Hi everyone,

Yes, I'm alive...barely. The semester is finally over. I managed a 2.87, which normally would disappoint me, but this time I'm quite satisfied with that gpa. It's actually better than I expected. The miniseries really did affect it, but I was thinking there would be more Cs. I got four Bs and only one C. Definitely could have been worse. Amazingly, I got the highest grade in my hardest class. That's pretty cool in my book. I got a B+ in Communication Research Methods. Go me.

The miniseries didn't finish up as nicely as planned. In fact, it's actually not finished at all yet. We have the last episode to cut together. I had hoped to have it done weeks ago, but the weather did not cooperate with us. Every shoot we had was on a shitty weather day. It started raining a few times. Eventually we got everything shot during finals week. Sad that we had to do it then, but such is life I guess. Overall I'm pretty happy with it though. We had a lot of fun and told a cool story. We'll run a marathon next year of the whole series.

My summer jobs were in question up until about a week and a half ago. I for sure had my TV station job for 20 hours a week. I didn't have anything to fill up the other 20 though. I had a meeting with my boss for the TV job, and it turned out they needed a web designer for the housing department. I said I could do it, and she hired me on the spot. There's my other 20 hours. Not only that, it pays better than the TV station job. Kick ass!! So I've been doing that this past week. I like it. Neither job has specified hours. So I get to pick when I want to work. I used this week as recovery time and slept in just about every day. I'm not going to do that all summer, but I needed it this week.

The cool thing that happened this past week was the last minute trip I got to take. Yeah, that's right...Jess got a vacation of sorts. I was personally invited to the National Conference on Gender in Washington D.C. I didn't think I would be able to go because of flight costs, but turns out the diversity office offered to pay for it. So I got to go on this trip pretty much for free. How cool is that? It ran from Thursday, May 19th to the 22nd. I had a great time, learned a lot, taught a lot of people about transgender, and even almost hooked up with someone. She got really drunk on Saturday night and started flirting with someone else though. So I just left. That's not something I care to deal with.

Riki Wilchins, the president of GenderPAC was there and I got to meet her. She was talking about how the organization doesn't have enough money to moderate the messages about gender that are sent in the media. I felt compelled to pledge to her that money in 10 years. I'm a fool. I can barely feed myself and I'm pledging 30 million dollars. I'm crazy. Still, I think it'll be possible and it's definitely a good cause.

I met a lot of really cool people though. I have pictures and I might post them. I'm not sure. I'd have to ask permission first. There were people from several countries there too. I met Emma from the UK. She was really cool. I need to e-mail her back to say hi. There was also Nikki from California I think, Nick from NY, Kelly and Bethany from Pennsylvania, Hat, Shawn, Tong, Min, Neo, and everyone else from Iowa. There were just a whole ton of cool people there. I look forward to next year as well.

Chris moved in next door. That's pretty cool. We have our own apartments, yet we share everything. So it's like we're roommates, but we're not. It works out well for both of us I think. We set up a wireless network to share the internet. That way we save on costs. Now it should only be 20 bucks for the net. Though, the speed is a bit diminished. We may up it. We made cookies last night, and actually we have a food plan in mind. Each week we will try something new with food. We're going to experiment and make something we've never made before and see how it turns out. It should be fun. I'll take pictures.

I saw Star Wars Episode 3 and I think I saw a different movie than everyone else. I thought it was crap. I got enjoyment out of it, but I just think George Lucas can't write at all. The character development was nonexistent. The lines were hideous. Watching Darth Vader yell "Noooooo!!" was probably one of the worst moments in film history. Nevertheless, the action was cool, Ewan MacGregor was cool, the cinematography was cool, and the CG was cool. I just don't think it warrants the ratings it's been getting.

Kevin lent me his Playstation 2 and DDR pads. So I've been playing DDR and getting pretty decent at it. I'm not one of those people that's addicted to it by any means. I play it once every couple nights and am getting fairly good at it, but I don't think I'll ever own it. It's a lot of fun though.

My friend Rachel told me that a coworker of hers...also named Rachel...was asking about me. She's a lesbian, single, and gorgeous. Unfortunately, my friend Rachel is moving to Seattle now that she's graduated. So she wasn't able to set up anything between her and I. So I made use of the fabulous facebook that we just got on campus and sent her a message through there saying she could ask me anything she wants. We'll see what kind of response I get. I'm not expecting anything to be honest. But it's kind of cool to know someone was asking about you...you know?

Speaking of people talking about you, I had electrolysis today. My electrolygist, Hilary, told me that she's been sending out information packets to the potential students. She also is an electrology teacher. Included in the information is a link to my facemorph, which is on my picture page. Apparently someone from Malaysia that was interested in the school called Hilary and told her that she needs to put realistic information in her packet. Yeah, she doesn't think that my picture is of a real transwoman. "But she's so pretty..." is what Hilary told me she said. Hilary just laughed and told her that I am a genuine TG person. The Malaysian woman may still not believe, but she'll be out here for her hands on training and will ge to meet me then. I can set her straight....er....queer....whatever. I just thought that was funny and a confidence builder.

Well, that's it for this immensly long diary entry. Until next time...which should be more often considering I have lots of free time now. Talk at ya soon.

Luv,

Jess