Election Eve or Is It?

Hey kids, I live in OHIO! I've been subjected to millions of dollars of wasted money designed to sway me to vote one way or another.
I live in the electoral "epicenter". Hell, the prez himself even came here to my little town last week.
Since I do live here, chances are my vote counts more than you because Ohio gets more votes in our hopelessly outdated national electoral college. Remember how Gore lost despite winning the popular vote? Also, my vote might count more than  you because I live in a "swing" state.
Yes we have swung in the wind here in Ohio for quite a while.  We "outsourced" our livelihoods to legal slave labor forces overseas while other plants which were just suddenly shut down by "merger" companies? my brother worked at a plant which was shut down a day after they turned down a new contract...similar to other members in my family. Don't know if it was one of the candidates businesses.  I just know one day they had a job and the next they didn't.
After all of that though,   it looks as if the election still has to come through Ohio.
 
So many decisions.  I know which party is more receptive to transgender issues and I'm sure you do too.
But what about health care? With or without the current confusion about Obama care, I still live with the tragedy of my "working poor" friends who can't afford health care in this country for what ever reasons. Several died an early death because of the system. Even sadder is our hopelessly impotent congress. Whomever gets elected probably can't unsnarl the medical greedy mess.

And how about the world we are leaving for my grand kids? I'm not so sure missing a winter's worth of weather around here followed by a summer drought followed by the storm of the century is a fluke?

Energy? Well,  all of the sudden we downtrodden Ohioans are sitting on huge natural gas reserves along with the coal and oil obtained by "fracking". What's that all about?   I'm only sure most of it will get shipped to China anyway and my gas prices will be sky high.

Do I sound pessimistic? You bet ya! I go back several presidential elections. Nixon (the crook) /McGovern was my first voting election. I see increasing complex pressing issues and clueless leaders on the take from lobbyists to handle them.

I wish I was smart enough to come close to understanding even a few of these answers. Hell it drives me nuts just being a card carrying transgender member of the last truly discriminated sector of the American populace and that only scrapes the surface of my concerns.

I am smart enough to know I will make a concerted effort to vote the best I can and be glad I'm not voting in Cincinnati. The voting machines there supposedly can be hacked very easily and happened to be owned by a company purchased recently by one of the candidate's sons. (supposedly)

But no I'm not a total pessimist and hope the rumors aren't true that we won't know the final election results for a week to ten days. Sorry to say you heard it here first- Ohio could be leading the way in snarling the results!

Get out and vote...dammit!

"Horror-Scope"

Time flies when you are having fun! It's time for another "Horror-Scope" in Cyrsti's Condo!

 Libra, Sept 23-Oct 22:
" Pay heed: you are heading into a period of extreme fickleness. What you love now may be what you hate later. Don’t make any spontaneous commitments, because you will regret them. Instead, leave the door open and allow yourself the freedom to call the shots when you wish. Besides, if others bail, then they were never that into it anyway."

 For once...no comment!
 The term "Horror-Scope" is my own. To get your own go here from theFrisky.

Making a Difference

This story comes from The Transgender Law Center:

"My name is Drian Juarez, and I am living my authentic life as a proud transgender woman. Getting here wasn’t always easy. Like you, I faced barriers that at times seemed insurmountable – lack of quality health insurance or a stable place to live, and working the streets to earn money. As a child at a time when there weren’t gay-straight alliances, resources, or advocacy for children like myself, I experienced a lot of terrible bullying. Fortunately, I had a grandmonther who loved and nurtured me. She taught me to be myself and be proud of who I was. I remember feeling like if they didn’t understand me or like me, it was their problem. But, I did always feel like an outsider. At the Los Angeles High School for the Arts and in college I was very involved in the arts. I fit-in there, and began to feel a lot more confident. It wasn’t until I graduated college, though, that I came to understand there was a word for what I was – transgender. Today, I am a Program Manager at the Transgender Economic Empowerment Project at the LA Gay & Lesbian Center. Through the connections the Transgender Law Center has with the LA service organizations, I got involved with the Transgender Leadership Summit in 2005. I’ve been to every Summit since! At the summits I have been able highlight the barriers that trans women experience, and hopefully make their lives better."

There is much more to her story of course. Go here to learn more.

Was it Halloween or...

Or a fun night with friends in a neighborhood tavern in Cincinnati?
Actually both as I ended up with four genetic beer drinking jello shot slugging women. Times were rough? Not so much! As you can see in the pictures, I wasn't drinking. Haha.
I would estimate only about a third of the customers were in costume. I told the girls before we got there I was a little apprehensive of walking into a red neck bar, being the only ones in costume and being "underdressed" in huge red hair and boots.

Well, I was right about the no other costumes to begin with. Just one other person- but it was early and the tavern was neighborhood not redneck and none of us got much attention.
Most of the patrons were engrossed in a high school playoff football game on the televisions between two Cincinnati teams-forget Alabama/LSU.

As the night wore on, the bottom picture shows what happened when all of the sudden I experienced wig slippage.  (Haven't worn it much!) .Interestingly enough though,  a newcomer to the table at the same time asked me if the hair was mine. A couple of the other women assured her it was- until I had to adjust it!

Overall, it was one of those evenings that makes you wish Halloween lasted just a little bit longer!

Is That You Kevin?

