Tuesday, July 12, 2011
I'm Back In The Hospital
Sunday, July 3, 2011
A Taste Of Freedom (and some other good stuff)
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Two Nations Separated By A Common Language
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Overconfidence
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
I Have To Admit It's Getting Better
I also found out just how lucky I am to live here, when the Nurse Practitioner told me that the Virginia Cancer Institute is the only place on the east coast participating in the study of the experimental drug I am on. She said they have one patient who comes down from New York for treatment, and they had an inquiry from a patient as far west as Colorado. It's really a shame that Roche hasn't made this drug available to more cancer treatment centers around the country. The NP said that once the FDA (Food & Drug Administration) approves it, the pills will cost $3500.00 a week! Fortunately for me right now they are free, because until they get FDA approval, I'm still technically part of their research program.
Speaking of getting better, does anyone remember this one by the Fab Four?
Melissa XX
Friday, June 17, 2011
Too Much Time On My Hands
Melissa XX
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Contemplating Hirsuteness
Friday, June 3, 2011
Terminal Boredom
Monday, May 30, 2011
Just A Brief Update
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
FOR THOSE WONDERING WHERE I'VE BEEN
The pathology report confirmed the preliminary diagnosis. The oncologist said there is no cure, but there is an experimental drug that has shown significant success in shrinking certain melanoma tumors, and extending the life of the patient. They had to send my pathology from the hospital, to a lab in California to ensure that I had the proper mutation for the drug. Today I learned that my pathology does indeed conform to the drugs requirements, so tomorrow I'll be going the the Virginia Cancer Institute, where they will do a full body skin exam, and EKG, and some more lab work. If all is well, I will begin treatment the following day.
Being so acutely aware of your mortality, makes you take stock of yourself, and I have not been happy about the way my blog and many of my comments have turned. It went from bright and friendly to downright combative. Perhaps because I love you all so much, and felt the need to protect you and myself from so many of the negative posts and comments that have shown up this past year. Well, I'm done with that. I will now leave the fighting to others. In reality there is no need for any defense. We all know who and what we are, and the subjective judgements of others truly are irrelevant.
I will try to keep you updated and occasionally leave a comment on some of your blogs, but because I have so little endurance right now, they may be few and far between. Much love to you all!
Melissa XOXO
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Lets Get Those Blinders Off
For those who are still stubbornly maintaining that the assault on a young woman in a Baltimore area McDonalds had nothing to do with her status as a transgender woman, irrespective of her surgical status, and was solely a racial matter, let's shine a bright spotlight on a few facts.
The following are excerpts from an Associated Press article, dated April 26, 2011:
The woman beaten, 22-year-old Chrissy Lee Polis, told The Baltimore Sun that before she was attacked she heard a teen say Polis was a man using the women's restroom and accused Polis of talking to her man. The 14-year-old told police that she and Brown fought with Polis over using the restroom, according to charging documents.
Vicky Thoms said she walked into the restaurant to find the two teens beating Polis..........When she stepped up and asked the girls to stop, Thoms ended up getting punched in the face herself, she said.
Afterward, a man behind the counter asked Thoms if she realized that the person being beaten was a not a woman and was transgendered. "I told him, 'No I didn't and I don't care,'" she said. "He said he worked with her and she had a smart mouth — in other words, she deserved it."
You can see the entire article here.
The bold highlighting for emphasis is mine.
While racial hatred may have exacerbated the problem, clearly the prime motivation for the confrontation was Ms. Polis's transgender status and the fact that she used the women's restroom, as admitted by one of her attackers.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Alison Steele, The Nightbird
Those were the words that opened up the best late night radio show I've ever heard. When I was living in in New Jersey in 1968 and early 1969, Alison Steele's sexy voice, and her playlist of late 60's progressive rock, was the lullaby that put me to sleep each night. WNEW was one of the country's first FM progressive rock stations, and one of New York City's strongest. I had no trouble at all picking it it up in Eatontown, in Monmouth County, New Jersey each night. Her colleague, the über cool Rosko started the night off with progressive jazz, blues, and rock, then at midnight, Steele would come on, reciting her poetry, and mesmerizing us all with mind expanding progressive rock, and trippy psychedelic trance music. Of all the rock radio stations I have heard, WNEW was the best, and Alison Steele was far and away the best DJ. Sadly she only lived to be 58 years old, dying in 1995 of stomach cancer, but she lives on in my memory, and I'm sure in the memory of countless others. You can read her Wiki bio here.
