Abnormalities and other Oddities
A collection of musings around gender transition, existing as an anomaly, coming to terms with existence, and the quest for love in a loveless landscape!
Wednesday 7 February 2024
Losing The Sparkle
Monday 18 September 2023
The Consciousness Struggle
Sunday 13 August 2023
Anxiety... but make it casual
Monday 9 January 2023
Hell Is Other People
Wednesday 30 November 2022
Yearly Reflection
Monday 7 November 2022
Go Where The Love Is
Tuesday 13 September 2022
Worth Saving
Wednesday 31 August 2022
Remember Who You Are
Wednesday 22 June 2022
Broken Hearted
Saturday 30 April 2022
Fickle Mental Health
Wednesday 20 April 2022
What Love Means To Me
Monday 11 April 2022
Rarely A Straight Line
Sunday 3 April 2022
Afterglow
Saturday 26 March 2022
Anti-Numb Emotional Rebound
Friday 25 March 2022
Clean Slates
So basically this is the end and the beginning in a lot of ways, I deactivated my personal Facebook account last night after getting my backups downloaded, and that decision was mostly just around the kinds of feelings and moods that Facebook tended to cause.
As a transgender person we tend to see a lot of comments on Facebook which specifically treat us as less than the general population, we are discussed in terms of legislation over our bodies, our private lives, our ability to choose for ourselves. A lot of those comments treat us as a problem to be solved rather than as individuals with lives, loves, friends and family, passions and dreams.
Its the same kind of arguments against people of other races we've seen before, the same arguments we saw on gay marriage and almost every other horrible period of human history where a minority suffered violence at the hands of bigots.
So every day, at LEAST once or twice a day I would see some comment which basically said I should die, or that I shouldn't be allowed to exist as a transgender person, that I'm somehow mentally ill and need to be cured or killed. It gets really draining, even with all the positive posts celebrating being trans that I also see... for every hundred positive posts it only takes one of those spiteful people to really make me spiral.
And if you've been keeping up on all my other posts, it was also a place where I was constantly reminded of how much I have been hurting about the girl I mentioned, its really hard to try and move on if you are seeing them even virtually everywhere you go.
So here we are, its digital detox time, I figure I will try and write a lot more on this blog which should result in better content here that's a little more detailed than I could ordinarily get away with on Facebook, there will be less editing, and of course without all the memes and foolishness hopefully it will be easier to take it all a bit more seriously.
I think because I tend to be quite light hearted and silly, people tend to see me as somehow incapable of seriousness or that my feelings are never really hurt. Hopefully this post should clarify, that I actually hurt an awful lot of the time, and the seriousness definitely happens I just haven't always been the best at showing it. It's much easier to laugh than cry.
The other thing I am looking forward to is having direct conversations with people more often, rather than people relying on my ridiculous levels of spam on Facebook to count as keeping up with me, I hope they'll take a few minutes to actually talk to me occasionally.
I love my people, its going to be a strange and difficult thing to deliberately distance myself like this, but I really hope it will actually make me a better friend with more emotional energy to play with.
Lots of love,
Abigail
Tuesday 22 March 2022
Emotional Chew Toy
Tuesday 15 March 2022
The Follow On
I guess it does actually all catch up, snippets of human affection from people who you can't be with actually aren't enough. Sometimes its just safer to stop hoping and hurting yourself waiting for it to last more than a night at a time.
And I know I deserve better than that kind of thing, but its been well over a decade, and nobody has put their hand up for that particular task. The loneliness is real, the anxiety is also real.
My last real relationship was in 2010, and it was a nice simplistic hetero situation, I have no idea how to find whatever I need to find now. I am basically looking for that pan/bi/lesbian needle in the haystack that will love me for me, and I am trying to find it in some of the smallest most narrow minded places in New Zealand... it's actually really hard when all my friends are telling me I deserve better, or I will one day find the most amazing person to be with. I am 43... being real there are not that many awesome years left to enjoy the early parts of dating people, traveling, adventuring. At what point does it actually get too late to start over.
I cry at night sometimes, for the girl I wish I could be with, for the girl I wish I was, but mostly I cry because I want to matter enough to somebody again that I am where they want to be.
Tuesday 22 February 2022
Waiting for happiness
What time is it? Where am I?
Monday 20 September 2021
Creativity While Banned
So I received a Facebook ban for a few days, those who know me are probably a little shocked I'd never actually had one before. But here we are, and because I can't post anything I am feeling pent up already hehe.
So I want to talk about creativity a little bit, because it can be such a mercurial thing for some of us, for me right now its the struggle of wanting to write anything while I am already expected to write so much for academic purposes and the eternal struggle of ADHD just not letting me.
But looking back on all the writing I have done is really interesting, I review my own previous writing once in awhile just to see how far I've come, what I used to do better than I do now, what I have managed to improve etc, and of course how much I have changed as a human since then.
A lot of my old fiction writing would fit roughly in the "transgressive fiction" category, lots of aggression, anti-social stuff, kinks, fetishes, drugs, violence, misogyny at points (ewww)
And I review it and just think who the hell even was I back then, but then some of it is awfully nicely written trash too, so I don't want to discount it entirely.
For myself the creativity happens when I have an overwhelming feeling I need to express, or if somebody asks me to write them something for a specific theme or purpose, or an idea I just can't shake.
And where it all falls apart is when I get too involved and can't just stop when it's good, I have to keep working on things until I hate them, and they might not ever even get seen by anybody by that point.