Give Kevin credit for using his real name (I guess?)

Filipino transgender beauty titlist Kevin Balot beat 21 contestants from 15 countries to be crowned Miss International Queen 2012 in Pattaya, Thailand on Friday, November 2. Kevin?

Miss Transsexual Brazil

Miss Ceara (L) and Miss Sao Paulo compete in the first Miss Transsexual Brazil 2012 contest, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on October, 30, 2012. Photograph by: VANDERLEI ALMEIDA, AFP/Getty Images

Just When You Thought

Things were a little toooo serious here in Cyrsti's Condo, lets pass along a Nong Poy model shoot:

It's Autumn in Cyrsti's Condo

In reply to my VA post (Thanks) concerning Autumn Sandeen's gender marker experience, she was kind enough to reply:

"Thank you, Cyrsti. I'm doing what I can for the betterment trans military and veterans because of our active duty and veteran peers...because of you, and to a lesser extent because it helps me too. We trans people deserve better that what we've received over the years. Having many of our peers and me empowering ourselves to work for change -- empowering ourselves to work and sacrifice to achieve ordinary equality for trans people -- changes the world not just for ourselves, but for the generations that come after us. I've currently picked trans active duty and veterans issues to work on because I have some credibility on the subjects. Again, thank you for your kind words. And, thank you for your service -- it's really an honor to serve you. on Thanks!"

Again...thank you Autumn...for all that will come after us!

Out at the Doc's!

FINALLY a project I started with the Veterans' Administration four months ago came to fruition today.
Well, now it was  yesterday when I went but I had to rest up afterwards before I could write this.

In the middle of the morning , I walked into the office of a real live endocrinologist to begin what I call my "phase two" hormone therapy.
I signed the office sign in sheet and immediately faced the problem of name.  The office was the typical doctors office around here that closely resembles the 24 hour convience mart - people behind plastic. No one even saw me when I signed in. Now what? If I used my feminine name-would I ever get called? So, I signed my male name to just expedite the process.
That started the fun when the receptionist read my male name and looked up to see a decidedly un male person to which she said "oh!" My VA ID serves as the form of insurance card with them and is still very male so far.

The receptionist of course had to call in some one else to help with the sign in process which had more to do with the VA than me. By this time, nearly everyone was at ease and I was just another patient with paperwork problems. The question of the day was "Who sent me there?" I answered "I did."
Happily, all the magic connections worked with the VA approval process and I passed (no pun intended) to the mystical maze of little rooms and vestibules of the consultation area.

The first step was the scale which I am learning is not a girls best friend. The nurse even asked if I wanted to put my purse on a nearby counter before I got on the scale. I said yes and asked about shoes, coat and whatever else I could think of. The nurse on this part of my adventure had little or no sense of humor and crummy worn fingernail polish so I dutifully answered the thousand questions- the same ones I entered on the doc's on line portal.
Not to worry, surprisingly my blood pressure made the cut and nurse person went on her mirthless way. She said the "Doctor" will be in soon.

Well, we all know what soon means in a doctor's office-you may get a chance to celebrate another birthday before the Doc shows up to rescue you from the this tiny sterile room. I was starting to feel like I was in the "Wizard of Oz".Could I- would I ever meet him?
Not yet. The next person to visit was a "resident". I'm no medical expert but a resident is someone who follows around "House" or is sexually active on "Grey's Anatomy". It turns out this resident was a nice version of a CIA interrogation.
After nice greetings were out of the way, she jumped right into asking me again about what meds I was taking which I was pretty sure had been already entered at least twice to some system somewhere. Then she jumped into the big question "When did all of this start?" What? Dressing as a girl, starting hormones, watching the sun come up, hating to drive here? What???
Dressing as a girl was what she was fishing for so I said 12. So for the next 15 minutes or so I was explaining how I made it through life navigating a male life and marriages and making it to this point. Wait a minute. Resident or therapist? Where the hell was I?

Finally, for the briefest time it was my turn!  She of course asked if I was heading towards surgery and I zinged her with the concept (true) that I was transgender or gender fluid. I'm sure once she got home yesterday, she was busily Googling both terms.
She finished up and teased me by saying the Doctor (Oz) would be in soon.

Shortly (really) the mist parted and in walked the magic man I have waited four months to see! My heart fluttered. Not that he was a vision of manhood but dammit here he was and he said hello. Almost immediately he lapsed into some sort of version of why the VA was paying my way here anyhow. Quickly though, he calmed down and thought of the paycheck and got down to business...you guessed it...by asking "When did all of this start?" Again? Really? The resident was shadowing the Doc so I shot her the non verbal girl look of really? In the meantime, he was playing a very real male game of domination with me as he asked when and where I served. I shot it back at him. I had come too far to be intimidated by this guy now.

Finally...Again...I came to a point of resolution with Oz. He pulled out his magic pen and scrip sheet and effectively doubled my Estro for the next three months and then I would get blood labs for him and then we would take it from there. Then he left for the maze of rooms, hallways and cubicles and disappeared.
Whew! I was exhausted but I walked away a winner of sorts. I'm fairly certain I'm in the system now and I know the pitfalls of how to get my Va Doc to approve the hormonal blood tests and how I have to basically hand carry them to the other Doc.

All of the sudden, it was time to click my red shoes together (similar to Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz) and go home- to a nap!