Simple, but more.

As is typically the case on my down weekends, I got half the things done I had originally planned.  I also got things done I hadn't planned.  These kinds of weekends are a good microcosm of my general life in general.  I make lists, I have plans, but I've learned to be very much a go-with-the-flow kind of person.  The "flow" doesn't always lend itself to plans or lists so general flexibility rather than needing some kind of carefully structured, neat little world has become a key element to general survival for me.

I spent a little time with the women who work in the rental office at my apartment complex on Saturday.  They're half my age...younger than my son...but lots of fun.  One of them already has already come up with a nickname for me - "D-Dog" - a term of endearment, I assure you.  

I had planned on doing to the movies.  Didn't do that.  I did clean my make-up brushes.  I spent some time on the treadmill.  I got a few more things for my apartment and set up some of my stereo stuff.  My clothes are 90% unpacked and put where they'll need to go.  I even put up a couple of pictures on the wall, which is something that probably seems trivial but it's amazing how some relatively simple things can real change the "feel" of something.  All things considered - although this isn't "home" for me in a deeper sense it's where I'll be spending most of my time for the foreseeable future and is far more "put together" than my little nest in South Carolina at this point.  I'm ok with it.

Of course, I've actually spent a little $$$ for furniture from Craigslist, which I haven't had the time nor the funds to do back home given how quickly things happened.  All I could possibly still use here would be a couple of side tables and some book shelves but those are nice-to-haves not need-to-haves.  Oh - and a real mattress, although I'm sleeping well (and very comfortably) on my air mattress so that's not a high priority at the moment.

As I unpacked some of my slacks I found a couple of pairs that have fit me in the past, but are a bit "snug" now.  That's how I gauge where I want to be weight-wise.  As I've shared in the past, I find weighing myself to be a depressing, self-defeating activity.  Instead, I find that using a practical measurement is more helpful for me than an artificial one.  I'll try them on once a week until I fit into them the way I want to again, which I expect will be about a month or so assuming I'm as disciplined as I hope/expect to be.

Apparently, the schedule for SCC has come out.  I'm scheduled to do a workshop on Friday morning.  I haven't been there for a couple of years particularly because I've made it a practice to not go to events where I don't actually have a purpose.  Honestly, I don't feel the need to just show up to remind anyone that I'm still alive and around.  The politics of these kinds of things can get funky if you let yourself get sucked in by them.  I've made some dear, dear friends at these kinds of things over the years and don't expect that to change.

I've moved on in life in some things.  There are others that I probably should move on from but don't (or won't) for one reason or another.  But I don't put going to conferences into that category.  I go if I've got a purpose to be there beyond sitting at the bar (which I don't do much, anyway).  Pretty simple equation.

In bigger-picture stuff, there was closure on a recent newsworthy situation in Colorado when a court sided with a family who's young trans-child was being denied access to the elementary school girl's bathroom (story here).  I didn't have much doubt as to which way this would go, and it's nice to see the right thing happen.  I hope they can all put this behind them, although I'm not so naïve to believe as it's simply as easy as that (although it certainly should be).

As I was driving into work this morning, I drove through the guard gate where the guard scans and checks ID's.  The best part of my entire day comes when the guard looks at me, validates my credentials and says to me, "Have a nice day, ma'am".  That's what makes it all worthwhile.  Nothing more, nothing less.  Like putting pictures on the wall in my apartment, it's a seemingly such a simple thing.   But it's deep.   It never gets mundane.  It never ceases to make me stop, and to appreciate life.  I hope I never get to a point where it feels otherwise.