I’ve been thinking a lot about relationships and how long I was looking for one and also how I kind of sabotaged my chances by being a closeted bisexual trans man for so long. Or pansexual, whatever. I feel like I misrepresented myself for decades because I was afraid no one would love me if I was openly trans. But I was non-binary for a long time. But also not dating a lot of types of people I would date now. So my dating pool was small and not really my pool anyway. It’s complicated, but basically being a lesbian and trying to find a long term relationship was not working out for me, mostly because I was not a woman. I think I was really limited also in the type of relationship I wanted at the time, based mostly on heteronormative relationship ideals that we are all marinated in. It’s only been recently that I’ve started to figure out what kind of relationships make me happy.

I’m not dating anyone seriously now. And I’m genuinely not sure I have the time to have a relationship with someone right now. It’s been hookups for a while because they are fun but also don’t take a lot of time or energy or upkeep. I was talking to a woman on Tinder a while back and she asked where relationships fit into my life right now because I think I said I was concentrating on my career. And it just kind of made me feel like yeahhhh I’m not really able to invest time into someone at this moment. Unless they were cool about seeing me only once a week or sometimes not at all.

I also have a really good housing situation because I am in a co-op, so I’m staying here for as long as I can. There have been people who spent their whole lives here. And I think this would be a good neighbourhood to be a senior trans dude, when I am way older. I’m close to the Village and in a big city and there’s a large dating pool for trans men here. And so I don’t want to move, but also if someone moved in I have anxiety I would end up having to move out, and I have heard of partners of people in co-ops moving in with them and then pushing out the person who originally lived in the co-op. And having to find a home in Toronto right now is very financially unrealistic, so a lot of people who get pushed out just leave town. But my specialists are here and my community and my friends and blah blah. It’s just better for me to be here for a lot of reasons.

I’m not sure ha ha what else was I going to say about relationships? Oh just that I wish I had been dating as a trans man for a lot longer than I have. I might have already been noticed by someone who likes me for who I actually am, instead of passing by all these people as someone I was not.

I’ve been posting images of my skeleton rig animations on Instagram and Facebook, and they don’t get much engagement but I guess that doesn’t matter. I am sure it looks boring to others. BUT ANYWAY I’m trying to have something done for a show next week, so I was trying to make it moveable. And I didn’t realize how complicated getting an animated rig to also move normally would be. It took a while, I was using an Animator that was more built for a 3d project, but it works so I guess it’s fine. I also am having the hardest time getting it to jump. It IS jumping technically, but the animation doesn’t play, and the jump itself is not very high. Like a hop. Like barely hopping. BUT the main point is that now when I walk across the room, the speed of the walking matches the speed of the animation so it looks nice and normal.

And the punching is doing well. I have to figure out how to make the hands weapons. They don’t really make fists. They just reach out like they are punching with straight hands. So probably his bones would crumble before doing damage if he was a real guy.

The running ALSO needs work! He just runs in one spot, because there’s no arrow for movement. So I need to figure out a different way to trigger the running. The walk button is built in with the movement, but I was using right shift to run and that’s not it. I will figure it out. He looks pretty funny just running in one spot though.

The jumping would be amazing if it worked.

OH YEAH anyway yeah boo on the election down south, I am not impressed but also not surprised. I don’t think the Democrats had a really distinct campaign, I mean they were already supporting a genocide, and they would still support it after the election. So that’s fairly unpopular. But also Trump is a nightmare. And I agree there would be SOME good things if the Democrats stayed in power, maybe. But also Roe v Wade was overturned while the Democrats were in power and they didn’t do a lot to fix it. So maybe it would just be slightly less worse under the Democrats. I don’t know, political systems are fucked.

MOSTLY though, I’m nervous about the looming Conservative government we are going to get here in Canada. Because I’m not looking forward to a government making policy driven on their personal icks about other humans, but that’s what they always do because it sells to their shitty base. I’m not sorry, if you’re a Conservative you’re a shitty heartless person.

ANYWAY ha ha there’s my mini rant, I don’t feel like getting more into it right now.

I am glad in hindsight that I didn’t apply to those University jobs in the States, and that I didn’t choose a bottom surgeon in the States. I would be a lot more stressed right now otherwise.

I am nervous about my friends down there though. And also worried that I will lose work in the States because my being trans is going to be criminalized. So that is shitty.

