I shook my head. I must be hungrier than I thought.

Cutting it off with Debbi, I made my way to the lunch room. There was going to be an after-hours work party at the pizza place. I was really thinking about the party and anyone interesting I might meet.

The school term finally lurched to an end. We were all exhausted with finals and term projects.

One day Debbi told me “I knocked over a lamp in the living room and haven’t had time to pick it up.”

In some weird way, that made total sense. Our little group babbled endlessly either about school or the current boyfriends.  

However, life chugged on at the Megastore. I got to work a bit late the next Saturday and people were milling around in clumps, whispering. Debbi and another State girl were huddled together. I had to immediately invite myself into the conversation. They talked in low voices.

“I can’t believe it!” Janet, a short, somewhat chubby, English major was saying. “I was just working with her!”

“I know, I know,” Debbi was saying with a brilliant gleam in her eye. “Isn’t it something!”

“What, what?” I was practically jumping up and down at this point. What was going on?

“It’s Sharlene,” Janet almost whispered.

“What?” I said too loudly and two of the day girls turned and stared at me, then turned away.

“She got arrested!” Debbi blurted out.

“Arrested!” I was stunned. My mouth formed an O shape.

“Handcuffs and everything,” Janet chimed in. “The police were just here and they took her away.”

My head was reeling. “For what?” I got out.

“Stealing,” said Debbi smugly. My mouth dropped.

“It’s like this,” explained Janet. She did a small finger point to the corner where the payment book and the box had been. They weren’t there.  “She was taking the payments from the customers and giving them a receipt for their money, but then taking maybe $5.00 from the payment and putting it in her pocket.”

“But the book had two copies,” I said. “How could she change the bottom copy?”

Debbi glanced around then leaned forward, proud of herself, “She found a way to cover the bottom copy when she was writing and then changed the bottom amount to what was in the box.”

“So how did they find out?” I was dumbfounded.

“Well,” Debbi was having more fun than a barrel of exploding snaps, “these people kept coming in and complaining that their statement in the mail didn’t match how much they had paid in the store.  When one or two people said it, Marge thought they were just trying to pull a fast one, but then so many came in, she began to suspect something.”

“Yeah,” said Janet in a very hushed voice, “that’s when she started watching all of us.” My stomach got queasy.

“They finally figured out it was Sharlene but they could never really seeing her doing it. So, they had to wait until they saw her do it two or three times and then they could get her.”

“Yeah,” Debbi had to add, “Marge wants to eat Norma’s head.”

“Why?” I said incredulous.

“Because Norma didn’t notice the difference in the inks on the paper,” whispered Janet.

“Wow,” was all I could say. “How much do you think she got?” Janet put her hands up and shrugged with a question mark face. We finally all decided we should at least look busy and drifted back to work.

We never saw Sharlene after that day. And, Megalopolis Furniture Store did not specialize in any form of employee rehab. Debbi, Janet and Mark, the accounting guy, and I all graduated from State that year. I stayed with Megalopolis a few more months after graduation, just long enough to get a transfer to San Diego and find a full-time job.

We all went on with our separate lives. Still, from time to time I think about Sharlene and my own decision to just think about this green stuff as ‘paper.’

The End

THE FURNITURE WAREHOUSE – Courtney E. Webb

I remember walking into the store my first day of work. I walked through the showroom floor because I hadn’t figured out the employee stairs yet.

The showroom filled up the entire 2nd floor of this gigantic warehouse furniture store. I had never seen anything like it; every aisle was stuffed to the brim with sofas and chairs, side tables, bedroom sets, wardrobe closets, lamps, rugs, dining room sets. It seemed endless.

That day I stopped to look at a display. At first I couldn’t tell exactly what it was. There was a would-be Greek youth statue in an almost stone grey color bent over looking like he was holding something. The something was a large fountain of sorts made with clear strands of acrylic wire strung around the ‘pool’ in a diagonal pattern. The really fascinating part and what  caught my attention were the ‘drips’ of ‘water’ that flowed lazily down the strands of wire and into the pool. I stopped to stare and then gawk trying to figure out how this was done. I was fascinated with the ‘water’ returning to the top of the fountain  and the way the ‘drops’ moved so slowly down the strands. Amazing.

The Greek youth was a fixture in a master bedroom ‘suit’ as I was to hear it called later. The side sofa next to him was covered in a plush, deep red velvet affair with gold on lay trim. The bed too was covered in a huge red velvet bedspread and I had to gawk again. There were lamps in the suite with more Greek figures of nymphs surrounded by hanging crystal glass ornaments. Wow! We sure didn’t have anything like that in my house!

I wanted to look at more stuff but time was a wasting and I had to get to my new job. I was starting as a cashier at the front desk of the Megalopolis Furniture Store. I was met by my new boss, Marge, otherwise to be known as ‘dragon lady’ or ‘She who must be obeyed.’

Marge was an imposing woman, probably several inches taller than me (and I’m not short.) She emphasized her height by having really tall salt and pepper hair way up on top. I could never tell if that was natural or dyed. God forbid you should ever ask such a thing. Marge explained my duties crisply and succinctly and started the process of explaining debits and credits how all those transactions are recorded on little manila cards.

“Which, by the way, these cards,” she gestured holding several of the small, square manila cards in one large hand, “ are never, never to be taken out of the office or to leave the building. Understand?”

 She glared at me when she said this. I think my eyes bugged out a little but I nodded vigorously.  

“Good,” Marge nodded, “we can proceed.”

She walked me around the office and introduced me to the day staff and told me that I would only work with them on weekends. I and the other college students, would be working nights and weekends.

“You understand that right?” she wanted to know. Again, I nodded again and we continued our tour.

Life with Marge could be a real trial. She almost fired me once for screwing up; her ice blue eyes boring into the back of my skull.

“Do you even think you can do this?”

I nodded miserably. I needed this job so badly; I had rent to pay, groceries to buy and gasoline to put in the car. I was finally able to keep all the debits and credits in their respective columns.

In time, things smoothed out and I got the hang of things at the big warehouse. Dealing with the salesmen was something else again.

One busy Saturday salesman Jones brought a couple up to the counter.

“Okay, Sir,” he said with that supercilious tone of his. He plunked down his heavy sales clipboard with about a million papers attached. “This young lady will be handling the cash end of the thing,” and he waved my direction.

