Bunnyhug Grant Writing!

My Mum just told me I looked like a nerd the way I was typing. Thanks I guess?

Today I drove Grandpa to City Hospital for his CAT Scan. We passed these prolifers with signs that said "Women DO regret their abortions!" Grandpa grumbled and said "I don't think women DO regret their abortions!" We were in the car so they didn't hear him, but I heard him and I was happy! Grandpa has righteous politics! Then we went inside and got him through admitting and went to the medical imaging area and the woman who worked behind the desk was really bitchy because Grandpa is partially deaf and didn't understand her right away. I was annoyed with her, sheesh! She should be used to dealing with elderly deaf people. Pisses me off. Then we sat in Waiting Room Four and Grandpa had to drink Contrast Dye and he said "I don't want to, it's going to go right through me!" But he did of course. He had to answer some questions to screen him before they injected him with Contrast dye and one was "Are you pregnant and/or breastfeeding?" He said "I can't answer that question!" We agreed NA was probably the best answer.

Then I drove him to the Cancer Centre for his radiation treatment.

La la la!

It's nice being able to drive him around. And I did save him one day when he was stranded at Market Mall because his car wouldn't start!

I have realized that Rheanne AND Ivana, my exes who won't talk to me, both have cats as their profile pictures. What's that all about? Are cat lovers contraindicated in my romantic life?

Romantically things are, developing. I am going down to Regina next week, so I might have a date while I am there. THAT would be exceptionally nice. I'm not really expecting sex, but some making out would be sweet! I love making out! We'll see! I still have my very very far away crush, it's been sweet too. Not much in the way of flirting, but we have had some pretty good conversations on Chat on Facebook. I like being able to talk with someone who has a lot of similar interests, BUT is femme! Then again, my closest friends have almost ALL been femmes. And also, they become close friends because I usually have a crush on them to begin with before we settle into platonic friendship!

I have been scouting out possible Masters programs in Toronto. Right now I am heavily leaning towards York. I feel like it would teach me the most. But I am probably also going to apply to OCAD and U of T and maybe Ryerson.

I've been working hard on my grant! I've got most of it written and I did the treatment and I have been working on the budget! I think it will be ready to be mailed away on Monday! It better be, because that is the deadline! My final report was approved so I totally can go ahead with this grant application. Hurrah!

And now, I think it is time for bed. I woke up at 8:30 this morning, miles better than waking up at 2 in the afternoon like the day before. Let's hope I can keep this up tomorrow!

Bugger bugger bugger!

One of my close friends is leaving next week for greener pastures in Montreal. I am going to miss her! Today I got to drive her to Tim Hortons for a double double. The first time I drove her around! She texted and told me where to turn and it was lovely. We were originally supposed to go for ice cream together, but it's been snowy and not really ice cream weather.

I don't think I'll write much in this post. I went and saw my friends the Seahags perform at Amigos tonight, which was fun. They are too expensive though, Amigos. Cover was 8 bucks and the beers start at 6.25 bucks for a pint. I guess that is the going rate now, geez I remember when it was five bucks. What happened? Inflation!

The cat is in a perfect spot on the bed right now, way down on the right hand bottom corner. Good! Often she bookends me along with the dog and makes getting comfortable awkward.

I can't think of something intelligent to write about. All the things I want to talk about are best kept quiet and only written in my diary, because they are situations which still need to simmer over a period of time, possibly a very long period of time. Love is sort of like that. And even then I don't know if anything will happen. Life changes pretty quick.

I am tired. I am going to sleep.

I wrote a facebook message to my ex Ivana, she never wrote back. I told her I wouldn't write her again unless she wrote me with like, a question or something. So that is that. I feel better for apologizing, but I also feel sad that she doesn't want to talk to me. But it's not like that is a new situation, she hasn't wanted to talk to me for a while.

Oh blast it! Beatrix moved up the bed to the spot I hate having her sleep in! Bugger bugger bugger~!

Thinking about moving away next year . . . and some morose thoughts about my first real girlfriend

Today I was having a chat with my favorite far away friend (like really far) when I found myself writing "I am thinking of moving to Toronto." And I was happy to see her write that she has been pondering the same city.

Anyway, Saskatoon has been nice, I guess, except there isn't a lot of short queer film being screened here (hardly any!), and there isn't a lot of queer culture, and I am starting to miss being influenced by radical queer politics that happens in larger urban centres. In short I miss big city living. I miss having a larger community of like minded folks. Toronto has a Queer film festival and an Indigenous film festival and several small festivals and events and you can see nipples AND drink a beer at the same time. Here everyone has to have pasties on. And pasties are glamourous, but not as splendorific as a nice naked nipple.

