Enlisting Update #2

The military is so aggravating. So finally the chart records I've been waiting for come, years 12 and older. No record of asthma. Should be a good thing right, because I'm not supposed to have asthma then, but no. That's a bad thing.

My recruiter told me that my records are off to the doctor to be approved/disapproved. Which to a logical individual means oh hey no asthma after age 12, you're good! But since there is no mention of it, BECAUSE I WAS 10!, my recruiter thinks they'll send me to get a pulmonary function test...which they won't pay for!

I am beyond livid. Please if anyone has other options for me to do in life, please tell me cause this is stupid. Logic...apparently not a factor in the military.

God and the Gay

     Christianity as a realm of popularity in the gay community would be about as popular as Tea Bagger Sarah Palin.  I am unabashedly Christian, as I am completely comfortable being gay.  In the past year I have experience more prejudice for being a Christian than for being gay.  From people I consider friends no less.  But I can’t say anything against my friends, because I’m the one who has changed, not them.         

     In college I would laugh along with the jokes that make fun of Christians and God.  Nowadays while I find a lot of jokes about those so-called “Christians” hilarious, I don’t think God or Christian should be used as a punchline.  My friends in the same breath will support my choices and in the next make a tactless joke about Jesus.

     I have always been at odds with people.  Whether it’s because I’m Christian as a lesbian, or I’m a female who likes being seen as masculine.  Or even because I’m a science person, who loves writing creatively.  I abhor persecution in all avenues.  Humor is great, but we cannot stereotype Christians and then complain about being stereotyped ourselves.  Intolerance goes both ways.

      What I write may not be popular, but I will continue to write about God.  Because everyone needs a voice even if they might be gay…even if they might be a Christian.

My First MEPS Experience and How Stupid I Was

     I arrived at the recruiter’s around 1400 or 2:00pm.  I filled out a few pieces of paperwork, and then he questioned me again about the hot topic questions.  He did this in the hopes I would not suddenly reveal something at MEPS  (haha yeah…that didn’t work…).  After this I waited for him to finish his own work, and we headed out to the hotel around 1600. 

What to bring to MEPS:

                -ID and Social Security Card

                -Any forms or documents your recruiter told you to bring

                -Change of clothes (x2 if you’re there for two nights)

                -Pajamas or something to sleep in

                -Toiletries

                -Contact lens case, contact solution (or just bring and wear your glasses)

                -A book to beat the boredom

                -Change for a snack or drink from a vending machine

                -Cell phone (though there are specific rules for where you can have a cell phone)

     For the rest of My MEPS Experience, Advice about whether or not to withhold information, and a video of the Duck Walk click "Read More" or read below.

Drastic Life Decision Made

Welp, the decision I've been waiting on has been made...sort of.  The medical school I interviewed at months ago finally viewed my application and put me on hold status.  Which means they can make a decision (to accept, to reject) before March 31st.  After that they have to either reject me or put me on the waitlist.

Here's what I have to say to that: Fuck it.  I'm not going to wait around anymore in the hopes that I'll get accepted.  I'm joining the military.  I plan on visiting a recruitment office next week and I'll go from there.  I'll keep you all updated as I go through the process.  

Working with your hands *No homo*

  First let me explain the title of this post.  Here in America there was a trend in which rappers would talk/sing/rap about sexual acts of a distinctly homosexual nature.  However, they thought to erase this (I don’t know, perceived homosexual vibe) by adding "No homo". 
     One, it’s incredibly insulting and two, it doesn’t work.  Sorry rappers whatever you said definitely still sounds gay.  Maybe even more so, now that you’ve added a disclaimer.