I smiled sweetly at the old duffer in the grey suit, old enough to be my father and began to ask for coin of the realm and identification to prove it was real money. The very young lady with him wandered off. When we finished the paper transaction I asked “Oh, is your daughter coming back? I can get the salesman.” His face got red and he stomped off.

A few minutes later Jones came huffing and puffing up to the counter and waved a finger at me.

 “That was his girlfriend you idiot!” he shouted at me. My mouth dropped. I mumbled some apology and Jones stomped off.

Ah, well, it was the 70’s. The bulk of the night clerks were Cal State students like me. I got the job because I met one of the guys in my accounting class. We were a fairly chummy lot and the job got to be fun because it was easy and we had basically no supervision at night.

The warehouse guys downstairs partied continously. Their specialties were forklift races while drunk. Jeese!

A coworker, Debbi, was an econ major with long, long beautiful red hair. She got engaged to an absolutely homely guy. I could not believe it other than the fact that she talked non-stop and maybe only he could stand it.

Debbi and I were lingering by the counter one Saturday and she was yakking away about The Boyfriend again. I think my brain had traveled into ‘numb’ mode. It was late afternoon on a Saturday and as it approached the dinner hour, more and more customers tended to shuffle on home. I feigned interest.

Behind us, Norma, the hyper-efficient senior cashier was fidgeting over the plies of money on the big table like Mole from Wind in the Willows. It was like she was sure Toad was going to come roaring up any minute, stuff all the money into bags and go screaming off into the night.

After working at this place for a while I had gotten used to seeing the ‘big’ table covered with stacks and stacks of bills. The bills were wrapped around with bank wrappers and the coins were in a large white bag. There were stacks and stacks of credit card slips and checks of every size and description. It was nothing to have a $50,000 Saturday and in 1972, that was saying something. After I had stared and stared at how much money I had to handle each day, I decided to think about it as paper, not money at all. That, I decided would make my life much simpler and of course, it did.

Norma was counting and recounting the stacks, her black beady eyes darting around the table. I knew she would not relax until the Brinks man showed up, took the huge stacks off her hands and off of her conscience.  Marge was extremely proud of our reputation of ‘balancing’ everyday with no more than $5.00 off one way or the other.

Anyway, Debbi blabbered on and on and it was getting time for my lunch break when a big Hispanic family hove into view. They were moving slowly, which, they would be since they seemed to have brought every living relative they had with them that day. This was actually a common occurrence in this little town with a large Hispanic population.

I glanced casually over at this slow moving train. I could never understand this phenomenon. Why bring all these people? It seemed so, so, I don’t know, inefficient I guess was the word I would use.  Whatever.

Sharlene, one of the clerks who more or less kept to herself, jumped up to help the man.  This gire was a little different. She was not a Cal State student like most of us and none of us really knew her. She didn’t go to school at all although she was about our same age. She seemed to sort of ‘float’ back and forth from the day shift to the night shift.

The Hispanic man had obviously come to make a payment on his account. The Hispanics would come into the store and get sold a bill of goods by the flash and dangle of the super-salesmen and walk out with about half a house. At $10 per month payment for all this high quality stuff; the furniture would be worn out and in the trash can before they got the bill paid.

There was a ring notebook payment pad in the corner. There was a top white copy and then a yellow carbon underneath. The cashier would take the customer’s $10 or $15 payment, write out the receipt, give it to them and then put the cash in the little grey cash box under the counter. Norma would snatch up the book and cash box each day and do reconciliation. She would then put the box back the next morning with a small amount of start-up cash.

Sharlene seemed eager to help the man and I was fine with that. I didn’t like doing those payments anyway, boring. She took his money and had it in her hand and wrote out the slip. She chatted busily. She tore off the slip and handed it to him and bent down to put the money in the box. For just a second I thought I saw something go into her pants pocket. But I was really wasn’t focused on her and when I looked again, she had straightened up and everything was back in place. I shook my head and thought “I must be hungrier than I thought.” I cut it off with Debbi and made my way to the lunch room. There was going to be an after- hours work party at the pizza place. I was really thinking about the party and anyone interesting I might meet.

Continued Part II

Blake Lively does a stunning reveal at the Met Gala 22 with a Gilded Age gown designed by Atelier Versace. The gown showed up in copper tones and then did a reveal to show patina copper to resemble the Statue of Liberty. The bodice is hand sewn beads to resemble Union Station.

The dress is stated as costing $12,000 but that is clearly for publicity. Maybe, that is what Versace charged the actress. No way a dress like that cost that kind of money. The fashion and design world would really love to find out who was on the design team for the dress, all of which was held in the tightest security before the big event. Also, clearly a small army of workers helped to create the confection and apparently, they were all able to keep tight lips also as, it appears, even Ryan Reynolds, the husband, was totally surprised at the reveal which took the Gala by storm.

El Pais – Retrieved from Internet 5/4/22

Is Putin losing the war? The balance of the first phase of the conflict in Ukraine

The Russian invasion has lost its impetus and a series of setbacks has forced the Kremlin to reorganize its forces, raising questions about its military power

https://english.elpais.com/international/2022-04-08/is-putin-losing-the-war-the-balance-of-the-first-phase-of-the-conflict-in-ukraine.htmls

Russia has been unable to capture Ukraine’s main cities – the capital Kyiv, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv and even the badly battered Mariupol are still holding out. Odessa remains free, and Ukrainian forces are regaining ground in several parts of the country. Russian troops are withdrawing from their positions on the northern front, and most particularly from their positions around Kyiv. Analysts with the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) believe that Russian forces have abandoned their efforts to capture Kharkiv, the second-largest city in Ukraine and the target of an intense offensive since the beginning of the invasion. Russian forces are still shelling the city, but seem to have given up on their attempts to encircle and control it.

Balance

Russian military victims

Ukrainian military victims

According to Moscow  : there are 1,351 Russian military dead and 3,825 injured. There            

17,000 either dead or injured in Kyiv.

According to UN figures there are 7,000 to 15,000 Russians dead or injured. 1,179 Ukrainians dead and 1,861 injured. There are 4 million refugees and 6.5 mill displaced persons.

Pentagon

10-15% of Russian forces are down

Civilians

Figures provided by Kyiv (March 29);

Moscow and the Pentagon (March 25);

UN (March 24)

4 million refugees

6.5 million displaced people

*The human and military losses during a war are usually estimates due to the difficulty of verifying the figures on the ground

The realization of failure on several lines of attack and the attrition of its forces is forcing the Kremlin to reorganize its deployment in Ukraine. There have been tremendous material losses.

