Doc Hop

A brand new semester starts tomorrow, and my nonbinary butt is ready and raring to go! I finished my syllabi and schedules before Christmas, so I’ve spent the past week and a half working on my professional development plan and soaking up every last drop of winter break. (And as much sun as I could manage.)

Last Wednesday Hamburger Mary’s LB invited some hometown talent back to the stage to benefit LA wildfire animal rescue. I had no idea that Gia Gunn and Laganja were from Long Beach, but I had the BEST time supporting a GREAT cause! I decided to take Lemon to the beach earlier in the afternoon, so we made a whole doggy day of it.

The tide was low, but we still got plenty of salt and sand between our toes! The beach was pretty deserted, it being a random Wednesday afternoon in mid-January, so we practically had the entire ocean to ourselves. Lemon was not too interested in the tide, but the fluffy sand was much more her jam. It was only her second time to the beach since we’ve been here, but I’m definitely planning on taking her back for her birthday this week. (My girl is gonna be four on the 22nd.)

The drag show was absolutely incredible and probably the best I’ve seen since moving to Long Beach! I’ve seen Laganja perform a quick song or two at Drag Con, but this was my first time seeing Gia live. The dolls absolutely KILLED IT! Ganja performed to her bop “Hot Box,” and at one point she jumped into a split onto the stage, which I WISH I could have captured on camera. It was also really cool to hear them both talk about getting started right here at Hamburger Mary’s Long Beach. The queens always move around the room during these types of performances, but I definitely had a prime spot. I was also lucky enough to grab a photo with them both as they exited the stage at the end of the show, which is everything I ever could have wished for. (Well, okay, almost everything. It would have been really cool to smoke a blunt with Laganja.)

And the BEST part? All the money raised at the door helped animals displaced from the LA wildfires. Great drag and an even greater cause? Take my money, ladies! (And they did.) It feels so good to finally belong to a community I believe in.

As previously mentioned, the spring semester begins tomorrow, but since I teach on Mondays and Wednesdays, my first classes will not meet until the 22nd. I teach Research Methods from 8 a.m. to 9:15 a.m., Media Design from 12:30 p.m. to 1:45 p.m., and Understanding News Media from 2:00 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. I will hold office hours between classes on Mondays. It will be nice to only have to be on campus two days a week, but it does make for a pretty packed schedule on the days that I’m there. All of my classes are full and I have a list of students waiting to get into my design course, so I’m looking forward to another busy and productive semester.

That all being said, I’d be lying if I didn’t express my heavy concerns moving into this semester (and the next four years). While I am incredibly grateful to be in California, I still live in the United States, and our commander-in-chief is an absolute maniac. Day one and we’re already seeing hateful rhetoric pushed into the law in the form of anti-trans legislation and extreme deportation policies. Long Beach is a sanctuary city, but ICE is empowered and emboldened under Trump’s leadership, and I worry that many of our students will be affected by the legislation, whether personally or peripherally. As a queer person, I worry for myself and my community. I have so much to say on this subject and no energy left today to say it, except to close with —

We exist. We’ve always existed. And we’re not going fucking anywhere.