I love sharing, this blog has been an absolute life saver at times because its sharing without forcing it down people's throats. The few regular readers I have will see all of it, but most people only see glimpses when I share an individual post. It's like screaming into the void, if the void were recording everything.
But it does give me that outlet for creativity in sometimes quite concise chunks, there isn't the pressure to complete anything, there isn't the pressure of an audience I am trying to cater to.
But how do we spark creativity when we really don't feel it, when life's just a little too flat to want to explore our imaginations or express ourselves. The answer is to engage with other people, they inspire us, they give us new ideas to get excited about, and they give us a reason.
At the last party I went to I met an exceptional human, and since then we share ideas and talk about all kinds of things that I haven't in ages, I think I have inspired her and she definitely inspires me. And that's so refreshing. And if you read this, I adore you lady, in the gayest possible terms, I think you're super neat... pro homo.
So if you're stuck in a creative blackhole, my advice is to have heartfelt chats with somebody, be vulnerable, be honest, trust someone other than yourself for a second. And pick up the laptop, pen, brush, needle and thread, popsicle sticks and PVA... whatever it is you do to unleash your imagination.
In other creative news, I also ordered some paint by numbers kits, because I found playing paint by numbers games on my phone SUPER relaxing. So I want to try in the real world, hopefully its soothing x 100000.
Lots of love,
Abigail
Wednesday 8 September 2021
Future Me
So course is still going well, I am on placement with the Salvation Army in their Reintegration Service which is essentially helping clients who are leaving prison after a sentence of more than two years to find their feet in society again. This mostly means finding jobs, housing, setting up accounts etc
It is a really interesting placement to get really, and lets me use some of my personal experience, so I am actually quite lucky in that regard.
So assuming I get all of my hours done and pass the last few assessments the game plan is to graduate mid-December, and then I will be moving back to Dunedin to continue my studies, three more years of this stress just so that I can be a registered counsellor.
But it does mean I'll get to see all of my Dunedin people who I absolutely adore, and I will hopefully be moving in to an amazing house with some people I have already lived with before so that will actually be fantastic.
Everything feels like it could actually work out, which is awesome and gives me that bright shiny glow of optimism that I feel like I have been missing a little bit this year.
I'm still more tired than I would like, some days its really hard to get up, or focus on the things I need to.
So I am hoping I can do something about that soon too, because I'd be unstoppable if I could get that under control.
I keep meeting amazing people, and sharing amazing moments, and it actually sucks that I won't be seeing some of these people so much for a few years.
So if you're reading this, I love you, and I won't ever forget you hehe
Love.
Abigail
Sunday 27 June 2021
Halfway
Sunday 28 March 2021
Studying Hearts
Saturday 13 February 2021
Intangible Thoughts
Monday 18 January 2021
Re-Entry
The festive period was really a little bit intense even for a seasoned veteran like me, from the few days before new years eve until really only a few days ago there was just a flurry of social activity and shenanigans.
And it's only now, when I need to try and reacclimate to the real world that I have had time to really think about exactly how messy things got.
That's not to say that I regret any of it, but I really need to learn to listen to my own body a little bit better and stick to my decisions when I say no.
The excitement of hanging out with new friends, and meeting new people has a special kind of intoxication of its own, never mind all the actual intoxication happening on top of it.
We know by now that my truest joys are talking to new people, so it has been a very joyful month.
But now I am working out student loan paperwork, planning to move in with a good friend of mine, and settling into a study routine again in a little under a month.
I hope I can find a way to keep seeing the people I adore after that happens regularly, because I am smiling so much more often lately.
Love,
Abigail
Monday 11 January 2021
Slipped Through a Curtain of Thought
Okay its been a week or so now, so I finally feel like I can write this one, and I just won't share it directly to Facebook since this is going to get a little bit out there.
Let's just say this girl, we'll call her Sabrine, who was most definitely just someone I know, had a very peculiar new years experience.
And I feel like I should tell it so that nobody else ends up having to follow in her footsteps.
What the hell, lets even see if I can write it like its a story.
This is going to be disjointed and inaccurate, recollections of it are hazy, and I don't feel like pushing her to work it out.
---
Her day had been frantic and full of energy, trying to keep a music festival on track and somewhat functional requires a lot of people doing exactly what they need to be and at exactly the right moments.
So she had been doing her best to be there, but the time was rapidly approaching where she could at least temporarily become just another party goer for New Years Eve.
The last hours of her gate shift were a blur of hasty makeup application and drunken punters, casual chats while checking tickets, and chasing after people who couldn't follow directions and would disappear into the crowd before check-in was even complete.
It was just after 10PM when she finally escaped back to her friends campsite, just three exhausted ladies keenly looking forward to cute outfits and the ingestion of some substances to enhance the evening.
I am absolutely certain at least this step of her evening was dignified, so as they changed their outfits and she found the small strips of LSD she had acquired in the days leading up to the festival.
They were the off cuts from a large sheet of blotter, the very edges, and so the actual quality and doses were a somewhat unknown. And for some reason she had in her head that at the absolute worst there would be five doses worth. So she swallowed it all.
Finally outfits were on, makeup was finished, and this squad of lunatics were somewhat ready to face the world and listen to some music.
And then it happened... it was not the usual slow build up of a slightly energised and anxious body, the subtle blurring of vision that takes an hour or two to really turn into a trip. It was a kick to the face of colour, and sound. And it happened in minutes. She panicked. This was far too much for this soon.
