The empty space in between

Today seems to be a day of aches. This morning I had a gunky feeling on the left side of my chest that had me coughing for a while, then I got a stomach ache at the Ally Luncheon, and now I have a headache. Ugh.

The presentation went well, though I got a bit off my own script and had to pull myself back on. The worst thing that happened was that the version of PowerPoint on the school computer didn't read my font right, so I was mad that the font I'd picked out specially didn't show up on screen and meant that I had to tweak the thing. I apparently did pretty well on the presentation itself, and after class I was chatting with the professors and making jokes about philosophers (which I'm allowed to make since I'm doing a minor in that) about how I sometimes get in trouble because I'm more inclined to say when I think something is bullshit, and philosophers in general don't like to do that.

I wanted to take a walk down to Newbury St. since it was so nice out and on Thursday I'm going to check out some real estate there, but I stayed in and got some work done. Tomorrow is supposed to be nice, so maybe I'll do that then. It also turns out that I have about $225 left on my meal plan, landing me in the exact opposite situation as last semester when I ran out about a month and a half before the end of the semester. I'm going to start getting decent breakfasts now, since after the end of that semester that money is gone, and I don't want to waste it. Or I could buy my friends juice, that's what some people do.

Well, I'm flattered, someone thinks I know what I'm talking about

Oh yeah, I was tapped by some people from a media production class at the university who want to interview me about gender neutral bathrooms. Apparently someone from Diversity Services said that I would probably have an opinion on that issue since I put on the Transgender Day of Remembrance event last November. I agreed to do it.

Now I just have to have a position and be able to articulate it succinctly. Hmm. *research time* Just a quick Google search shows that Emerson (a college right down the street from us) and a few other campuses like the University of Vermont have enacted policies that make some bathrooms gender neutral, and I remember hearing that a (thankfully failed) anti-discrimination repeal in Gainesville Florida used scare tactics around the issue of mixed-gender bathrooms to gain enough signatures to get on the ballot. So it's definitely an issue that people are taking on.

Well, my instincts say that it's a very basic part of being alive to have to use the bathroom, so transgendered people have a lot of anxiety about it, and the fact that there are not gender neutral ones readily available add another stress to their lives. I might also bring up an LGBT event that I went to in Syracuse that had a gender neutral bathroom, and at one point while I was in a stall a guy came in and washed his hands. I didn't find it especially weird, but that guy happened to be gay, so maybe it's not the best example, but at least I can say I've been in a mixed gender bathroom and nothing bad has happened to me.

I am flattered that I got tapped as an expert for this, even though I certainly am not an expert on this particular issue! This must be what punditry feels like.

I know I have people on here who are familiar with stuff of that sort, so is there anything I should bring up or any interesting links?