plan our wedding! Somehow we've also managed squeeze in a little socializing with various folks. Needless to say I'm perpetually right on the edge of being exhausted.

All in all, life is good! lol.

03:28 pm: Notice of spring cleaning
Time to trim back the friends list - dropping those folks who never seem to use a cut for their consistently long postings, those who appear to only post when they want to spin people up over some topic, and I'm also going to drop those folks that cross post excessively.

07:28 pm: The Date
It's settled. Our ceremony and reception will be on Sunday October 26th, 2008 at the Grand Atrium in Vienna VA! Still have to decide on the other details - I'm sure we'll keep busy with it.

07:06 pm: April Fools Day
I love all these funny postings on April Fools Day - this one in particular made me chuckle...

http://www.bilerico.com/2008/04/gay_republicans_expand_strategy.php

I've got a friend who is involved with the Log Cabin Republicans - and I love to tease her about it, so this is perfect!

08:44 pm: Montgomery County MD situation update
Passing along something that might not surprise anyone involved with the Montgomery County MD fight to preserve the law that was passed this past Fall. (the one that banned discrimination on the basis of gender identity and expression)

It appears someone might be finally owning up to the staged incident at a health club in Montgomery county (where a man in a dress walked into the women's locker room)

Read from Vigilance Blog..
http://www.teachthefacts.org/2008/03/shower-nuts-admit-rio-incident-was.html

And Pam's House Blend
Quote: Well, if you're Theresa Rickman of the Citizens For A Responsible Government, it's apparently okay to bare false witness against transgender people read more here...

http://www.pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=4672

Amazing to me just how low the "citizens for a responsible government" go to smear trans people!

09:55 pm: Post debate
Candidates are gone. Crowd is mostly gone. Secret Service guys running around.

Post debate panel session. Wolf has a little shine on his head - guys back here figuring out which light is the offender - making adjustments. Perfect again.

John King on stage - he's a big guy! Buff. Looks like he hits the gym on a regular basis.

Good lord how long is this going to take!? I'm ready for dinner. My body is still on East Coast time! Food. Must have food!

09:38 pm: Back again
Question on movie/TV industry. Barak hits a solid one.

Question on Bill Clinton. Hillary almost seems to be happy with this one! Solid reply. Cut away to Chelsea Clinton in the audience.

Last question...

What about the dream ticket - Barak & Hillary or Hillary & Barak? Great question! Barak isn't answering the question - giving a wait and see answer. Good. Hillary pretty much saying the same thing. Wait and see. Democratic win is the important thing. Excellent way to close the debate. Big finish - crowd is pleased.

On to the post-debate swirl...not sure what happens next. Photographers rush down to the stage...

Candidates shaking hands.

More when I figure out what's going on....

09:21 pm: The home stretch
Barak on Iraq - good answers. Crowd like him and the answers. Wolf is being a little cheeky with his comments. He seems to have a good sense of humor, as do the candidates.

Hillary is making a strong come back. She's hitting Barak and the Republicans at the same time! She's good. Oh, Barak is also coming back strong - not giving up. He looks Presidential - how's that for a trite assessment! Back to Hillary, another strong showing. Whew, it's like watching a tennis match.

Hey - Louis Gossett Jr - dang he looks old!

Wolf hitting Hillary with question on her vote for Iraq inspectors. Hillary is hitting back. She's kicking butt! Barak joining the fray - pinging on Hillary's record. He makes his point well. Crowd is liking his answers and statements.

Quick break...

08:57 pm: Back into it
That was a quick two minutes...snarfed a box of rasins, much better now.

Cool I just realized that I'm about 10 feet from Jason Alexander. He's short!

Candidates are talking about their experiences. Both have a lot of great qualities. They've obviously practiced answering the question of why they should be President. Hillary really nailed it. Barak did well, just not as well as Hillary.

Behind the sound/video guys - I get to see various snapshots of the camera views. Photographers keep taking pictures of the lighting and sound boards. They push a button and a light comes on. Whisper into their mic and something else adjusts slightly. Computerized control system but still have manual sliders and buttons on the boards.

Good questions from the Politico people. Hillary nails one out of the park! Crowd goes wild!

Commercial break...

Hey - Christina Applegate is right over there! She's tiny!

Candidates pop off stage during the break - I assume to get hair and makeup tweeked, or to huddle with their strategists.

Back to the debate.

Jumping right in on the topic of Iraq.

08:10 pm: Impressions
Gaggle of photographers right near me. Click, Click, Click.

Hillary looks better in person than she does on TV.

Barak has a power in his voice. Hillary is smoother, more refined - she comes across as smart, 50pound brain smart.

Both are doing well at beating on Bush and the current administration.

How do these photographers do it? They must be taking one picture every second, and they never seem to run low on their battery or run out of space on their digital memory cards. They must have some serious hardware. Ah, finally, one has to change his card.

Crowd is pretty. Good looking men and women. Theater is beautiful. Wonderful performance space.

Debate is good. They are being nice to each other. Answering the questions clearly and without any fumbling. They both like to use the word "imperative". And the hand gestures are totally scripted. Some serious playing to the camera going on with that.

I'd love to know what it is they are writing on those pads while the other person is answering. They look so serious. I'll bet they're just making little funny joke notes that they show to each other trying to get them to laugh.

I so should have eaten a bigger lunch today - I'm excited about watching history be made, but I'm also cold, and hungry! I'll dig through my computer bag at the commercial break - there must be a little snack in there some where.

Hard to blog. I have a camera guy pointing a camera right above my head. This is strange. You can't just watch the debate. The audience is part of the show! We are all participants. Photographers are taking pictures of the light and sound board guys, I'm about one foot away trying not to get in the shot.

Diane Keaton, Jason Alexander, Rob Reiner, Leo DiCaprio, Steven Spielberg - what's he doing wearing a leather jacket - he looks like he just got off the set of Indiana Jones!

Health care, immigration - so far so good. They really aren't that different in their views. But they sure are different from the Republican candidates!

Imperative, again...what's up with using that word. It's driving me crazy. Now that I've noticed it, it really bugs me.

Wolf has Barak on the ropes. Asked a tough one. Barak is fumbling, he's talking but not really answering the question. Ouch, this is hard to watch....

Hillary is doing well. She's got her shit together. I didn't think I'd like her this much. I wanted to dislike her. I have to admit - I need to reassess her positions and platform. I've just gone from leaning heavily towards Obama - to now, I'm not so sure I should write off Clinton. Need to rethink this...

Commerical break -time to forage for food.,,,

08:07 pm: I'm going to shut up and watch...
Watching and listening. Pause in the blogging. Go watch this on TV - it's history in the making. A Black and Woman candidate debating. What a great place to be! This I've got to watch...

07:57 pm: The're here...
Wow! This is cool!

Wolf is starting....candidates are getting ready to walk in. Crowd is going wild. Clinton and Obama are out. Standing ovation. Total love in the air. Press pool files out. Candidates are seated. It begins right now. 90 minute debate. Rules - there are no rules. 90 seconds to each candidate for their open. Obama begins...