Her friends had taken various other types of LSD and were both also remarking about how quickly it had happened, but they seemed fairly comfortable with their progression.
Sabrine knew that this was going to get a LOT worse, the thought crossed her mind to find some benzos now and terminate it before it could get there. The last sober and sensible thoughts she would have for the next twelve hours, and it wouldn't be until much later that she realised she should have followed that instinct.
But no... you can't kill it before you have at least enjoyed it a little right?
"What time is it"
"11:50"
"Shit we have to go, its almost midnight, come on Sabs"
Panic... the idea of being amongst all that light and colour was terrifying, the concept of walking enough to get there when the physical world kept blinking out.
"I don't think I can... I really don't"
"Yes you can, you have to, we came here for New Years"
"I don't think I actually can though"
"We'll fucking carry you if we have to bitch"
"You might actually have to...I just can't"
And with that they each took one of her arms, and guided her to the exit of the tent, past the treacherous tent strings and out into the world.
She had the overwhelming desire for sunglasses even in the pitch dark, as protection from the inevitable light, but also so that nobody could see how off planet she was...
There were other people everywhere, apparently everyone had the same idea.
Miraculously they were at the first bridge... the arms around her were gone, but she made her way across and actually almost felt like she was in charge of herself for a moment.
The wall of sound hit her like a slap to the face, and she could see the glow of the light across the next bridge... along the path there were soft lantern-y lights, and the whole scene looked very tropical like a nice lagoon. So she stopped.... unsure if she could deal with the actual stage area ahead of this, and enjoying the cuteness of this spot.
They came back and found her.
"Bitch we have to go we are going to miss it"
She could have sworn it was already past midnight, since a bunch of people nearby had stopped to say happy new year and hug. But apparently not.
"Oh, didn't it already happen?"
"Shit.... did it? WHAT THE FUCK!"
"Well I guess, um happy new year then..."
Hugs... always nice, until your entire body feels like its made of some kind of glowing liquid.
And then Heather checked the time... 11:59....so stroke of midnight round two!
They walked, though she had no idea how, to the dance floor of the party.. it was a sea of people, noise, light, and this was still in the first hour... there were so many feelings and distractions, it was like being immersed in the entire crowds existence all at once but individually.
Her bones were vibrating against the glowing liquid of her body.
And she had to keep looking away from the blinding flames.
She followed her friends... they bumped into various people she knew, but was barely capable of saying hello to, she felt like she was scaring them simply by being there. She felt like she was scaring herself just by being there too. She felt sorry.
Too many sensations occurring simultaneously.... panic.
"Sabs, shall we go to the Chai tent?"
She had no idea what that meant but she followed anyway...
There were moments of feeling quite together, and cute in her floaty dress and cute sparkling shoes.
Back across the bridge and its Gilligan's Island vibe... a little quicker than she'd like, over the slightly more troll vibes second bridge.... and a hard right into the Chai Tent/Safe Zone.
Stepping into that space felt surreal, its an enormous black tent, with a few sketchy pillows to lie on and some provisions for chai tea making and strangely enough a bunch of condoms, she worried about the people who come to safe zone to fuck... hopefully the condoms were a takeaway concept.
She lay down, closed her eyes, and she felt everything slipping away...
The concept of self, the knowledge that she was lying on a pillow, the tent, and even her friends... it all floated in and out of her mind as she lay disconnected from it all and thinking.
The void was not empty... it was like her thoughts were taking physical form only temporarily and then disintegrating into molecules and blowing away on some form of theoretical wind.
She had no body, and no name here. Just an observer watching as the universe unfurled itself in this unknown space.
"Sabs, are you okay?"... the real world came rushing back like a sharp breath in.
"No" she replied. And the exhale returned her to the other universe.
"What can we do to help you?"... inhale
"I don't know... I don't think anything"... exhale
Commotion... exhale...
Nothingness. No molecules. No Sabrine.
The void was darkness this time, the dimness of the tent had stripped it of all the shifting colour.
The thought molecules were more like the exhales of her cigarette earlier, vaporous and drifting slowly apart and into the darkness.
Inhale... Rose was gone to fix her bleeding nose, Heather was asking if some other people could also come inside to chill out. She thought that might be okay...
Exhale... fuck... other people, and their energy, what if they are really freaking out, what if she has to try and talk to them, what if they are angry, what if... what if... what if.....
Inhale... she stood up and walked out of the tent and started putting on her shoes, much to the surprise of Heather who had just told people we were fine with them coming in.
Her shoes sparkled in the moonlight, she struggled to get them on her feet.
And eventually Rose came back, and decided she would change her outfit a little, so they walked back to their campsite.
The landscape on that walk felt completely different than it had just ten minutes earlier, it felt twisted and alien, like it stretched out forever but her legs were taking giant strides across it.
Depth perception and spatial awareness were just words at this point, words that meant nothing to her anymore.
Finally, they made it back to the camp... she lay down... and returned to her other universe.
They started talking amongst themselves, she wasn't really following the words, she was drifting in and out of here and there.
They laughed and joked as people tend to in this state, but she wasn't in that state.
It all sounded so loud, and so chaotic, it shook through the other universe she was still floating in.
It burst through the thought molecules, smashing them away rather than drifting off on a breeze.
"Shhh", she attempted.
Which just invoked even more raucous laughter.
