World Tour of America #6: Update 2
We've had quite a busy time since I did my update post last Friday. I think we've done something pretty much every day but that's been really nice.
The weekend started off with New England Trans United Pride on Saturday -
It was being held in Northampton and we had to be at the start at 11, ready to start marching at 12. ftmichael and I had to leave at 9 in order to get there on time, so we went to Dunkies on the way for breakfast :) We arrived about 10.45 so there weren't many people around just then. By half 11, the crowd had expanded quite impressively and there were even familiar faces which was very nice. Gunner arrived and we got asked to carry signs for MTPC which I was happy to do. We all got put into position ready to start marching; MTPC were at the front, so Michael and I joined in there. There was a police car right at the very front, followed by a trailer containing Gunner as Grand Marshall and Miss Trans Northampton as well. There were other police officers who were walking along with us as the roads hadn't really been closed off which was a little disconcerting.
We started marching at 12 and as soon as we set off, it absolutely chucked it down. It eased off after a while but it was still very chilly and grey so that was a shame. The march route was much longer than I thought and went right along the main road through the town centre. There weren't really many people waiting to watch us go past, but some people cheered us on and quite a lot of the cars on the other side of the road pomped their horns in support. Michael said one of the nice things about such a small parade is that every person who showed their support got a huge cheer all of their very own in response.
The route ended in a car park where there was a small stage and lots of stalls. It started raining again not long after we got there which did rather put a damper on things. A good half of the stalls stayed empty and two people who were supposed to speak on the stage didn't show up either. We had a look round the few stalls there were and got some freebies, then stood around waiting for Gunner to speak. It was about 2pm when he'd finished and most people had gone by then so we decided to call it a day too. A friend of Michael's had recommended going back on Route 2 as the trees were looking very pretty so we did that but it took ages to get home. We ended up calling into Friendly's for tea so it wasn't all bad.
and the local Harvest Fair on Sunday.
The weather was much better than the day before which was a big bonus. The sun was out and it was warm enough to just wear a T-shirt and hoody. The fair was huge, much bigger than either of us had expected. As well as some rides, there were lots of stalls from all the people who are currently campaigning to be elected as the local mayor or the school committee or something. We kind of avoided all of them though. There were also a lot of craft stalls, most of which seemed to be selling jewellery so they weren't very interesting. One stall was selling handmade ties with really interesting fabrics for $15. I was really taken by one with a map on it in really nice colours so I bought it. There was another stall from a local TV station where the bloke on it recognised us from when they were at the July 4th fair thing last year! There was also a stall from Cabot Cheese and Michael was extremely pleased to find that cheddar cheese is lactose free and so he should be able to eat that without any problems. He tried a small sample of their cheddar which was very tasty and didn't give him any trouble so he was an extremely happy boy about that!
We didn't have any plans for the rest of the week but we decided to go up to Walden Pond on Monday.
I thought it was in the same area as the British Delights shop that we'd been to last time I was here. Michael checked the map and found that it was, so we decided to have a look at the shop first as it was furthest away, and then go to Walden Pond on the way back.
We were very good at the shop, even though we bought stuff when we hadn't intended to. They had Tunnock's teacakes which are the best thing ever so I couldn't resist. Michael got a bottle of Irn Bru and some pickled onion Monster Munch. Obviously, I've done really well in introducing him to only the best top quality British foods.
We drove down to Walden Pond, calling in to Subway on the way where I was surprised to find that their Cold Cut Combo contains bologna, ham and salami that are all turkey based, rather than pork! When we got to the park, we tramped through some of the woods till we found the pond, and then ate our subs perched on a wall by the side of the water. It's a pretty large body of water to be called a pond and it's completely surrounded by trees all the way round. Where we were sitting was a lifeguard station and a tiny little beach so it was a lovely spot to have dinner. After that, we walked along the trail that ran right round the pond and made lots of stops to take photos because it was so pretty. It was rather strange to have the trail completely fenced off with metal railings and warning signs saying that you'd get fined if you strayed from the trail. Hardly friendly and it seemed a little OTT really.
When we'd walked all the way round the pond, we sat at the little beach and just enjoyed the view and the peace and quiet. There were quite a few people swimming in the pond which boggled both of our minds because it must have been freezing in there! About 3.30, it started to get chilly so we had a quick look in the gift shop where I got some postcards and commended the bloke there on his choice of music as he had the Beatles playing.