I was going to stay here until my grandparents died, but they are still chugging along and I have been here six years now and I don't think I should make decisions that are dependent on them dying. Besides, I will still come back every so often and for the major holidays like Christmas and . . . well just Christmas. NO I will come in the summer too.

And anyway I won't be leaving right away, I will probably stay here until at least the end of June 2013. Something could change my mind. But if I got my grant and was in post production, well that would give me a decent financial cushion for moving to a new city. And there are lots of jobs in Toronto, with the aforementioned festivals and other places. Culturally it is a happening city. And it's just a place where I feel there would be more opportunities for me. More clients for my business, more places I could get a job job. More places to meet women and there would be an actual Butch-Femme community and I wouldn't feel like the only only one anymore. I miss being in a Butch-Femme community, Saskatoon has some Butch-Femme couples to be sure, but hardly anyone who really identifies with those labels and embraces them and is willing to fuck with them a bit. I guess I am too old school or something, which is funny because in Vancouver I wasn't old school at all, I was whatever non-old school butches are. But here it's like if you say you are Butch they think you are from the 50's.

I hate to say it but I miss coming from a pool of butches and transdudes who are all chosen by the same Femmes for intimate encounters and potentially long term relationships, where we end up winking at each other because we share the same exes. Or current lovers. Or whatever.

Also, I am ready to fall in love. Like massively in love. And even though I am having some dates here, I am so used to feeling dismal about my chances here. I chased the same woman for almost six years! It was a waste of time. But I feel like there just wasn't anyone else that could hold my attention as well as she did. Maybe I didn't give the locals enough of a chance. Even my next date isn't REALLY from here, she lives three hours away! So many of the lesbians here are shacked up and officially married, and I want to be an old married lady too!

I guess I should have a relationship that lasts longer than a year and a month first though. That is still my longest relationship to date. And now we don't even talk to each other. Sometimes I look at her profile on Facebook and read the few lines that are public and wonder if she will ever have a picture of her face for her profile pic and not her cat. The irony, of course, is that when she and I dated she lived in Toronto and I lived in Vancouver and when we broke up it's because I wanted one of us to move so we would be together and she dumped me because we weren't in the same place and then she moved to Vancouver and I moved to Saskatoon.

And now I am moving to Toronto.

She was 28, I was 19, we were probably in different places in more ways than just geography. She was butch, believe it or not, at least that's how she identified. The cutest soft butch ever! She was really the first girl I had sex with, like full on fucking and falling asleep and waking up to more fucking and falling asleep again and fucking some more. We were really sexually compatible except she wasn't into BDSM. But she did orgasm denial scenes really well. With some coaching. I was her first female lover. YAY! I did have a female lover before her, and a male lover who was a friendly fuck that I had to end when he got attached. But those were just juvenile games compared to the sex I had with Butch Lady Lady. She was the first one who made me come all by herself. It's hard for me to come with lovers at first, I'm too wound up and feel sheepish for asking them to get repetitive strain injuries. It's like I have to get calibrated for lovers, cause once I have them all mapped out in my interior erotic landscape I can come in a decent amount of time with them.

Currently I do not have a specific person I think about when I am coming. It's kind of depressing. I like when I have a favorite person to think about. When Ivana and I broke up I was really depressed because I still had to think about her when I masturbated and I felt like I didn't have a right to anymore. And then even when I did think about her and come it would make me ache so hard not to be with her anymore.

To be honest, even when I have said all this stuff about Rheanne being the love of my life, probably the big love Thus Far was Ivana. She was the one who was there for me for a whole year and a month. It wasn't a perfect relationship, there were a lot of things about it that were wrong, but she really was PRESENT and honest in a way that my first and last love wasn't. She actually called me her girlfriend and was open about me with friends and, okay, she didn't tell her mom about me because she was still in the closet. That was a problem. BUT she loved me as best as she could from four provinces away. And the sex was great. The sex was awesome.

I wish I could still talk to her. I behaved really inappropriately with her when I was drunk and after that she didn't really want to be friends with me. I don't blame her. I was uncooth. We were already broken up by that point. And it wasn't my decision to break up. I took it really hard. That was a fucked up summer, so much shit happened that summer. The summer of 1998. Oh man! What a BAD summer!

