LGBTAitp 27: Of Shoes, and Ships, and Sealing Wax

[Mynxae]

Boyfriend is moving in and just joined the forum. I don't know which is the more shocking news.

[Asta Kask]

Well, where is he? Let's see him? Is he worthy?

[bfm1991]

Here I am. How are you meant to see if i am worthy of the almighty Mynxae. LOL

[Mynxae]

Here I am. How are you meant to see if i am worthy of the almighty Mynxae. LOL

/facepalms-and-groans Oh dear. I'm doomed.

Nah, he's a dear. Love him to bits. We're off for cuddles, as it's 2:20am here in QLD, Aus! Enjoy your time of day, whatever it may be everybody!

[Absol197]

Ooooohhhh...

It's three hours to go before we leave, and I'm starting to get really, really, REALLY nervous ...and twitchy...and hyper...

What if I choke? What if I mess up? What if they're mad at me? Gaaaaah! >_<

Oh, man, this waiting and dreading stuff is exhausting!

[Lentrax]

Here I am. How are you meant to see if i am worthy of the almighty Mynxae. LOL

/facepalms-and-groans Oh dear. I'm doomed.

Nah, he's a dear. Love him to bits. We're off for cuddles, as it's 2:20am here in QLD, Aus! Enjoy your time of day, whatever it may be everybody!

Well, he seems friendly enough.... Hopefully we see more of him around these parts. (Do not misconstrue the intent of those words, y'all. )

Ooooohhhh...

It's three hours to go before we leave, and I'm starting to get really, really, REALLY nervous ...and twitchy...and hyper...

What if I choke? What if I mess up? What if they're mad at me? Gaaaaah! >_<

Oh, man, this waiting and dreading stuff is exhausting!

You'll be fine hon. Relax. Take a deep breath.

Great, now I'm getting excited. *Good luck hug*

[noparlpf]

Ooooohhhh...

It's three hours to go before we leave, and I'm starting to get really, really, REALLY nervous ...and twitchy...and hyper...

What if I choke? What if I mess up? What if they're mad at me? Gaaaaah! >_<

Oh, man, this waiting and dreading stuff is exhausting!

Take a deep breath, then another, and maybe if you manage to start hyperventilating you'll pass out and wake up in three hours and miss this bit. I definitely feel you, I'm kind of anxious about some stuff. Best of luck.

[Asta Kask]

How are you meant to see if i am worthy of the almighty Mynxae.

Spoiler

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Ooooohhhh...

It's three hours to go before we leave, and I'm starting to get really, really, REALLY nervous ...and twitchy...and hyper...

What if I choke? What if I mess up? What if they're mad at me? Gaaaaah! >_<

Oh, man, this waiting and dreading stuff is exhausting!

Take a run. Or a brisk walk. And good luck.

[Lentrax]

My, my, Asta. I didn't know you were the probing type.

May all of everyone's secrets be revealed to you.

[Asta Kask]

I pride myself in the thoroughness of my examination. Mynxae, do you need him alive after the... procedure?

[Lentrax]

And prevent cuddles between the two of them? I should think not.

[noparlpf]

What would a dream that one's ex came out as gay mean?

[Lix Lorn]

My immediate amateur idea would be that you're subconsiously trying to tell yourself you weren't at fault. After all, if they were gay, there's no way you could be the reason.

But I never actually took psychology. So what do I know?

[Jeff the Green]

What would a dream that one's ex came out as gay mean?

IANAPsychologist, but having read a bunch of stuff on neuroscience, I think that dreams don't mean much. For the most part they seem to be stories your conscious mind makes up to explain the random thoughts that pop up during REM sleep.

At most, it probably means you're stressed about your ex and/or coming out. Or you were thinking about your ex and/or coming out and while you were sleeping your brain needed to file those thoughts away in long-term storage and so you experienced them again during the transfer.

[SiuiS]

Well. Today sucked.

Spoiler

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This morning at work we had a free sponsored medical clinic thingy where some healthcare people came in and gave flu shots, checked blood sugar, dispensed nutrition advice, did a normal checkup, and such. I'm not a fan of needles at all and would gladly have passed on it, but it's sponsored by my employer's insurance company as part of a Healthy Incentives program, and each thing you do gives you a discount on your insurance premiums for a year (up to 2/3 off if you do the maximum number of activities), so given the insurance prices around here I figured I could put up with my trypanophobia if it meant saving that kind of money. We had to fill out a bunch of forms beforehand, one of which had questions about relationship status, orientation, sexual practices, etc. for demographics and benefit eligibility purposes. (On a side note, I was impressed by the form; the questions dealt with more than just the gender binary, included most of the LGBTQA* in the orientation answers, and stuff like that.)

One of the possible activities was giving blood. Those of you familiar with US laws on the subject probably see where this is heading.

