endless_1111

This Saturday, Mad Cat on Mineral Point is hosting a weekly Adoption Fair for Dane County Friends of Ferals. DCFoF will be there from 12-3pm, with a small selection of our available furballs. View the rest of them here (Has 130/165 of our cats up so far): http://www.daneferals.org/animals/list?Species=Cat My fosters are Bitsy and Tina!

Come scritch the kitties, talk to our volunteer staff, chat up the foster parents. While you're there, feel free to ask a volunteer to take you out to the Friendly Room and meet Lyric, Sweet Tart, Haley and Patience. If you want more information, pick up some volunteer paperwork. Or, pick up an adoption packet and begin the pre-approval process!

We currently have about 165-170 cats in our shelter and in foster, and a huge wait-list for incoming cats.

How can you help?

1) Adopt! When you adopt an abandoned cat, you are righting a little bit of the wrong in our world. Cheesy? No doubt, but I totally believe it! All of our cats come to you fixed (or if too young, we'll do it for ya later on), with updated shots and all that goodness. We do have some "Special Needs Kitties", those that have FIV, FeLUK and other not-so-fun conditions. Those guys need homes, too!

2) Volunteer! We have a shelter on the West Side that needs socializers and medicators, as well as a Friendly Room over at Mad Cat that needs a Wednesday and a Sunday person to come in and do a quick clean. There are also opportunities to deliver cats, trap cats, work the various Adoption Fairs and work on Fund-raising.

3) Foster! One of the biggest ways to help, besides out-right adopting, is to become a Kitty Foster Parent. It takes little to no financial commitment on your part (a lot of times you can get the food for free), and it's such a great experience :)

4) Spread the Word about Us! Nuff Said :)

Hey Madison,

Want to shop local but also want to shop online? Now you can do both!

Use Etsy's "Shop Local" feature. Put "Madison, WI" in the search box here to view more than a hundred local shops.

Also, since my stuff is probably buried on page 47 of that list, here's a direct link to my shop and a special offer for madisonwi readers: I'll refund your shipping cost (via PayPal) AND provide free gift wrapping for your order, if you can pick it up in person! (I'm on the northeast side of Madison near New Orleans Takeout on Fordem.)

Just order online through Etsy as usual and put "I'm in Madison and I'll pick it up" or something to that effect in the note to seller.

Hello all, my name is Kaci, 17 years old, and I just joined this community yesterday in hopes that I can receive help on some issues I'm currently facing. I would also like to say that I'm deeply sorry if I get any of the terms wrong, or I say something that offends anyone. That is not my intention at all. If I say anything wrong or off, just let me know and I'll do my best to remedy it and/or explain myself. :) Anyway, onto the actual post.

( Cut for Length )

Sorry for all of that rambling and what not. Anyway, that's really all I can think of to say about the subject. I'd really appreciate any advice about this.

stepstomarrow
When granddaughter, Jada, was born with leukemia, a donor-match was located and Jada made a miraculous recovery. In honor of her grandaughter's health, Jeanna has decided to walk across the country (in the dead of winter) to raise awareness and build support for the bone marrow registry (all that's required is a cheek swab). Follow Jeanna's remarkable journey as she travels the United States by foot.

Not to take away from the recent request for blankets for dogs, but Madison Mutts is having a donation drive at their training center this Saturday from 9-6 for dog, office, and construction supplies.

They also need volunteers with construction/skilled trades experience to help with some improvements to their training center.

You can bring your dog Saturday and get pictures taken with Santa!

( Event info and wishlist items )

I wanted to share my experience since up until now pretty much all I had heard from trans guys were of negative experiences with pelvic exams. If anyone put off getting one for years and years like I did out of fear of it hurting too much, being too scary, etc, I'm hoping this might be able to reassure you a bit!

( My (positive!) pap smear experience )

I know that a lot of non-prescription T supplements touted by online sources are frequently pure bull, but I was wondering if anyone had heard of/tried BioEntopic?
I'm getting impatient and frustrated, and I just want some way to move forward. I've been stuck in Limbo for too long.

Any experience to share? Thanks.

-Connor


x-posted

I just found out that I will be unable to attend the Breaking Benjamin / Sick Puppies / 30 Seconds to Mars concert tomorrow night (Thur, Dec 17). It's at the Rave/Eagles Club in Milwaukee. Doors open at 7pm.

I just saw Breaking Benjamin and Sick Puppies in Chicago on Monday - it's an AMAZING show, and I hate that I can't go to this one (it would be my 6th time seeing Sick Puppies - they're an incredible band, in case you're unfamiliar!). 30 Seconds to Mars is Jared Leto's band - if you can get past his bitchiness, they're not too bad either! ;)

I paid $90 for the two tickets; I'm asking $70. Please reply here or email i_am_kristenny @ hotmail . com if you're interested. I can meet you in town tomorrow to make the exchange, if it helps.

Thanks!

Looking for a smaller, cozier place to play Team Trivia?

Middleton: Check out the Bristled Boar, starts @ 6, and a nice pool table to boot.

Waunakee? Check out Mojo's, starts @ 7. Fantastic Rib specials, and smoking is allowed in one room.

Post job and applicant news here.

