Boston and Providence

April 17, 2015September 6, 2015 ~ Elliott

OK, I realized that we are headed to Connecticut and New York City tomorrow and that I need to just write this Boston post already. Oh, if you are in New York City, you should come to the Rainbow Book Fair on Saturday. I’ll be selling/signing my books and giving a reading. I’ll also be selling my artwork. Do it.

So, back to Boston. Joey had his top surgery consultation in Brookline, MA. ~~It was our best experience so far, and I believe that is the surgeon he’s going to choose. We will most likely be back in Brookline for that in June.~~ (Later note: Do not go here, they are fraudulent!) After that though, his insurance company was being awful and he spent a good couple hours arguing on the phone with them. Luckily I think that’s taken care of and they are going to cover it. Which is still fairly rare, I believe, in the U.S. But they still acted like dicks. To alleviate my stress, I took a series of pictures of Joey looking stressed. I don’t think I mentioned that he got himself a DSLR camera, so that’s been awesome to play with. I also took some pictures with the telephoto lens of geese. We were parked next to a pond. This went well for a while, but then the geese decided to charge at me, and I just barely escaped unscathed.

After the consultation we went for coffee again in Jamaica Plain at Fazenda Cafe. That’s where my reading was last time. While we were hanging out, a person came up to me and introduced themselves as one of my facebook/instagram friends named Margaret. I was like, “Oh cool,” but kinda derp, and we talked for a minute and then they left. Joey was like, “Do you want to ask them to get coffee or something?” But they were leaving and so I just shrugged it off. After dealing with all the surgery-related crap, Joey was exhausted and didn’t want to drive home. Actually, he thought about it, but I confessed that I really didn’t feel like a 4 hour car ride and we decided to just stay near Boston somewhere. Joey spent a little over an hour in the parked car trying to find a hotel deal on his phone, because he really wanted to stay in the city. I once again took photos because I was incredibly bored and impatient.

After he gave up, we went to the Midway Cafe, which is a bar and music venue. It’s where we went last time for “queereoke.” And I ended up facebook messaging Margaret, and we all hung out and watched the live music, and it was cool. We also talked about Syracuse, because Margaret is originally from Skaneateles. Skaneatles? Skaeneateles? Oh well. Upstate New York. One of the bands was called Night Slice, and they had a song about geodes (in the sun/my favorite rock formation) and mothman (he’s a mothy mothy man). I was drunk. It was fun.

The next morning, we drove to East Providence and met up with my friend Red. We went to this place he likes, Seven Stars Bakery, and we talked for a while before driving home to Syracuse.

Uploading and formatting photos is annoying, so from now on, I’m going to make a gallery on flicker and link to it. (this will be a link soon). Maybe.

So I realized I haven’t really been holding up my “cat” promise with this whole “cat road trip” thing. I promise, eventually there will be cats. Maybe in the meantime, before the actual cat road tripping, I will just post periodic updates and Mittens and Snowflake. Because otherwise, my blog really isn’t fit to call itself “Cat Road Trip.”

This is Snowflake. She loves you. This is Mittens. She hates you.

Until next time.

Albany, NY

April 11, 2015April 11, 2015 ~ Elliott

Me at Professor Java's. — Me at Professor Java’s.

Tuesday afternoon, Joey came downstairs and said, “I’m going to Boston. Want to come along?” He had a consultation with another top surgeon. So we got in the car and drove halfway, to Albany, where we stayed the night in our signature Super 8 jacuzzi suite. The hotel was directly across from a juvenile detention center, which may have explained why it was cheap and also why we kept getting weird looks. At first I figured it was because we were two male-appearing-people staying together in a romantic suite. We’ve gotten homophobic crap in the past. At a hostel in Toronto for instance, they insisted on giving us a room with two beds. So in Albany, we forgot the key one time, we had to ask at the front desk. A woman, different from the person who checked us in, already knew which room we were in. So we got the feeling we were the talk of the Super 8. But we also mused that since anti-aging-transgender-magic makes Joey look like he’s in his early thirties and me in my late teens, they may have thought he had just picked me up from the juvenile detention center. We thought this would make a funny erotica story or porno. Then we realized it wouldn’t and changed the subject.