I remember she came to visit that summer, after we broke up. I didn't even have a photo of her, and I had been trying to imagine her from when I had seen her when we met and had all the great sex. And I saw this really cute dyke on Commercial Drive and my heart skipped a beat and I thought "Is that her?" I couldn't remember! It was her. We went for dinner at Wazubees and she came over to my apartment and freaked out because she was sitting on my bed "I can't believe I'm sitting on your bed!" and I wanted to kiss her and we kissed bunches of times. But no sex. No relationship. We never got back together.

She wanted a break from me and then we just never talked again. I wanted to, but like I said I behaved badly. I felt so guilty for being so bad, I still feel guilty. But I never got to have a conversation with her about it, never got to apologize.

I know I could. I know I should. It would ease my mind to tell her some of the things I have thought since we broke up, even though it is fourteen years later.

God, how old would she be now? 42! OMG! Turning 43.

I can't believe it has been fourteen years.

Maybe I should do the classic Thirza thing, and write a long apologetic email to her. Because I miss her, and I should apologize, and because it would be nice to know her again, even if she is straight now or I don't even know what. Who knows, maybe she has a husband? My friends would know. We have some of the same friends. It's so awkward, I never know what to say when her name comes up. I really did love her once. And she broke my heart, and then I broke my heart. And it's so conflicted. I don't think we would get back together, I don't think it would work. For one thing, there would be distance. Again. And that was the main trouble in the first place. For another thing she is older, and she usually made the rules in our relationship, like she decided when we would talk and I often didn't feel like I had much input into the situation, because if I called her she would often wait the required two weeks before calling me back. It always seemed to happen in two week intervals, our phone calls. And I couldn't handle that.

Ha ha, I had a dream after we broke up that she told me the only reason she dumped me is because of her long distance bill, and that if sprint had brought in unlimited long distance sooner we would still be together!

So sad!

BUT I have a faggy arty date at some point in the not too distant future! Life is not all doom and gloom. And of course if it got serious I would reconsider the whole "I'm moving to Toronto in 2013" thing.

2:23 am. Perfect time of day to write an apology email. WOuld you believe I only had two pints this evening?

Life Avec Car

Life has changed a lot since I got my license. I have driven alone finally. I drove my friend Laurel around. I drove my mom to work and drove home and drove back and picked her up. Today I drove my cousin and our propane tank to the Co-op to get filled. And every day when I have suspected I might drive, I avoid alcohol altogether. It's been pretty decent, it might help me reduce my drinking, hurrah! I've been very serious about not drinking and driving, losing my new found independence would be terrible. I am really liking that I don't have to depend on my Mom giving me a ride somewhere, now I just depend on her lending me the car!

I finally got my Final Report done for Canada Council for my travel grant I got last summer. I mailed it away yesterday. It was pretty basic, I didn't write eloquently or anything, I just said the things it did for me and how I used it. Now I am working on a grant in Aboriginal Media Arts for my ultra low budget feature "film" which is actually a video but that doesn't matter anymore since everything is being screened digitally now anyway. Plus I am shooting in HDV. I finished the production budget today and it adds up to EXACTLY what I can ask for before my living allowance is factored in.

I rewrote bits of Bunnyhug, I found a totally alternate script while I was looking for the most recent version, and I added bits of it to the final draft I had finished, because I think it adds to it. Of course when I am editing I can leave out what doesn't work. And the parts I added aren't going to add a whole bunch to the production budget. Just a couple scenes in the apartment and a scene on the street and a scene in a bar. Not a whole big change, I can add them to the other bar/street/apartment location shots I do. I am going to try and shoot in May/June of 2013. That's a ways away. I also had to rewrite things so that it would be located in Saskatoon instead of Vancouver, because I can't afford to shoot in Vancouver that is for sure. Some of the things would make more sense in Vancouver, like when two characters mention meeting at a lesbian strip show. But why not pretend Saskatoon has Lesbian strip shows?? May as well, it's all fictional anyway!

I worked on my grant today, I got a substantial amount written, I am feeling good about it but looking for another pair of eyes to look at it. Just for confirmation of if I am on the right track or not.

Ha ha, my friend's 2 year old, when she catches him doing something bad like dumping all the flour on the floor, will say "Mum, walk away." Ha ha ha, that is the best thing I have heard ever!!!! So cute, that's something I can imagine her saying when she was little!