The Russian have clearly loss a tremendous number of military vehicles, ships and planes. Russia obviously want to capture Maripol which will give them access to the Sea of Azov and entrance to the Black Sea. They may still get it.

2

6

*The specialized website Oryx, which is documenting loss of military equipment by Russia and Ukraine based on visual evidence, is offering a count that helps gain insight into the material cost of this conflict. Ukrainian losses are probably undercounted.

 “The first phase has been a Russian military failure of colossal proportions, a truly impressive thing. It will be the subject of study at military academies due to the accumulation of mistakes,” says François Heisbourg, a special advisor for France’s Foundation for Strategic Research (FFRS), the leading French center of expertise on international security and defense issues. The core cause, says Heisbourg, is an erroneous political analysis by the Kremlin that led officials to believe there would not be such a strong resistance by Ukrainians, a fact that also led to inadequate military planning.

“It’s been a disaster,” agrees Ruth Deyermond, a scholar at the Department of War Studies at King’s College London who specializes in security in the post-Soviet space. “We are observing great losses, communication and logistical failures, signs of corruption. They are being forced to resort to mercenaries, and they are withdrawing from Kyiv. No doubt Russia is losing the war. We cannot confidently say that Ukraine is winning, but we can clearly say that Russia is losing,” she says.

The following is an analysis of the combination of strategic and tactical factors that have led the warring sides to the point where they are at, in a war with an as yet uncertain outcome that will define an era. “The initial failure is not an indication of what will happen later,” warns Heisbourg. The conflict could be long and something could tip the balance of war again.

Neville Chamberlain, the Prime Minister of Britain, returned to London with a signed agreement from Hilter and Mussolini, where they agreed to not invade anymore countries. It was signed Sept 30, 1938. Germany invaded Poland on Sept 1, 1939. It would appear to the layperson, the agreement was signed primarily to give the Germans time to cement their plans.

Comparisions to those times and what we are seeing today with Russia/Ukraine are chilling in their similarities.

In 1966, I attended high school in small backwater place, San Bernardino, CA. I was a sophomore and was invited to attend a new Humanities course that would combine history, English, art and music instruction in one set of classes with four separate teachers. I accepted the invitation and it turned out to be one of the best courses I have ever taken. I still remember things I learned back then. (Ionic pillars anyone?)

Although all the teachers were good, one teacher stuck out to me as the very best. Elka Ellison was one of the history teachers and breathed life into those lessons in a whole new way.

Years later, I found out that Dr. Ellison (didn’t know she had a Phd), was from Lithuania, I country I had never heard of. I discovered that was because Lithuania had been absorbed into the Russian USSR and was a Soviet-block country from 1944 to 1990. I was pretty sure Mrs. Ellison was Jewish, but I did not know she had smuggled Jews out of her home country during the war. If she had been caught by the Germans, she would have been shot. After the war, it appears she decided the climate was a little too chilly for a practicing Jew, and immigrated to the US.

Many people today are too young to remember much about WWII, the Cold War, the Berlin War, the USSR and the rest of it. So, why in the world is Joe Biden asking for so much money to help a little country called the Ukraine and what difference does it make? This is the first of several articles to help reacquaint us with some facts.

Ukraine invasion — explained

Biden asks Congress for $33 billion in aid for Ukraine as war drags on

Updated April 28, 202212:17 PM ET 

NPR WASHINGTON DESK

President Joe Biden speaks about the war in Ukraine in the Roosevelt Room at the White House on Thursday.

Andrew Harnik/AP

The Biden administration is asking Congress for $33 billion in funding to respond to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, more than double the $14 billion in support authorized so far.

The money is intended to last until the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30 and provide Ukraine with a more sustained guarantee of support as the war drags on. President Biden urged Congress Thursday to approve his request as quickly as possible, saying the security assistance was coming at a “pivotal time” for Ukraine’s fight against the Russian invasion.

“We need this bill to support Ukraine in its fight for freedom,” Biden told reporters at the White House.

“The costs of this fight, it’s not cheap. But caving to aggression is going to be more costly if we allow it to happen,” he said.

UKRAINE INVASION — EXPLAINED

U.S. war aims shift in Ukraine — and bring additional risks

POLITICS

Biden says he was expressing moral outrage when saying Putin shouldn’t stay in power

Biden also said the U.S. was working with Korea, Japan, Qatar and others to help fill the energy import needs of Poland and Bulgaria after Russia threatened to cut natural gas exports to those countries. He said Poland has significant reserves, and that there are plans to divert U.S. shipments of natural gas sold to Japan and other places to Bulgaria, if needed.

And he said he was concerned about recent Russian comments that paint the conflict as being between NATO, the U.S. and Russia.

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“They’re not true — they do concern me — because it shows the desperation that Russia is feeling about their abject failure,” he said. “No one should be making idle comments about the use of nuclear weapons, or the possibility that they’d use that.”

“We are prepared for whatever they do,” he said.

Biden also addressed an earlier White House announcement calling on Congress to pass legislation making it easier to seize assets of Russian oligarchs.

What’s in the aid request

The bulk of the request is for military and security assistance, a total of $20 billion to provide weapons to Ukraine, replenish U.S. arms stockpiles and help other countries shift away from a dependence on Russian weapons, the officials said.

An additional $8.5 billion is being requested in economic assistance to the Ukrainian government and another $3 billion for humanitarian and food security funding, including supporting refugees from Ukraine and countries who are taking them in.

POLITICS

Biden says he was expressing moral outrage when saying Putin shouldn’t stay in power

Biden administration officials said they are also requesting funds to address global economic stress due to the war, in part to increase U.S. production of wheat and soybeans, as well as using the Defense Production Act to expand reserves of critical minerals needed in the manufacture of defense machinery, automobiles and more.

Congress will not be able to act immediately to pass the funding as the House is about to leave on a weeklong recess. There have been deliberations about whether to attach the Ukraine funding to COVID aid that the White House has requested and has been stalled.

“It certainly makes sense for them to move together,” an official said, adding that Biden will address the need for both pools of funding in his remarks. Pentagon leaders in recent days have urged Congress to move without delay on the funding, and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., indicated to reporters Wednesday he would support moving the Ukraine aid independent of the COVID package if it meant avoiding a delay. The COVID aid has been caught up in disagreements between the parties, including over extending the Title 42 pandemic border controls.