The next morning we went to a place called Professor Java’s Coffee Sanctuary, based solely off the name and that it wasn’t a Starbucks. It was pretty cool. My latte was fine and all. After that we stopped briefly in downtown Albany because I wanted to take a few photos. None of them really turned out as I planned, but eh. And then we drove to Brookline, MA, which is what my next post will be about. Coming soon.

Boston, New York City, and Some Stops Between.

March 8, 2015June 27, 2020 ~ Elliott

11046667_782821191806853_2289378458180124516_n — Reading at the Fazenda Coffee House for “Moonlighting.”

The crowd at "Moonlighting" for my reading. — The crowd at “Moonlighting” for my reading.

Thursday night we stayed in Worcester, MA at a Days Inn. We drove in to Boston for my reading. I was a featured reader for “Moonlighting: A Queer Open Mic Reading Series.” It was located at the Fazenda Coffee House in Jamaica Plains, Boston. This was seriously one of my favorite events I’ve ever done. I read and got great reactions. There was a good-sized, enthusiastic crowd, I sold several books, and the organizers were very kind and generous, giving me the money they raised from suggested donations. I think I rather like Boston, and I’d like to return.

We were told about Queereoke at the Midway Cafe, so we headed over to that as well. Joey likes gay bar scenes even less than I do , but even he had fun. It was a different vibe than I’m used to, partly because it was a queer night at an open-minded dive bar, as opposed to just a gay bar. We had drinks and I sang “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out,” by The Smiths. I got a little too drunk, and was a little self-destructive. This was upsetting. But Joey and I talked a lot that night and on the drive the next day, and it was ultimately okay. We had really good talks. I just really need to deal with some more stuff in therapy. And get my drinking under control.

IMAG0944 — View of the Long Island Sound

The next day we drove to Stamford, CT, where we stayed at a Super 8. Though we were pretty exhausted, we decided to venture. We were about 20 minutes from SUNY Purchase, where I went to school from 2007-2009. It was the inspiration for the setting of my first book. We first stopped at Rye Playland, which was of course closed for winter, but we looked at the Long Island Sound and the pier and walked some.

Prison-esque architecture at Purchase College.

After that I took Joey to Purchase. We parked and wandered around, so I could show him my old haunts. The campus was pretty deserted for spring break. He couldn’t get over how shitty it all was, it terms of aesthetics and the fact that everything was falling apart. It was clear to him why my years there were some of the worst of my life. But ultimately we had a lot of fun, walking around judging everything, and me telling him sad stories about my early college years.

The next morning, we took a bus and then Metro North commuter train to Grand Central Station in New York City. We met up with Amos Mac for coffee at the Grumpy Cafe. I met Amos once before at the Philly Trans Health Conference, and I was/am a blogger for Original Plumbing, so we’ve exchanged a lot of emails. He’s always seemed like a really nice guy. He bought our coffees, then we went back in to Grand Central for a photo shoot. It was pretty quick and simple, and I had fun hanging out, even if I am socially awkward and anxious, always. The issue will be coming out in April.

Joey chills in a closed area of the park, as per his usual style.

After the photo shoot, Joey and I took the subway to the Lower East Side to eat at a gluten-free restaurant that we love, Risotteria. We both have dietary problems with wheat. We had some amazing pizza and beers, and then wandered around and went shopping a bit. It was sunny.

And then we headed home! That is where I am now. It’s good to see Drew and the cats. Mittens and Snowflake basically went nuts when we got back…whoever says cats don’t love their owners is crazy. I might post some more on this trip later if I feel up to it, and there might be some more small adventures to describe over the next month or so. I’ll be going back to New York City this Wednesday for a modelling audition (more on that to come). But the next big trip is April 20th, when we are flying out to Ventura, CA! I’m really excited to check out where we are going to live, and hopefully take a trip into Los Angeles and see about doing a reading while I’m there. I can’t wait to get out on the West Coast. Anyway, that’s all for now.