I answered all the questions honestly and figured that would be the end of it. Now, I haven't had sex before, with another male or otherwise. I don't have anything that would be communicable via blood donation, HIV or otherwise. I emphatically did not want to give blood today because eew needles and I stated as much on the form. Yet that didn't stop the nurse there from coming over and telling me--in the public waiting room, mind, not in the private room where they were discussing test results with people--that "people like me" aren't allowed to give blood. When I told her that I had not checked the giving-blood box on the activity selection form, I had checked the never-had-sex-with-men box, and oh by the way there were probably some people two floors up who hadn't heard her and would she like to say that again a little louder, she apologized for misreading the giving-blood checkbox...but reiterated (loudly) that it's not allowed and that I shouldn't go try to give blood somewhere else, because I could be lying about not being a MSM.

Because if you're gay and you really want to give blood, you're obviously going to tell the truth about your orientation and then lie about your sex life.

So basically I got to skip breakfast and give up my lunch break in order to be poked with needles, humiliated in front of my co-workers and manager, and unexpectedly outed to a bunch of people. My manager said he's going to file a complaint with the insurance company over the unprofessional conduct, but the damage is done; some of the co-workers who were present have expressed some not-exactly-gay-friendly views in the past, and when I ran into one of them later in the afternoon, instead of exchanging the usual friendly smalltalk she very unsubtly snubbed me.

Every Wednesday we have a catered lunch where the whole company eats together and gossips networks, so I guess I'll find out then how many of those coworkers who apparently skipped LGBT sensitivity training are still willing to talk to me. Tomorrow is going to be a looong day.

Jeez. Man, I have nothing constructive to add, but I'm sorry, I hope you feel better, and boy howdy would I stick it to that crappy nurse.

I doubt it. And in any case I'm pretty sure that's the sort of thing that should be made available at the start

Yeah. Definitely grounds to enforce punishment, and I think you should.

Boyfriend is moving in and just joined the forum. I don't know which is the more shocking news.

Wanna see him! Where is h--

Here I am. How are you meant to see if i am worthy of the almighty Mynxae. LOL

Oh. Hi!
And with our eyes. Duh~

Ooooohhhh...

It's three hours to go before we leave, and I'm starting to get really, really, REALLY nervous ...and twitchy...and hyper...

What if I choke? What if I mess up? What if they're mad at me? Gaaaaah! >_<

Oh, man, this waiting and dreading stuff is exhausting!

We're here for ya homie!

Spoiler

Show

Jeez Asta, that's terrifying.

[Ninja_Grand]

Here I am. How are you meant to see if i am worthy of the almighty Mynxae. LOL

Welcome!

Ooooohhhh...

It's three hours to go before we leave, and I'm starting to get really, really, REALLY nervous ...and twitchy...and hyper...

What if I choke? What if I mess up? What if they're mad at me? Gaaaaah! >_<

Oh, man, this waiting and dreading stuff is exhausting!

*HUGS*

I need to come here more. Sorry ya'll.

[Castaras]

What would a dream that one's ex came out as gay mean?

Anxiety dream. Could be something related to one thing in that dream. Could be just general anxiety.

[KenderWizard]

Kender... have you ever considered mixing the power of tea and whisky in one glass? Or would the power splinter the glass immediately?

Turns out, much like lemonade and icecream, the combined worth is less than the separate totals. Whisktea is ... frankly difficult to drink. But can be worth it during a cold. But just having tea and then hot whiskey is better. Btw, I don't go in for all that water and cloves and sugar and what-have-you for hot whiskey. My hot whiskey is heated whiskey.

On de division of housework. I'm partly agreeing and partly not. that it happens doesn't make it bad. I admit to have seen a gender inequality between rewards etc. But on the other hand studies have shown that the difference is often put because women tend to go on a sebattical (so to speak) to have and raise kids. Most of the time the rewards like salary etc. are based on the amount of education, nature of the function and the amount of work experience in a given field. Now if Person A has less experience then Person B it could stand to reason that Person B gets a bigger reward. So my question is (one that is sadly rather hard to research): what part of the genderinequality is explained by a difference in work experience and difference in capabilities, and what part is to blame on us men beïng mysoginistic *******s (in general)?

Well, that's what I'm saying, that it can be explained, but the explanations also point towards inequalities. There are way more women taking on a greater share of the housework than there are men who force them to via misogynistic abuse (although not none). In an individual couple, sure, the partner that takes a slower career track, maybe a less-valued career like caring rather than a business or academic career, who takes time off to look after the babies, and doesn't push for promotions or go networking, sure, it makes sense that that partner looks after more of the chores while the other makes more of the money. But when that partner is overwhelmingly the female partner in heteronormative couples? That's when you realise that even though no one in the story is necessarily sexist, a sexist culture means the woman is still suffering from an unequal playing field. The only actual biological difference is pregnancy (which almost exclusively happens to women). Everything before and after, including looking after babies, could be equally shouldered by men and statistically isn't.