Tuesday was spent running errands -
While I was getting my stuff together, ready to go out, Michael decided to look for new phone online as he'd been thinking about it for a while and wanted to see what was available. I wondered if it was possible to get a cheap Pay As You Go type phone to use while I was here because using my UK phone was proving to be very expensive. We had a look on the T Mobile site as that's who Michael is with and their cheapest one was $20. A look at Best Buy turned up one that was $10 with Virgin Mobile which sounded pretty promising. We went out to Best Buy first and found the phone there. The information with it was rather confusing because it said that it did texts and messaging but didn't say what protocols. We asked a bloke who was sat there but he didn't really have a clue and said that he didn't think any of the cheap phones did messaging. If that was the case, why did it say so on the back of the box? He wasn't at all helpful really and seemed more interested in his own phone.
Michael wanted to have a look at the phones in the T Mobile shop so we went there later on. Michael had a good play with all the phones available and finally decided on a Samsung t239 which is very nice and a hell of a lot better than his old one. Once he was all sorted, he asked the bloke about the possibility of getting a sim card for his old phone and using it for texting and IMing. The bloke said that that was certainly possible and recommended the Pay As You Go tariff rather than their prepaid one which was more for calls. It was $10 for the sim card so that was really reasonable; even when I put $10 of credit on it, it was still a good price. So I now have a very nice US phone number that I can use for texting Michael and all my American friends, as well as tweeting and using AIM or Yahoo messenger. Brilliant! And if any of those American friends want my US phone number, just let me know.
on Wednesday we went to the pictures.
I'd seen a trailer for Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs when I went to see the new Harry Potter film and thought it looked quite good. Michael had said he wouldn't mind seeing it and this afternoon seemed like as good a time as any. The auditorium was pretty empty which I suppose is what you get when you see a film at 4 o'clock on a Wednesday afternoon. It was a pretty good film though, I really enjoyed it and found it very entertaining. I'd definitely recommend seeing it.
Then last night we went to TranScriptions.
Michael had been at work all afternoon so I'd taken the opportunity to do some work of my own for my Trans Support Worker job. One of the benefits of working from home at a job that's mostly online is being able to do it while I'm here. Because I'd been working hard all afternoon, I'd forgotten to get anything ready to read out. Luckily I had my flashstick o'written stuffs so Michael very nicely printed out a couple of my poems and we headed off. I spent most of the journey angsting over whether I was going to read anything and if so, what it was going to be. I still hadn't made up my mind when we arrived.
It was pretty empty and the feature hadn't arrived so it all started very late; it was about 8pm, rather than 7.15! I've not been to TranScriptions before, although I'd been to GenderCrash several times before it finished. I didn't expect it would be much different, although it actually was, mostly due to the fact that there weren't any familiar faces there at all which was quite sad. I finally decided that I was going to read and picked 3 of the 4 poems that Michael had printed out for me. I'd put my name down towards the end of the list so there were about 8 people who performed before me. The majority of them did music stuff and it wasn't even their own material which was a bit annoying. (GenderCrash had a rule that you could only perform your own material, but TranScriptions seems to have done away with that.)
When it came to my turn, I did a little introduction saying that I was from England which got a big cheer and also explained that I might use words or pronunciations that they weren't familiar with, in which case, they should FGI. No one seemed to get that unfortunately, so I said that they should Google it. I was rather anxious about reading my stuff because I don't think my poetry is my strong point and I get nervous speaking in front of people which doesn't help. My first poem was Out which went down fairly well which made me feel a bit better. My second piece was Return to Wonderland which is much more mature but also really dark so although I think it's a much better piece, I don't think it went down as well and only got polite applause. It's also longer so that probably didn't help either. I finished off with my favourite poem, You Can't Do Yoga On A Beanbag. Just announcing the title got quite a laugh, and the entire piece actually got quite a lot of laughs throughout so I was very pleased about that and glad that I'd decided to read it.
There was a short break and then the feature performed. This was Kielbasia, an Accordion Playing Lunch Lady from the Old Country (Poland). The artist started off by saying that ordinarily he would get ready backstage and then be in character ready to start the act, but as this was a genderbending type of place, he'd decided to get ready on stage instead. As he was getting ready, he told us about the history of the character and how it had developed, and it was really quite fascinating. I thought it was very brave of him to do that but also really powerful and worked very well. The act itself was brilliant and a lot of fun.
We hung around and chatted for a bit afterwards and a couple of people said that they'd really liked my poems, especially the last one. Even Kielbasia liked them which is even better. It was really nice to get such praise, even though there was the usual 'OMG, I love your accent, it is so cute/hot/sexayyy' stuff as well. One person said that 'you can't do yoga on a beanbag' are words to live by which made me really happy.
