Views from a BrewTown Sista (aka The Chronicles of Kayleah H. Madison)

I want to say the title is a bit of a typo; sometimes i don't come up with a name for the piece I'm writing until long after I am done writing my blog. Like the phrase goes, never judge a book (or in this case, a blog) by it's cover (title). You never know what kind of a blog I'll write about until i start sending links on facebook, twitter or google plus. My words aren't THAT controversial. What is someone going to do after reading this, hack my Blogger account like those stupid North Koreans that went crazy inside Sony, causing them to shelf the well-publicized Seth Rogen-James Franco comedy The Interview?  I don't have anything to hide from those commie assholes and they won't find anything offensive to piss them off. Besides, who wouldn't want to take out Kim Jong-Un? They still believe THEY won the Korean War, consider the U.S.A. as a bunch of idiots and their heavy-duty propaganda has brainwashed everyone there. I saw an HBO piece on some North

We are now in the last month of 2014. Not far now from Christmas and the beginning of 2015. The days are short and crisp, the nights are long...and the tension over TWO grand juries NOT pressing charges against the police after they were involved in shooting deaths of two unarmed Black men - one of them was clearly seen via smartphone in a choke hold - is still seething in the minds of numerous Americans from all walks of life. They have been showing their anger of police force by marching down our main streets and highways protesting something we blacks know all too well...police mainly doesn't give a shit about us. I have heard the reports out of the horse's ass themselves. Grand juries hardly ever indict the officers sworn to protect them. Even in the case of Eric Garner, who as I mentioned was taken down to the ground via a choke hold AND recorded AND seen by practically everybody, justice should have come for New York's finest on the asthmatic hefty father of 6.

(November 24 is the anniversary of when my mom went home. Last year, as fate would have it, I got to sing the gospel classic Oh Happy Day on the actual day of her passing. I dedicated the song as a remembrance to her. (you can watch the video of that performance here: https://www.youtube.com/watchv=sF_2GtAsnkc&list=UUyPd3CWLxoYrwYup4uHJxFg .) Dear Mom: It's been one year since I last had the chance to "write" you. While some things have stayed the same, I made one major change in the past year that I have so far not regretted. One year ago, I felt a bit sad when I performed Oh Happy Day on the anniversary of your homecoming. I thankfully had some friends to help me cope with the ordeal. I just turned 44 about a month ago, and I feel pretty good. I may still be self-employed and reside in a motel room with a bi-polar roommate, but my health is still here.  This past April, I made an announcement on social media about how I am going to live the rest of my life. Mo

It has been a few weeks since my last blog, so it's time to do an update! This pic you see to the left was from today (10/12/14). I do like how this hair looks. The bitch is I'll have to redo everything when I wash my hair again! Anyway, this month now marks six months since going full-time, yet I still haven't resuming hormones. I started a new medical insurance plan this month, but I needed to re-order a new medical card. I still pray the cost of them aren't steep for my budget.  In a few weeks, I have a big day planned for the 26th. Well, what would YOU want me to do on my birthday, sleep my ass off? I still want to go get wasted in a proper way. I always say that, hoping to get some attention. Everyday I see myself in the mirror, I see myself becoming more and more of the woman I visioned becoming a decade ago. My hair helps feminize my facial curves, and my nails are always painted...and still growing! Until I am back on hormones, I do regularly wear a bra, wh

Last full day of Summer 2014. Where did you go? HA!!! Thought you'd not see another blog from my wonderful,incredulous mind? YOU THOUGHT WRONG!!! Today was the first full day of autumn around here. That means it won't be long until the leaves start turning brown, orange and maybe red. Then, you add the dreary weather that fall can create and you have the perfect remedy for Halloween!! That reminds me, I have to contact someone at church about this year's Trunk or Treat. It's normally held on a Friday, but this year's event will be bumped a day to Saturday, October 25...one more day until...you know what it is. I am just going to keep my mouth shut until that day is here. Or at least, not think about it as much.  I am a full-time transwoman of color for over five months now. I realize the name change to make it official may take a while to complete. $267 for court fees plus another $35-50 to post it in the local community paper for three weeks. I have abo