This went on for some time, it might have been weeks for all she knew at that point, but the other universe was less serene now.
Every time she tried a "Shhh" they would laugh more, so she learned to not say it, she felt the "Shhh" inside her soul aching to get out but knowing it would make it worse. It hurt.
She felt like she had become a monk that had taken a vow of silence to try and make it better.
As the laughter and shenanigans continued she tried desperately to get her friends to at least tone it down a little, she heard neighbours in other tents yelling for them to shut up.
A few tents away she heard a lady say "I am going to get up and deck that bitch in a minute" and her partner quickly ask her to calm down.
The tension, aggression, and the way the noise was shattering her strange bubble universe forced her to try and seek solace somewhere else, she somehow gathered herself up and walked outside.
The real world was there briefly, it was completely alien and incomprehensible but it was there.
She staggered forward looking for a quiet place, she stood and looked at the stars like brilliant diamonds covered in clouds that looked like they were made of silk.
It felt good to breathe the cool air, she found a log to sit on near an old campfire and managed to light a cigarette. Cigarette lighters have a tendency under these conditions to stop emitting flame in her mind, instead they rather spit out a red coloured pixel which you must catch on the end of your cigarette.
She enjoyed the smoke in her lungs, and watched it slowly drift away as she exhaled... it felt like you could see it forever as it disappeared into the night.
"SABS!" a voice yelled....
"Shuuuuuuuuut up!" another replied.
Somehow she managed to find her phone... it's screen burst into life, spewing colours and light in every direction. 1:23AM
How the fuck... how had so little time elapsed, how was she in this bad of a state.
Her friends appeared out of the darkness, but she was still unable to talk, her vow of silence had not yet worn off, it was like the only thing she needed in the world was complete silence.
She tried to smile, and waved them onwards.... they looked confused... but they walked away.
She sat there for some time, people drifting in and out to check on her, just floating between universes and staring at the stars. It was getting cold, and she realised she had been here alone for too long.
And so she headed back to the dance floor... to try and find her friends.
Her makeup felt smudged, her fake lashes felt as though they were barely holding on, she was a mess in every sense of the word.
The walk was different every time, as though the world was reconfiguring around her every time she turned around, and yet inexplicably she found herself back at the fire dancing area with her friends.
"Should we find somewhere to sit?"
She fetched herself some water from the bar tent, struggling to comprehend the various sources of water and cups available to her.
She had decided that maybe some MDMA would help ease her out of this manic incomprehensible monster of a human she had become, scrambling in the pocket of her jacket where she had kept it, and struggling to get it into her mouth. She swallowed them, and tried to follow her friends.
They walked slowly up the steep hill, trying to find a place to rest and watch the fire dancers from a safer distance, and enjoy the music without being deafened. But there was no sanctuary, only more hill.
They reached the top of the hill, the tree they sat under was dropping leaves which she could have sworn were a swarm of bees, that she tried frantically to bat away. She felt super exposed and visible, like people could be watching their frantic states perched in a shrubbery.
There was no calm. Only thousands of sources of stimulation slamming into her at once, the relative safety of the other universe actually felt preferable at this point. At least there were no bees there.
She pulled the hood up on her bathrobe, attempting to block some things out, to lower the sensory volume. It didn't work. She flattened out her dress underneath her, trying to make sure it was not getting muddy or wet.
"Do you need to go somewhere else?"
"I don't know... I want to listen to the music, I want grass, and stars, and I don't know... I want a meadow" she said softly.
"What the fuck... a meadow?"
"Yeah y'know a serene patch of flat grass, farmlands, open spaces, I don't know... a fucking meadow"
The girls stood up...
Sabrine stood and almost fell face first down the hill, the girls edged their way carefully down.
And somehow in a miracle of self assured ridiculousness she almost skipped down the treacherous slope, past the people sitting by the fire pit and flounced her way through the crowd on the dance floor.
And so they started walking back toward the music, and remembered the Yoga tent which sits beside a stream, and near a bridge with a nice big flat patch of grass.
She immediately lay down, and glared at the silken clouds for how much they were obscuring her view of the stars. She definitely couldn't really see them, but she absolutely could see them in those moments. Her friends were wandering around again, she wasn't quite aware doing what, but she was finally happy temporarily.
The music was nice, it was all quite funky and had a lot of attitude so she just lay there with her knees up bouncing her feet and loving the whole universe for the first time in a very long time.
Exhale.... the other universe was a bright candy coloured world now, all lavish pastels and soft clouds of imagination. Everything was sparkling and the colours were shifting in time with the music which she was still aware of.
Inhale...
"Hey Sabs, Rose wants to go somewhere, are you going to be okay?"
"Sure"
Exhale...
She floated for so long... blissful and happy.
Thinking about all of the wonderful people she had met the past few days, thinking about the year ahead, thinking about the people she loved.
Sometime later...Inhale...
Slow drops of rain, darkness, her friends had gone somewhere and suddenly she became profoundly aware of how vulnerable she was. Her dress had slid up because she had her knees up, she was lying on the damp ground, still not really aware of where she was a lot of the time.
And there were wasted men walking past constantly in full view of her, and so she was in full view of them. Panic.
What could she even do if one of them came and caused her any trouble, words like rape, stabbed, and haemorrhage floated through her head. Panic AND dread.
She stood shakily, and rearranged her clothes... unsure where to go next, would they have gone back to the dance floor? to the camp site? She had no idea... she headed for the dance floor, security giving her a slightly concerned look as she floated back over the bridges.