So that's what we've got up to this week. We still have lots of exciting things planned though our schedule has changed a little bit:
Oct 11: Oktoberfest
Oct 15-16: Cole in Boston
Oct 17: Go to Salem with Michael's cousin, Cathy
Oct 18: Head of the Charles regatta
Oct 23-25: Translating Identity Conference
Oct 29: Speaking gig
Oct 31: Hallowe'en
Nov 1: the Harry Potter Exhibition at the Museum of Science
The weekend started off with New England Trans United Pride on Saturday -
It was being held in Northampton and we had to be at the start at 11, ready to start marching at 12. ftmichael and I had to leave at 9 in order to get there on time, so we went to Dunkies on the way for breakfast :) We arrived about 10.45 so there weren't many people around just then. By half 11, the crowd had expanded quite impressively and there were even familiar faces which was very nice. Gunner arrived and we got asked to carry signs for MTPC which I was happy to do. We all got put into position ready to start marching; MTPC were at the front, so Michael and I joined in there. There was a police car right at the very front, followed by a trailer containing Gunner as Grand Marshall and Miss Trans Northampton as well. There were other police officers who were walking along with us as the roads hadn't really been closed off which was a little disconcerting.
We started marching at 12 and as soon as we set off, it absolutely chucked it down. It eased off after a while but it was still very chilly and grey so that was a shame. The march route was much longer than I thought and went right along the main road through the town centre. There weren't really many people waiting to watch us go past, but some people cheered us on and quite a lot of the cars on the other side of the road pomped their horns in support. Michael said one of the nice things about such a small parade is that every person who showed their support got a huge cheer all of their very own in response.
The route ended in a car park where there was a small stage and lots of stalls. It started raining again not long after we got there which did rather put a damper on things. A good half of the stalls stayed empty and two people who were supposed to speak on the stage didn't show up either. We had a look round the few stalls there were and got some freebies, then stood around waiting for Gunner to speak. It was about 2pm when he'd finished and most people had gone by then so we decided to call it a day too. A friend of Michael's had recommended going back on Route 2 as the trees were looking very pretty so we did that but it took ages to get home. We ended up calling into Friendly's for tea so it wasn't all bad.
and the local Harvest Fair on Sunday.
The weather was much better than the day before which was a big bonus. The sun was out and it was warm enough to just wear a T-shirt and hoody. The fair was huge, much bigger than either of us had expected. As well as some rides, there were lots of stalls from all the people who are currently campaigning to be elected as the local mayor or the school committee or something. We kind of avoided all of them though. There were also a lot of craft stalls, most of which seemed to be selling jewellery so they weren't very interesting. One stall was selling handmade ties with really interesting fabrics for $15. I was really taken by one with a map on it in really nice colours so I bought it. There was another stall from a local TV station where the bloke on it recognised us from when they were at the July 4th fair thing last year! There was also a stall from Cabot Cheese and Michael was extremely pleased to find that cheddar cheese is lactose free and so he should be able to eat that without any problems. He tried a small sample of their cheddar which was very tasty and didn't give him any trouble so he was an extremely happy boy about that!
We didn't have any plans for the rest of the week but we decided to go up to Walden Pond on Monday.
I thought it was in the same area as the British Delights shop that we'd been to last time I was here. Michael checked the map and found that it was, so we decided to have a look at the shop first as it was furthest away, and then go to Walden Pond on the way back.
We were very good at the shop, even though we bought stuff when we hadn't intended to. They had Tunnock's teacakes which are the best thing ever so I couldn't resist. Michael got a bottle of Irn Bru and some pickled onion Monster Munch. Obviously, I've done really well in introducing him to only the best top quality British foods.
We drove down to Walden Pond, calling in to Subway on the way where I was surprised to find that their Cold Cut Combo contains bologna, ham and salami that are all turkey based, rather than pork! When we got to the park, we tramped through some of the woods till we found the pond, and then ate our subs perched on a wall by the side of the water. It's a pretty large body of water to be called a pond and it's completely surrounded by trees all the way round. Where we were sitting was a lifeguard station and a tiny little beach so it was a lovely spot to have dinner. After that, we walked along the trail that ran right round the pond and made lots of stops to take photos because it was so pretty. It was rather strange to have the trail completely fenced off with metal railings and warning signs saying that you'd get fined if you strayed from the trail. Hardly friendly and it seemed a little OTT really.
When we'd walked all the way round the pond, we sat at the little beach and just enjoyed the view and the peace and quiet. There were quite a few people swimming in the pond which boggled both of our minds because it must have been freezing in there! About 3.30, it started to get chilly so we had a quick look in the gift shop where I got some postcards and commended the bloke there on his choice of music as he had the Beatles playing.
Tuesday was spent running errands -
While I was getting my stuff together, ready to go out, Michael decided to look for new phone online as he'd been thinking about it for a while and wanted to see what was available. I wondered if it was possible to get a cheap Pay As You Go type phone to use while I was here because using my UK phone was proving to be very expensive. We had a look on the T Mobile site as that's who Michael is with and their cheapest one was $20. A look at Best Buy turned up one that was $10 with Virgin Mobile which sounded pretty promising. We went out to Best Buy first and found the phone there. The information with it was rather confusing because it said that it did texts and messaging but didn't say what protocols. We asked a bloke who was sat there but he didn't really have a clue and said that he didn't think any of the cheap phones did messaging. If that was the case, why did it say so on the back of the box? He wasn't at all helpful really and seemed more interested in his own phone.
