I wrote this for facebook, but considering their heinous censorship decided to post it here too, which has never censored me. Enjoy!
1. I used to ride horses when I was a little girl. Once the horse my adult friend was on bucked her off and took off galloping away, and mine decided to gallop away too! I had never been on a galloping horse before and I just kind of scrunched up like a jockey and held on for dear life until I could get the horse back under control. I’d really like to ride a horse again, I think I can remember how to steer them.
2. I have a notoriously bad habit of falling deeply in love with unavailable women and pining for years at a time! My first real crush at 14 lasted for 2 years! No nookie though. I am not sure why I do this, it’s made for a lot of no sex for years at a time.
3. The longest I have gone without sex is eight years. Beat that! I feel like I should be ashamed of this. But after a string of number 2’s happening to me, that is what happened!
4. I had my first manic psychosis when I was 24 and living in Montreal. I talk about this a lot so maybe I should mention the not so well discussed aspects of it. I was hospitalized in a french speaking hospital which was very similar in experience to One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. I had a lot of problems talking to the staff because very few of them understood english and often had to ask other patients to translate for me. This was Montreal, which meant there were English hospitals too, but they refused to let me move to one. I don’t know why. Being trapped in a French speaking abusive hospital made me really hate the Quebecois for a long time, I have to admit. I am mostly over it now. But I will never live in Montreal again.
5. When I was in Grade 2 we lived in Missoula Montana for the school year while my Mum worked on her Masters of Fine Arts. My teacher, Mrs. Joy Nelson, taught me how to write and had all kinds of creative writing exercises we did all year. I wrote a story about my cousin Luke sending me a kit to make a robot and all the things we did with the robots. I don’t remember what else I wrote now, that one was my favorite. I have been writing ever since.
6. Once when I was a little girl I tried to put on an improv puppet show for my Mum but she left after five minutes of me standing around trying to think of what to say next. She said she wouldn’t watch it unless I had a script!
7. I am planning to buy a house here in Saskatoon, hopefully in five years. That is the plan. I am thinking of a three bedroom house with a backyard. Mister refuses to live in an apartment or condo now. He will be an old man by the time we have our own house with a backyard, so until then I am living in my Mom’s house because she has a mostly empty basement and a backyard. He is a really happy boy in this house and is now almost always wagging his tail!
8. When I was two years old I saw this weird thing, and out of all my not-normal experiences I still think it is the most remarkable because it was SO WEIRD! I used to share a bunk bed and room with my sister Sky and the door would get locked at night otherwise Sky would run away. Anyway, this one morning I wanted out and I was banging on the white wooden door and crying when this image appeared on the door, like a screen set into the door. It was an overhead view of the Buy-Rite Furniture store parking lot. This would have been in 1980 so the cars were all 70’s big Buicks and the like. I stared at it for the longest time, cars were going in and out and parking and it was sunny. Then my Dad opened the door and it was gone! I have no explanation for what I saw, to this day.
9. I called 911 in Grade 8 for the first time because my sister set the living room armchair on fire. I wrote a story about it but I haven’t published it online. She found some matches and lit them and by the time I was summoned from the basement to help it was a great big bonfire in our living room. Mum ended up putting it out by running back and forth from the bathtub to the fire with a bucket. She was a hero. We all had Hitler mustaches by the end of it from the smoke.
10. I carefully entrusted my virginity with my biggest love ever when we were 17 years old, but then she never slept with me again! :O And she had long nails, which cut out a whole bunch of activities we could have done.
11. I used to shoot rifles in BC. I actually contemplated a school shooting when I was being bullied, but luckily I didn’t do anything and we moved back to Saskatoon. I was a good aim for someone with no gun experience before then! I’d like to go to a target range and shoot more guns, but I don’t ever want to shoot something living or even own a gun.
