I bet there are a number of you who don't know that I can't stand roller-coasters. I have never liked heights or high speed and I get motion sickness. When I was fifteen, my cousin Tammy tried to cure me. She thought that if I rode enough of them, I would get used to them. She took me on just about every roller-coaster in the State of Florida -- and I hated them all. In fact, it cured me of even trying them again.

Yet, my personal life often seems to mimic a roller-coaster quite shockingly. And I don't think repeat exposure is making it that much easier. I guess this is a long way of saying it things have been up and down so fast I don't know where to start.

Well, the legal battle continues with each of us having to fill out affidavits, take psychological tests and be interviewed by a therapists who specializes in this, and having to ask our friends, employers, counselors, etc. to write affidavits on our behalf. Time consuming and nerve-racking process. No court date yet.

I have had a serious of good news/bad news days. For example, yesterday I found out that the panel of papers that David Valentine and I have organized on transgender ethnography has been accepted as an "invited session" for the American Anthropology Association this year. It will be co-sponsored by the Les/Bi/Gay/Tran organization and the Feminist association. Then I picked up my mail and found out that I was rejected for the last grant I had applied for. That means I am 0 for 3. I have no idea where I will get the funding for my research.

In other news, I found out that not only has my first book, _Looking Queer_ gone to the printers and will be out by early June, but my second book (& special issue of the Journal of Lesbian Studies), _Lesbian Sex Scandals_ has been pushed up in the schedule and will be published this Fall. It is very exciting but a little nerve-racking to have two books coming out in the same year.

Now for the down slope again -- yesterday we found out that we have to postpone our trip to look for housing in the Bay Area until early July. We had planned to go at the end of May so that we could take Rowan with us and he could visit with my Mom before she moves to Florida in mid-June. Problem is that rental housing for Aug. doesn't even get listed until July in the Bay Area. So we have to wait and that means I don't get to spend time with my Mom and she doesn't get to meet Rowan yet.

Up again -- Troy has been accepted to all three of the graduate programs in geology that he applied to -- San Jose State Univ., Haward State Univ. and San Francisco State. San Jose has promised him a teaching assistantship. He is still negotiating with the other two. That means that both Lon and Troy have graduate school lined up for the fall.

I am still working on my comprehensive exam. With all the legal work, I haven't completed it yet. I hope to have it done very soon. The semester only has a week and a half left. In that time I have to complete the 30 page exam answer and grade 100 papers and the finals for my class. Then I have to turn around an finish another paper to clear up an incomplete from last year. Then I have to special issues of two journals to finish off. I really need to get these things finished so I can concentrate on the legal issues and the move.

Rowan will be two years old on May 20th. We will have a small birthday party for him the night before. He is so amazing -- smart, loving, energetic. We have him with us Tue/Thur evenings and every other weekend. (That's about half time.) The time is special to us, especially with the unknown outcome of the custody battle.

I read your letters and enjoy hearing from you. I apologize for not answering personally much of the time. As you can see, I am stretched to capacity dealing with things right now. It doesn't mean I don't want to hear from you or that I don't care. I just don't have the time nor the emotional energy to spend on email right now. I wish you all well and I miss you.

Love,
Dawn