At the fire dancing area she saw some people she knew, tried to ask them where Rose had gone, tried to ask them how their night was going, but they all just seemed so distressed by her that she couldn't stay long.
God, what do you do when you are scared, and other people seem scared of you.
She remembered her time on the log, four hundred years ago, a younger more at peace Sabrine.
The walk back was more casual, she floated, she skipped and she flounced her way back to the log.
And once there managed to check her phone, 3:17AM...she lit another cigarette and took a deep breath.
The rain had eased to a slight mist, she stared at the sky which was just a sheet of rippling clouds now.
Groups of people walking back to the campsites, and she still had her intense feelings of vulnerability, a group of men stopped to ask if she was okay, she said she was fine, and one of them had that familiar look of shock and possible outrage...."Is that a dude?"
Thankfully his friends quickly grabbed him, and dragged him away further into the camp sites.
She managed to find her phone, and message her friends...
AT MY LOG, NOT LOVING BEING ALONE, CREEPY WASTED FUCKERS EVERYWHERE.
She lay down on the grass and leaned against the log, trying to make herself smaller, and less visible.
Soon enough her friends arrived, and the world felt much better again, they lay there and she played some music to try and soothe their fragile little minds.
She found they could talk again, she was finally at that fun stage of an acid trip where you can talk absolute nonsense and laugh your foolish asses off, she no longer wanted to "Shhh" she just wanted to explain why her night had been so insanely hard.
Rose disappeared back to the campsite and bought back her gigantic Bluetooth speaker, and suddenly it was a party within a party by her log, a soothing girly vocal psytrance sub-party. Which made her immediately feel a million times better.
Random people stopped to say hi and listen along with them for a bit. And eventually a little after 5AM they decided they had been civil enough keeping the noise away from their campsite, they walked home... and it felt amazing to finally be somewhere away from it all, safe, warm, and able to relax.
Sabrine had refused to get out of her cute dress all night, through cold, wet, muddy, and generally dishevelled states it was still on. And damn if it wasn't staying on, she fetched blankets and some pyjama bottoms and made herself a nest.
Eventually the friends and neighbours found their impromptu chill out party, and as the morning started she was surrounded by all kinds of people and in the midst of numerous amazing conversations with people. Life stories were exchanged, jokes were had, all of those amazing things that happen when the MDMA takes over from the trip.
Slowly their guests drifted away to their beds, or to find other people and check on them, and she was left with her friends who were also floating in their own universes.
Things felt relatively normal again, but only from her perspective, for any normal person this was still definitely more fluid and strange than you'd call normal.
he rain on the roof of the tent slid down the canvas looking like delicious watercolour paintings...she sipped some nitrous oxide and felt the way it shifted the tone of the music, and intensified the visual effect of the acid briefly... it felt nice... she sipped again.
THE END (well the end of the most interesting pieces, the silly bitch went on to do several more days of this foolish nonsense, but those are stories for another time)
Friday 8 January 2021
How To Be Attracted to Everyone
Thursday 26 November 2020
The Meaning of Life
Almost every year I end up posting something that is basically like an introspective year in review and state of the universe according to me post. And this year certainly won't be any different.
This year I turn 42, its the official answer to the question of life the universe and everything year.
So do I have any answers?
Well a lot has certainly happened in my life, I have experienced some of the most extreme situations that a human ever can... I have had substance abuse issues, I've been homeless, I've been to jail, I've been abused both physically and emotionally, and of course I have transitioned.
And I have experienced some really amazing moments on top, I travelled and saw some of the most beautiful places on earth, met some of the most interesting people, and I have seen every single band I have ever truly loved play live, I met some of my childhood heroes, and I have loved and been loved a bunch of times.
So am I anywhere near closer to understanding the meaning of life as a result?
I mean I'd like to think so... I have a tattoo on my arm of a single German word, Lebensfreude, which means joy of living in very loose terms. We all experience our Lebensfreude from different things, for a lot of people it would be family, or money, or careers, or gigantic boats, or climbing mountains.
For me the greatest joys I ever experience are conversations with people, whether its me and my closest friends on the top of a hill on a crystal clear New Zealand night sitting around a fire, or its a dirty little bar in some foreign city just chatting away to other travellers or curious locals.
I love meeting people, I love reacquainting with people, and I love just sharing the things we are all passionate about. And in that regard I generally end up feeling quite fulfilled even when I have absolutely nothing. As Troy in Reality Bites said, "This is all we need. A couple of smokes, a cup of coffee, and a little bit of conversation. You and me and five bucks."
So where to from here? After spending almost two years of wasted time....
I have been accepted into my course for next year, which is the first step on the road to becoming a registered Counsellor, in total this will be the next four years of my life, and the end goal is to eventually be able to provide counselling for LGBTQI people on Gender and Sexual Identities, Substance Abuse counselling for people with substance issues, and general counselling for other people along the way.
I am really excited about that prospect, even if actually achieving it is going to be really hard given my levels of fatigue, my ADHD etc etc etc etc
Being poor for this long has been so hard, but running back to the IT industry would have been just as soul crushing, this is about doing something I love and will find absolutely fulfilling every day. And giving something back to the world.
Any other goals Abigail? Other than increasing your levels of Lebensfreude?
Well.... I hope to save enough money to get my facial feminisation surgery within the next two years, which is going to be extremely hard work.
