15 Dykes and Me…

It was a great last day in Maine. I woke up early (thanks to my alarm clock). I went downstairs to find Lisa in a state because Michelle was two hours late getting home from work and she was worried sick. It took about a half an hour but finally she was able to reach her and everything was fine. Michelle had worked the overnight shift again and was tired so she slept for a few hours before starting home. Once it was clear that Michelle was okay, Lisa went in to overdrive getting the house ready for the going away party tonight.

The house is Lisa’s domain and so when she gets in the zone it’s best to just get out of her way. She doesn’t want help and so it’s no use to offer. So I decided to go back to bed. I went back upstairs and took a two hour nap. I woke up to Michelle asking me if I wanted to go to breakfast. We all jumped in the car and headed downtown to Becky’s Diner. It’s your standard fare, and for breakfast it was delicious. With our stomach’s full and our bodies pumped with caffeine we were ready to start our day. I should probably mention that today was Michelle’s birthday, so there were presents at breakfast. The presents consisted of books on raising a puppy since they have decided to get a new dog in the next few weeks. So after breakfast we headed to the pound to look at puppies.

Going to the pound is always sad because you want to take every dog home with you. There was one lab mix puppy that was so sad and beautiful you just wanted to eat him up. Luckily, he had been adopted and so was waiting to go home with his new owners. This particular place didn’t have any puppies and M & L are looking for a puppy. They think Max will be more likely to bond with a dog that’s cute and cuddly as well as not likely to fight to be alpha dog. I think they are right. There are about 10 or so rescue shelters in the area so they are going to be checking them all out over the next few weeks.

With no puppy, we headed home, where I had been charged with cleaning the bathroom. Or at least the toilets. It’s not my favorite job but it seems to be the one that Lisa will let me do without complaining. So I cleaned the bathroom, and then straightened up my room. The actual room I sleep in is quite small so my suitcase and clothes are in another room. Michelle had a friend that was spending the night tonight so that room had to be cleared out. So I spent about 20 minutes or so packing up all my stuff and getting it put away. Now I’m already to leave tomorrow.

Then we headed off the back bay to do one last walk around. It was a beautiful day and the boys were out. It was a nice to way to say goodbye to Portland.

When I got home it was time to shower and get ready for the party. And party we did. There were 15 queer women and me. I was told tonight that many of them don’t like the term lesbian. It doesn’t describe how they feel about themselves and they feel it represents something other than what they are. They prefer the word DYKE or QUEER. I told them I would try to change my vocabulary. It was a beautiful night and we grilled out. There were fresh vegetables and veggie burgers and I had a big ole steak. Everyone was drinking. And in all we had a great time. It’s the first all female going away party I’ve ever had. I do have to say though I wasn’t the butchest one in the yard. Still, it was very nice of them to do this for me and for everyone to show up. It’s 12:30 right now and there are still people  downstairs talking and laughing. The only draw back about the whole evening was that I could not drink or eat the red velvet cake because I’m really trying to stick to this diet I’m on. A few margaritas and a big piece of cake would have been nice, but I would have felt guilty tomorrow. So I can say honestly, that I stuck to my guns and said no.

Here are a few pictures of the evening.

Saturday in Iowa…

It’s Saturday night and I’m just sitting at home watching TV wishing the weekend weren’t half over. Where did the day go?

Thanks for all the birthday wishes. I actually had an okay day. My students brought me cupcakes at my 8:00 class and homemade pecan pie to my 10:00 class. They were very sweet the students…not the desserts. My 8:00 class was tired and crazy because their drafting project was due and most of them had waited until the last minute so they were in the design studio until very late. By the time they got to class they were very slap-happy making stupid jokes and giggling at everything. Here’s a picture of my students standing on a table in our classroom.

After class, I spent the afternoon in the theatre focusing lights. It’s where I stand on the stage and have my crew point lighting instruments where I want them. In a professional world we would have been able to finish in about 4 hours. It took 12 hours to do it at school. I was working with the students from my class who had never focused before. They were VERY slow, but I kept reminding myself that’s why we’re here–to teach them.

After the work day, I ran home to get dinner. I remembered on my way home I had no food there, so I stopped for a birthday dinner at Hardees. It was either that or Taco John’s and neither of them seem to fit the bill but I went with Hardee’s. Trust me, it was not the nicest birthday dinner I’ve ever had. Then it was back to school for several hours of rehearsal. I think I got home at 11:30 p.m. It was a very long day. Unfortunately with my busy day, I missed most of the calls I had from friends wishing me happy birthday. What’s really funny is that most of them thought I was out celebrating, when in fact I was at school working.

That was my birthday in Iowa. It wasn’t the best birthday I’ve had but by far it wasn’t the worst. And it wasn’t disappointing because it’s exactly what I had expected. Who knows if there will be more birthdays in Iowa.