The Intersection of a Transguy, A School Cross Walk, and a Policeman.
As a police officer walked towards the driver’s side of my car on that fall day in 2009, I shook with anxiety as I though of how I was going to explain myself. Just fifteen minutes prior, I had stopped my Toyota Prius in front of the cross walk leading to Thomas...
A Thousand Kindnesses
Basil was the first ever person to ask a musician to play a Bruce Springsteen song for me. Basil always insists on carrying heavy bags for me. Basil always gets the umbrella from the car so I don’t get rained on in my work clothes. Basil makes whatever I...
Don’t Think Twice: It’s Alright I’m Trans
The minute I was certain Evelyn and I were going to become friends is when she told me she makes her own tahini from scratch. We had just gotten on the light rail and were headed back to Union Station in Newark to catch trains back home. A group...
If I Weren’t All Dressed Up, I Would Just Piss On You
Traveling constantly on highways for work has made me a pro at finding the cleanest bathroom at any highway exit. Part of what stops folks from finding tidy bathrooms during long distance drives is limiting oneself to the usual suspects: truck stops, fast food joints, a Starbucks. Mid-range hotels (Holiday Inn Express, Hampton...
This Little Light
I expected the orange and white glass of the car headlight to explode across the parking lot. I instinctively covered my eyes and turned away, crying out. The actual result of the forceful impact was anti-climactic: the glass was (obviously) tempered. The headlight cracked beneath the force of Rick’s...
Winter Coat
It was not a big set of stairs from the front door of my Aunt Terry’s house to her kitchen: maybe six to eight steps at best. But I had never tried to carry or push a human being up a set of stairs before and wasn’t sure where to...
On Becoming a CPA
The first time I talked to someone about becoming CPA was sitting in my therapist’s office in Philadelphia. It would have been late 2011 and we were discussing what I was going to do with my life now that I had managed to escape working in coffee. I was...
Take Your Suitcase
I would not have remembered at exactly what age I was responsible for packing my own suitcase if it were not for the movie Terminator 2. I remember I was responsible for packing my suitcase for a trip to Salt Lake City my brother and I took with our mother...
Writing Down
The project I gave myself in order to get this blog up and going was forcing myself to write for thirty minutes every day. There was a time in my life where sparing thirty minutes would not have seemed like such a challenge: I think back to my days...
My Apologies to the Guitarist at the Rail House in Rahway, NJ
As I stumbled down the narrow side street which led from the bar to our apartment, my husband was trying desperately to hold an umbrella over me. It was the first week of December in Northern New Jersey and the rain drops pelting us should have been icy cold....