Why didn't I buy chocolate today? I was at the supermarket, I knew that time of the month(tm) was coming, why did I buy raisins and oranges and walk bravely past the chocolate cake? I could be having chocolate cake with buttercream icing right now, instead of dumping half a little box of stupid golden raisins in the couch, which is what I just did.

Damn I hate being on a diet.

With trans* people getting their drivers licenses and everything correct, even just a name change can be difficult. One of my friends has a daughter whose biological father died, and she was adopted by her mother's new husband. They said that the actual process of adoption was nowhere near as difficult as getting her a new Social Security card in her new name. And she was just in kindergarten at the time, so it wasn't even like she had lifetime worth of education records and credit scores and everything else to deal with.

I've also got a friend who identifies as non-binary who's applying to grad schools, and they're having a really tough time with getting transcripts and recommendation letters and everything, since they went to at least one college under their birth name. They've also been getting really aggravated at online applications that just have radio buttons to select "male" or "female" with no option for "other" or "choose not to answer" or anything else like that.

Also, something that I've learned from their experiences, which I never would have thought of myself: any record should have a space for "Preferred Name," and that name should be the one that goes on the top of every page. That way, if the file is handed to some assistant and they're told, "Call this person and find out [whatever]," then that assistant knows what name to call the person, without having to remember, "Oh, right, the legal name might not be the right one, so I should go check that 'Preferred Name' box in the middle of the page."

Scrappy, I just got this [link] from Boden, and I love it! After looking at the reviews, I got my bigger possible size, and it fits perfectly. (Edit: Sorry, I just saw they don't have the blue in 18, and I'm guessing you don't want the ivory? Anyway:) They have other cute ones as well. And a whole "smart day" category, which sounds like just what you want.

Buffista Retreat and B&B? [link]

I will happily serve as hostess/manager if y'all over a medical plan.

any record should have a space for "Preferred Name," and that name should be the one that goes on the top of every page

This is so true, so many of my students go by a different name and it would be so helpful if they could use it as their official name. At least our uni has the Preferred Name category in some of the documentation, just not all of it.

I am liking that Boden dress, not that I need a new dress right now. And I think the ivory is purty.

Buffista Retreat and B&B?

Holy schnick, yes please! How awesome would that be!

This is so true, so many of my students go by a different name and it would be so helpful if they could use it as their official name. At least our uni has the Preferred Name category in some of the documentation, just not all of it.

Yeah, this same friend posted something about trans* issues in the classroom that pointed out something that I've been doing wrong -- for taking attendance in a class with 65 students, I print out the class list and pass it around and have them sign next to their names. I hadn't thought of this before, but I'm going to start doing it -- I should have the students fill out a form at the beginning of the semester that asks for their information, including preferred name, and then put the preferred name on the sign-in sheet, since there could be students who don't want the other students to see their legal name.

Thank you all for the suggestions, especially Teppy! I had never heard of Igigi and they had the PERFECT dress: [link]

Bought! And now I don't have to worry about looking blah in front of my whole ginormous family.

Better yet! 8 unit APARTMENT COURT!!!

[link]

OK, so I know that when I learn a new language, I have to get my brain to recognize some new sounds. But Hindi has eight different letters that make D or T sounds, and I can't hear the difference between most of them. Which has mostly been OK so far, but I'm learning numbers now, and "seven" and "sixty" are both "saat," with different T sounds at the end. And I've listened to them a whole bunch of times and just cannot hear the difference.

Pretty!

I had 6 hrs of meetings/interviews today. And about the same of work that needed to get done. I will be logging some work hrs this wkend. Fuck me. But the two candidates we interviewed today brought gold. #1 from yesterday still is in and vying for top pick, but these two...we now have our top three. Of course all are exceedingly pricey to fly in, so we may have to skype interview them all if HR won't play.

And prepping my house for plumbing demo. Which means cleaning out 2 closets and my mantle

Oh and the name thing reminds me I need to bring that up in a fight we're about to get into at work ( as in, need to add that field.) Which was one of the meetings.Archive was the guinea pig/forerunner/theresawordforthisIamforgetting for the concept of a single sign on ala Google for the Institute. Next big portion is coming on and they want to change the whole brand. Fuck no. You don't do that to the community of users. Where the fuck were you 3 years ago? You adapt to make it seamless to the users, you don't make them jump through more hoops. Especially not a year after you did the first leap.

I kinda hate everything, if you haven't noticed.