Also in some ways things I feel better about my life are things that are difficult for other trans people right now, which feels shitty too. Like, I’m glad I changed my name and gender on all my ID and have an updated passport. And now I’m seeing all these people in my trans groups scrambling to change their names and genders on ID and in their passports.

This transition has really felt to me like when Indiana Jones is rushing to get out of a temple and slides under the stone door just as it’s closing. Like, I have SPEED RUN though this transition. And maybe to the outside eye it looks fast, but I was also thinking about doing this since I was 19 so like, I lived with this potential for two and a half decades before medically transitioning. And I wish it hadn’t taken me so long. BUT ALSO I kind of know why, because there are some non-binary parts of me. Not other personalities, I only have one personality and it can be pretty sour ha ha. But no! I mean transitioning to male made me nervous about how hard it would be to be gender non-conforming as a visibly male guy. Because I still miss having painted nails, and I like wearing bright colours. And if my hair wasn’t thinning I would still be colouring it instead of shaving it. And I am pretty fruity/faggy and I don’t feel like butch-ing it up just to satisfy some straight cis guy somewhere who has to walk past me in Dollarama.

ALSO!!! A lot of those straight cis guys are on Grindr so give me a break. I can be a swishy bi trans guy leave me alone.

I am starting to think about identifying as pansexual. I was fine with bisexual, but now I’m hoping to indicate an attraction to a wider spectrum of human beings.

ALSO I guess I do have flowers on my arm and my chest, so I’m very obviously not a bro bro.

ANYWAY ha ha there’s my post after the election. I have no point. I’m doing my work a lot these days and keeping my head down and learning new things. My guitar lessons are going really well too! I’m able to play more of Wish You Were Here, every week we move further and further into the song. Now I am learning all the part up to the point with the complicated solo. So I know a lot of it, and next week we skip the solo and go into a lot of chords and strumming. So it’s been good. I don’t have the lyrics on my sheet music. But I’m not ready to play and sing at the same time. I am still failing at getting to the gym. I think I might go tomorrow. I was going to go on Thursdays but realistically I can’t squeeze the gym in on Thursdays. Tuesdays I am exhausted (plus it’s the easiest night to schedule hookups). Wednesday? What is going on Wednesdays? Nothing really but I am also overloaded with work right now. Saturdays I am free too, but if I go to the gym I work out my full body so it seems bad to go two days in a row.

OH YES but I do have some answers about my MRI! The report says I have a mild to moderate case of fatty liver, basically, and maybe something else that isn’t cancerous. So I am becoming a human foie gras! Terrible. I have to shoehorn going to the gym into my week, I guess is what I am saying. My schedule will be the same in the winter term because my class then is on Mondays also. So I need to figure out this gym time thing.

I had a busy day. Therapy, then practiced my guitar, then my guitar lesson, then went back home to feed pups, then back out to the hospital for an MRI. The MRI department is open 24 hours, which made me wonder who they scan in the early morning hours of 1 or 2 or 3am. That would be brutal. Mine was 8:15pm but I got there super early so they got me in and out of there by 8.

I’ve been having anxiety about the MRI because I never had one before. It’s a weird experience. Lay on a table, they give you something to hold to squeeze if you have issues, put a pad of some sort on you to measure breathing, ear plugs and headphones, and then the table goes into this narrow tube. And then they tell you when to breathe and when to hold your breath. And it’s making all these noises like a Star Wars battle or an angry rhythmic raccoon banging on a garbage can with a stick. At one point I was worried I would hyperventilate because like, when you open your eyes the top of the tube is RIGHT THERE very close and in front of you. Anyway, she got the imaging she needed.

So I was finally released from the tube, full of contrast dye. Came home and ordered Chinese food and smoked a J. And now I am just, resting I guess. It was a lot! But I should know what is up with my liver soon. I don’t know how long it will take for my doctor to let me know what’s up. It could be cancer but it could be a lot of other things too.

I hope it’s not cancer. It kind of sparked a whole midlife crisis thing, which I was hoping I would deal with by learning to play the guitar. Turns out existential questions about what happens if my lifespan is shorter is also part of my midlife crisis. It wouldn’t be a midlife crisis if it was true though, it would just be an approaching end of life crisis. Ahhh.

BUT I’ve been thinking more about cutting back on weed, and going back to the gym. I just haven’t had time. And the moments I did have time, I was hooking up with guys and yeah that’s been taking too much time. I need to cut back on hookups because I’m just too busy. How depressing!