And I really want to find somebody to love me again, I don't like admitting it very often in real life, but I am quite lonely for that particular type of affection and company. It has been SUCH a long time.
I am honestly not even sure I remember how to be in a relationship, but I'd like to find out.
Anyway, that's it I suppose, this years introspection out of the way.
So go and find your Lebensfreude people, find the thing that makes your little heart happy, and find a lot more ways to have it.
Take care everyone,
Love,
That Wise Old Bitch Abigail.
Sunday 8 November 2020
Whats In A Name?
It's interesting to watch how people react to changing a name and pronouns, there are lots of people now who actually met me as Abigail, and I actually love hanging out with them because to them there was never anything else. They always get things right.
That's not to say of course that everyone else is failing, a lot of my closest people have actually done really well at adapting to the change, when they slip they correct themselves even when I haven't even noticed it.
But the ones who don't, I have no idea how to encourage them to do better without sounding like a massive bitch. There are a few people who basically just loved my old name and don't want to stop using it even though they know it actively hurts me to hear it.
And some others who I think will always refer to me as he/him, it's like a tiny little cut every time it happens, and some days it feels like I could just emotionally bleed to death.
So if you read this, and you care about me please always use Abigail/Abby and She/Her when referring to me, it legit makes me a happier human being.
Love,
Abigail
Monday 6 July 2020
Cycles
Right now my boobs are aching, everything just feels harder, I feel like my whole body is made of lead, things are annoying me more and I just feel like nothing good will ever happen again.
I know it's temporary right... I know things will get better because life itself is a cycle, things are always moving and changing, the chances that things stay awful forever are actually pretty low.
I have been trapped without much contact with other humans for quite a bit longer than the rest of my country, and all those people who fell apart after two months of lockdown? That's kinda how I am feeling right now after eight months of it.
And I am deathly scared of what happens once its done...
So here I am watching The Sopranos, its about as bleak and awful as my mood, so its working.
Thankfully this usually only happens for a few days.
But what the hell am I actually going to do from here.
Saturday 27 June 2020
Mourning and Tranquility
You mourn for aspects of the life you had as well, I personally feel sick whenever I see my old name on things these days, but thats not to say it was all bad.
Watching old concerts and things tonight, and remembering all the amazing women I was with at the times that I saw them, I miss being loved, I miss being able to share things with somebody else, I guess im mourning the romantic side of myself that I have basically buried for the past decade.
And then on top of all of this I am also mourning the life I could have had if I had been diagnosed with ADHD much sooner, how much easier things could have been, how less frustrated I would have been, and how less likely I would have been to drown everything in drugs for so long.
Much as I am super sorrowful tonight, in general lately I have been feeling the best I have without hard drugs in my life. Sure my ADHD meds do have a little dopamine impact, but its beyond that, its the clarity I feel, the certainness about things, and combine that with the steady progress hormones have had on just making me feel at home in my own skin and its a really unique feeling.
I guess this is how normal well balanced individuals feel most of the time.
A month and a half to go... and then I can see other human beings again, a friend recommended getting a massage and I think I am going to have to, if only for some human contact in a relaxing context.
For tonight though, I am just going to drink in the nostalgia, I am going to let myself be sad for all of the people I ever loved and who I never knew how to love properly at the time.
As a human being I feel like I have grown enough for ten life times in the past two years.
Anyway, just wanted to note this.
Love,
Abigail
Tuesday 14 April 2020
Actual Thoughts on the End of the World
I'll freely admit that when we first started hearing reports about Covid-19, I basically just assumed it'd be like the bird flu or swine flu, and not much of anything would really happen as long as people were a little more cautious.
The response from the various governments of the world has actually been really interesting to watch.
Boris Johnson head muppet in charge of the UK decides screw having a plan let it burn itself out (on his own populace) and as he lay recovering in an ICU from the very thing he wrote off, 900+ more of his people died.
Donald Trump predictably had fired Obama's pandemic response team already, picked a fight with the World Health Organisation blaming them for the slow response, started monopolising medical supplies and pharmaceuticals so that he and his friends could make as much money as possible.
And in typical Scott Morrison fashion, Australia has been in a completely half-assed lockdown for awhile with no plans to ever enter anything like a full lockdown period. People are still pretty much doing what they want, under the theory that a full lockdown would impact their economy too much.
The general advice on their response website was practice good hygiene and common-sense.
Meanwhile at home, Jacinda Ardern has been the leader we needed from the beginning, she implemented a full lockdown late March, and has progressively tightened border control to the point that now anyone coming into NZ must be quarantined. Our numbers are looking great, and we get a daily pep talk Facebook Live update from her to let us know how it is going.
I cannot be more thankful to have a leader like her, she is kind, down to earth, and gets shit done.
So what does it look like? The world right now from my perspective as someone in NZ.
Aside essential workers, the general populace must stay at home and only leave the house for groceries, prescriptions or medical treatment. So basically everyone is on home detention now.
At the supermarket you have to stand two meters apart, hand sanitise the handles of the shopping trolleys, and avoid contact with others. I haven't actually seen that since I am still on my ankle monitor but Mum goes once or twice a week and I am super thankful for her doing that.
There are obviously still dickheads in the world, everywhere including New Zealand who flaunt the rules, and think they are being awesome. They are not.
I mean I get it, be young and enthusiastic, maybe ya didn't stock up enough on yer drugs and alcohol before lockdown started. But tough shit at this point.
