Hello, and a Happy pre-Christmas Thursday to everyone. Hope you're already on vacation, or will be after tomorrow.
Yours truly is working, and will be next week as well. It's been frantic at work the past few months (more so than usual), and exhausting, so you do what you have to do. The bright side, such as it is, is that no one is in the office, so I can get a lot done without interruption.
There is one complication, however:
I broke two ribs last night. :c(
Or, to be completely accurate, I broke two ribs again last night.
Hello all. Hope you're having a good December so far. This isn't my favorite time of year, although it used to be. It brings to mind painful memories of broken promises, lies, and betrayal. This December has been harder than usual for some reason. But I'll get through it. I've come too far and worked too hard.
And on that note, I just wanted to put up a brief post today to commemorate one of the most important days of my life.
Five years ago today - December 13, 2013 (Friday the 13th, incidentally) is the day I went full time.
It simultaneously feels like yesterday and a thousand years ago - in a good way. And while I'm going through a less than pleasant period at the moment, I'm doing it as myself. And that makes it all worthwhile. I wouldn't trade my life now for anything I had back then. I think the two photos below - the first taken the day I started HRT (November 19th, 2011) and the second taken this evening, December 12th, 2018 - tell the story far better than any words I can conjure up:
And here I am five years ago to the day on the left, and today on the right:
A lot has changed since then - including my address (several times), hair color (once), boob size (OK, not so much), and, of course, plumbing (absolutely only once!).
(I also put on some weight, as you can see - a combination of prolonged, involuntary inactivity, a much-busier-than-usual work schedule, and the side effects of medication I was taking. But no excuses. I weighed the same from high school until just before my surgery in September 2017, and I am going to get back to my normal weight. I'm hard at work on it, every day. And I'll succeed (in fact, I'm already on my way, in the past three weeks since I started in earnest). I know now I can do anything I put my mind to. Posting these pics is one way to hold myself to that when I'm tired at the end of the day and need a reminder of my goal. In six or so months I plan to be back to my normal weight. Book it.)
What will the next five years bring? Who knows? But I'm looking forward to finding out. See you back here on December 13, 2023. :c)
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By the way, for anyone wondering where the title of this post comes from, I refer you to the Book of Armaments, Chapter Two, verses 9-21:
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In the spirit of the season, a few Christmas songs from two wonderful new holiday albums, by The Mavericks and The Old 97s, respectively. Check them out; they're both terrific bands who get a lot of airplay here in Cass's Little Corner of the World.
And to end on a more contemplative note, here's Kate Bush's 1979 classic, "December Will Be Magic." First, a live version, from her Christmas special that year:
And last but not least, the single version, which is as lovely as its singer:
Hope to post at least once more before Christmas. Have a lovely holiday season (whichever you observe) in the meantime, everyone.
Greetings and salutations, one and all. Hope all are well. It's been a looonnnngggg time since I posted. Things have really been hoppin' at Cass's Casa, and this blog, alas, has been one of the casualties.
It's Saturday afternoon, and I'm just back from lunch with my friend J. We worked together years ago, then lost touch when I moved to Seattle. We reconnected on Facebook, and, finally, got to meet up in person. It was J's first time meeting Cass in person, which made it extra enjoyable. J was a good friend at a time when I needed one, so it's great to have him (and his lovely wife S) back in my life. :c)
I went for a run this morning, so I have some free time before my nephew C comes over later to watch Game 7 of the National League Championship Series to see whether the Brewers or Dodgers face - oh, how sweet it is to be able to say this - the American League Champion Boston Red Sox in the World Series! Woo hoo! :c)
So, follow along below the fold for my further adventures, including one of my more memorable (in a good way) post-transition experiences - and while seeing my doctor, no less. :c)
Greetings, one and all. Just a quick post to say hello. Hope everyone is having a good summer so far. The news has been almost uniformly awful :-/, so I'll avoid talking about it here.
Instead, I'll focus on something positive: I'm finally able to start running again, at long last. Woo hoo! It had been 14 months, between a lingering issue with my hamstring last spring/summer, followed by my surgery and then a standard-issue New England winter.
I was able to start again in June, and got two weeks in, once again using the Couch to 5K (C25K) app I used to get started a few years ago. I was finishing the final run of the second week, and feeling good... only to have my 18 month old running shoes fall apart as I was finishing a run. Specifically, the heel came off my left shoe mid-stride.
Luckily I escaped with a sore left knee, which healed quite nicely during the time it took to order new running shoes online and wait for their arrival. (I have an uncommon shoe size, so even specialty running stores typically don't carry anything that fits.)