Although I’m having my revision over the Christmas holidays, so I probably won’t want to hook up with anyone at that point. I just don’t feel like sex when I have stitches. No. No no no.

I carved a pumpkin this year! It came out better than other years because I used a smaller knife. So this little pumpkin is out there. I should go blow it out actually. I wonder if it’s still burning? It’s been a windy night.

My video game is starting to do things it needs to do. I have been getting the skeleton rig working, and now I am animating it for when it’s standing, and walking, and running. I need to figure out how to do jumping and fighting. I was going to have it grab weapons, but it’s hands aren’t really made for grabbing, they just stick out straight the whole time. So I dunno, even if it held weapons with straight hands, that would be cool. I was even thinking of just programming it to be animated for punching. I think that would be really cute.

I’m also starting to think about audio. I am not sure what a full skeleton would sound like walking. I imagine like a bunch of sticks, or wooden wind chimes. But maybe a bag of bones sounds different. I want to record the audio myself, because I am tired of downloading audio and getting alerts that it’s been copyrighted by someone at some point. So I need to record the sounds of a skeleton moving around. Maybe a bunch of sticks tied to strings? I don’t know. Rattling?

I am in a creative state right now, my therapist was remarking on it. I tend to be really happy when I am being creative.

I was also talking in therapy today about being worried about a Conservative government taking away my Gender affirming health care. I was talking about how much it changed for me internally and she said it would be like taking away a psych drug, to lose my testosterone.

It’s just that estrogen made me attach to people I shouldn’t have been attaching to. I think testosterone helped me live my life the way I wanted more. Like I always DID want to be a slut, I just couldn’t do it on an estrogen dominant system. Oh and I cried all the time. And had very little energy. Like it really would decrease my quality of life so much to lose access to testosterone.

Since the doctor and nurse found my ideal testosterone dose (70mg once a week) they gave me 11 refills of that dose. So at least I have a lot of it, I think I only use three refills a year, maybe four. Not a lot though, so I hope it lasts for a while in case something happens.

I hate that I have to think about this. I would be so depressed and suicidal if I was forced off my hormones. But Alberta is doing transphobic shit and Saskatchewan is doing transphobic shit and they are all suspending the charter of rights and freedoms to oppress trans people. And they always start with youth and they always move on to adults. And it’s just bullying. And Ontario has a Conservative government, but they haven’t tried transphobia and I hope they don’t. They might. BUT ALSO the federal Conservatives are getting support and these dumbass parties like the NDP and Bloc Quebecois are threatening to bring down the government which for sure would mean the Conservatives come to power. And I don’t appreciate it, I used to vote NDP all the time but I actually might vote Liberal if it would keep the Conservatives out of power.

Hi! I didn’t get paid today like I hoped I would, so I need to raise 300 dollars to be able to pay for Posey getting her medication and me having a place to stay when I get to London for my class on Monday. Also extra for food. I should be getting paid on Halloween, but Posey’s not supposed to abruptly stop her heart medication, and it’s already been a day and a half off of her medication.
Thanks if you can support me through Kofi
https://ko-fi.com/theocuthand
Or etransfer/paypal to tjcuthand@gmail.com

Executive dysfunction fucks me over so much. OMG. I hate it. It looks so sloppy too, or lazy, and it’s not, it’s just that certain things are very difficult for me to do. Like, my name and gender change on all my ID was intimidating me. I did it. It’s done! It took MONTHS though, and being able to carry through in keeping up with paperwork and appointments to do all of that was difficult. PLUS it had to go in a certain order. It was like, a whole project really.

And now I’m doing bottom surgery and I have a list of nine documents I need to gather and email to the surgeon’s office. And I started working on the documents a while ago, but I am STILL struggling with getting them together. Right now I have six of them together. OMG also I had to get a friend to act as a witness to my signature on a form consenting to them taking pictures of my genitals and the journey they are going on. I mean I could have said no, but I was like whatever sure maybe people will learn something. BUT YEAH I had to get my friend to sign it after watching me sign it. And then I had to scan all this stuff. It’s a lot harder than when I went for top surgery, because my nurse practitioner sent in most of the forms for top surgery. Also I don’t think there were so many forms. ALSO the top surgeon’s practice is local, so I just signed some of those forms at the office.