Can Europeans donate in Europe? None of you are allowed to donate here, and even people who've spent just a few months there can't.
The restrictions seem a little strict to me. Why can't people be tested for these things and come in with a doctor's note saying "this patient doesn't actually have x, y, or z"?

Well, yes, otherwise none of us would have blood banks. All other things being equal (no blood-borne diseases or wacky gayness cooties) I think people are generally always allowed to donate in their own country. People from Great Britain aren't allowed donate here. Obviously you should exclude people who just straight-up have blood-borne diseases, or need their own blood (I need my blood, unfortunately, otherwise I'd donate) or are on medicine that prevents donation (I think I also qualify here) and then, they screen the blood anyway, so everyone else should be golden!

Here I am. How are you meant to see if i am worthy of the almighty Mynxae. LOL

I'm going to assume "bfm" stands for "BoyFriend (of) Mynxae".

Ooooohhhh...

It's three hours to go before we leave, and I'm starting to get really, really, REALLY nervous ...and twitchy...and hyper...

What if I choke? What if I mess up? What if they're mad at me? Gaaaaah! >_<

Oh, man, this waiting and dreading stuff is exhausting!

I hate waiting and dreading, it's always always always the worst part! Seriously, nothing has ever gone worse than I thought it would when I was dreading it. (Things have gone worse than expected when I thought they would be fine, but that's more unexpectedness than anything else.) Good luck!

[Absol197]

I don't have time to quote everybody who supported me and gave me motivational hugs, but thank you. To everyone.

I'll post up the play-by-play tomorrow, but suffice it to say, it went very well . We have some difficult things to talk about, my parents and I, but now we're all on the same page, which is nice.

Okay! Long day, I'mma go sleep now. Good night, y'all!

~Phoenix~

[noparlpf]

I don't have time to quote everybody who supported me and gave me motivational hugs, but thank you. To everyone.

I'll post up the play-by-play tomorrow, but suffice it to say, it went very well . We have some difficult things to talk about, my parents and I, but now we're all on the same page, which is nice.

Okay! Long day, I'mma go sleep now. Good night, y'all!

~Phoenix~

Sounds good. Congrats.

[Selpharia]

YAY! Great job, hon, I knew you could do it! I'm glad that your parents seem at least somewhat OK with it.

*celebratory hugs*

~Laura

[supernerd]

Today on choir our new director was leading the class because the one I've always had who you can't help but love to death was filling out grades. During rehearsal, he was trying to fix our dipthong on the word gaze, and he said what sounded like "no gays." We just laughed a bit, as I don't think this director likes boobs either. (two guys, one girl, woman has a husband of many years, my director has been partnered to our best choreographer for 20 years(and is extremely professional aside from a handful of inside jokes I've picked up on.) the new guy is either really really metro, or shares my tastes.)

One of the leaders by personality(not an official officer) said, "No gays, Mr. [director], that's cool." I turn to him and say, "okay then, I go." after a couple of confirmatory questions, namely "what?" "are you gay?" and "really?" he said that I earned some of his respect for that. After class he asked a bit more, and he said that being out about it got me some respect. He's a really cool guy, he tries to get to know everyone, sees their value, and respects character and apparently confidence. Just thought I'd share that story with you all.

[turkishproverb]

Spoiler

Show

Well. Today sucked.

This morning at work we had a free sponsored medical clinic thingy where some healthcare people came in and gave flu shots, checked blood sugar, dispensed nutrition advice, did a normal checkup, and such. I'm not a fan of needles at all and would gladly have passed on it, but it's sponsored by my employer's insurance company as part of a Healthy Incentives program, and each thing you do gives you a discount on your insurance premiums for a year (up to 2/3 off if you do the maximum number of activities), so given the insurance prices around here I figured I could put up with my trypanophobia if it meant saving that kind of money. We had to fill out a bunch of forms beforehand, one of which had questions about relationship status, orientation, sexual practices, etc. for demographics and benefit eligibility purposes. (On a side note, I was impressed by the form; the questions dealt with more than just the gender binary, included most of the LGBTQA* in the orientation answers, and stuff like that.)

One of the possible activities was giving blood. Those of you familiar with US laws on the subject probably see where this is heading.

I answered all the questions honestly and figured that would be the end of it. Now, I haven't had sex before, with another male or otherwise. I don't have anything that would be communicable via blood donation, HIV or otherwise. I emphatically did not want to give blood today because eew needles and I stated as much on the form. Yet that didn't stop the nurse there from coming over and telling me--in the public waiting room, mind, not in the private room where they were discussing test results with people--that "people like me" aren't allowed to give blood. When I told her that I had not checked the giving-blood box on the activity selection form, I had checked the never-had-sex-with-men box, and oh by the way there were probably some people two floors up who hadn't heard her and would she like to say that again a little louder, she apologized for misreading the giving-blood checkbox...but reiterated (loudly) that it's not allowed and that I shouldn't go try to give blood somewhere else, because I could be lying about not being a MSM.

