Specific near the Pacific

I'm now in Seattle for a brief northwest tour. This fills me with tremedous guilt, as any time I'm in this time zone I feel as though I must visit ALL of my Bay peeps, but it so wasn't happening this time around. Sheesh! I may get to see pals I haven't seen for three years, and I've never gottent o see much of Seattle nor Portland.

I walk into a coffee-house, and on a lark ask the counter-worker if any of their baked goods are vegan. Kind of off-handedly, she mentions that the doughnuts are. WHAT!? I ask in disbelief. VEGAN DOUGHNUTS? Geezus, where have you been all my life? I've had four since I landed here. I hadn't realized that while the main political thrust in my life doesn't allow me to prioritize such things, gosh I missed vegan doughnuts. I didn't know how good I had it in ol' SF.

The other thing I missed: fellow genderqueers and trannies. I almost wanted to run up and hug all the various non-gender-conforming critters I see wandering around the place where our training was held. At least I stopped myself, since I at least recall that I would've found that weird were I to be lovingly accosted by a stranger in my town.

It's a rough lot for trans-dudes in DC that I've found. If someone can prove me wrong, please do - write me, call me, make a blog disproving these claims. But after a two-month wait for an appointment with an endorinologist who basically told me "I don't know what you are, don't want to learn, and won't do anything for you" it's really nice to be in a town where that's not the apparent norm.

I wrangled with a title for this post. It's not the be-all, but it's nice to be in a place where I feel like I can be all the weirdness and complexity that I am. I assert myself as such in DC, but here there's no asserting that needs doing. More just ascertaining.

Hey, if you're reading this and you're one of my Bay peeps, call me before March 3rd. I'm in your time zone! I'll try to call you, too! Yeah, I think I'm a little homesick. Signing off...

shy-town

Hangin' out with students for fair trade, getting a whirlwind tour of Chicago. I'm getting to spend lots of quality time with my fabulous co-worker, B, and visit veggie sites here (which is a challenge - Chicago is a meat-packing town. 'Nuf said.) I thought it was going to be so cold I would DIE, but not at all! Either I've acclimated or it's particularly mild out these days.

I love this town, but there's not enough down time at the conference...I haven't had a weekend off in a bit, and it's starting to get me cranky. Good conversations with folks though. This is going to be a funny, reporting-back listing post.

"Chicago is a gritty town. New York is dirty, but Chicago is gritty." quoth my host/ess.

USAS Conference Out-takes

conf_usas_05,
originally uploaded by mtoth.

We're all trying to look too cool for USAS school.

the stars shine bright

::::clapclapclapclap:::
Deep in the Heeeeart of Te-Xas!

I'm back from a lovely three days in Austin, having been to Durham once in between posts. Austin lived up to its cool reputation, far as I was concerned. I didn't get to see as much of it as I did the warehouse where we were hosting the USAS national conference, but marching around UT Austin in pleasant weather chanting about Taco Bell and how they should be booted from campus was quite lovely. There are pictures of the conference courtesy of our digitally-camera-d attendees. Great students, good food, much strategy, and making coffee continuously for three days. The People's Institute gave a training, and we had some interesting innovations on the traditional caucus-ally structure. All in all, I say it went pretty well!

There will be more, I have many thoughts in my head, but a whole lot of work to catch up on. So you'll have to wait. But it'll be worth it. :)

nawlins

I went to lovely New Orleans this past weekend to 'replenish democracy' with fellow student organizers, courtesy of the Ford foundation. The conference was a success in that many of us working in different areas (with different students) got to network, strategize, and see ways our work can reinforce rather than compete. Many USAS leaders came out to the conference, and we had more time than usual to hang out and bond, strategize, and figure out collaborations over the next year.

A huge personal highlight is that I got to see none other than Catherine AMAZING Jones, my dear comrade from back in the Bay who left two and a half years ago to become a doctor courtesy of Tulane University. She grew up in New Orleans, so I got a very lovely guided tour the evenings that I had free. Since it was the week before Mardi Gras, I got to catch part of a parade, where I collected beads and tried not to get pummeled by them - bead-receiving can be dangerous business! Catherine and I hadn't seen each other since she left for school, so it was great to catch up.

Another major highlight is that unexpectedly, Bob Moses was in town to speak at a Community Labor United public forum, and brought 45 high school students from Jackson, MS who participate in his algrebra program. While we only saw him speak briefly, it's still incredible for me to be in the presence of organizers who've made such a profound impact on the country.

Now I'm in Durham for two days, and that's torment because I'd like to be here for a week or two, really. Staying at the House of Mango, no matter how short, is rejuvinating nonetheless.

After tomorrow, I'm back to DC for NCOR, where many of my comrades from Cali will be out to present workshops. I was supposed to, but there were communication difficulties, so I'll be tabling there instead.