Human Rights Campaign – Internet site

New Study Reveal shocking rates of attempted suicide among trans-adolescents.

30% of transgender adolescents have attempted suicide at some time. 51% suffer from depression and many engage in self harm.

https://www.hrc.org/news/new-study-reveals-shocking-rates-of-attempted-suicide-among-trans-adolescen

New treatments are being used. However; at what cost?

What Are Puberty Blockers?

Recent conservative legislation has targeted a class of drugs used to treat transgender adolescents. But what do these drugs actually do?

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

By Lena Wilson – The New York Times

May 11, 2021

Lately, puberty blockers have become a subject of debate in state legislatures, as lawmakers across the country introduce bills to limit health care options for transgender youth. Legislators in Arkansas already passed such a law, although Gov. Asa Hutchinson vetoed it last month. Arkansas conservatives argued that “the risks of gender transition procedures far outweigh any benefit at this stage of clinical study on these procedures.” But medical experts say that’s not the case.

Among the significant benefits of puberty blockers are a reduction in suicidal tendencies, which are often high in transgender adolescents, and a reduced need for expensive gender-affirming operations as adults. But while puberty blockers are commonly referred to as “fully reversible,” more research is needed to fully understand the impact they may have on certain patients’ fertility. There is also little known about the drugs’ lasting effects on brain development and bone mineral density.

Transgender youth have been the focus of new laws in states including Mississippi and Idaho, and pending in many others, designed to restrict their participation in sports — but this debate is largely separate from the discussion of puberty blockers.

Because the use of puberty blockers in transgender kids is still relatively new, the information is developing.

Here is a roundup of what experts know so far.

What are puberty blockers?

Puberty blockers are medications that suppress puberty by halting the production of estrogen or testosterone. They can stop transgender kids from experiencing the effects of puberty that may not align with their gender identities. Medically, the class of medications are called gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists, or GnRH agonists. They are approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat precocious puberty — puberty occurring at an unusually early age — so when they are prescribed to treat transgender youth, it’s considered an off-label use.

“Off-label,” the American Academy of Pediatrics noted in a 2014 statement, “does not imply an improper, illegal, contraindicated or investigational use” — it merely refers to the process of F.D.A. approval.

The medications may be given as shots in a doctor’s office every one, three or six months, or as an implant which lasts for about a year. Dr. Jessica Kremen, a pediatric endocrinologist for Boston Children’s Hospital’s Gender Multispecialty Service, noted that patients and families may prefer the convenience of the implants or six-month shots.

“It depends a lot on what is obtainable through a patient’s insurance,” Dr. Kremen said. Insurance companies are reluctant to cover off-label drug treatments, and implants can run up to approximately $45,000 per implant out of pocket, while shots cost can cost thousands of dollars per dose.

“That often determines which form we ended up using,” Dr. Kremen said. “But they all work well, as long as you administer them on time.”

How do they work?

Typically, in puberty, gonadotropin-releasing hormone helps to produce follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (L.H.). In people assigned female at birth, these hormones prompt the ovaries to make estrogen, which promotes processes like breast growth and menstruation. In people assigned male at birth, they prompt the testes to make testosterone, which promotes processes like facial hair growth and a deepening of the voice.

Puberty blockers disrupt the production of FSH and L.H., therefore blocking the production of estrogen or testosterone. As a result, transgender adolescents do not continue to develop unwanted secondary sexual characteristics — transgender boys do not develop breasts and transgender girls do not develop facial hair, for example.

Puberty blockers do not stop an early stage in sexual maturation called adrenarche, which can cause acne, the growth of underarm and pubic hair and body odor.

Who can get puberty blockers?

Although parents might think they should start puberty blockers very young, so that a child never has to experience any physical changes associated with the unwanted gender, experts say it’s better to wait at least until the early stages of puberty have started. Dr. Stephen Rosenthal, medical director of the child and adolescent gender center for U.C.S.F. Benioff Children’s Hospitals, was a co-author of the Endocrine Society’s 2017 guidelines for transgender health care. He recommended starting puberty blockers when breast budding or the enlargement of the testes has begun, at the earliest.

That’s because Dr. Rosenthal does not recommend puberty blockers for prolonged use outside of the normal window of puberty. They restrict the functioning of the gonads, which may lead to adverse health effects. The longer blockers are used past the typical start of puberty — generally age 14, at the latest — the greater the possible risk.

When blockers are initiated in the early stages of puberty, Dr. Rosenthal typically suggests that his patients stop using them by age 14. At that point, patients, with their families and their doctors, can determine whether to introduce hormones that help them develop according to their gender identity or resume puberty in the gender assigned at birth.

Dr. Rosenthal further recommended that before starting blockers, children be evaluated by a mental health professional and determined to have gender dysphoria. He said families should also undergo a thorough process of informed consent, during which they are educated about the potential effects of blocking puberty — including adverse ones.

The World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s guidelines for medical care suggest that “before any physical interventions are considered for adolescents, extensive exploration of psychological, family and social issues should be undertaken.” Professionals emphasized mental health care as an integral part of the process.

What are the benefits?

Treatment with puberty blockers may improve the mental health of transgender adolescents, who are at high risk for suicide. A 2020 study found lower odds of lifetime suicidal ideation in transgender adults who wanted to take puberty blockers and were able to access this treatment. Another recent study showed similarly positive effects: transgender adolescents receiving puberty blockers had less “emotional and behavioral problems” than transgender adolescents recently referred to care, and also reported rates of self-harm and suicidality similar to those of their non-transgender peers. A 2020 study of 50 transgender adolescents indicated that puberty blockers and gender-affirming hormone treatments, or both, could positively impact quality of life and decrease depression and suicidal ideation. A 2014 study found that 55 young transgender adults who used puberty blockers, took gender-affirming hormones and had gender confirmation surgeries were able to “resolve” their gender dysphoria and showed overall well-being “in many respects comparable to peers.”

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Because puberty blockers halt the development of secondary sexual characteristics, transgender adolescents who take them before gender-affirming hormones may also be able to avoid future gender-affirming procedures. For instance, transgender men who don’t develop breasts wouldn’t have reason to have mastectomies, while transgender women who don’t develop masculine facial features might no longer choose to have facial feminization surgery.