Apparently we have a three strikes rule for this kind of thing, if the police find you breaching lockdown you get a few warnings, but continued stupidity will be punished with fines or jail time.
Mentally it has been super interesting to watch how much people have fallen apart, I don't know if its just because I have been on home detention or because I have essentially always spent huge chunks of my time alone, but it definitely seems like some people are not made for this level of isolation.
We are currently on week three, theoretically there is at least one more week of this, but I actually hope they give us another month for safety.
SO... that's kinda the overall situation in parts of the world and here, so how do I feel right now?
Well, I think a lot of us who have experienced trauma in our lives or who have dealt with anxiety and PTSD are actually somewhat familiar with this constant feeling of paranoia and fear. So we are actually doing a lot better than people you'd expect to be totally okay.
I can't really do anything but the right thing right now, so I am winning by default.
But living in that crappy apartment in Germany where I felt super isolated, being in prison for a week where I was INCREDIBLY confined, and of course being on home detention right now, was all good training for this exact scenario. Nothing has really changed for me.
I am spending a lot of my time worrying for my friends in other countries though, they are as close as family to me, and I have a lot of people in Australia, America and England which is why I mentioned those countries first for a little context. Their responses to this have me genuinely scared for my people.
Still I remain fairly calm really, when you're used to complete turmoil and your world ending on a regular basis this is just the latest in a long string of these types of scenarios.
Now on to my usual updates about things...my estrogen dose just got increased which feels nice, its always amazing when I can actually "feel" it, I have had lots of breast growth recently for some reason which is super painful but also amazing, my ADHD meds have basically resulted in me waking up at 6am every day. I wish I had something a little more productive to do with that time.
I have rounded up a bunch of resources for voice training, have organised my makeup nook, will be cooking my amazing chicken tortellini thing tonight, so its all productive stuff I hadn't been doing much of.. I just wish I had some work or study to focus on. Oh and I have almost finished the Final Fantasy 7 Remake which is absolutely breath taking, I fell in love with those characters all over again.
Anyway, I hope you are all staying safe out there, be kind to one another, and look after those who need it.
Wednesday 25 March 2020
The Apocalypse Update
All we can really do is be extra careful about everything and hope we make it out the other side relatively unscathed.
But now everyone is staying at home, this gives me a sick little giggle, now everyone is on house arrest. And I am an old expert at this at this point, if you need to know how to survive this scenario the most important thing is to actually spend some time getting to know yourself.
The first time I was in any real isolation was in a dodgy attic above some grumpy old Germans, of course I could still leave but that time was really where I defined myself and learned a lot.
And in the past six months, I have only left the house once a week, so I am very much used to this.
So what will I be doing with my quarantine time? I think I am going to actually start working on my voice training, makeup skills, and generally stop being such a grubby old swamp witch that lives in pyjamas.
One of my nieces friends came over tonight, she's young and trans, and it just was like rubbing my nose in the fact that I am a feral animal in comparison. I mean sure I have 40 years of testosterone to fight which is by no means easy. But I really should be using this downtime to better myself.
Oh one other thing I learned because I checked how much my Australian superannuation had lost because of the end of the world, is that I could actually apply to use it for surgery - there is precedent for that happening. I would have to be willing to say that being transgender is a chronic mental health issue which is fucking ridiculous but I'd be willing to take that bullet for the ability to afford one of my many expensive surgeries.
And the last update I have is that I have finally been diagnosed with ADHD, and am taking an extended release variety of Ritalin now. It has been night and day improvement to my mood and mental function. So that's amazing.
Um I guess that's all, stay safe, stay healthy and have a wonderful apocalypse everyone.
love,
Abigail
Tuesday 25 February 2020
Dreaming
But the thing that's been bothering me is how many of them have involved people I have loved throughout my life.
Some of them are really innocent just intimate conversations I never had, or reminders of why I loved them in the first place, and others are... More intimate.
I know I've been lonely and really feeling the lack of intimacy in my life lately, but this mental greatest hits of my mistakes is a special kind of traumatic.
Especially when one of them involved the girl who damaged me so much I've been basically single for the past decade.
I don't know how to stop this, and when it's the better ones I'm not sure I want to, I made a lot of really dumb decisions romantically in my life so these virtual second chances are amazing.
I think I'm going a little mad.
Love,
Abigail
Wednesday 19 February 2020
Simultaneously Screaming and Crying
I think under ordinary circumstances I'd be crying but with the chemical cocktail I am currently on, crying isn't really an option, so apparently instead I get to feel "burn it all down and salt the fucking ruins" if that is some kind of mood.
But at least one thing triggered me exceptionally hard today, to the point that I actually HAVE to write something about it, because I am fucking tired of it.
As a trans person all you can really do is TRY to explain to your cis friends what it's like to be trans, and hope that you find some perfect metaphor or philosophical scenario that actually gets them to understand.
Boys have a peepee, and Girls have a vajayjay... that is all.
So lets cover some biology....most of you are familiar with XX/XY/XXY/X combinations of chromosomes, holy shit notice how we are already at four.... yeah it only gets more interesting from there.
The common theory at this time is that the brain and the body develop their sex characteristics separately which can in some instances cause the brain to develop as the opposite gender likely as a result of hormonal fluctuations during the pregnancy.
On top of that the transgender brain shows numerous structural similarities to their cisgender counterparts, and even a few structural differences unique to transgender people.