Because if you're gay and you really want to give blood, you're obviously going to tell the truth about your orientation and then lie about your sex life.

So basically I got to skip breakfast and give up my lunch break in order to be poked with needles, humiliated in front of my co-workers and manager, and unexpectedly outed to a bunch of people. My manager said he's going to file a complaint with the insurance company over the unprofessional conduct, but the damage is done; some of the co-workers who were present have expressed some not-exactly-gay-friendly views in the past, and when I ran into one of them later in the afternoon, instead of exchanging the usual friendly smalltalk she very unsubtly snubbed me.

Every Wednesday we have a catered lunch where the whole company eats together and gossips networks, so I guess I'll find out then how many of those coworkers who apparently skipped LGBT sensitivity training are still willing to talk to me. Tomorrow is going to be a looong day.

*HUGS*


I...I'm sorry.


*HUUUUUGS*

Lets hope the lady loses her job.

...

And her ability to get another one in that field.

Boyfriend is moving in and just joined the forum. I don't know which is the more shocking news.

So then, no flirting?

Here I am. How are you meant to see if i am worthy of the almighty Mynxae. LOL

Hi!

/facepalms-and-groans Oh dear. I'm doomed.

Nah, he's a dear. Love him to bits. We're off for cuddles, as it's 2:20am here in QLD, Aus! Enjoy your time of day, whatever it may be everybody!

Awww..

Today on choir our new director was leading the class because the one I've always had who you can't help but love to death was filling out grades. During rehearsal, he was trying to fix our dipthong on the word gaze, and he said what sounded like "no gays." We just laughed a bit, as I don't think this director likes boobs either. (two guys, one girl, woman has a husband of many years, my director has been partnered to our best choreographer for 20 years(and is extremely professional aside from a handful of inside jokes I've picked up on.) the new guy is either really really metro, or shares my tastes.)

One of the leaders by personality(not an official officer) said, "No gays, Mr. [director], that's cool." I turn to him and say, "okay then, I go." after a couple of confirmatory questions, namely "what?" "are you gay?" and "really?" he said that I earned some of his respect for that. After class he asked a bit more, and he said that being out about it got me some respect. He's a really cool guy, he tries to get to know everyone, sees their value, and respects character and apparently confidence. Just thought I'd share that story with you all.

That's...interesting. Glad you made a friend.

[Mynxae]

Thanks to everyone. xD And AK, no using tools that may or may not be deadly on my boyfie!

And to clarify for KenderWizard (and probably everyone else /shrugs), 'bfm' means Blake for Max. (our names) Boyfriend of Mynxae does fit quite well though I might add..

[Heliomance]

I just had a fantastic night out to the local gay club with LGBTsoc. Great fun. Got clocked a couple of times, sadly, but gay club, so no-one gave a damn. I actually got asked by one guy how long I'd been on hormones! Proper pronouns used all round, a really friendly atmosphere, a bit of judicious flirting, and a respectable quantity of alcohol all combined to make a really good time ^_^

Made a few new friends, too, though sadly nothing more :P

[SiuiS]

Absol, that's great hon!

Helio, I am jealous!

[Mystic Muse]

...SiuiS, your avatar fills me with all sorts of questions.

[Mynxae]

...SiuiS, your avatar fills me with all sorts of questions.

It's a changeling from MLP: FiM. Technically, so was the last one.

[Mystic Muse]

It's a changeling from MLP: FiM. Technically, so was the last one.

It's a changeling who looks like Rarity. I don't recall what the last one looked like.

The questions that come to mind are
-Is this an alternate universe Rarity?
-Is this a changeling doing a bad imitation of Rarity?
-Did Chrysalis take over the world and turn everypony else into Changelings?

On a more relevant topic, my legs are so friggin' irritated after I've shaved them. This is very not pleasant. I'm not really sure what to do at this point.

[Serpentine]

What're your shaving practices? Possible factors include but are not limited to:

- Water temperature. Hotter is better.
- Razor sharpness and quality. The more times you have to go over your skin to cut the hair, the more irritating it will be.
- The shaving... lubricant? you use. Soap works, but I find it makes me try. You can get moisturised and sensitive skin gel, which you might like to experiment with. I've also, oddly enough, had success using hair conditioner for it.
- Treatment afterwards. I've found I get dry skin after shaving unless I moisturise. Do you do anything like that?
- Any other chemicals involved. Could be the strips or cakes attached to the razor, your lubricant, your soap, anything else you put on it... Is there much stuff that comes into contact with your legs?