Horses are good company -- The Witcher

Today I got to sit on a panel for a class at the university. I talked about LGBT Books to Prisoners and the other panelists talked about other queer orgs in town: Vivent Health, OutReach, and Stage Q. This was really energizing, interesting, and fun. All of us panelists seemed to be on the same page about our politics. One person pointed out that considering the size of the town, Madison has a lot of queer groups and activist groups; he came from a city of 2 million that didn't have an LGBT community center, and we have one here with something like 250K people.

I love talking about the project and I loved learning about these other orgs. At the end, the professor said, these people are engaging in queer world building. The world as it exists does not deserve our queer selves and queer love, so we try to make one that does. This warmed my heart so much!

Yes I indeed wore my t-shirt that says "I'm here, I'm queer, my joint pain is moderate to severe."

I'm definitely bored. It's not that I can't think of anything to do: it's that I don't really want to do those things, which is probably because of being lonely, sad, and/or tired. I'd rather do things with other people.

I miss books to prisoners a lot. So today I made sure it was OK to go into the space, and I went in and opened up boxes of donations. It felt so good just to do something useful, even if my back was cranky about it. I'll probably go in again tomorrow.

This is a holiday letter that I may or may not send to my family. I am trying to be more open and honest, and, when it comes to the biologicals, this does not come naturally to me.

2018 year in review

Holiday greetings to you!

I’m still living in the same cozy apartment in Madison, with my very wonderful roommate Christina, and my Greyhound Abbie. This year we added a snake to the house: an orange corn snake named Finnegan. He eats frozen mice. Abbie and I frequently walk at the nearby dog park, where we have a lot of friends, both canine and human. Christina and I enjoy playing Lego games on our old 2nd-hand Xbox.

This year I volunteered frequently with LGBT Books to Prisoners, a local non-profit. We sent about 2600 packages of books to prisoners across the US this year. At volunteer sessions, we pick out books specific to each individual from a library of donated books, typically 4-5 books to a package. Popular requests are dictionaries, composition books, language learning books, how-to-draw books, and queer fiction. Recently, I was fortunate to be able to attend a lecture by Mariame Kaba, who spoke about prison abolition. Through these experiences I’ve been learning a lot about how prisons exist to harm people.

I was lucky to be able to attend two plays this year: “As You Like It” at American Players Theater, which is outdoors, and “Fun Home” (based on the Alison Bechdel book), at the Overture Center in Madison. Fun Home was an especially amazing production.

I enjoyed attending my comic book club, which meets once a month. Some of my favorite comic books that I read in 2018 were: Sleepless by Sarah Vaughn and Leila del Duca; My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness by Kabi Nagata; and Hawkeye: Anchor Points by Kelly Thompson and Leonardo Romero.

Over Thanksgiving, I got to see my family, including seven niblings aged 4 to 13. (“Nibling” is a new word I learned that is a gender-neutral word for niece or nephew). We had a lot of fun playing in the barn and competing at Apples to Apples.

I spend a lot of my time managing my health. I was officially diagnosed with RA (Rheumatoid Arthritis) in 2012. RA is an autoimmune illness that can affect all parts of the body. Because of the RA, I get tired easily and must rest a lot. I have nerve pain in my face, which may or may not be related to the RA, which I also largely manage with rest. I am very grateful to family and friends who have supported me in many ways through this illness.

Best wishes to you and yours!

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