Invigorating Morning
Feb. 11th, 2021 06:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chelseagirlIt is now 6am. At 5:30am, I noticed M's phone was charging in our living room. M had left 5 minutes earlier. (They work 6:30am-3pm. Normally 7-3:30, but they're staggering arrivals and departures now and M volunteered to be earlier.)
Unlike me, who works in an office (and the classroom), M's phone and their nextel are their lifelines during the day. I forget my phone once or twice a semester, but I have my laptop and my office landline, so . . .
I threw on my coat and sneakers and grabbed my keys and metrocard, and ran out several blocks through the snow, swiped my card to get into the subway, and found M still on the platform. They had just discovered it, and had their nextel out, presumable to call me? So all's well that ends well, and I dashed back off but found an effusive text of gratitude on my own phone when I got home, and another effusive phone call while I was typing this and M arrived at the park in Brooklyn.
I'm not sure who's been paying attention, as I don't talk about it often, but M is a trans woman. They began presenting female full time 5-6 years ago now (we've been married for 18). They have often mentioned their discomfort on the subway platform at that time in the morning, because, alas, the homeless folks who shelter there are often quite vocal about their transphobia. What struck me -- and I know it is partly that, because of the pandemic and the winter, the homeless don't have many places to go -- but how full the subway platform was for 5:30 am.
Unlike me, who works in an office (and the classroom), M's phone and their nextel are their lifelines during the day. I forget my phone once or twice a semester, but I have my laptop and my office landline, so . . .
I threw on my coat and sneakers and grabbed my keys and metrocard, and ran out several blocks through the snow, swiped my card to get into the subway, and found M still on the platform. They had just discovered it, and had their nextel out, presumable to call me? So all's well that ends well, and I dashed back off but found an effusive text of gratitude on my own phone when I got home, and another effusive phone call while I was typing this and M arrived at the park in Brooklyn.
I'm not sure who's been paying attention, as I don't talk about it often, but M is a trans woman. They began presenting female full time 5-6 years ago now (we've been married for 18). They have often mentioned their discomfort on the subway platform at that time in the morning, because, alas, the homeless folks who shelter there are often quite vocal about their transphobia. What struck me -- and I know it is partly that, because of the pandemic and the winter, the homeless don't have many places to go -- but how full the subway platform was for 5:30 am.
