Socially Distanced Friends

Today I saw Love Bug in the morning. He was super exhausted - probably from running around so much yesterday - so in lieu of anything too taxing we ate brunch, lounged about watching cartoons, and had a short video call with his grandmother.

In the afternoon I hung out with Joy, Mini T, Belle, and Sebastian. It was nice to see them again. We hung out by the ocean, went on an art walk, and ate pizza.

Belle and Sebastian.

Mini T.

Jellyfish!

Joy and Belle dance party while Sebastian watches.

Mini T in front of a mural.

Baby blowing a dandelion mural.

Masked superhero mural.

Pretty woman mural.

Belle in front of a weird madonna boobs cat mural.

Me in front of a health care worker's mural.

Then I went to the Boston protest for George Floyd. It was peaceful while I was there. Apparently it got chaotic after I left.

Photo of the protest taken by someone else.

Fierce Friday: The Fascinator and Climate Change Protesting

Let's talk about fascinators.

Princess Beatrice in her now-infamous royal wedding pretzel fascinator.

Ok, Princess Beatrice's ridiculous fascinator aside, I think fascinators are great! They're incredibly versatile and they add an interesting finishing touch to an outfit. Sadly, they appear to be a women-only thing. Except for me! And these guys:

They're not wearing their fascinators in a particularly inspiring way, however. Here are a couple of classy fascinator examples:

Side note: Apparently the "sexy fascinator picture" look involves being shirtless and looking over your left shoulder? Good to know.

While traditional fascinators are lovely, my tastes lean more towards the avant-garde. By which I mean, I like bizarre and outrageous fascinators. And at least a couple of celebrities agree with me:

I also found some really great non-celebrity fascinator inspiration:

Despite loving weird fascinators, I opted to go fairly basic with my own outfit. I had to go to school to take a test and I figured that just wearing a fascinator was edgy enough. I went with a blue fascinator that coordinated with my blue shirt, blue checkered vest, blue multi-strand necklace, and bluejeans.

Me with my head tilted so you can see the fascinator.

Normal selfie of me.

The other thing I did today was attend a climate change protest. I grabbed my old Ursula costume out of the closet and made a sign that said "It's getting hotter under the water" and off I went.

Me at the protest all dressed up as Ursula and holding my sign. That weird tint to my skin is purple makeup not sunburn!

Protest band.

Crowd shot of the sit-in.

Here's a link to a WCVB Article about the protest. And here's an aerial view of the bridge we blocked off:

Snagged from WHDH.com. The caption to the photo says "Climate change protesters block bridge in Boston."

Fierce Friday: Funeral Hat

Today is Friday the 13th. It's also the day of a mock climate funeral protest at Worcester City Hall. With those things in mind, I am dressed up in funeral attire. I did think about going in drag because women's funeral hats are much more dramatic, but I opted for laziness instead. I'm still going to tell you about funeral hats and European women's mourning attire, though...

Drawing of four women in mourning attire.

Advertisement for mourning attire.

Another advertisement for mourning attire.

Mourning dress really took hold in the Victorian Era following the death of Prince Albert in 1861. Queen Victoria wore her black mourning clothing (called "widows weeds") for the remainder of her life until her death in 1901. Many chose to follow her example so mourning attire became fashionable and was seen as the decent thing to do following the death of a loved one.

Queen Victoria in Mourning Attire

At its peak in the Victorian Era, widows were expected to wear mourning attire for two and a half years following the death of their spouse. The first year and a day were "full mourning" during which a widow would wear only black clothing and accessories, and she would also wear a drape of black crape over her entire garment. The next nine months were "secondary mourning," during which she would partially remove the crape but continue wearing only black. In the next three months the widow removed the crape entirely but still wore only black. The last six months were called "half mourning" and somber colors of ordinary clothing were gradually introduced (think grey, white, and purple). Of course my concern right now is hats. Women in the Victorian Era began mourning with long veils and as mourning progressed the veils got shorter and the hats and bonnets went from simple to fancy.