ANYWAY three left to go, I know it will be ready by the end of the week to go. I finally requested the last two letters from my doctor (it’s already written) and I just have to call my pharmacist and ask them to make a list of my prescriptions, which would probably just be a print out of what is on file. So it’s close, it’s VERY close to finally being officially on the list to wait for a consult. BUT WOW. Considering the favourable outcomes of getting my own dick and balls (yay) it was SO HARD to stay motivated to get these papers together. But once I send it all off, it will hopefully be easier. I can deal with attending appointments and stuff, it’s just paperwork that bums me out and slows me down.

If I had a secretary I would have a dick and balls already. Ha ha not really, but maybe I would be two months ahead of where I am now.

I was going to give an update on how I feel about teaching, but it seems like a bad idea to include that in a post about dick and balls.

Work is going well though, I’ve been enjoying working with students and staff. And creative projects are continuing. I am redrawing my video game character today though, I need to separate feet from ankles, shins from knees, necks and heads from chests. My poor little skeleton man is not working properly in the skeleton rig the way he is now. So it’s a bit of an etch a sketch redo, although I am keeping most of him, it’s just editing and separating the pieces that I have to do. I wanted to have the first level done for a show next month, but it’s looking like if I can just get him animated, that might be as good as I can get before the deadline.

Hey! There’s a new interview with me about my short film The Lost Art of the Future.

Have a read!
https://filmint.nu/theo-cuthand-the-lost-art-of-the-future-interview-abigail-yartey/

I hope you enjoy!

My Macbook Pro went to the shop and was toast basically. The things that needed fixing were way too expensive. There was water damage on the logic board from when Todd was smaller and dumped a bottle of water on it. The display was screwed up. And smoking weed indoors ALSO damaged it, which was a big wake up call and now I’m smoking weed outdoors. The great part of that is that I am smoking up a LOT less. Which makes me more productive overall.

My friend lent me some money to get a new Macbook Pro, so I am writing on it now. It’s got less hard drive space than the old one. I am thinking of reformatting my time machine backup and using it as a regular hard drive that has my files on it, because I can’t use the time machine back up on the new Macbook because it’s too small to fit all that stuff. ALSO I don’t need all the old stuff. It’s weird to delete video files though, because I don’t want to destroy that stuff. So if I can put it on a hard drive that works like a regular external hard drive, that would be helpful. I also have 3TB on my Dropbox, so I’ve been putting things there. But really I just got to reformat this time machine and copy stuff over.

Todd went to the vet yesterday so they could look for his missing ball, but it’s way up there. So it’s gonna cost almost 300 dollars just to get that ball out. SO MUCH MONEY when he could have just let it descend like a regular ball. I know it’s not his fault, our bodies do what they please. His baby tooth DID fall out though, finally, like literally the day before he went to the vet. They said he had no more baby teeth and I was honestly shocked because it was there the last time I checked. So that’s 200 dollars I don’t have to spend on it.

I’m relieved I have a new Macbook Pro, although it was SO expensive. But I’m doing a gig that wraps up soon and should pay me enough to pay my friend back. I’m paying her back sooner, so really it will pay me back my living allowance I need as an artist in residence.

My hookups are dwindling this week because I have too much work to catch up on to be able to meet up with people. I used to love having sex with randos, but honestly I have no time for anything like that right now. It seems silly to choose work over sex, but looks like that’s what I have to do for a while. Someone was messaging me A LOT and I kind of had to put a stop to it. Which I feel bad about but also I was not planning to have that involved of an ongoing thing with him. I’m very popular on Grindr ha ha but it’s also a silly place and I can’t keep up with it at the moment. And the people who KEEP messaging when I’m busy are so annoying. If they bought me dinner maybe I would care, but for a hookup? No I don’t need to respond to you this instant. I’m WORKING I gotta feed myself and my dogs. Guys are so pushy.

I did manage to do my marking this week though, so that was good. And it was reading week which was a nice break, but Monday it’s back to work. Monday will be hard because I am leaving here at 5am instead of staying overnight on Sunday. I have a concert to go to on Sunday. It’s Cyndi Lauper! Her farewell tour! I have been a fan since the 80’s and I need to see her before she or I dies. Lol so yeah, I couldn’t give my tickets away. I wanted to go for sure.

BUT I am looking forward to the business class ticket on the way back Monday evening. I get to eat something lovely.