The Push to Restrict Rights for Young Transgender People

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A growing trend. Measures that could transform the lives of young transgender people are at the center of heated political debate across America. Here is how some states are approaching the subject:

Texas. In October, Texas became the most populous state to bar transgender girls from participating in girls’ sports at public schools. Gov. Greg Abbott also issued an order to conduct child abuse investigations against those providing certain medical treatments to transgender children. A court ruling later stopped the order from being applied.

Arkansas. Last April, Arkansas enacted a law, the first of its kind in the nation, barring physicians from administering hormones or puberty blockers to transgender people younger than 18. It is now on pause because of a legal challenge from the American Civil Liberties Union.

Indiana. Gov. Eric Holcomb, a Republican, vetoed a bill that would have banned transgender girls from competing in school-sanctioned girls’ sports. The governor said the bill, known as H.E.A. 1041, would likely have been challenged in court.

Utah. A day after the decision in Indiana, Gov. Spencer Cox, also a Republican, vetoed a similar bill that would have barred young transgender athletes from participating in girls’ sports. Republican legislators subsequently voted to override the veto and enacted the legislation.

Kentucky. Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, vetoed a bill that would prevent transgender female athletes from playing on girls’ sports teams in middle school and high school. The State Legislature, which is dominated by Republicans, is expected to override the veto.

Alabama. Gov. Kay Ivey signed a law banning medical care for transgender youth who are transitioning. She also approved legislation requiring students to use restrooms and locker rooms in line with the sex listed on their original birth certificates and restricting discussions on gender and sexuality in kindergarten through fifth grade.

Other states. Since 2019, lawmakers have introduced bills seeking to bar transgender youths from joining school sports teams consistent with their gender identities. They have become law in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia.

What are the risks?

Puberty blockers are largely considered safe for short-term use in transgender adolescents, with known side effects including hot flashes, fatigue and mood swings. But doctors do not yet know how the drugs could affect factors like bone mineral density, brain development and fertility in transgender patients.

The Endocrine Society recommends lab work be done regularly to measure height and weight, bone health and hormone and vitamin levels while adolescents are taking puberty blockers.

A handful of studies have underscored low bone mineral density as a potential issue, though a 2020 study posited that low bone mineral density may instead be a pre-existing condition in transgender youth. Treatment with gender-affirming hormones may theoretically reverse this effect, according to Endocrine Society guidelines.

The impact of puberty blockers on brain development is similarly hazy. The Endocrine Society guidelines point to two studies: A small one published in 2015 showed that the drugs did not seem to impact executive functioning (cognitive processes including self-control and working memory), while a 2017 study of rams treated with GnRH agonists suggested chronic use could harm long-term spatial memory. (Of course, rams are not humans.)

The effects of puberty blockers are often referred to as “fully reversible,” including in both the Endocrine Society and WPATH guidelines, because of evidence showing that girls treated for precocious puberty were still able to undergo normal puberty and have children later in life.

Halting puberty at its onset and then later starting gender-affirming hormones — a typical course for some transgender adolescents — may affect the ability to have children, she said. The Endocrine Society advises clinicians to counsel patients on “options for fertility preservation prior to initiating puberty suppression in adolescents.”

It is also worth noting that Lupron, one of the drugs widely used as a puberty blocker, has been reported to have long-term adverse effects in women who used it to treat precocious puberty. Women have reported issues including depression, bone thinning and chronic pain.

Puberty blockers may also impact future gender-affirming surgeries for transgender women. A recent study showed that transgender women who began puberty blockers at the start of puberty were 84 times more likely to require abdominal surgery if they wanted to pursue gender-affirming surgery. Because tissue from the penis and testes is used to construct a neovagina, and puberty blockers prevent the growth of those organs, material from the colon or omentum may need to be used.

An in-depth conversation detailing puberty blocker treatment and all its potential effects is an essential part of any transgender adolescent’s care. Specialists are eager for more research, but for now, they say the apparent benefits outweigh the hypothetical risks.

“Medications are rarely without side effects,” Dr. Kremen said. “That is usually not enough of a reason to allow a child, who is telling you that they’re extremely distressed by the pubertal changes that they’re seeing, to continue going through puberty.”

 “Knowing what we do know, these medications have enormous benefits for the population that we care for,” she added.

Lena Wilson is a project manager at The New York Times and a freelance writer covering film, TV, technology and lesbian culture. @lenalwilson

_____________________________________________________________________________

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/07/26/630619038/bill-of-the-month-a-plan-for-affordable-gender-confirmation-surgery-goes-awry

Transgender surgeries can easily cost the patient $100,000 or more. And, those are just the medical costs.

So, the debates continue to rage. We can’t really fault the doctors who, treating young patients who inflict self-harm on themselves and/or attempt suicide, help the patients out of their distress and into a happier life.

Yet, there is any amount of scientific evidence to support conditions such as Kallman syndrome, where the individual does not go through a normal puberty due to insufficient hormonal growth. Individual born with this condition frequently suffer from osteoporosis and are infertile.

Development of the large bones and the reproductive tract occur during this time in a person’s life. To chemically avoid this period of mental and physical growth may have consequences that are far reaching for the individual. Consequences that few, if any, teenagers are capable of grasping.

What did transgender people do 50 to 100 years ago? 200 years ago? Did they all commit suicide? Is there any research on this? If lawmakers have long concluded that 21 years is the legal age to drink alcohol; why is 13 or 14 years a proper time to make lifetime decisions not only about one’s sexuality but modifications of one’s entire body? Does this make sense?

It is easy to say I don’t understand because I don’t have a transgender child. True, but I have a child who was a teenager and I have been a teenager. Also, I have taught teenagers. These can be tough years. Uncomfortable years. Are we promoting serious body modifications in order to avoid discomfort? What is wrong with having the individual wait until they are 18? So they can avoid a mastectomy? Removal of breast tissue is the least complicated of surgeries the individual will go through if they want to become fully male. How about lifetimes on hormone therapies? How many studies have been done that tell menopausal women to get off hormone replacement therapy? That the pills cause cancer?

The human brain is not adult size until about age 14. True adult judgement comes along very gradually a long time after that.

University of Rochester Medical Center

The rational part of a teen’s brain isn’t fully developed and won’t be until age 25 or so.