My dating life has picked up a bit, I had one date and might have another date with someone else and might go on a date with the first person again and basically I am starting to get my feet wet in the local-ish dating pool. Actually one of my potential future dates lives in a different city, which is kinda sucky, BUT it's in the same province and not that far away, which is bonus yay points! Which makes her local-ish. Not in a different province, and not in a different country on a different continent! Although I do still want a date with someone who lives rather far away. But some friendly hanging out is cool too, I'm not that fussy, I just like spending time with her. Anyway, no commitments to anyone yet, just hanging out and seeing where life takes me. Supposedly in eight to seven months I will end up in a serious relationship for a while, according to my psychic. Which would be nice.

I have something to confess! I have been sneaking smokes! :O I am climbing back on the no-smoking wagon. It's not worth all the bad things I noticed about being a smoker. And one of my dates quit smoking and I would like to be equally quit and nice tasting if we kiss, so I want to stop again. Along with the fact that I am sitting in the waiting room of the cancer clinic everyday this week with my Grandpa, seeing all those people who used to be smokers and are now really sad and worried and unsure of their futures. It's a wake-up call. Plus my great grandma on my dad's side lived to be 99 or something like that, and my maternal Grandpa is 93 and my Grandma is 92, so I have the genes to live to my 90's easy, and I should be careful of my body so I can make it to a great old age.

BUT I still haven't smoked weed, even though yesterday I was around a friend who was puffing away and who probably would have smoked me down if I had said I was back to smoking up. But I really thought hard about my withdrawal period and how hard it was and knew if I took a puff it would lead me straight back to being a chronic.

I passed! I passed!!!!!

I passed my Road Test!!! I am the proud holder of a Novice 1 Class 5 Driver's License!!! :D I was so nervous before my instructor picked me up, but we drove around and then did two different possible routes that the examiner could take me on. When I would make a mistake we would go around the block and do it again. Then at about 3:15 he said we could keep driving or I could go get registered, I decided I was ready and registered. So he and I sat in the waiting room until the examiner came out and called me by my last name. Then we did the signal check and brake check and horn check. And we went for a drive!

And I did really good. I must have because I passed! My parallel park was good, and in the end she just told me to slow down on my turns and to brake a little sooner so that it wasn't so jerky when I stop. But I passed!!! :D I went and paid my ten dollars to upgrade my license until the end of April (my birth month, when all the licenses normally expire). And they took another photo of me without my glasses for the photo id. I should get my new license in 10 days.

So now I am kind of stunned and excited! It wasn't even as hard as I thought it would be! I'm glad I know exactly how to parallel park. My instructor told me he loves how I parallel park!

Such a good driving instructor, when I told him I passed he clapped and then told me "That's three for three!" All three of his students taking the test today passed! That's pretty good!

Anyway, tomorrow night I am borrowing the car for the first time to take me and a friend to get some ice cream! Ha ha, also I think it is snowing a shit ton tonight, which might make my plans change.

I'm so tired of being so stressed! I was so nervous about that damn test! Now it's over, but I still have to be a good driver. I am going to keep practicing. There is a giant blindspot in my mom's car, which kinda sucks. When I get a car I am going to be aware of that.

I have to think of other things I want to improve in my life. I quit smoking cigs and pot, got my driver's license, now I just have to get a stable income and move out of my Mom's house, eventually. Oh and get a wife. And a car. And a house. Mom says I am not a Neverbloomer I am just a late bloomer. Actually she says I am doing really well.

The next big tasks are to write a grant and first I have to write a final report. And that all has to be done by the end of the month. I also have to get some more contracts so I can get some cash for when I am in Germany this June and July! And when it warms up a bit I have to start working on my video about being butch.

I should really make another list of things to do. I love lists. I write them all the time! I need to do some writing in my private diary again.

This week I should be getting the Lifering Workbook, and on Sunday I am driving down to the Avenue Community Centre for the Secular Sobriety meeting. My first time! :O I hope it's good.

So that was my day! I drove Mum and I home from Sky's house, I don't trust Mum's directions anymore because she keeps mixing up her left and rights.

Right Right Right! Tight Tight Tight!

I have finally passed the six week mark of not smoking pot!!! I can pee in a cup and pass a drug test! :D I have no reason to pass a drug test, BUT I could! I went to my concurrent disorders group today and had a good session. That was good because I missed last week.