I went to a gala for ImagineNATIVE yesterday, but my lump of roast beef was mostly fat which was kind of hilarious. I never saw so much fat in a piece of roast beef! It was a blob ha ha. I got to sit next to someone who told me some funny stories about the celebrities she worked with. I had to leave early to go see a movie, which turned out to be terrible. But it was a nice Friday night. Tonight I’m just staying home to work on my PowerPoint for class on Monday. We watched Beans! So I get to talk about OKA. I think most students I have weren’t alive when it happened. My experience of OKA was just watching it on the news being horrified. I have an uncle who was one of the warriors there. He came into our family after OKA and is my cousins dad. I really admire the people who were there. It was a big moment in my life, seeing my people fight for our rights. ALSO what I love about Beans is that it was the first time I saw Indigenous Girlhood being represented in a film. OH I mean except for Whale Rider, but she was Maori. I haven’t seen Whale Rider in a long time.

Hard to believe my class is halfway done! I could talk about Indigenous Cinema forever, there are so many other good films I didn’t have time to squeeze in.

I was looking at my calendar today and realized a grant deadline was coming up. And I needed to write a script before applying, because it’s for a dramatic short. I realized Telefilm is not going to give me money for a feature unless I keep making short dramas. Although I love experimental docs and don’t think that contraindicates being a feature film director. But apparently it does. SO ANYWAY I had been wanting to make a short about poverty. And I’ve been talking about it for a while but it just hadn’t gelled yet. BUT this deadline was coming.

Not to mention there are issues with my Macbook Pro where I have vertical lines on the screen. I’m hoping it will hang on long enough to do this workshop tomorrow. HOPEFUL! But also I knew it probably wouldn’t survive long enough to write a short script this weekend. So I had TODAY to write it, because my scriptwriting software is on my Mac and I don’t want to get a PC version and pay more money for it. And I opened my notes about the film I wanted to make and realized there was finally enough. So I wrote it. In like, an hour, eleven pages. Maybe an hour and a half. That’s the fastest I’ve written a script. BUT ALSO I had been percolating this idea for months, so maybe it just spewed out. And it was all about poverty and how hard that is and the decisions you make and feeling like you’re not able to be there for people you care about. So it was a lot and the end is SUPER SAD and made me cry. And now every time I read the end I cry. Which I guess means it’s working. But then I shared it with my Mom and she was like “Yikes that is depressing!” Which makes me wonder if it’s a lot. BUT ALSO it’s reality that Indigenous people live with. And poverty is violent. And the death in the script isn’t directly linked to poverty, but the poverty the main character experiences is what keeps him from being able to be present for his loved ones. So it’s a bummer script really.

BUT ALSO as someone who struggled with poverty, especially during the last year, I wanted to talk about how violent and coercive poverty can be. Like it’s not like he’s killing pigeons to eat squab at home (although I have heard of people having to do that). But it is depressing. He’s a good character too though, he’s an Indigenous trans man and I think I’m going to be the actor for him. I’ve wanted to act in a dramatic short of mine, I think I can do it. And with a small enough crew I won’t feel self conscious about it. And it’s easier than trying to find such a specific type of actor. So yeah, I will be directing AND acting which is, you know, different. But doable. And there aren’t a ton of locations, just a call centre, welfare office, the main character’s home, and a pub. And the outdoors, but like, the front sidewalk of his house. So that’s minimal. And the pub just has me and an actress in it. The call centre and welfare office could be the same location with minor changes, and that’s only three actors and the main character. So it’s all doable, with specific angles. Like, I don’t want to pay extras for the pub scene, so it will just be them in the corner together. And I’m hoping to hire someone I’ve worked with before for the girlfriend role, who is a trans character. And then there’s going to be some stuff “online” and some printed correspondence and some texts and some phone calls. The phone calls will be easier because only one character will be on camera.

So I have planned it out as low budget as possible. Three locations, I could probably shoot it in two days. Three at the most, but the pub scene will be short because it’s only two pages of dialogue, and the welfare and call centre office could be most of the rest of the shooting day. I’m thinking the scenes in his home can take up one whole day in one location. So yeah! That’s the plan.

After I wrote it I completed the grant application for it. I’m asking for $15,000 for it. I did a rough budget. I’m hoping it comes through so I can shoot this spring and edit myself for a summer finish. It won’t take a ton of time to make. It would be done in time for fall screenings next year. I just hope no one says it’s poverty porn. It’s not porn! It’s just life when life is rough! Not all of us can be non-triggering in talking about our life experiences. Sometimes life fucking sucks and poverty makes it worse. Although he does make porn in the film, but not onscreen, just behind his bedroom door.