Well, well, well. One week into September and you thought I was only going to post video diaries of myself instead of giving you a lengthy blog to read. Besides, one of those videos I have been trying all summer to post until last week about my day at the Chicago Pride Festival...34 minutes plus! I actually posted 3 videos on YouTube just for the hell of it. School's back in session, football is a few weeks into the new season, so we can all guess summer 2014 is in the books. Good riddance, maybe? You decide. I got to march in Chicago, was a last-minute addition as a pageant judge and used public transportation as a full-time transwoman of color ( and thankfully wasn't attacked). What did YOU do this summer that was worth mentioning here? Never mind.  My friend Victoria M. Williams has mentioned she has over 10,000 pictures of herself over the years. Camera shy, she is not. I can't say I will come close to reaching that type of plateau, but since announcing my transitio

While I am continuing my transition into womanhood, I noticed that this world has flat out gone to hell and back. All of the shit that's going down in the Middle East is flat out crazy. This ISIS group beheaded an American photojournalist last week, and threatens to repeat the same thing to another American if we don't stop these airstrikes in Iraq. President Obama has sent the troops home and that damn nation can't even get its own government to get its shit together. Maybe Saddam Hussein was doing Iraq a favor.  Then you have what's going on in Israel. Gaza folks and Palantines are fighting to see who has the bigger cock and who can use it more wisely. Scary enough to even fly to its capital, Tel Aviv. Syria is even worse. GOP has been blasting Obama on how he's been handling all of these issues coming at him with no sense of mercy. Fuck 'em. He's only one person, and you'd need balls of steel and then some to deal with this buffet-style controversi

This selfie pic was taken this morning as I did my monthly shopping spree. Sure, I don't at all about being whom I want to be. Just feeling relaxed as my transgendered self. I do know that I have to be patient in what I would like to accomplish down the road. I had planned to resume going on hormones as early as last month, but more important things had to get taken care of first, like rent at this dump, minutes for my cell phone, and obtaining the everyday health & beauty needs. Welcome to life, everyone! I know it's for the best for me to put a few things on hold in order for things to be ready. Summer is already in it's last full month, and the kids will be heading back to school in a few weeks here. Tell me time doesn't fly! I am guessing God still has a plan for me as my new self. But first, I have to be responsible for whatever debt I did have in the past. I found out that I could have about $84,000 of my college loans forgiven when I can make the first

I really don’t know where to begin with this. We have seen major turmoil in Israel between the Israelites and Palestinians, Ukraine's problems with Russia, and let's not forget the plane crashes in the past week, especially the Malaysian Airlines Flight 17, shot down by Russian missles in eastern Ukraine. That airline is already gone through some hell.  You do remember this spring they had that plane going from Singapore to Bejing that crash landed somewhere in the Indian Ocean. To date, that sucker is still in Davy Jones' Locker. Then you add the recent crisis with all these immigrant children from Central America entering the USA illegally. Can you believe all these Republicans, who have flat out shown their extreme hatred for President Obama since he took office back in 2009, have started talking about impeaching him? Do they know some of this shit started when the predecessor was in office? No, they don't want to talk about that. Real Americans know Barack Obama in

                                    As you can clearly see by the pictures above, attending the annual Chicago Pride parade was wonderful! Trying to walk the entire three-mile route in your first-ever parade was HELL! So I watched most of it on the sidelines. I actually took about 76 pictures total, some of them as I tried to march in the warm midday Chicago sun. I made a 31-minute video on my experience the day after the event. Still trying to upload the sucker onto YouTube. I am so hoping that the organizers reserve a float for our group. More fun, less agony for the feet and ankles!  i did, however, uploaded a video of the waiters at Ed Debevic's (bottom photo) doing the Jackson 5 classic The Love You Save . It's a popular eatery where the waiters are known to give a lot of sass to the customers. They just happen to be spinning records when me and my pal in crime Gary showed up. The journey there was like what Jake & Elwood went through to avoid the cops, though we we

It's almost here, folks! The 2014 Chicago Pride Parade is next Sunday, and I'm going to my first one! I am also making up for what was 19 pure nights of hell from last year. The San Antonio Spurs took care of the Miami Heat in five games, and the Chicago Blackhawks fell to the eventual Stanley Cup champion L.A. Kings in 7 games. No more nights of sleeping with 15 other guys in over-sized orange jump suits! I can also say that headache is almost over. $100 more to go and it's PAID IN FULL!!! Such a relief when the last payment goes through in a month or two.  I am going with a few guys from church, including my pal Gary, who gets to spend the upcoming 4th of July weekend visiting his facebook friend in Albuquerque. Yes, the New Mexico city where Bugs Bunny routinely forgets to make a left turn when traveling underground. Guess who got to book his trip? Yours truly! Bonus!! I have never been that far out west personally, unless you count delivering small freight to Point o