     This past week I was asked to help my lesbian friends, SL and W (when I asked them what they wanted their pseudonyms to be, they said, "Snow Leopard" and "Wolf"...Apparently I have odd friends).  They were planning on creating a patio in their backyard, or in other words a large concrete slab.
     I helped where ever I could, including moving wheelbarrows of concrete back and forth, from the cement truck to the backyard.  Let me tell you, concrete is heavy.  It was hard work, but I enjoyed it.  As a grad student in the sciences, I do a lot of mental work.  I like being able to use my mind, but I’ve always loved using my hands too (No homo).
     During the pouring of the patio, I encountered something I imagine is frustrating to many butch women: the discrepancy between male and female strength.  Now I'm talking purely physical strength here.  I simply cannot lift as much as a muscled male.  So even though I tried hard, many tasks went to the males.  Nothing quite takes the wind out of your sails more than being unable to help due to an innate biological difference.
     But I helped, and I can at least take comfort in that.

QBP: "money money money get a dollar & a dick
weezy baby that crack mothafucka get a fix
got money out the ass no homo" -Lil' Wayne

AH!!! What do you want from me? Non-lesbian date #3

So you all remember non-lesbian, A, right?  Well if you don’t she is a girl I’ve been on a couple of “dates” with now, who talks about lesbians things, but is NOT a lesbian (her words).  Full story is here and here.  

      Some Thursdays we decide to hang out after she has class.  We agreed to hang out this past Thursday.  So I was chilling out in an blue A-shirt and baggy pajama pants watching a silly horror German flick, when I hear the doorbell.  Now I tend to be formal in appearance which means I never wear sweatpants to class and I don’t let new friends see me in pajamas.   I'm explaining this so you know how comfortable I was to begin with when I opened the door and there was A, without having called first.  What could I do except invite her in?  I apologize for my attire and she comments “The black looks good on you”.  Now I think she’s talking about my A-shirt, so I point out my shirt is more blue than black.  She points out she was talking about my hair and not my A-shirt.  I had recently dyed my hair and I had forgotten she hadn’t seen the outcome yet.  Usually I’m not so dim-witted, I swear.  So I laugh off the misunderstanding and then we sit and start chatting.

    Anyways flash forward to the pub we frequent.  She starts talking about the past weekend she had with our mutual gay guy friends.  She tells me she got drunk and then kissed a girl and then kissed a boy…and WAIT WHAT?  I was so stunned that I only half heard a comment about how the girl in question managed to “turn” her.  She said this all very quickly and unceremoniously before she proceeded to mention the guy she kissed.  I was too flabbergasted to bring the topic up again.  Okay I haven’t even kissed a girl and here is non-lesbian, a conservative Baptist preacher kid, telling me she kissed a girl.  I know, I know, lots of straight girls kiss other girls for a variety of reasons, but I guess I never expected A to be someone like that.

     As this is how the night gets started, my mind decides to go and drop general hints about sexuality, by talking about LGBT business in the church and such.  But each time I mention anything gay related except about our mutual gay friends, she gets quiet and a tiny bit cold.  

    At one point during the night A is talking about flirting and how she’s so bad at it, and why can’t the person she’s attempting to flirt with just ask her out already?  Now if I was a male thing I would not be able to ignore this anvil sized hint, but I’m not, so complications.  If A is interested I’m not going to be the aggressor particularly when whenever I mention gay things she withdraws. 

     She’s a feminist, into strong women (at least intellectually), but can’t help but mention how cute the waiter is every time he passes by.  Once when the waiter passed she grabbed him and said to me, “Honey what do you want?”  Now I know “honey” is used by women in the South even to strangers, but is it a Midwest thing too?  I don’t generally let my friends call me “honey”, “kid”, “etc.”

     She drops me off at my apartment and I’m all confused.  Still am.  Though I had thought with all my LGBT talking I would have scared her away.  But this past Sunday she came to see me play in the orchestra (in my tie) and then suggested we go grab lunch.  Again just me, the invitation wasn’t extended to anyone else.  Afterwards she offered to drive me to work, and I had to change clothes so I invited her into my apartment.  Or well I was going to but my roommate answered the door with no pants on.  She hurriedly closed the door and rushed inside.  I apologized for my roommate and A said “Sometimes no-pants time can be fun”.   

     This woman drives me nuts sometimes.  At this point it’s become a game.  How much of my gay-ness can I reveal before she realizes I am actually gay.  And ultimately is she or isn’t she?

QBP: "Some women can't say the word lesbian... even when their mouth is full of one." -Kate Clinton