In fact, recent research has found that adult and teen brains work differently. Adults think with the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s rational part. This is the part of the brain that responds to situations with good judgment and an awareness of long-term consequences. Teens process information with the amygdala. This is the emotional part. https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/encyclopedia/content.aspx?ContentTypeID=1&ContentID=3051#:~:text=The%20rational%20part%20of%20a,cortex%2C%20the%

Once these extreme body modifications are done, it is unlikely they can be undone. It’s not like getting a tattoo or dying your hair pink.

Not the same, not at all.

The end.

“Hum,” she thought to herself musing. She rummaged through her purse, ah, there they were. She had some coupons in her envelope that were about to expire, she needed to get over to the store pick up those items while they were still good. She sped off full of her next mission.

The trip to Belize had gone as planned.  It was an AAA group tour and they stayed at a little discount hotel that was not as close to the beach as she would have liked, but oh well. She spent a lot of time by the pool there and sipped exactly one Mai-Tai each evening watching the sun go down. She had time to catch up on her reading and actually had some fun eating dinner with other Americans. Of course, many of them were definitely approaching their golden years at a running gallop, but she didn’t mind, made her feel younger.

There had just been one problem on her trip. Denise was in the habit of carrying her id and money in a little over-the-shoulder bag. One evening toward the end of her trip, she had draped it over the back of her chair and forgot it. She had gotten involved speaking to an interesting older married couple and had left with them. No more than a half hour later, she realized what she had done and rushed back to the table, too late. The bag was gone. She raised hell with the kitchen staff and the manager and although they assured her they would do a ‘complete investigation’ nothing ever came of it and the bag disappeared.

Fortunately for Denise, ever mindful, she had another expired passport with her in her luggage. She was able to get back into the states with that and a photocopy of the lost passport. She had to answer a lot of questions and then immediately apply for another once she was home; but she was home safe and sound in her little condo.

She really hated when things didn’t go according to plan, but some days….  When she went to pickup her new passport she asked the girl “What if my old one shows up?”

There was a pause; “Don’t ever use your old passport again,” the counter agent assured her. “Not unless you want to have Homeland Security officers all over you. The passport has been ‘flagged.’”

Denise wasn’t exactly sure what ‘flagged’ meant but  she didn’t feel like asking any more questions so she just took her new passport and left.

Life had pretty much returned to normal for Denise after this mad-cap week in Belize. She was back to work as a senior researcher at the lab and things were back to their usual routine. She still drove to the bank every Friday and cashed a check for her weekly spending amount. As she stood in line, the cashier who she knew told her, “You know Miss Smith; you are probably one of the only customers  I have who still uses checks to get money out of the bank.”

Denise laughed and replied, “If you think that is something, guess what else, I don’t have a home computer, a TV or a landline telephone. I don’t even have an email address!”

The clerk gasped, disbelieving, mouth open. “Nope,” continued Denise, “don’t believe in those things. Just more and more ways for people to get into your pocket!”  She didn’t add the part where she also really believed it was more ways for people to spy on you too. But, she didn’t want to sound crazy so she shut up. She got her money and left; when she got home, she would carefully place the money in envelopes marked for their uses. She prided herself in going ‘all cash.’

Denise’s life continued on as normal and she was totally unaware of the van parked down the street from her condo that was tracking her movements. Denise, who had rarely had so much as a speeding ticket in her life had come to the attention of the ‘authorities’. It had all started when her passport had been stolen and then ‘marked’. While processing the new passport, the agent assigned to the replacement had noticed a distinct resemblance between Denise and an FBI most wanted poster of an international espionage agent, wanted and on the run for selling government secrets.

The agent marked the file and sent it to her boss who in turn, sent it on to the agency looking for the woman and they then, opened a file on Denise Smith.

The two agents reviewed the material they had on Smith. Agent Tim Curl reviewed it with his partner, “Denise Smith, age 42 years, not married, lives alone, long time researcher at a drug lab. No credit cards, no ATM cards, no TV, no land line, no computer, no email address, no internet banking. Uses a computer at work but only for company business and never takes any personal messages. Does all her correspondence by mail. Has one cheap cell phone that she rarely ever uses.”

His partner looked at him thoughtfully.  “Looks like she is hiding something to me.”  Curl shook his head in agreement and they decided to set up surveillance on Denise.

Denise continued her life, getting books and videos from the library and eating Top Ramen for lunch at work. She loved to read and watch old movies. She had decided that all cable company charges for channels were a scam and she though modern TV programs were a joke anyway. “Give me an old black and white any day,” she thought to herself as she checked out her latest selections.

The guys in the van followed her to work a couple of days but couldn’t get very close so returned to her condo. They felt they would have better reception here if Denise made any phone calls or tried to contact someone. They waited for a number of days with little success.

“She’s cagey, that one,” opined Tim Curl. Sandy, his big burly partner nodded in agreement.

“How do you think she is transmitting the data?” asked Sandy.

Tim shook his head. “I just don’t know. She’s basically not making any calls on that dumb cell phone of hers, there’s no phone in the condo, we checked. Any messages on the company computer are pretty regularly screened by their IT guys and we don’t think she even sends that many at work because she tells everyone ‘I don’t like computers’.”  He made a little girly gesture with his hand.

Sandy laughed. However, in the end, they were back to staring at their monitors with not a lot to go on.

Denise looked at her package happily. She had spent $39.99 to get the brand new tracking device that you could wear to track your heart rate, miles walked or run and a breakdown of the calories you had burned up exercising. She loved this! With this little baby in place she felt sure that those last five pounds would soon be a thing of the past. She couldn’t wait to try it out.

The next day was a Saturday and it dawned bright and beautiful. Denise woke up and went through her usual routine, eager to try out her new tracker on a short morning run. She popped a multivitamin and mixed up the green energy drink. It was supposed to be really good for you, so she tried hard not to look at it too much while chugging it down. She had no overtime this weekend so she was foot-loose and fancy free. She didn’t want to run too far, hard on the knees. But she could drop down to a walk by the time she got to the park and cool down that way. She might even treat herself to a coffee on the way back.

That Friday Tim and Sandy had gotten reamed by their boss. “I thought you said this one looked good!” he shouted at them. “We have gotten Intel that another data transfer is about to happen, this weekend and on your watch!” he yelled some more.