Anyway, they finally arrived a few weeks ago, so I was able to start anew. Since I'm starting up again after a long layoff, I decided to repeat the first two weeks, lest my penchant for injuring myself kick in yet again.
I completed the first run of week 3 this morning before work, and am just now beginning to feel my stamina returning. As I mentioned in previous posts, I put on weight post-surgery. I was concerned I would have a hard time losing it, given how high my testosterone was pre-surgery, even after taking Spironolactone for years.
My doctor, who is also a runner, assured me that my body would remember once I started exercising regularly again as my daily dilating schedule became more manageable. And... she was right. :c) I've put a nice dent into the amount I need to lose in a short period of time. I'm not really seeing the results yet (although my stylist, who saw me for the first time in six weeks last Friday, immediately commented on it as I walked in), but I'm beginning to feel it. For now, that's plenty.
I have a long way to go, but I feel a lot better knowing that I'll get back to my regular weight by sticking to my normal workout routine. It will take patience and a lot of hard work... but so did my transition. I did that; I can do this. In fact, I can do pretty much anything I put my mind to, I now realize. :c)
OK, off to cook dinner here, then work on my *other* big project. More on that soon... promise. :D Have a good week, everyone!
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Since I'm out pounding the pavement again, what better band to end this post with than... Pavement? Check out Stephen Malkmus absolutely shredding during his guitar solo on "Summer Babe (Winter Version)", one of my faves of theirs.
I was going to post a clip of them performing "Cut Your Hair," probably their best-known song... but then I remembered Wilco had covered it a few years ago during one of their Solid Sound festivals, held in North Adams MA. They devoted an entire show to cover versions, starting with a killer version of Thin Lizzy's "The Boys Are Back In Town," followed by "Cut Your Hair." Speaking of shredding, Nels Cline absolutely tears the place down here. Enjoy!
Finally, a great song from the first of two masterpieces Stevie Wonder released in 1972, Music of my Mind - "Keep On Running":
This is the album that contains "Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You)", my favorite Stevie song:
Hopefully that's enough tune-age to hold everyone over until my next post. Enjoy!
Thought I'd share something fun; Lord knows we could use it these days, right?
The company I work for held our annual summer barbecue today. The food was terrific, and the weather was perfect (70, breezy, and overcast - i.e. no sunburn risk for the cadaverous-pallored likes of myself). Even better, they had caricaturists there once again, as they did a few years ago. I sat for one for the first time in a few years.
For reference, this is from 2015:
And here is this year's model (to quote Mr. Costello):
Alice and Deanna were kidding me earlier this afternoon about the apparent growth of, er, "the girls" in the intervening three years; I advised them it was a textbook case of artistic license. :D
Anyway, it was a fun day, and I'll be picking up a couple of frames to hang these up this weekend. :c)
Have a pleasant Friday, everyone!
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Since I quoted Mr. McClanus earlier, I thought I should share a few songs from 1978's This Year's Model, the second in his amazing run of classic albums (from 1977's My Aim Is True to 1982's Imperial Bedroom). First up is a great live performance from the Capitol Theatre in Passaic NJ of "This Year's Girl":
And here's another from the same May 5, 1978 show; probably my favorite song from that album - "The Beat":
Man, were the Attractions an incredible band or what? Going to be listening to some EC this weekend, for sure...
Happy Friday, all. Hope everyone had a good week. So, I was off my one weekend in getting this written. Sorry about that. I drafted most of this last weekend, but didn't quite get it finished. This will be one of those grab-bag posts, so hopefully there's' something for everyone! :c)
Greetings one and all. Haven't written for quite some time... and won't really in this post either. :c) (Sorry!)
I just wanted to say hello, and that I *do* hope to write a new post for real this weekend. It's a long weekend here in the States, so I really have no excuse not to at some point. :c) Watch this space; lots to chat about since my last missive!
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I don't think I've ever posted a picture of myself wearing my glasses, oddly enough. This is how I usually look at work when I don't wear my contacts. Unfortunately my prescription has changed, and they no longer make these frames. Bummer, as I really liked them. Oh well. Hopefully I can find a pair I like just as much.
Think that will do it for now. See you this weekend (I hope)!
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I thought I'd end with "How Are You," a great song from Cheap Trick's third album, 1978's Heaven Tonight. You know it's a great album when a song this good is only about the fifth or sixth best song. Check it out if you've never heard it. (Same goes for their first two, Cheap Trick and In Color; all three are stone classics.)
And because one Cheap Trick tune is never enough, here's "Surrender," from 1979's Live at Budokan. The studio version is on Heaven Tonight, incidentally. Both versions are wonderful; it's such a joyous, life-affirming song. And they're still going strong, 40 years after this was released! God love 'em. :c) Enjoy!
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