Here in 2014, I have heard a lot about some momentous anniversaries about the Beatles' first arrival on the Ed Sullivan Show,  O.J. Simpson's infamous Bronco run, Ghostbusters,  Tiananmen Square and others. Well, everyone, I just happen to have an anniversary to commemorate this coming Sunday, June 15th. What happened that commemorative day? Easy. Yours truly graduated from Milwaukee Washington High School 25 years ago this coming Sunday! Damn, just thinking about a memory like that has made me grow a few extra gray hairs! We all know how much life has changed since that Thursday evening in 1989. Yes, I had all of my teeth back then! My hair was jet black (and short),and transitioning was nowhere in my mind. All I cared about was going to college outside the Midwest. Maybe even finding a girl to knock boots with. That was answered before the month was over by getting my acceptance letter from Dillard University in New Orleans.  Some of you are probably wondering what I l

There was a girl I knew back at Milwaukee Washington High School in 1986 that kinda helped make me who I am today. I doubt she'll read this, so I'll tell you her name-Jayleah D. Caldwell. She was a senior pom pon cheerleader back then, yours truly was a happy-go-lucky sophomore. I had seen her at a bus stop near McD's one Friday afternoon and tried to talk to her, but I didn't know her name. I tried to strike up a brief confrontation as she was waiting for the bus. All she did was smile. I later found out her name from a picture in the Milwaukee Community Journal newspaper. How nice! She was wearing a similar outfit to what she was wearing that day at the bus stop. She had a lovely coiffed puff of brown hair, some decent, yet patchy skin and a nice rack to match!  In the fall semester of this year we both had the same driver's ed course with our instructor, Mr. Wendorf. During my days at the "Wash House", I kept my composure as the days got shorter to

It is Memorial Day 2014. Time to remember those who served our country in our history's most memorable battles. While you guys are doing that, I'll enjoy a bowl of Grape Nuts as I FINALLY can get started on another blog to post for my fans out there...all three of them! Maybe there is more than that, but they don't stay long enough to even send me a nice commentary or something creative. Whatever works for the weary-headed.  Let me tell you folks what's been going on here, besides nothing. Seriously. I got to get in touch with my sister Annette in Minnesota. May 10th was her 52nd birthday, and she and her accountant hubby Jerry just recently celebrated 23 years of marriage this month as well. How quaint, right? Anyhoo, I tried a few times calling her on her birthday to no avail. I left a couple of messages to let her know I called. Where was this broad? She was actually in Virginia, attending my cousin's commencement from Hampton University. Another graduate of

Hello again. It's the beginning of another week living as my new feminine identity. In between doing some grocery shopping, choir rehearsal and to an extent, a few gender slip-ups by Janel, my choir director, being a new gender has given me some new perspective on my life. What I can say is that I have to daily shave any trace of stubble off my face to get that baby-bottom smooth feel on my skin. So much easier said than done. Going full-time has also helped improve how much foundation to apply. Only so much at a time...okay, Sundays only, when I go to church. Yesterday I went shopping with my friend Gary wearing no foundation but only lipstick and eyeliner. I really felt blended into society. Of course, having a nice puff of hair definitely helps! This month I have forgotten to buy my normal hair dye (Dark & Lovely Honey Bronze). My roots are showing, which has given it some reality to it...at the wrong places.  The more I see myself as a woman, I am really liking what I see.

Lord, I ask for patience as I continue my transition into womanhood. You know I will need it for both myself and my travel business!!

As a transitioning woman of color, I know that my story will have a host of journeys to achieve total womanhood. Last night I got to watch a DVD movie I hadn't seen in years.  Or rather, I lost interest in watching it after so many times.  The 2006 documentary, known simply as  Transtasia, featured a host of transwomen from around the world competing in the inaugural World's Most Beautiful Transsexual Pageant in Las Vegas for a spot in an all-TG show on The Strip. There were plenty of backstage scenes of them getting their makeup touched up, putting on or taking off their outfits (depending on the category), plus an occasional appearance of something that will always be a friend to performers everywhere....a roll of DUCT TAPE!! Along side the ever-present show-casing glamour of Sin City, six of those competitors got to do an up-close interview of their lives, each as interesting as the next. Would YOU consider them a role model? How could their comments help today's TG c