Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Paid rent today. Feel poor. But not 'poo' as I just mistyped. Feel like having a cup of tea. Earl Grey or English Breakfast? Have you heard the news: I seem to be becoming an English Breakfast drinker. After years of just Earl Grey. Weird or weird?

But it seems to be the year of changes: E & J breaking up. R & D buying an apartment. R discovering she's transgendered. RB changing her hair from the standard black bob - no, hold on, that was last year. Me moving here, swapping jobs, getting Toby and drinking English Breakfast. All major life changing things.

I don't think I've ever talked here about nix/rachel/jonathan and her realising some months back that she is transgendered, that is, that she identifies as neither female nor male. I guess it's a kinda big thing - I wanted to do it and her justice. And yes, it is big, but at the same time, when she told me, I was not exactly surprised - it makes sense with her. And since discovering this, she seems to be more at peace within herself; so I am happy. Though at the same time it does open up a whole new kettle of fish: which toilets/pronoun/name to use, etc, not to mention 'coming out'. And in an effort to be less-gender-specific on the outside, so as to reflect who she identifies with internally, she is becoming more 'manly' in appearance, mannerism, laugh, etc. (Yes, 'manly'. As in, 'Men men men men, MANLY men, men meeeeeeeeeeeeeeennnnnnnnnnnnnnn!' - the classic theme song for that clARSEy sitcom 'Three and a half Men'. Yes, she is now more Charlie Sheen!) Her man-laugh is a good, joyless, deep, slow 'ho ho ho'. Very convincing. Her man-dance makes up both giggle like 12 year old girls. It's all in the pelvic thrust. But her latest man-hair is what I like the most. A bit hippy, a bit hare-Krishna: shaved (nothing new there) but shaved real short except for a tuft (that is, man-tuft) sticking up on the crown of her head. And seeing her with this hairdo, in her new man-clothes: shirt, vest, jeans, runners - all in sober man-colours (gone are the days of orange), I can now really *see* it. I mean, her. The her I think she wants us to see. Not that I didn't 'believe' it before, I did; I believed it and I knew she meant it. But now I can *see* it. Her and Dan looked like a couple of blokes, and that made me the only girl/lass/woman/chick/sheila of our little group as we went into the cinema, as we are wont to do on a Monday. And so forgive me using all these female pronouns. We refer to her as Rachel and/or Jonathan now, but still seem to use the female pronouns more than male - she says she doesn't mind and it would be nice to occasionally use male pronouns, but it's not like 'Rachel' is gone and entirely replaced by Jonathan. She is still the same person; man-laugh, man-dance, man-clothes, man-hair and all. And terrible movie suggestions: because of her, we saw The Da Vinci Code!

So click on the Bowie lyrics (entry title) to go to her excellent blog which deals with the subject. Of being trans, not of making terrible movie suggestions. That's an entirely different blog. Or at least, it should be.