Melissa XX
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
The Piedmont Awakens From Its Winter Slumber
A view of the tree tops above my roof. A view from my rear deck through the woods overlooking the pond. My lone scraggly redbud. Tonight's Supper I don't often eat large quantities of beef, but I do like it. I went to the grocers today, mainly because I had run out of anything to eat other than peanut butter and sardines, and while there stocking up on essentials, I decided I wanted to eat steak tonight, but I wanted it to be lean. So I ended up with two petite round steaks, that looked quite good in their polyethylene wrapped packages. Into the cart they went. This evening, I put one of the steaks in a broiler pan, and put it under the burner. Ten minutes later, with beefy smelling smoke pouring out of the oven, I removed my medium rare steak, and plated it with a serving of steamed broccoli, and half of a backed potato. The broccoli and the baked potato were delicious, and the steak wasn't bad tasting, it just had a vein of sinew in just about every bite, making it very tough to cut and chew. A slow cooking crock pot full of carrots and potatoes should been that piece of meat's fate. A word about human decency. There will always be disagreements between human beings. That is a given. It's been that way since the dawn of humanity, and will remain that way until humanity breaths its very last breath. The trouble comes when one group sets itself up as morally and intellectually superior to all others, and then in the fashion of zealots, casts itself as the sole arbiter of truth, rendering unsolicited judgements against all others, and declaring non-believers to be the equivalent of the devil's spawn, or worse. When people start to thinking that way, trouble is always sure to follow. No one likes to be denigrated and dismissed as a heretic, or worse yet, a pervert, but in so many words that is exactly the way a certain self-satisfied element has been treating a good portion of the trans community here in Blogistan for the better part of the last year. While we all have certain similarities, our lives are all completely unique. No one can pigeon hole us, simply because our lives didn't exactly follower their own personal narrative. We, and we alone define who and what we are. This past week, I was the target of one of these, self-appointed high priestesses of the Transexual Sanhedrin. Her judgement? Since for personal reasons, which of course are none of her business, I am non-op, and not transitioning, and didn't demand my parents get me a sex change when I was a teenager, or commit suicide by the time I was 25, then I must be a fraud. This coupled with the fact that I had the audacity to challenge her self-appointed authority on all matters transgender, then I am obviously in her words, a.................well, I won't repeat those despicable words here. There really isn't any point in repeating what you can read post after post on her own blog, if you are so inclined. Thanks so much to those dear sweet souls who posted in my defense. To all the troubled souls who are so full of sulfur, and so quick to pass judgement on others, of course you are free to wallow in your feelings of hatred if that's your thing, but take care dears, for there lies the way to desolation row. Speaking of desolation row, here is some very good Bob Dylan. Does anyone write lyrics and play their instruments this good anymore? Desolation row |
This MP3 was found at Dilandau MP3 Melissa XX |
Friday, April 8, 2011
What Did You Have For Supper Tonight?
Sunday, April 3, 2011
From Euphoria To Melancholy In Two Hours
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Happy Spring To All!
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Does A Plate Of Nachos Constitute A Balanced Meal?
Saturday, March 26, 2011
I'm So Excited! (Sports alert for those so disinclined!)
I'm about to lose control, and I think I like it!
No.........I haven't met the love of my life, but I have met a bunch of guys that I absolutely adore! That would be Virginia Commonwealth University's basketball team! Sorry girls, but I do like sports even if you don't, and especially local teams that I can relate too. I used to watch VCU basketball games religiously way back in the seventies and early eighties, but then they went through a long period of decline, and I simply lost interest. I have to admit that I really didn't care all that much about the team until the very end of their season this year, when they had the chance to win their conference tournament. They did well, but wound up being runners up, and hence were all but excluded from entry into the National College Athletic Association's national tournament. But when tournament selections were made, the selection committee saw something special in VCU, and selected them as an at large team! That meant that they had to play one more game, than all the other regularly selected teams, in order to qualify for the regular field. Critics panned them, saying they had no right to be in the tournament, when other teams were more qualified. Well.....as we trans sisters all know, who is, or who is not qualified for something, is a matter of opinion, and so it was for VCU!