“Boss, boss,” Tim had his hands up pleadingly .  “We are watching her, we have the stolen passport, and we know she was in Belize at exactly the same time and same place as when the last data was delivered. She is the right age, right height, right color, she fits all the profiles. We think she is the one, we just haven’t been able to get her doing anything yet,” he pleaded.

“Great, great,” said the big guy. “But, by the way, you are both on duty this weekend, got that!” and he stormed off. They both nodded their heads glumly.

Saturday morning, bright and early, Tim and Sandy were parked inside the van drinking strong coffee and eating Dunkin doughnuts. They had moved the van closer to Denise’s condo.

“I just can’t help thinking that she is going to do it this weekend. We have just got to keep her close,” said Tim. Sandy nodded.

Inside, Denise had suited up in T-shirt, spandex ¾ length pants with the little zipper in the back for keys, and running shoes. The new ones that she had completely splurged on, Nikes. “With complete arch support,” she reminded herself. She proudly clipped the little tracker device on her T-shirt so that it could get an accurate reading of her exercise. She went out the door and carefully locked the lock and zipped the keys into her pocket. She stopped at the bottom of the stairs and hit the button on the tracker to start it. She stretched a couple of times and then started a slow jog to the park.

Tim hit Sandy in the arm, “That’s it!” he said excitedly.

“What’s it?” Sandy queried through half chewed doughnut.

“It’s that gadget on her shirt. It must be very low frequency so we are not picking anything up. Get your gun,” he said to Sandy quietly getting out of the van to follow Denise.

Denise jogged while checking her watch occasionally to see if she was making good time. She tried reading the tracker upside down but decided it couldn’t be done and satisfied herself that she was just going to have to wait for the results when she stopped. She jogged about twenty minutes and started her slow down walk as she entered the park. She checked her pulse a couple of times to see if she was getting it high enough to do some good. After walking a bit she decided to get that coffee at the vendor stall in the park, cheaper than Starbucks. She was getting her Americano, hot to go, when she stopped. There was that older gentleman who she had met on her trip to Belize.

“Mr. Marshall, Mr. Marshall, hey is that you?” she held out her hand for a shake with the older guy when she got tackled and knocked to the ground. Sandy had done his job with a nice flying tackle and had grabbed her just before she had a chance to hand off the data stick attached to her shirt to her contact person. Mr. Marshall, the contact person, took off running in a surprisingly fast fashion for such an old guy.

Back at their headquarters, Denise was explaining over and over again that she was not who they thought she was. Tim and Sandy had by this time confiscated the tracker device and had given it to one of their own IT guys who confirmed that there was nothing else in the design except a heart rate and calorie counting device as stated. They at long last had come to the realization that Denise was not, in fact, ‘their girl’ but they began to have a lot of questions about the man she had met at the coffee carrel and why he had run off.

Denise gave them as much information as she could and by data tracking through the AAA club records and the airline records they were able to confirm that Daniel Marshall and his wife Helene had been on the trip to Belize and both had a questionable past. Denise was able to id them both and the agency confirmed that Daniel and Helene were actually professional ‘transporters’ of information.

A couple of hours later Denise was released. They had fed her with high calorie doughnuts and terrible coffee. She was sure her diet was ruined for a week.

“But, why were they interested in me?” she had asked them.

“It was your passport they were after,” Tim replied. “You may not have noticed it but you are the same age, height, and weight and hair color as Mrs. Marshall.”

“But she is so much older than me,” Denise said.

“Play acting and makeup,” said Tim “mostly to get your confidence.”

“Didn’t you have a drink with them of some kind the evening you lost your passport?” asked Sandy.

Denise thought, “Yes, I did. I was going to order my regular Mai Tai but Mr. Marshall insisted that I try some kind of local drink, forget what he called it. Too strong.”

“Right,” said Tim. “They either put something in your drink or just got you to talking so much that you forgot your bag on the chair. ‘Marshall’ escorted you to dinner and she went to powder her nose and circled back and snatched up your bag with the passport before you knew what had happened.”

“But why did she want it?” queried Denise.

“She needed a new name to get through customs. The customs officially have been alerted to both of them and are on the lookout for any of their aliases. Also, stolen passports are very, very expensive to buy so this was quick and cheap.”

Denise shook her head, she couldn’t believe it. Nothing like this ever happened to her. The agents had been very solicitous of her and were literally trying to brush her off when their boss came in and stopped them.

“We really appreciate your help Ms. Smith. These are very bad people selling some pretty valuable stuff and we would really like to catch them. Your assistance is very helpful and we are so sorry for any rough stuff.” He glared at Sandy.

“But, but……” Denise struggled with what to say.  “Why me, why did you think I was involved?”

The Boss sighed a bit, “Miss Smith, you matched the description of one of the people we thought we might be looking for. You were also at the right time and the right place for what we believe was the last stolen data transfer point, that being Belize. Also,” he paused, not sure he should say this, “you are so, well, very, very off the usual electronic grid of most people, it made us somewhat suspicious.”

Denise stared at him trying to grasp the significance of his meaning. He smiled at her and excused himself from the room. She accepted a ride home from the two arresting agents and they smiled and waved goodbye in good PR fashion. They were hot to get after the real culprits.

Denise let herself back in the condo. They had given her the Tracker back but it was sort of hopelessly pulled apart now and of no use. They had given her a form to fill out to make a replacement claim.

She sat down at her kitchen table, just a little stunned by the events, thinking. Finally, she said out loud to Frisky the cat, “Well, maybe one ATM card wouldn’t hurt.”

the end

          TRACKER

Buzz, buzz.

Denise stirred. Buzz, buzz, the sound continued. A soft, vibrating movement on her side.

She rolled back and forth a couple of times and finally opened her eyes. The buzzing sound continued. She focused for a moment then hit the little tracker resting in her pajama pocket and sat up. Denise wiped the sleep out of her eyes and pulled the tracker out of her pocket. 7 hours and 42 minutes it read.

Hum, she thought to herself. “Well, it is not exactly eight hours of sleep but it’s probably okay,” she mused. After using the bathroom she stepped on the scales; 146 pounds. She frowned. Damn vacation! She was up two pounds. Damn it and she had been working so hard too.

Stepping off the scale she sighed, “Guess that’s the price for fun, huh?” she thought to herself. Going over to her desk, she pulled out the sugar monitor and pricking her finger, put in a little sample of blood. After several seconds it read ‘94’. She smiled. Her blood sugar was doing great! And the new diet plan emphasized low sugar levels to get the weight off. She felt like she was working toward her goal nicely.

