Prep work

Sunday - February 15, 2004

Ahhh...what a packed past week it has been. I thought I would be able to relax this weekend, but I just haven’t had any chill time yet. I headed to the city to pick up Claire, and on my way to her place, I drove past City Hall to get off the mainly beaten path, but instead, noticed a CNN van. I then realized that all of the media was down there covering the same-sex marriage issue. As I pulled up to a stop light, I saw Gwen Smith and her wife crossing the street in front of me. I honked...no response. As a fellow TS, I have also learned to ignore honkers. I honked again...still nothing. So, I tried as best as possible to make it a “friendly” honk with a quick double honk, if that can indeed be considered friendly. Well, Gwen may have still been following the TS credence, but her wife looked over as I waved frantically at them. They motioned for me to pull to the side, so I did. I asked if they were getting married since all of the same-sex marriages have been performed over the past few days, but they said they were already married (yeah, duh, Kara), but that they had friends in from out of town that came here specifically to get a marriage license and potentially married. That is so awesome. I’m so proud to live in the San Francisco Bay Area such that the politicians are going out of their way to provide equal rights to all citizens, regardless of sexual orientation and gender.

I asked Gwen about her upcoming journey to LA for the transgender V-Day since it has been a consistent topic on GenderPeace. On the website for V Day, she is listed as one of the presenters, and as she told me, they are also honoring her for all of her great efforts. Congrats Gwen!!! She even gave me a V-Day flyer. I told her I wouldn’t be able to make the event next weekend since I have facial surgery this week. I wish I was able to go since I have a ton of friends going, but hey, facial surgery only rolls around once in your life...and now is my time.

Anyway, even with the slight detour, Claire still wasn’t ready when I reached her apartment, so I just waited outside for her. She was soon down, and we were off to meet Amy for lunch over in Berkeley. Claire took us to a joint called Bongo Burger where she frequented on occasion during some of her college years there. It was definitely pretty good.

We walked around campus, and a packed campus it was for a Sunday. There appeared to be some youth debate competition. None of the students were fazed by any of us three, though, from what I could tell. I’m pretty impressed, but then again, these were the smart kids...the ones that could debate.

After that, we went shopping, of course. I picked up some items for my stay during recovery, as well as a few items for my return to work. After I tired them out from so much shopping, we went for some heavy pizza at a place called Zachary’s that Claire raves about. It was pretty decent, although the wait was incredible. I was done after that. Done as in: tired. Done as in: ready to go home. I dropped both of them off, then cruised home. I still have a lot of cleaning to do in my apartment, as well as putting aside the boy clothes since they are taking up too much room.