I have had another session with my driving instructor and learned FOOL PROOF parallel parking! I am really good at it! I used to SUCK at parallel parking but now I have learned! :D YAYYYYYY! A new skill! And that is what used to get me during my road tests! Mom and I practiced driving for an hour tonight all around downtown and at various places they take you on the road test. My turns are still too wide. Several times my mom was yelling "Right right right! Tight tight tight!" I've gone and parked in various parking lots, and I am excellent on the freeway (although I follow the speed limits which isn't fast enough for most!).

My road test is on Monday at 3:45!!! Eeeeeeeeee! People have told me not to feel bad if I don't pass it the first time, but my instructor and I feel like I can pass it, I just need to practice lots. Today when I was driving us home Mom went through the rules of borrowing the car. Put gas in it, pay all tickets, that kind of thing. When I get my license I am going to give up getting a bus pass and only get bus tickets. For those nights I am drunk and need to catch the bus home! I'm never going to drive if I feel like I am going to drink, and if I do ever fall off the weed wagon (god forbid!) I am not going to drive either. Only sober driving! I'm excited, some of my friends have already asked me to drive them around and we will get ice cream when I get my license. I want to go on a road trip this summer, although I will have to go with only my Mom and one other non-immediate family member the first six months. So maybe I will drive with one other person to a music festival in Winnipeg or something! I am losing my nervousness when I am driving, which is really nice. I feel a lot more confident, which is good for my upcoming road test.

If I do fail it I can keep practicing and try again in two weeks. Not the end of the world. BUT I really want to pass it, because I tried at least three times when I was a teenager before giving up. I am going to try every two weeks until I get it!

Even though that will suck up a lot of money. Well, to be honest it's only 22 bucks or something like that for a road test. Not a lot of money. I can drink that in a night! I can cut back on drinks while I attempt to achieve freedom and being a grown up.

I used to feel so deficient not being able to drive. I used to have dreams about driving, where I knew I was doing something illegal because I wasn't licensed and just drove off with my Mom's car. Sometimes I would be driving from the passenger seat or the backseat, not IN the driver's seat and so wildly out of control. I always felt guilty about my driving dreams because I knew I wasn't supposed to drive.

BUT if I can get my license that will all change. Maybe I will even be sitting in the driver's seat in my dreams, maybe I will feel in control and free!

I'm already getting confident driving. And I understand the dimensions of the car from the perspective of the driver's seat now. I'm still not PERFECT in my lane alignments, but I am getting better. I realize I can be further left in a lane and still not crash into oncoming traffic.

I'm excited. My life will totally change when I get my license. I will be eligible for all kinds of jobs that require a driver's license. I will be able to do errands on my own instead of roping my mom into driving me across town to fix my camera or whatever. I'll be able to go take a drive and run errands for my grandparents. I'll be able to take on half the driving when we go on road trips. It's exciting!

When my Mom leaves town I can drop her off at the airport and do my driving and pick her up when she comes back from her trip, no more taxis or parking fees. Last time she parked we had to look all over the long term lot because she forgot where she parked! If Grandma needs something Mom can send me out to get it!

That all being said, I still love being a passenger. It's nice to googly eye all over the place and not have to worry. But driving is fun, and I am sure the more confident I get the more I will want to drive. Mom is really liking being a passenger, although she fussed tonight when we were driving.

Anyway, UM! What else? Well, I have been stable since late 2007. That is a good thing to say. I haven't been in the hospital since 2007 and that is pretty good. Five years this may! :D I haven't been in a group home since August of that year either. SWEET! Being in a group home sucked, mostly because there wasn't enough room for all my stuff, including my computer, which I am super attached to. I had to go to my Mom's to use the internet, and I don't think that's very fair. I think everyone should have internet access. So yeah, hope I don't have to go to a group home again.

Next week I see my psych nurse, a few days after my road test. I am hoping I will have super good news to give to her. I passed my six weeks, that was one thing I wanted to talk to her about. I had originally planned just on doing the six weeks clean, but now I want to go further. I feel like so much has gotten better. I want to see how much better it will get. I realize there are still gains to be made in being clean from weed, 3 months is better, and 6 months is even better than 3 months. And someone told me even a year later is loads better than just six months. So I am going to see.

I still feel kinda lonely. I still want a girlfriend. And I still only have one crush, which is rather hopeless even though I will see her again this summer. I don't think I could get rid of all my crushes, it's kinda sweet to have someone who's pictures you like to creep on facebook and sigh at how cute she is. She is cute. I'd totally be down for something serious if only it wasn't so hopeless. Who knows though, maybe someday circumstances will change for us and it will be a possibility.