Friday, July 10, 2009

Alia/Rob: Help yourself.

As you know by now, we were only at the Inn for about a day after the transformation. It was a harrowing day and I'm still not totally settled from it. This is all so new, being in a strange town away from familiar faces and sights. Being in a strange body with parts I'm not familiar with...

Well, I'm familiar with the parts, but not from this angle. Having a penis is a very... novel feeling. I don't want to say "overrated" because a lot of women have this idea that peeing standing up would be so cool, but I still sit, basically on instinct. And I could use more control over erections, but I'm hoping that will come in time because I don't hear too many men complaining about it past puberty.

And shaving. God, that's going to be lame, but necessary.

Well by the end of that first day, people were still confused and scared, and irritated with George and Jan for attempting to provide answers but not being able to answer everything. I was very lucky I had Todd to help me through it. The person I really feel bad for is Cliff.

I don't know how much influence the Inn has in how it transforms people. If what Todd was telling me is true, it's based on physical location. There must be more to it than that - when does the "transformation" begin? When does one body officially become another, and where is that "data" stored? - but it's the most sensible answer. So the randomness, or lack of randomness, yields some very daunting results. Men become women, lovers become siblings, people age or change race, or get geographically scattered. Strangers become companions...

What Cliff didn't tell you is that Tori, the woman he became, was at the Inn with Rob. They're both from Philly, they were lovers, although why they had two rooms not one, I can only guess. Maybe it was a booking issue. Maybe Tori needed her privacy.

It was my job to drive her back to Philly, to drop her with her new family. As overwhelmed as I was by the whole experience, Cliff took it far harder. She kept talking about that first time we met, before the change, when I asked to switch rooms and he (at the time "he,") tried to use it to get sex.

Not the best first impression.

But I felt bad for him after the change. I can tell he's not really the frat boy type, he was trying to put on an act because his friends make it work. Ironically, I suppose, you find out who someone really is after they become someone else.

The entire ride, which lasted about 9 hours with stops, she obsessed over that first conversation. If it works the way Todd said, if Cliff gave me the room that first night, we'd both have our proper parts and could deal with it from there. I'd be Tori and Cliff would be Rob. That's true, sure (probably) but how could he have known? How could anyone? Yeah, it was obnoxious, but it's not like he was obligated to give me the room. All I wanted was a damn ocean view.

So I dropped her off, leaving my contact information so that we can help each other as best we can. I've just been hanging around Rob's place for the last few days, trying to get the feel for it. I've tidied up a bit, trying to take some ownership of it. It's a bit of a sty. Clothes all over the place, a rank "lived-in" smell I hope I'll get used to. Eating his food, a lot of which went bad over his extended vacation. Reading old blog entries.

I'm still trying to wrap my brain around this "Todd/Anne-Marie" thing. Reading his old posts, it sounds so much like him, so much more than he did when I thought Deb was him. I feel like an idiot for not seeing it, but there's the curse of the Inn to blame for that.

Overwhelming really is the word. I want to struggle, I want to be safe and familiar and sane, but there's no way that can happen so for now I've got to go with the flow.

Now I just need to figure out what I'm going to do with myself. Rob's a high school teacher, which means I've got nearly 2 months to myself.

Well, I helped myself to some of his beer. That'll help pass time...

-Alia

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is shaving your face as a man THAT much more of a bother than shaving your legs as a woman? You may not have had to shave your legs every morning, but they represent a whole lot more surface area than your face...

Art/"Penny" said...

It's not a matter of surface area, it's uneven topology. Shaving the legs takes long, even strokes over a relatively regular surface, while my original face had angles and valleys where it might be hard to reach. Plus, if you screw up on the legs (or get lazy), you can wear a long dress or pants. Nick yourself or miss a spot on your face, and you're stuck looking like an idiot.

And that's going from face to legs, where the only thing to get used to was not using a mirror.

Alia said...

True. And Honestly? I was big into Veet. And salons. And anything to avoid actually making leg-razor contact. And especially in winter, I went through long periods of neglect.

But the beard? That stuff grows back fast, so the "every day" thing, the fact that I don't want to look stubbly, that's an obligation. It's a hassle, because I'm not keen on scruff.

It's not the worst thing in the world, it's just something to complain about being male. I feel like I'm at least entitled to that much, because I'll concede it's probably easier coming in this direction (just still not very fun.)

Anonymous said...

As someone who has always shaved with an electric razor, I guess I hadn't really given much thought to the difference "topography" makes when using a blade. But don't the knee and ankle areas present some topographical challenges?

(Let me also point out that you're much less likely to miss a spot or nick yourself with an electric razor ;-)!)

Also, it seems to me that, for a quick elimination of the 6 o'clock shadow before heading out for the evening, an electric razor is far neater and more convenient than having to lather up in order to use a blade.

jim said...

It's good to see some cross-gender comparison from the female to male perspective. I believe Alia is the first victim of the inn who has gone in that direction to actually post on this blog -- all of the others have appeared here only in the third person. Alia's observations are and will continue to be a very positive addition to the blog.

Anonymous said...

Alia, anon had a good point about electric razors and shaving in the evening. I use the blade in the morning and an electric if I'm going somewhere nice in the evening. Or I just let the 11 am shadow come back and don't worry about it. After some time as Rob it will probably be a bit of a nuisance more than anything else. Good luck.