Betty gets here today!!! … 13 hours & counting…
… 4 hours & counting …
She’s here!!!
Kinks
There’s been a small administrative problem with the boards, but it seems to be unwrinkling itself just now.
Catchup
I said I’d catch people up on how it’s been for me here in snowy Appleton, WI since Betty left on the 10th – more than two weeks ago. Mostly, I’ve been busy teaching. I’m somewhat convinced I do more homework for my classes than my students do, whether in preparing discussion questions, in-class lectures, or even reviewing readings or documentaries I want them to watch.
Other than that, I go outside on the front porch to smoke, since I can’t smoke in the resident housing, and that’s definitely been interesting. I find myself a little less able to focus with the huge decrease in nicotine consumption, actually. But so far I don’t seem to be eating more, & that, at least, is a good thing. It’s also a good thing to smoke less because the air is so cold; asthmatics must have a time of it here. The one thing I am sure of know is that if I could ever keep my habit at about 5 a day (which is what I’m smoking here), I wouldn’t bother quitting.
It’s quiet – other than today’s fire alarm that got triggered when my next door neighbor burnt his lunch – and the daily scraping sounds of the snow plows and shovels. I’m not complaining, by any means; as long as I don’t have to shovel, they can make as much scraping sounds as they want, and at 5am if need be.
Teaching itself is really interesting work and I’m a little amazed at how good a job it is – teaching two courses, which is what I’m doing, is considered a full-time teaching load – but also how time-consuming. I enjoy watching the lighbulbs go on, the same as I do when I’m giving a workshop for trans people at a conference.
And in fact I met some local trans people just this week, & I’m hoping to meet some in Milwaukee in a few weeks as well.
In some ways it’s a break from New York, a trade off: instead of high densities of crime and people and ethnicities, we get an awful lot of snow, an awful lot of Packers fans, & an awful lot of fish.
But in either place, mostly I spend my free time reading about gender: more on some of the new stuff I’ve discovered in another post.
Lawrence Lecture
I’ll be speaking at Lawrence University on Monday, February 18th, at 7PM, in 102 Science. Mark your calendars. Betty will be with me.
‘Nipply’ Is An Understatement
Today it’s supposed to be -12 degrees F here in Appleton. The high? 1 degree.
Sunday it’ll be between 3 degrees and -4 degrees F.
Monday? Between 11 degrees and 0.
& It just keeps snowing.
They told me I arrived during a warm streak. Apparently. Who knew freezing could be “warm,” relatively speaking?
But I love it, I have to admit.
Thanks, Seal
Seal Press rocks so hard it’s ridiculous. Not only has word come that the first reprint of My Husband Betty has come out with Seal’s imprint, but they’ve apologized for the situation that lead to me being left off the Transgender category nominees’ list for the Lambda Literary Awards.
Buy Seal’s books, people. They are a great press, & do good work.
here! Podcast
I really enjoyed doing this podcast with Josh & Sara, so I’m pleased to say it’s up on their website as an MP3 now.
Gone Betty Gone
Betty just left in the Shitwaffle, driven by Megan to Milwaukee Airport, to return to Brooklyn, for at least a month.
Feh.
Teaching Trans
I’ve already team-taught my first class in Gender Studies 101, and later today I get to teach my first session of Transgender Lives. It’s a 200-level course, and I opted to allow trans people to speak about their own lives instead of focusing on what other people have said about trans lives. How? I used books written by trans people: Jenny Boylan’s, James Green’s, Kate Bornstein’s, some of Julia Serano’s Whipping Girl, Leslie Feinberg, and… a lovely little book by The Lady Chablis called Hiding My Candy. Plus a few chapters from my own My Husband Betty in order to represent the crossdressers.
I figure as a non-trans person teaching trans, I’ll already be there as a kind of lens, so getting as much primary reporting from trans people themselves was important.
Appleton
Well, we’re here in Appleton; we’ve done grocery shopping; we’ve had dinner at a local pub, and I’ve met with the professor with whom I will co-teach the Gender 101 class I’ll be teaching. My first class is tomorrow, and I’m both excited and nervous about starting the term. Mostly excited.
It’s cold here, but not so cold; still, I appreciate having my boots and my very cozy coat. For now, I have Betty to keep me warm at home, but she’s leaving in the next week to head back to NY and start working herself. (But don’t worry, she’s coming to visit for Valentine’s Day, when she’ll also speak to my classes.)