12. I didn’t drink and only smoked two puffs of a joint all through high school. I wasn’t trying to be a goody goody, I just already knew by then that I had serious mental health issues (though I wasn’t diagnosed with anything) and felt that being straight edge was my only hope of getting through high school as sanely as possible. It worked!
13. The first time I smoked pot and it actually got me ripped was when I went with some queerdos to the Pink Floyd and the Doors Lazer Light Show at the Planetarium in Vancouver. We hot boxed in the parking lot with a joint made of pot, hash, and oil. It was the best trip ever and when I got to the bathroom everything SLOOOOOWED DOOOOOOWN! It took me ten minutes (in my head) to wash and dry my hands, and I kept giggling.
14. I used to be really into anti-psychiatry, but now I am into being critical of psychiatry and not anti. The reason is because the anti-psychiatry people seem to tell everyone that we can just throw away our meds and be sane on a diet of herbs and sunshine and exercise, and I think that is really irresponsible. I did follow their advice and ended up having my second manic psychosis when I was 28-29. My 29th birthday was spent in the psych ward here in Saskatoon. Yeah the meds do bad things, but some of us need them.
15. I am afraid that the apocalypse will happen and I won’t have access to my psych meds, and will end up being a raving mad street preacher trying to live off my lactations while everything goes to hell.
16. I was always trying to set up clubs when I was a kid, but mostly because I liked making the membership cards. I would draw on them and then laminate them by using white glue to stick saran wrap onto the cards. It works surprisingly well. But no one ever came to my clubs. Once in high school I tried to start the first Gay-Straight Alliance but it just ended up being me and this bisexual friend and our gay friend sitting on the front lawn eating chips. After that meeting there were no more. Maybe I should have made some membership cards!
17. When I was a very small girl I used to feel what some folks call God in the sunshine and the plants. I don’t get the same feeling anymore, but intellectually I still understand the concept.
18. I was a transman for six months and my name was Sarain. It was different, that is for sure. But in the end I decided to go back to being Thirza because I realized I really like my secondary female sex characteristics. My Mum had a really hard time with all the he him his and my boy name, so she was relieved when I decided to stay a butch girl. I realized there were things about becoming a boy that I found really boring and unappealing, whereas I can be a butch girl and do masculine things and still have lovely womanly things.
19. I came out to my mom on February 22, 1993. I was fourteen. It was the scariest thing I had ever done at that point and she was really good about it. She had to go away on a Canada Council jury so while she was in Ottawa she went to the Women’s bookstore and talked to some young lesbians who loaded her up with all the books they thought a baby dyke should have. The only ones I remember now were Lesbian Sex and three different Dykes To Watch Out For books.
20. I would like to get married! 😀 However I think the cost of weddings is outrageous, so I have decided I would rather go to a justice of the peace with maybe two witnesses and then have a big party with all our friends.
21. I was actively Christian after my first psychosis, but since then have gone back to my non-worshipping self. I believe in a grand spirit, but I don’t think it cares if I go to a building with a high roof and a history of protecting pedophiles. Also I find so much vocal Christianity to be really hateful.
22. When I was living in Vancouver I decided I HAD TO HAVE a dachshund! But when I got word of this rescue doxie looking for a home the woman I called ridiculed me for having a job and not having a yard. I did end up with a Mister Man long haired black and tan dachshund not long after I moved to Saskatoon. He makes me really happy. I love dogs. I prefer them to cats, although I do have a Beatrix kitty.
23. I have always been the first one to say I Love You. I would like the be the one who gets to say I Love You Too. But I usually make all the first moves anyway. Still, it would be nice to hear it before I say it.
24. My first real girlfriend (not the one I lost my virginity to) was hopelessly vanilla. I am now glad she dumped me because I don’t think it would have worked out.
25. I’ve had below the belt piercings three times, but currently only wear one. It’s sparkly, has little gems on it, I would dearly like to show someone. When I first got pierced I used to whip down my pants for anyone who wanted to see, I was kind of shameless. This time I am being coy. Although I just wrote this paragraph. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.