And then we have hormones... which are a wildly chaotic mess even between individuals of the same sex, levels can change due to social activities and external stimulus, diet and behaviour.
SO.... that's the biological stuff....links at the bottom for much more hardcore science on that, but the consensus from geneticists is that simply looking at XX/XY chromosomes is incredibly inaccurate, and when you start looking deeper than that there are actually a multitude of combinations which could result in a wide variety of differences in the genitalia, secondary sex characteristics and brains.
Moving on then....next we have gender identity.
My gender identity was no more a choice than my eye colour, there is no possible way to explain this to someone with no experience of it, I have tried so many times, and here we are... I am still frustrated and angry.
But as a meme once said.... Imagine you woke up tomorrow morning, and everyone was treating you as the opposite gender, you know for sure that you are definitely not that gender, but nobody believes you and if you argue too much they might kill you.
Genetics don't matter nearly as much as you think they do, there are two genes keeping your fragile masculinity together....and if they failed ya know what would happen? You'd start developing female characteristics and your brain would remain male... so I hope that happens to some of you, so you can FINALLY understand that this isn't a choice, it isn't a costume we get to slip in and out of.
Anyway in summary... your peepee doesn't matter as much as you think it does.
Or if you want a more serious summary from a real life geneticist:
So if the law requires that a person is male or female, should that sex be assigned by anatomy, hormones, cells or chromosomes, and what should be done if they clash? “My feeling is that since there is not one biological parameter that takes over every other parameter, at the end of the day, gender identity seems to be the most reasonable parameter,” says Vilain. In other words, if you want to know whether someone is male or female, it may be best just to ask.
Educational Resources:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-new-science-of-sex-and-gender/
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/voices/stop-using-phony-science-to-justify-transphobia/
https://www.the-scientist.com/features/are-the-brains-of-transgender-people-different-from-those-of-cisgender-people-30027
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/sex-redefined-the-idea-of-2-sexes-is-overly-simplistic1/
Sunday 9 February 2020
Goals For The Detained
There is a bit of a tendency to feel worthless when you are unemployed, and to be trapped at home with really minimal socialisation even more so... so what are we going to do to keep the pep in my step?
One of my major goals for the year is to lose some weight, I have gained a lot since starting hormones and essentially lounging around in bed for a year feeling sorry for myself.
But I got an exercycle and for the most part I have been sticking to doing it every day.
Right now I am 91kg, and the goal is to get to around 75-80 somewhere.
This will become important at some future point for surgical recovery times.
I also want to quit smoking, it's the worst drug to be addicted to, and even though I know for a fact I can live without nicotine since I had to when I was in prison, that doesn't actually make it a simple thing when you are out in the world and can readily obtain cigarettes.
Does that mean I am a weak willed slug... yes... so I need to come up with a game plan to overcome that.
I need a job... but its EXTRA difficult when I need to explain my gender identity, and my criminal convictions.... like the already slim pickings in my home town get a lot slimmer once you factor those things in. Especially given the ultra conservative mindsets of people around here.
If I don't have anything within the next few weeks I am going to HAVE to do something like online transcription just to try and get some income happening.
I want to write more often, I have ALL this time lately and I am wasting it playing video games and watching Netflix. I have some ideas to write my life story since it really has been just a series of near misses and stupid decisions. I feel like somebody somewhere should benefit from it.
So what else has been happening with me since it has been months since I last updated?
Well I have my official legal name change now, unfortunately updating the gender marker on my birth certificate is slightly harder so that needs to happen later. But I have been running around updating my name with all the other crucial day to day things... its quite a struggle when you're essentially grovelling for permission to update gender marker even though my birth certificate says Male.
I didn't get into the counselling class I wanted this year due to my conviction, but I may be able to study again next year. Kind of a downer, but I will be okay.
Anyway I guess that's kinda all the important updates really, you now know roughly as much as I do about my current existence.
Love,
Abigail
Monday 9 December 2019
Medical Mysteries and Chemical Soup
In my life I have had several really serious concussions, when I was younger the doctors even told me that another serious head injury could kill me, so I have always tried to be pretty careful about getting clobbered by things.
I also had Glandular Fever when I was around 18, so I spent several months being exhausted and almost unable to move.
These things are important because basically since I was 18 I have been exhausted to some degree or another, and of course everybody says things like "Everyone is exhausted, get over it" but this isn't the gee I could use a nap variety of tired, its the limbs feel like they're filled with lead, getting out of bed is a struggle, standing up for a shower is hard kind of physically incapable of movement type exhaustion.
On top of that I have also spent my entire life unable to focus, with terrible short term memory, im restless and get bored really easily. I start projects or work and just drift off into never finishing anything and float from thing to thing quite regularly.
So here's where things get tricky right... the exhaustion could be caused by the numerous head injuries I have sustained damaging a part of my brain that regulates that stuff, or they could be caused by chronic fatigue but who knows.... the focus and motivation thing could be either of those things as well.
So why is this suddenly such a big thing? Well most of my life I have just managed this shit with stimulants, whether thats excessive caffeinated beverages or illegal drugs, and for very short bursts of time that works... I can maintain a job, I can get things done, I can get out of bed.
But with a government monitoring device attached to me and regular drug testing, thats not actually possible.
The doctor has run lung and heart tests so far which were both clear, but I don't even know where to go from there.... I am seeing a psych about potential ADHD next year sometime, but until then I guess I am just going to be exhausted and a little dejected.
Love,
Abigail