I am always reluctant to give a shout out to a particular story here. Not because there aren't fantastic stories being made, but the reverse - pointing to one story feels like not being fair to all the others being offered here.

That said, I hope you don't mind if I say I am really enjoying a story called "Prom changed Everything." Mostly because I can really identify with the main character who is struggling with her feminine side at the same time as she tries to recover from PTSD.

Yesterday, my local paper had an article about a "doctor" who thinks trans people are just autistic with a "fixation" on opposite gender stuff.

I'm 100 % sure the anti-trans people - especially the "Christians" will latch on to this guy so that's gonna be fun ...

True story. When I was in elementary, I went to the principal and asked to be promoted to the next grade. Trying to give a reason why I shouldn't, the principal gave me a test equal to what that grade would get. I passed it. Then he gave me a test for the next grade. I passed it. Finally, he gave me a test given to university students, and I failed. When I realized they weren't going to let me skip a grade, I bawled like a baby, saying I had been trying to catch up to my brother, who was 2 1/2 years older than I was.

40 something years later, i still haven't caught up to him.

Well, I found a new trigger for my PTSD. See, for the last while I have been reading "The Dark Tower" by Steven King, and partway through the second book, I started getting shaky. But I didn't connect it to what I was reading, because it didn't contain my usual triggers.

okay, I want to talk about dreams for a moment.

I am not sure I understand, much less agree with all dream analysis, but when patterns start get being repeated in dreams, its at least possible your brain is trying to tell you something.

For example, I've had a lot of "searching" dreams - dreams where I was looking for a person, a place, or an object.

The last week of the year is often given over to reflection on the year that is about to pass, so let me add my own take on 2016.

Out in the world, its been a year of tremendous change -not a lot of it positive. Trump, Brexit, the growing power of Russia, terrorism, - its been pretty hard to find a lot of good news.

Plus, this has been the year of the Celebrity Death. I honestly cant think of a year where more famous people have died, and not just b or c listers, but huge names have left us this year.

Well, I had a mostly nice Christmas. My mom was working and brother and my sister-in-law were gone for the weekend, so it was pretty quiet. I did my laundry, took out the garbage, binge-watched "Dirk Gently's holistic detective agency" on Netflix (it was awesome), and then when my mom came home we went to Sharon's and had a supper and gift exchange with her and Samantha. Other than her calling me "Todd", it was a pretty good time, except I had a bit of a panic attack.

Okay, weird dream last night. I found myself in a haunted house, fighting ghosts with not much more than my bare hands, and as remarkable as it seems, I won. But the dream wasn't done yet. At the end of the fight, God told me to pray for one of the ghosts to return to his body and live again. I did as I was told, with my hand on a casket, and the person was restored to life.

If God's trying to tell me something, I think I need an interpreter ...

Well, I got some tentative good news about the money I am owed from Walmart. I got the last piece of info I needed to send in the forms they asked for, and mailed everything off today. I have been told that I should get a check early in the new year.

Should I cross my fingers?

Crap. One of my favorite singers, Laura Branigan, has passed away.

Darn it, 2016 is apparently not done messing with us ...

I got a visit from my old friends, Pain and Panic today.

Its funny how often they travel together.

I damaged my car this morning, I was in serious pain all day and feeling sick to my stomach so I couldnt take anything, the pain set off my PTSD, so I spent most of the day fighting panic attacks ..

Sighs ... just another day ...

huggles appreciated, folks.

You remember all that fighting I went through to get my drugs covered by my work even though that had been promised from the day I was hired, and they finally told me they got it fixed?

Well, I tried it out today, and my wonderful drug plan saved me a grand total of under 2 dollars on a 45 dollar refill of my estrogen gel.

Can I pull my hair out now?

Well, I have some good news to share.

First, my mom bought me some new shoes, and they seem to be helping me walk a little better.

This will really help put less strain on my knees and hips, so that's a yay.

The other bit of good news is my doctor has arranged for me to see a specialist in January about the pain in my privates, so hopefully, I might get some answers as to why I often hurt there.

Disney has released a new animated movie, and one of the characters in it is Maui, who is a trickster (demi) god.

When I read that, it got me thinking how common the idea of the trickster is. Almost every mythology around the world seems to have a character who could be called a trickster, whether its Maui, or Loki, or Annasi (trickster spider from Africa, who was so clever he often tricked himself).

I wonder what that says of us as a species, that we love the idea of a trickster so much?