Punk up your jam

Hi,

If I had to pick a word to describe this week, it would probably be quiet. Well, in as much as it would be a description, rather than an instruction 🙂

Quiet is not always a bad thing in my book. Yeah, a bit of excitement and fun is good. But, I’d rather not have any drama, if that makes sense.

Not to be Mistress of the Obvious, but high drama didn’t always equal high reward. It might make for better stories or film, but what did Hitchcock say about drama, cinema, and dull bits? 🙂

Moose

Ah, no. Mousse, not the big boggers with the antlers. But while we’re here.

Explorer to Moose: Why the long face?

Moose: Climate Change and the loss of habitat due to your selfish attitudes, you short headed twit 😜

Dad Jokes aside, after my last attempts at a ‘wet & set’ with rollers and water – hair professionals may wish to mutter amateur and roll there eyes here 🙂 – I’ve been reading up on the subject.

So, for the first time in about 30 years, I’ve bought some hair mousse. It seems technology has moved on since my last foray into that shopping aisle. Have they made the print much smaller or am I just old now? 😉

So, fingers crossed that A) I can find some time over half-term, B) the curls go in and stay in. Well, until the next wash.

I have a backup plan with is my old synthetic wig, so it’s not all or nothing.

Life Change

As I drove home the other day, I happened to catch the end of a radio programme about an interview of how a person’s life has turned around.

I only caught the last few minutes. Just enough for the presenter to thank the guest and inform listeners how to contact the show. Which, I hasten to add, I will not be doing. 🙂

Buuut…. 🙂 From a flight of fancy angle – not to mention to have something to write about here! What if….?

If I had to talk about something that I found life changing I would say it’s been going to Nottingham Chameleons. Yeah, I could talk about my fantastic partner, the Ever Lovely Mrs J or my family. Yet, that’s probably quite familiar to people in similar walks of life.

The group, however. I feel that’s something different. Putting aside that they’re a lovely lot and I’ve made some long term friends there, there’s other things too.

I get the feeling that organising things for the group helps make a difference. Not in some reality shifting level stuff, but at the ordinary and personal level. We’re here to listen, offer help, and give people a place to be who they need to be. Given a lot of the toxic nonsense going on at the mo, this feels really important at the mo.

Funny, I read the other year the idea that ‘kindness is the new punk’. Not that I’d consider myself a rebel, but if the mainstream is going nasty, then being kind, accepting, and helping others is an act of ‘sticking it to The Man’. Feel free to mutter ‘Fight the power, Lynn’ as ironically as you’d like 😁

So, there’s the helping, listening, and sometimes being able to help folk. I guess that’s my genetic heritage / upbringing coming out, given my mum was a teacher.

Other than that sense of making a positive difference for people, the group… well, to coin a phrase, I found my tribe.

As a (former) metalhead, RPGer, geek, and possibly neurodiverse person, I’m kinda use to being somewhat on the outside. Not in a boohoo kinda way, but just drifting slightly and not quite understanding why wider society does what it does. You’ll notice I didn’t add genderfluid or trans to my list of outsider badges, but I dare say they would be in there.

So, finding the group and being accepted: yeah, it was like finding people who understood. They could empathise with where I’d been and where I might be going. When I came out about my issues with depression, some where kind enough to share how they’d found things. Not from a ‘do this and it’ll be reet’ view, but more that knowing people like me had survived and recovered. Well, that meant a lot.

I’ve written before where on getting changed one night, something clicked in my head and – despite a few wobbles now and then – I found myself at ease with who I was. That I felt okay to be trans. That there were other people like me and this is okay. It’s not weird, pervy, or dirty. Yeah, we’re a bit different in outlook and needs to cisgender folk, but different is not better or worse. It’s just different and that’s okay 💕

If there’s a point to this ramble – and well done if you got this far 🙂 – I guess I would say, do look for your tribe. Keep an eye for those good souls, the people who care and who are kind. You may find they bring out the best in you and paying that forward can be amazing and rewarding.

L x