Practical Friday

Pamela is looking fab-u-lous; I teared up (of course) when I saw her. Why? Because I was once terrified of having to interact with her! Pamela was the first transsexual I ever met.

I met her through work; she was a community arts activist and I could not accept her as a female. I could not call her her when I was talking about her with other staff—and we talked about her.

She was gracious and articulate. It was impossible not to like her and respect her yet I could not feel comfortable. Her hands were manly; “she” made me feel uncomfortable.

So did Phillip. Phillip was very effeminate and he, too, made me feel uncomfortable. (This was when I was young, a long time ago.) But once, when I told my ex, Steve, how I felt, he berated me. He was brutal and he was honest and I deserved it.

He really changed my view by asking me, “Do you know how brave he is to life his life that way in front of judgmental assholes like you?”

Times have changed. Transgender politics are everywhere. Caitlin Jenner is everywhere. And Pamela is looking Fab-U-Lous. Now I not only see a woman, I see a very believable, confident and comfortable a woman. I am thrilled for us.

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It was a beautiful day for a walk but this morning I got out my gilding kit and there was enough gold leaf (faux) to change my new side table from glass and black wrought iron to glass and gilded wrought iron. It goes from masculine to feminine with the change and becomes something much more to my liking.

So I went back to The Cross and got two more tables and I threw out all my crappy wooden side tables. Two are now gilded and the third will be done tomorrow.

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Last year I made Christmas cookies to use as hostess gifts during the holiday (sic) season and I used a photo of them as my Christmas card. I feel like such a hypocrite even using the word given my feelings about Christ and all things associated with the cult.

So I thought I would take a look at some Christmas cookies by some chefs whose blogs I follow and I found them more scary than inspirational. They look so hard to make. Still, I may make my own version of some.

These ones I could do. 

It's all in the icing. Royal icing of the right consistency.

Give me a fucking break!

It would take a steady hand!

More by a professional no doubt. It would take a day to make
icing in all those colours and you couldn't drink if you wanted
straight lines, 

Very violet, very Provençal. Not for me though.

These are my favourites. I love that the centres
become tiny accent cookies and you can put
anything between the two cookie layers. Yum!