They silenced their critics, by soundly beating the University of Southern California 59-46. Still there were nay sayers. They would never be able to beat Big East powerhouse, Georgetown they said, but beat them they did, and not only did they beat them, they humiliated them, beating them 74-56! They then went on to humble Big Ten conference, Perdue, beating then 94-76!
Tonight, after several days layoff, they played Florida State University in San Antonio, Texas. It was nip and tuck from the very start, since both teams were very evenly matched, but in the end VCU pulled out a one point win in overtime! I watched it all on streaming video on my laptop, since the regular station carrying it on TV, was a cable station that I didn't have access to.
As soon as the game started, I knew it was going to be a cliff hanger. Florida got off to a sight early start, but VCU adjusted defensively, and by halftime, VCU was leading by several points. The second half was a nail biter. There was no way to predict who would come out on top. Finally at the end of regulation time the two teams were tied, and so an overtime period had to be played. In the end VCU nudged Florida State by just one point, beating them 72-71! What a nerve racking game! I sat with my fingers crossed for the last thirty minutes, hoping VCU would come out on top! Now they have to go on to play the University of Kansas, who beat the living piss out of another local team, the University of Richmond tonight. I don't think VCU will let them do that to them, but Kansas may still be more than they can handle. We'll see. My heart is with VCU. They have already gone farther than they, or the University of Richmond has ever gone in the national tournament, so even if they lose to Kansas, they will still be grand heros back home!
Monday, March 21, 2011
Into Jaws Of The Beast
The sky got progressively darker as I got closer to home, and a veritable light show ensued in the sky before me. Bolt, after bolt lit up the sky, no longer orange in color, but fluorescent white against the blackened night sky. My windshield began to show drops of rain just before I reached my exit, but not enough to turn on the wipers. I left the Interstate at my exit, and made a left turn for the one mile ride south to US Route 250, where I turned right for the two mile ride west through the hills to where I live, when all of a sudden, the heavens opened up, and the deluge began! With both headlights and fog lamps on, and windshield wipers slinging water at at full speed, it was everything I could do to see the road out in front of me. Fortunately I had two other cars in front of me, and their tail lights provided a beacon for me to follow, otherwise I would have had to pull off the road. The intensity of the cloudburst, was reminiscent of the downpours I experienced on a daily basis, during the Monsoon season in South East Asia over 40 years ago. The normal 55MPH ride down US 250 to my subdivision, was reduced to a 15-20MPH crawl. By the time I pulled into my driveway, the rain had slacked off considerably, but it was still coming down in sufficient quantities, that I would have been soaked to the bone, had I not remembered to take my umbrella, but how do you hold a large golf umbrella, while opening vehicle doors, retrieving and carrying bags of groceries up a flight of deck steps, and then have to negotiate a locked door as well? Needless to say, when it was all said and done, I was more than a little bit wet, but on a positive note, the Dakota got a good spring washing!
After nearly a month's absence caused by illness and other plans, my bro-in-law showed up at mom's tonight, so once again the conversation was dominated by him and his plans for the future. And speaking of his plans, they include a glorious (for us *wink*) 3 week trip down to southern Florida this week, with his new main squeeze, so the next three weeks at mom's should be all girl affairs!
Melissa XX
Friday, March 18, 2011
Running The A/C One Day After St. Patty's Day
All of the trees in the Piedmont are budding now, and the forsythia is now in full bloom! In Richmond, 40 miles east of here, flowering trees are blooming everywhere! It will be another week or two, before we see that here. Our night time temperatures are colder, so we are usually two weeks behind areas east the James River fall line. For those who don't know, Richmond is 223 feet lower in elevation than where I live, and apparently that make a significant difference climate wise.
Because of my normal late winter malaise, I've been lackadaisical about my epilation over the last couple of months, and when I finally decided to tackle it yesterday, I realized it had been a month since I last epilated! I wasn't exactly furry, since over the years a lot of the hair had been eliminated, and the rest has at least been slowed down significantly, but there were hairs that had a months growth, and that meant they were long! Epilating long hairs is not a pleasant undertaking. It's much less painful, if the epilator can grab the hair at the skin's surface, rather than a quarter to a half an inch away. When that happens, the shock of the hair being whipped out of its follicle, is significantly increased, and the sensation can be quite prickly, not to mention the occasional drop of blood that gets pulled out along with the hair! When it was all done, I looked like I had the measles! Little red dots all over me! Fortunately they were all gone by the next morning.