Yeah. It’s depressing but human I think. But will probably make a bunch of people sad. BUT ALSO it’s about poverty and that’s the point.

People are so ashamed when they are poor. I know I am. It feels like being a failure, instead of how the system is working and failing people.

Anyway the university had lent me a laptop for work, and I’m using it now while trying to preserve my computer for this workshop tomorrow. But if the lines get worse I’m not sure what I will do, it will interrupt me being able to show how this program works. So wish me luck I guess! I might download the software onto this computer too. Although I am hoping to record Spanish zoom interpretation on this computer. AHHH WORK.

I also have to mark assignments this week. It’s reading week, so I can catch up on all of that. The deadline is tonight for the students. So I will have most of them to start tomorrow night. I’m going for thanksgiving dinner tomorrow afternoon, which should be nice, after my workshop.

It’s Wednesday! Hopefully I don’t just forget I’m writing this blog post and wander off until Thursday, although I do have ADHD and it’s been known to happen.

I got closure on an old relationship recently which was REALLY FUCKING GOOD. I just realized nothing was going to change in that situation, and it’s made it easier to move on. I hate getting stuck on people but I was SUPER stuck on this one person. But I think I was more stuck on possibilities and not the reality of the situation. And now knowing the reality of the situation has stayed the same made me able to abandon the possibilities. Plus my idea of a good relationship is evolving to something possibly not needing cohabitation, and definitely not monogamy, so I’m looking for something different now than what I wanted with that person. But even so I said something that they will definitely not forget and move on with me from, so yeah. I mean I criticized their partner, which was probably bad. And yeah it’s probably not something I would do now, but also it was just looming in my head which I guess is why I said it.

But anyway, now there’s finally space in my heart for someone new. My therapist and I were talking about it, she said I didn’t need to fill it with someone right away. Which is true, and something I always used to do as soon as I moved on from someone. But I’ve been in therapy to deal with my attraction for unavailable people, so I think I need to have a longer audition process for potential partners. I mean just date for a while before deciding on things. I also have this bizarre public profile as an artist/filmmaker/etc and so I need to find someone who can handle that. I really need someone who isn’t going to be worried if I post a couple photo to my instagram that has 2529 followers. I know it’s a lot of followers! Not a ton, not a Kardashian level of followers. But someone who only has 400 followers might be intimidated.

I hate being intimidating which is something I didn’t really consider when I became a more publicly known figure. I was telling my therapist one time about how I feel like I’m too powerful sometimes, to where being seen with me online is kind of like trying to shoo a small fly away from me and me accidentally squishing it. Like I don’t MEAN to cause harm but sometimes it just kind of happens by being publicly linked to me. And not that I have a horrible reputation (except for that defamatory series of posts about me) but just I don’t know, it makes people more visible when not everyone feels comfortable with visibility. It’s probably why I mostly post selfies and art and flowers and food on my Instagram.

I watched Will & Harper the other night, and the scene where they are looking at all the transphobic tweets made me sad. I know they are both public figures, but Will Ferrell has a more public facing role in his career than Harper and so everyone would notice him and by extension his trans friend. And have an opinion on it. It was really interesting seeing Harper try to engage in a road trip across a country with areas gripped by transphobia, with a celebrity friend with her.

It’s strange being a public figure but also to transition. I don’t know if I talk about that a lot. Someone was asking about my deadname at the opening the other day to make sure I was the same person and I don’t know. I guess I’m supposed to just say “I’m Theo I used to be Thirza.” But I don’t really feel the need to say that. But there’s also this pressure to like, forbid any visible remnants of Thirza, while I just don’t feel like editing all my videos again to change my credit line. But yeah I’m sure lots of colleagues have negative opinions of me transitioning, not that that really matters to me. But everyone seems to have an opinion of what people do with their bodies, and politicians have been trying to make my health decisions EVERYONE’s decision, which is unhelpful.

We need to get rid of the notwithstanding clause actually. It’s just being used to suspend the charter of rights and freedoms for trans people, that’s total bullshit. I hate Canadian politicians. Most of them anyway. The conservative ones especially.

