Who's the Queen?

I knew I had a wedding to shoot and had been trying all week to book an assistant. I couldn't get ahold of either assistant I had used most recently. Then last night, my friend Migue1 assured me his friend was interested. He put him on the phone, but they were in a club and we couldn't hear each other so I told him to call me at 11am this morning. In the meantime, a new friend on mine (another J0nathan [in the past I'd say "That's not a Mexxican name." but I've met so many of them here that I've found out it has become a Mexxican name]) said he probably knew someone who could help me out and that he'd call at 11am to confirm.

J0nathan actually called as promised and said he was still trying to contact the person but it was a sure thing. Of course, an hour before I was supposed to leave he called to say neither he nor the guy's mom could reach him. I then called Migue1 to inform him that his friend hadn't called me. He said he'd track him down and get back to me.

In the midst of this, I got a phone call and saw @lejandro's number come up on the caller ID. I thought it odd because I don't usually hear from him in the afternoon (yes, we're still in regular contact) so I wasn't entirely surprised to not recognize the voice on the other end of the phone: @merica. Telling me to leave him alone, to leave them in peace; blah, blah, blah. She must have stolen his phone (again!) and found my number in the caller ID from last night. Dammit, I knew I shouldn't have let J0nathan use my phone to call him. I hung up on her, but felt a bit rattled by the whole interaction. Thank god she's not here in town, but I really can't deal with more of that crap if she returns.

Anyway, I started debating whether I should just give up and do the job alone when I remembered that my friend $eth had some neighbors with young sons who might be fine for the job. I called him and he told me they weren't around but he'd see what he could do. Minutes later he called back and told me he'd send one of his staff ($eth is the one who just opened a restaurant in the club). He ended up coming over with H@nnah. She turned out to be a 19 year old transvestite who's much more femme and wears more makeup than me. Unfortunately she was a dressed a bit too hoochie mama for a wedding, but luckily she's my size so I outfitted her in one of my blouses and skirts and we were off.

I had every intention of arriving early but between the assistant difficulty, the traffic, the trunk being open and the driver pulling over for that, and then the car having a tire low in air and having to pull over for that too, we got there about 10 minutes after the time I'd originally committed to. Luckily there's still a cushion because I arrive at least an hour early just to take getting ready shots.

Anyway the wedding went well. I introduced H@nnah to everyone and I worried a bit that people might say something (she's attractive and takes hormones but it's still pretty obvious she wasn't born a woman) but everyone was very cool. We got to talking at one point and I asked if she went out to the club and she said she did and we both thought it was strange that we'd never met before. She said "Soy la Reyna de Manana". (It turned out that she had won the competition that they'd had there about 5 months ago when I was back in eNYC.) I laughed about this and said No, I'm the Queen of Manana. I told her how I was there all the time and everyone knew me and I felt like it was my second home and I felt like I really should be the queen. We both laughed.

It's funny how today I had 2 tranny interactions. I'm fascinated by them really and even though I meet quite a few and am friendly with most, I've never had the nerve to ask them more about their lives. But tonight before H@nnah left I asked her a few questions. She's been living as a woman for 2 years, since she was 17. She takes hormones and is thinking about getting implants. She lives with her boyfriend but feels she puts more into the relationship and is wanting to break it off. She works as a food runner in $eth's restaurant; I don't know what she did before; the restaurant has only been open about a month.

I often think it's too bad @merica has it out for me because I think it would be completely fascinating to know more about her life. Who knows...