Beam Me Up, Scotty

Next week I'm traveling to two distant places -- Detroit, Michigan and Columbus, Ohio. Not only are these places far from home, they're not close to each other.

Riding the whole way would be very hard so once I reach Ohio, I'm going to call Scotty on my communicator and tell him to beam me to Michigan using the ship's transporter. That device comes in handy. Here are pictures of my Starfleet riding-uniform and subspace communicator.

Travel Stickers

I like mementos of fun trips I've taken. I bring home stickers to remind me of the journeys. They are stuck on an armoire in my bedroom.

Do you collect stickers or other items from your travels?

It Started With A Belt

We often start an outfit with one piece and then build around it. That's usually a dress or chic shoes. In my ensemble below, the starting-point was a belt. A belt!

I found a cute beaded belt with real wood-buckle in a thrift-store for $2. Its bright red and yellow colors appeal to me. I looked in my closet for clothes to accompany the belt. This is what I came up with.

Thoughts?

Montreal

Here are some pics of my trip. The ones of the motorcycle were taken in Northern New York while visiting Aimee. The last picture is of a drive-in which surprised me: I didn't know any were left!

Another Blogger Meetup

While I was in Montreal, I met Joanna, a blogger I've followed for a few years. It was our first time meeting in person.

Joanna blogs about two passions. The first is her transgender-ism and many technical aspects of the subject. Joanna is an engineer and very intelligent; her understanding of this subject is deep. The second subject she covers on her blog is American politics. That's a little unexpected since Joanna is Canadian but many around the world have been alarmed at U.S. politics since the last election.

We were both a little surprised at how many experiences we had in common from struggling with being transgender. While we are different people, Joanna and I have both faced several of the same situations, ones cis-gender folk never confront. Thus, it was valuable to share our life histories and stories. It isn't always easy to find a path in life when you're different.

Joanna wrote about her take on our meeting here. It was a pleasure to make her acquaintance and I'll see her the next time I head back to Montreal.

P.S., I bought this colorful shirt earlier in the day at a high-end men's store (Boutique Emmanuel). It's created by a Montreal designer (Dominique Leneveu) under the brand Franco Negretti. Expensive but I love it!

Another Travel Tip

I was having trouble with street names here because not only are they foreign and unpronounceable but they contain long strings of letters my brain can't grasp. Finally I realized I can get a handle on them by converting the names to similar English words.

Right now I'm drinking tea at a Tim Hortons on Boiled Mayonnaise. The locals call it Boulevard de Maisonneuve.  :-)

Travel Tip

Here's a travel tip I stumbled upon which makes visiting cities much more convenient and less expensive. I've used it in Boston and Montreal to great advantage.

Hotels in the heart of cities are always expensive. Hotels out-of-town are a pain 'cause then you need to drive into the city and struggle to find scarce, costly parking. My solution to this is ingenious.

Get the city's subway map. Find a hotel on the out-skirts of town that is walking distance from the last stop on the subway line. After checking in, you can park at the hotel, leave your car/bike there the whole trip, and pop into town whenever you want by just walking to the subway. Getting in and out of the city is easy and the frontier hotel costs a fraction of the over-priced ones.

You're welcome.