Sometimes I talk to gay men on the apps and find out they are conservatives, or have no issue with the Conservatives taking power. And I’m always like wow what is your problem? That’s like the mice voting for the cats.

I was in business class on Via Rail coming back from London the other day and reading this sad story about a mini dachshund who died after being neutered because of complications with his undescended testicle and how his prostate got removed instead and his urethra. And omg I got SO SAD because Todd has to get neutered in a couple of months and he has one undescended testicle, so the same complicated thing could happen to him. I really hope not. His vet seemed confident at one of his puppy check ups that they would be able to get it out no problem. But I am still a worried dog dad.

Not to mention I am wading through all the paperwork for my own bottom surgery which will add nuts to my body and make my dick not tethered down, and I know there might be complications like with any surgery. But actually, even though it’s a bit scary for me, I have less concern with my own surgery than with Todd’s. I don’t know why I’m more worried about him. Maybe because if something goes wrong for him he could die, whereas I might just end up rejecting a testicle implant or something. Which is concerning but like, I would live. Or even if I lost sensation, I would at least still be alive. But Todd is just a little guy and I’m the one in charge of him and keeping him safe. I guess my surgery could go sideways and I could get sepsis and die. But that’s unlikely.

Anyway, Todd is getting too humpy in his adolescence and starting to be more aggressive so he DOES need to get neutered. Plus it will be easier to board him in a kennel if he’s fixed, and his license will be cheaper, and we could go back to dog classes. It will happen, I’m just going to be terrified when he goes in for his surgery. And will probably pray even tho I’m not a praying man ha ha. He also still has a baby fang that needs to get pulled while he is under, it’s super wedged into his mouth behind his adult canine. Just didn’t come out. Ha ha omg what is wrong with my dog? His baby tooth didn’t fall out and his testicles didn’t both come down, just the one. He’s holding on to stuff he doesn’t need to hold on to.

It’s a metaphor for life I guess ha ha.

I’m doing well aside from my worries about Todd. I’m still practicing my guitar almost every day. I have discovered I can practice in the mornings on Sundays too before I go to the train station. I’m not going to have access to my guitar for a lot of the next week though, since I’m away Thursday night and then Saturday until Monday. I’m finally seeing my guitar teacher for the first time next week. He seems cool, I’m not sure where we will start from. I can’t read music, I’m not great with tabs but I kind of get the concept, I know maybe three chords. I can play Hit Me With Your Best Shot, Smells Like Teen Spirit, Take a Walk on the Wild Side, that one line from Born In The USA, Wild Thing, the Mission Impossible Theme sort of. I need way more practice though. I learned the pentatonic scale today and I think I know the G scale too. I know how to do spider walks, but when I’ve seen youtube videos of them it seems everyone does them differently and I’m not sure which is the best way to do them. I have small hands so doing chords across three frets is hard for me, so I am hoping a teacher will show me how to be able to hold those chords properly. I sometimes wonder if I should have gotten a smaller guitar, but also I love my Martin Dreadnought and it’s the same style of guitar (not the same version tho) that was used on one of the songs I want to learn for Personal Reasons. And it’s pretty. And it makes me happy. I must be holding it better because my back pain has eased up and I really think it was linked to poor form and posture.

My back felt so messed up for a while that I thought I was like one of those people attacked by the secret weapon in Third Body Problem where they get cut into pieces with mysterious beams. I was sure my head and shoulders was just gonna fall off at some point. But I guess it was just the way I was holding my guitar, because I watched a youtube video that was more instructive on how to sit with it and since then my back pain has eased up a lot.

I also worked with the metronome more to learn timing, because mine is messed up. PLUS sometimes without the metronome, I find I try to hurry things up and then my hands get sloppy and I hit wrong notes.

Anyway, tomorrow I go back to London for an artist talk. Then I come home on Friday, have a hookup with a new hottie, and Saturday I go to Ottawa to do an artist walk through at this show I am in. So that will be nice, I’m so tired. I have to do a quick powerpoint tonight of some images I want to show for my artist talk tomorrow. I’ve been making PowerPoints for class and it’s been a lot. But I am more familiar with how to do them now so that’s cool. Anyway I also have to pack my bag for leaving early tomorrow morning. My train is at 11:30am. I guess that’s not SO early. I think it’s the train back the next morning that is early.

Ahhh artist talk! I could do the PowerPoint on the train, but that is cutting it too close!