Deja Vu all over again.

It's like deja vu all over again.  I spent the day packing.  Have I even mentioned how much I HATE packing??!!  I lived in the same house for 15 years and over the last several years I've become a gypsy.  Not cool.  Not fun.  I don't even have that much stuff here in Harrisburg.  But even at that, putting it all into boxes and cleaning and trying to work through all of the logistics of it can be difficult.

By 6pm I was dead tired.  So a friend and I went out for Sushi, which helped.  Here in PA they have restaurants where you BYOB so we brought a bottle of wine with us and chilled.  It was just what the doctor ordered.

There's quite a bit of upheaval and uncertainty in my world right now.  It's a good thing I deal fairly well with this stuff, but even so it's nerve wracking and if I think about it too hard my stomach starts to flip.  Most likely I've got 3,000 miles of driving ahead of me over the next week and a number of major obligations to take care of, so in all honesty these next two weeks are going to be hell.  I wish I could get into a time machine and fast forward to the end of them.

There was a segment on Good Morning America titled "Extreme Proms".  To watch it is to believe that the economy is fixed and that discretionary income is flowing again as some of the girls they featured were spending $3,000 and up on this right of passage event.  It is also to acknowledge the pressure (especially on girls) to look "fabulous" and the competition-type importance paid to it.

When I was in high school I had no interest in proms and had no intention of going to my own.  I did end up going with a girl who had recently split with a friend of mine and we ended up dating for over a year.  I know many who look back over their prom years and are sad about NOT having been able to enjoy that right of passage as their authentic selves. I was just pleasantly surprised that it didn't suck as much as I expected that it would.

In more uplifting news:  In Nevada the state Assembly passed an inclusive ENDA bill (details here):

In a monumental vote for one of the state's least-known minorities, the state Assembly Monday backed a bill that would outlaw job discrimination against transgender people.

Members voted 29-13 for Assembly Bill 211, which would prevent discriminating against people based on their gender identity or expression.

The bill now goes to the Senate, where supporters think they have the votes to pass the bill. Gov. Brian Sandoval hasn't given an indication whether he will sign it.

The bill's sponsor, Assemblyman Paul Aizley, D-Las Vegas, said transgender people testified they often are denied jobs because of how they look. There are 25,000 transgender people in Nevada.

There are three other bills on transgender rights coming up for votes in the Senate. One would abolish discrimination in public accommodations, and another would abolish discrimination in housing. The last would make crimes against transgender people hate crimes subject to longer prison sentences.

In Hawaii, there was similar news (details here):

A proposal to solidify civil rights protections for transgendered employees is headed for the governor's desk after the state House agreed to a Senate draft of the bill earlier this week.

House Bill 546 would bar employers from discriminating on the basis of gender expression, bringing Hawaii's labor law in line with similar protections in the areas of housing and public accommodations.

The House, in a 45-4 vote on Monday, agreed to accept the Senate's amended draft of the bill, allowing the proposal to skip the conference committee proc ess and move directly to Gov. Neil Aber crom bie for his signature.

In one of my obligations I'll be talking on a National Trans panel at the Equality Forum in Philadelphia next week (details here).

This panel explores civil rights issues relevant to transgender and transsexual individuals, such as health care access, political participation, immigration rights and employment law.

Then it's cross country....

Sigh.