(Don't know what tag this should go under. Will look/try to place it, but tell me if I'm wrong?)
Okay, I'm feeling really confused/frustrated right now. Had therapy tonight, explained to the doctor very carefully how I've been feeling, and how I'm much more serious about all this than before. I explained to her how I'm willing to go through all the stuff, and even though it's scary/I worry about how it's going to go (paying for it, healing, etc.)... I wanna do it. And she seemed really accepting/understanding. And then she said that she still didn't think this is what I really want.

She understands that I hate being in a female body. She might understand that I'm starting to feel curious about having/want to have a guy body. But that doesn't count? I have to have reasons for not wanting this body that I can't even imagine what they are. I've given her logical ones, and emotional ones (hate female specific aspects, and also "I just don't like it! It's not me/how I want to be!"). I don't *know* why else I don't want to be a girl, I just don't want it. At all. Doesn't that mean anything? I don't even want to try to like this body (though maybe that's just me being stubborn). I just can't see anything about it to like- well, I like it on other people, but not me.

With "usual" trans-people (I know everyone's different, but the stereotypical kind, I guess), is there usually a specific reason they hate their body, or is it just a feeling that it doesn't "fit"? Because I think I'm missing something, and it's making me really frustrated.

...If any of that made sense to anybody, could you please offer advice? It sounded more like ranting than anything else, but I really need someone to explain things to me right now.

Ok, so I'm assuming everyone has done at least one long "Who I am and what I'm all about," post I hate tradition; so here's mine.

I'm one of those "in your head types." I can drive for hours and lose myself in thought completely unaware of whats going on around me.... no accidents yet.

So to start this with a bang:

* I am transsexual MtF
* I am over critical of myself
* I over think everything
* I like that smell from a freshly lit match
* I am alone in my own right

I think that all can go under over critical.

Everything kicked off before my last deployment July of '08, (of yea I'm former military) after years of failed relationships, failed friendships, unable to really relate to anyone and a nagging feeling something wasn't right, I came to terms with the possibility I was transgendered.

Well my deployment through the Fall and winter of '08 was pretty awkward, since the more I accepted myself the more I came out of my shell which often came out in pretty flamboyant ways. I actually found it comical that my actions were often seen as ambiguous around the other guys, but by that point I didn't care since my term was up in summer of '09.

In December of '08 I started seeing a therapist in Seattle at the Seattle Counseling Services after several months of sessions I was diagnosed with GID (Gender Identity Disorder). So ever since I've been on hormones, (estradiol, and spironolactone; a testosterone blocker) with seemingly endless results, and a constant battle between jumping off the depend into transition or wadding in gently.

The greatest blessing in all this has been that after coming out to everyone I could think of my family and friends have rallied around me in support with few exceptions.

My hopes are to finish my last year on my Bachelors complete a masters and become a councilor for the TG community. Over time I've realized I'm an exception to many experiences others have gone through to be who they want to be, so I hope I can be a support and boon for those who need it.

~Z

I have a question and a bit of a rant regarding car insurance.

My parents have been with State Farm for over 40 years. When I first got my license and drove one of our cars all the time, the rates were fine. Now that I'm on the policy as an occasional driver of one vehicle (I only drive once or twice a week), they've been screwing with the billing and the rates.

First, we got a bill in October that was wrong and, although it is now December, they have yet to fix it and send us a correct bill to pay. On top of that, they've failed to keep us up to date on new changes to our policy in a timely manner and generally just seem to not know what the hell they're talking about when we call our agent.

Second, they sent us a letter last week saying that we were losing our good driver discount because I got one speeding ticket in July for going 7 miles over the limit. Other than that, I have a clean driving record and so do my parents. I can understand them being cautious because I'm young, but it seems a little ridiculous to me and my parents that our rates would change so much high one ticket.

Finally, the most ridiculous thing is that they sent us a letter saying they would raise our rates because my credit score wasn't high enough. I'm not even the policy holder, so I fail to see exactly what my credit score has to do with anything.

So, the question: Can anyone recommend good agents with either American Family or All State? Pros/cons about those two?

Hey,

I'm looking for a spoken word piece about trans issues. Alix Olson comes to mind, but I'm not sure if any of her pieces talk about trans issues specifically, or just gender issues in general...

Thanks.

Okay, I'm a UW student, and frankly, I hate not having any gym to go to during the various "off" times around this time of year. Are there ANY gyms in the city that offer a week/day pay-to-use kind of thing? Anything? I know everyone's basically a year membership, but maybe I'm missing something. Argh, help!

Have any extra blankets, towels, sheets, or just general snuggly things? Midwest Area Pit Stop, a local pitbull rescue, needs blankets and warm things for their dogs this winter. As of 12/13/2009, they've got enough for 60% of their dogs, but they need more! If you're interested in donating, you can drop off donations at either Nutzy Mutz location (on Midvale Boulevard or East Lakeside Street). (Or, if it would somehow be more convenient, let me know and I can send you my address and you can drop them of at my place, but I don't think that'd be much easier!)

I'm not affiliated with them at all, I saw their post here on Craigslist. I'm just trying to get the word out.

LJ is going to be requiring the "gender" field to be filled out, and they're removing the "unspecified" option.

Details and information here.

As the topic of "trigger" words comes up repeatedly, I was wondering:

Does anyone have a list of these "trigger" words for future reference? The last thing I'd want to do is "trigger" someone and a list would help with that. Thanks!