Vibrant.(Still) Unrepentant. Badass. Old. Queer

As some of you may know, I am a federal employee.  And these past 10 days have been an adventure in chaos. I have been working a hybrid telework schedule for the past 2(ish) years.  Officially, we are in the office 3 days/week with scheduled telework the other two days. I have a supervisor who is very supportive of telework and will approve situational telework on our in-office days if we have a legitimate excuse.  For example, I am sick and don't want to infect my colleagues.  Or, my water heater exploded and I need to wait for a plumber.  Or, I am in virtual meetings and trainings All Friggin' Day and I would rather do that from the comfort of my own home than from a tiny little, poorly-designed cubical. Our cubicals are so terrible.  There is barely enough room to move.  I have to roll my chair almost to the back of the cubical in order to be far enough from my screen that I don't get eyestrain.  It makes typing difficult.  And, don't thin...

 As some of you may know, I am the emotional support human (ESH) for a pair of elderly gay bears, Buzzy and Buddy.  They came to live with me 15 or so years ago, when they were unceremoniously evicted from their home. I believe the words my mother used were, "They are your bears, either take them or into the trash they go." (Not a direct quote and, technically, only Buzzy is mine.  Buddy belonged to my brother.) Needless to say, they live a very posh life with me meeting all of their needs, especially providing them with books to read.  Did you know elderly gay bears love to read?  They love it so much they started an Instagram account (@gaybearbookclub - feel free to give them a follow). Many, many famous authors follow them. And, by "many, many", I mean "3".   They prefer to read books about bears (or that have bears in them) ... gay or not.  They don't discriminate.  I have been pushing them to branch out and diversify their reading. ...

 ... is empathy. I don't remember where I saw that, so, unfortunately, I can't credit the author.   Empathy.  It seems a lot of people have lost that particular skill. And I wonder what we need to do to help people regain it. I suppose it is best to speak up and share experiences, which is why I am sad that one of my agency's programs that I was both a participant and a two-time facilitator has been suspended.  It provided people of all types the opportunity to learn from each other in a shared "safe space." I knew my co-facilitator and I had been successful in creating said safe space when, at the start of one of our sessions, a participant asked, "Why can't we say All Lives Matter?" A question that could have provoked anger and hurtful words instead sparked a thoughtful and respectful discussion in which, I think, we all learned a little. Empathy. We need more of this virus in our lives. And, now, I am going to drink the rest of this here martini ....

 Over the holiday weekend, the SigNoth and I decided to escape the DC Inauguration Craziness.  We found a cheap (but nice enough) beachfront hotel in Rehoboth Beach.  We left Friday after work and returned on Tuesday afternoon. Although the weather was cold, we did have a couple of nice, sunny days and took some long walks on the beach.  We ate at some good restaurants.  It was (maybe not so) surprisingly crowded.  We usually needed reservations for evening meals (and for Sunday Brunch at the Victoria). We read books and played games, creating a tabletop curling drinking game in the process.  We did not do any sort of Polar Bear swim.  Because *brrrr* we are not insane.   There are photos on my IG (@sed317). I made some rough sketches of my pottery project this session.  And, I did some thinking about how to step away from billionaire-owned social media sites. Other than re-starting this blog, I began thinking about the Book of Face...

 Hello, Kittens.   I'm back.  We'll see for how long ... LOL. The other day I read a skeet from Tom and Lorenzo that said, "My one bit of hashtag-resist advice is to start a blog.  I'm 100 percent serious. A blog, a newsletter, a tumblr - whatever.  The blogging craze erupted largely in response to the Bush era & it's time for the people to reclaim their own platforms.  Whatever you use social media for, put it on your blog." So that's what I'm doing, reclaiming my blogging.  I feel like "Vicious Unrepentant Bitter Old Queen" doesn't define who I am any more.  That was back in my free-wheeling sex-fueled 30s and 40s.  Now that I'm mid-50 (ack! when did that happen?), I'm reclaiming the blog and modifying the moniker. I think I am much more a Vibrant (Still) Unrepentant Badass Old Queer (even though the word "queer" brings up all sorts of unpleasant bullying memories). Meanwhile, I am going to gradually transition aw...