Michael wanted to have a look at the phones in the T Mobile shop so we went there later on. Michael had a good play with all the phones available and finally decided on a Samsung t239 which is very nice and a hell of a lot better than his old one. Once he was all sorted, he asked the bloke about the possibility of getting a sim card for his old phone and using it for texting and IMing. The bloke said that that was certainly possible and recommended the Pay As You Go tariff rather than their prepaid one which was more for calls. It was $10 for the sim card so that was really reasonable; even when I put $10 of credit on it, it was still a good price. So I now have a very nice US phone number that I can use for texting Michael and all my American friends, as well as tweeting and using AIM or Yahoo messenger. Brilliant! And if any of those American friends want my US phone number, just let me know.
on Wednesday we went to the pictures.
I'd seen a trailer for Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs when I went to see the new Harry Potter film and thought it looked quite good. Michael had said he wouldn't mind seeing it and this afternoon seemed like as good a time as any. The auditorium was pretty empty which I suppose is what you get when you see a film at 4 o'clock on a Wednesday afternoon. It was a pretty good film though, I really enjoyed it and found it very entertaining. I'd definitely recommend seeing it.
Then last night we went to TranScriptions.
Michael had been at work all afternoon so I'd taken the opportunity to do some work of my own for my Trans Support Worker job. One of the benefits of working from home at a job that's mostly online is being able to do it while I'm here. Because I'd been working hard all afternoon, I'd forgotten to get anything ready to read out. Luckily I had my flashstick o'written stuffs so Michael very nicely printed out a couple of my poems and we headed off. I spent most of the journey angsting over whether I was going to read anything and if so, what it was going to be. I still hadn't made up my mind when we arrived.
It was pretty empty and the feature hadn't arrived so it all started very late; it was about 8pm, rather than 7.15! I've not been to TranScriptions before, although I'd been to GenderCrash several times before it finished. I didn't expect it would be much different, although it actually was, mostly due to the fact that there weren't any familiar faces there at all which was quite sad. I finally decided that I was going to read and picked 3 of the 4 poems that Michael had printed out for me. I'd put my name down towards the end of the list so there were about 8 people who performed before me. The majority of them did music stuff and it wasn't even their own material which was a bit annoying. (GenderCrash had a rule that you could only perform your own material, but TranScriptions seems to have done away with that.)
When it came to my turn, I did a little introduction saying that I was from England which got a big cheer and also explained that I might use words or pronunciations that they weren't familiar with, in which case, they should FGI. No one seemed to get that unfortunately, so I said that they should Google it. I was rather anxious about reading my stuff because I don't think my poetry is my strong point and I get nervous speaking in front of people which doesn't help. My first poem was Out which went down fairly well which made me feel a bit better. My second piece was Return to Wonderland which is much more mature but also really dark so although I think it's a much better piece, I don't think it went down as well and only got polite applause. It's also longer so that probably didn't help either. I finished off with my favourite poem, You Can't Do Yoga On A Beanbag. Just announcing the title got quite a laugh, and the entire piece actually got quite a lot of laughs throughout so I was very pleased about that and glad that I'd decided to read it.
There was a short break and then the feature performed. This was Kielbasia, an Accordion Playing Lunch Lady from the Old Country (Poland). The artist started off by saying that ordinarily he would get ready backstage and then be in character ready to start the act, but as this was a genderbending type of place, he'd decided to get ready on stage instead. As he was getting ready, he told us about the history of the character and how it had developed, and it was really quite fascinating. I thought it was very brave of him to do that but also really powerful and worked very well. The act itself was brilliant and a lot of fun.
We hung around and chatted for a bit afterwards and a couple of people said that they'd really liked my poems, especially the last one. Even Kielbasia liked them which is even better. It was really nice to get such praise, even though there was the usual 'OMG, I love your accent, it is so cute/hot/sexayyy' stuff as well. One person said that 'you can't do yoga on a beanbag' are words to live by which made me really happy.
So that's what we've got up to this week. We still have lots of exciting things planned though our schedule has changed a little bit:
Oct 11: Oktoberfest
Oct 15-16: Cole in Boston
Oct 17: Go to Salem with Michael's cousin, Cathy
Oct 18: Head of the Charles regatta
Oct 23-25: Translating Identity Conference
Oct 29: Speaking gig
Oct 31: Hallowe'en
Nov 1: the Harry Potter Exhibition at the Museum of Science