Two Women in Victorian Mourning Attire

Mourning fashion changed somewhat during the Edwardian Era, but it was reduced even more during the World Wars because so many people died that almost everyone was in mourning for someone. Women continued to wear darker clothes for about 6 months to a year after the death of their loved ones up through the 1950s, but this trend continued to relax until the present day when many folks don't even wear black to the funeral itself.

Drag Queen Tiffany Diamond looking amazing. When I die, I hope someone dresses like this to my funeral.

Ok. All of this lead-up bears no resemblance to my outfit. Sorry! I just dressed like I normally would for a funeral. I had my black suit, black tie, and grey shirt, plus black lipstick and nail polish. And a black funeral hat to complete the outfit! Here are some pics of me and of the protest:

Me looking serious in my mourning attire.

Me looking happy and excited in my fake funeral attire.

People at the protest in front of a fake coffin that says "Goodbye All We Love" and "Mourn The Earth."

Protesters carry the fake coffin in a funeral procession for the Earth.

And a bonus picture of me with my brother's puppy Freyja after everything was over and I was back in my normal clothes:

Me in my funeral hat and a purple and white striped shirt with my brother's puppy licking my face.

On a less funeral hat note: Today is also the first shift of my preceptorship. It's overnights on an adult floor at a hospital about 45 minutes from my house. Wish me luck!

Trans Rights Protest

Today after church I met up with Bruno at the trans rights protest in support of Proposition 3 which would keep rights for trans folks in MA by ensuring that people in MA can use the public facilities (such as bathrooms and locker rooms) that correspond to their gender identities. I was surprised at the size of the crowd!

The crowd.

One side of sign says “Let My People Pee” and the other side says “Keep Your Agenda Off Of My Genda."

Me and Bruno with my sign.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to stay too long since I had to leave for work. But I was glad I was able to come out.

National Coming Out Day!!!

Today is National Coming Out Day! Yay!

Photo of a stethoscope on top of a pride flag.

I had my maternity clinical and ironically enough, I also had my first intersex baby today. I am so fucking grateful to my intersex friends for all of the years they've spent educating me since it made a huge difference in my ability to care for my tiny patient and family. I was able to give the parents plenty of resources and to tell them honestly that I know multiple intersex adults who are happy with their lives. Apparently this meant a lot to the parents, who were clearly struggling with despair and feeling overwhelmed. The mom told me towards the end of the shift that just having me come in and gush over their baby was huge for her. Apparently she had spent this entire time feeling like a failure for having birthed an intersex child so having me come in with a positive attitude telling her how adorable her baby is made her feel like maybe her child wasn't just a mistake. I told her I don't think any child is a mistake. We really need more public awareness about intersex people so that people having children know that having an intersex child is a possibility and that it's not a tragedy.

Cartoon of a white baby with a pacifier holding a stuffed bunny. Text says "Respect Intersex Babies: Don't Mutilate Them."

Indigenous People's Day

I didn't really do anything to commemorate the day, though. Instead I worked 7-3, studied for tomorrow's test, went to the LGBT Asylum Task Force Meeting, and studied some more. My day can basically be summed up in these two memes:

Picture of Jesus with text that says "I tried to return but Trump stopped me at customs."

Black and white photo of a crying little girl that says "My friends are out having fun and I'm stuck here studying diarrhea."

Protesting, Birthdays, and Unintentional Coordination

My weekend involved all three of the things in the title. On Saturday I went to the March for Our Lives protest. Here's an article about it. And here are a few pictures I ganked from the article:

Panoramic view of the crowd at the protest in Worcester.

Marching crowd at the Worcester protest.

After that, I went to my family's house to celebrate my brother's birthday:

Brother and fiancee with the cake she made him.

My baby brother is 30!!! I feel so old!!!

On Sunday I went to church and then visited Pacman and Purl. No pictures of any of that. Then on Monday (which is still the weekend for me), I visited some other friends and found I was unintentionally coordinated with one of them:

True friends dress in orange and brown.