In the kitchen, Denise hit the button to start the coffee maker. Regular black, no ‘special’ coffees with sugar additives.  She opened a new box of Special K cereal and retrieved the low-fat milk from the frig and added ½ of a green banana to the cereal and started to eat.

Back at her desk she opened her mail and started to check her bank balances. Hum, the one checking had a $5,000 balance and the other one was really low at $1,000. That vacation again. Whew! Just wiped her out! Her savings had a nice $25,000 balance and her 401k was rocking along very smoothly. Denise felt very proud of herself. As the daughter of an almost welfare mother and humble beginnings, she was doing pretty well for herself.

She had had to fight and fight with the travel agent to get her to take a cash payment for the vacation. 

“But, everyone pays by card,” the woman had said, almost pleading.

Denise had had to ‘counsel’ the woman and coax her into taking the cash and telling her it would be okay. That she was just very uncomfortable using ‘cards’ and this was how she did business. The woman shook her head, mumbling and very reluctantly took the cash over to her boss’s desk and handed it off to him. There was some soft mumbling that went on. The travel agency manager was a chubby little guy, who didn’t do much, as far as Denise could tell, except eat and play computer games all day.

She had been to this same agency before. They had gone through the same song and dance last time. The little fat guy stole a glance her way. She smiled beatifically back at him. She knew what was coming. He heaved himself up from his desk, reluctantly and cautiously approached her.

He smiled first. She smiled back. “Miss Smith,” he ventured, looking down at the agency document in his hand.  She nodded helpfully. “Miss Smith,” he repeated, “we don’t usually work with cash transactions. They can be…….” he searched manfully for the proper words. “they can be difficult to….trace.” He smiled again hoping to hell that she would understand without causing some fuss.

Denise was ready, they had in fact had the same conversation over a year ago; maybe he didn’t remember. She explained, slowly and very carefully how much she understood his position but that she didn’t ‘like’ to use credit cards because of all the interest and banking fees. She understood very well that was how most people did it, but couldn’t they make an exception this time? Besides, they had sold her another ticket just this way over a year ago.

The little fat man looked surprised. “He’s probably surprised he let a woman get the drop on him once before,” she though with a smirk. The man stared at her almost a full minute then shook his head and waved for the girl to continue the transaction and took the wad of cash back to his desk. With a look of almost disgust, he pulled out what looked to be a metal box and stuck the cash in there. This was no doubt going to necessitate an extra trip to the bank. He wasn’t pleased. 

Denise, smiling, completed her trip arrangements to Belize with the girl and got her confirmation paper. She left the agency smiling. She was always happy when she got people to see things her way. She had learned long ago that the banks were the biggest rip off artists in the business with their interest rates and fees on top of fees. “Better in my pocket than in theirs,” she thought to herself.

She got into her little economy car and started the engine. The car was a very uninspiring grey green color that she hated; but what the heck, she had gotten a super discount deal through her brother, the used car salesman, so there were no complaints.

Continued Part II

This day was particularly long and dusty. I had to drive from Redondo Beach back to the San Fernando Valley and was bushed.

Carmen, the Hispanic housekeeper, was responsible for picking up the princess from school each day and driving her home. Thereafter, hopefully, getting her started on homework. How much homework ever happened versus how much TV watching was being done, was the question.

This particular summer day, Carmen was in the process of starting dinner. The princess was looking like she was looking at her homework. I decided a nice long hot bath would be just the ticket.

I stripped down and got into my big tan tub with the Jacuzzi jets in the ‘bamboo’ bathroom. The previous owners must have been trying for some sort of Asian theme as the gold and rust wallpaper was a bamboo print and the curtain, a rolled up ‘bamboo’ affair. Once you got the jets going in the bath, it was Calgon take me away.

It just so happened that I was doing a lazy scrub of my armpits when I discovered a lump in one armpit. I instantly panicked and the huge ‘C’ word loomed large in my mind. I was devastated. I began to plan my own funeral and then get very weepy that Scooter was going to lose her mother so young.

It was while contemplating my own death, that over the sound of the bathroom fan, I could make out a faint ‘wop, wop, wop’ noise. The nosie continued.

With a “What the hell?” I got myself out of the big tub, did a half-dry and put on my bathrobe.

Like a cop at a crime scene, I ventured carefully into the family room and followed the sound. At first, given the confusion, I couldn’t tell what I was looking at.

Scooter was screaming and jumping around, Paws was leaping repeatedly into the air. There was something grey and white fluttering around and around the dining room table. Carmen had the broom out, was waving it up and down and whacking the floor. This was creating the ‘wop’ sound I had been hearing.

My benumbed brain finally kicked into gear. Paws had captured yet another bird from the backyard and had brought his prize into the house to show off. As luck would have it, the unfortunate creature was still alive, trying desperately to get away from the cat who was trying equally hard to recapture him.  

Carmen was ineffectually trying to ‘shoo’ them both out of the house and Scooter was helping by screaming and jumping up and down. I clamped my teeth together, yanked open the slider door, grabbed the broom and with one mighty ‘whack’ sent Paws out into the yard.

“Scooter, stop screaming!” I yelled. She gulped and shut up. I found the dust pan. Carmen and I managed to capture the almost dead bird and take him to the garbage can on the side of the house where he could rest in peace.

That done, I finally made it back to the bathroom, where the water was now lukewarm. I had forgotten all about my cancer when suddenly a thought popped into my head. I lifted my arm in front of the bathroom mirror and examined my lump. It was a very large, subcutaneous pimple, the kind I always got at a certain time of the month. I got some mud masque and plastered my armpit with it and put on some clothes so Carmen could go home.

Forty-five minutes later, dinner was done and on the table when the Master of the house had returned.

“So,” he queried, “anything interesting go on today?” He was looking down, slicing his chicken.

Scooter opened her mouth  to tell the cat and bird story. I shot her a freezing look and cast a meaningful glance at Paws, lying casually on the rug, licking his fur.

 Scooter stared back at me, then looked over at Paws. A momentary look of panic flashed across her face as she began shoveling down mashed potatoes.

“Na,” I said, “just another day, how ‘bout you?’

The end

you can see more of Courtney’s writings on Amazon/Kindle.com