Dear Karen,

When I look at your pictures, you look 35.

Love the drawing of the lady with the butterflies.  It looks like a black pencil drawing with colored pencil drawing of the butterflies!

You seem to make friends right and left in Portland.  Is that standard for Portland.  The people seem so friendly.  When I spoke to people on the phone at Portland's LGBT Center, they all seemed so friendly.  

You are very lucky that you are self-lubricating, as some doctors warn their pre-op patients that they may not be self-lubricating.  As a cisgender woman, I was self-lubricating with no trouble until a few years after my radical hysterectomy, after which my vagina became thin, dry, atrophied and definitely NOT self-lubricating!

My hope is that you soon find a compatible, committed, loving, monogamous life long partner that has a strong drive to share this with you!

Your friend,

Monica

Monica, I never had any issues personally with making friends in Portland yet don't know if this is the norm per-say. I will say overall people are friendly here unlike other cities I have been too or live in. I never met anyone at the LGBT center that was not friendly.

I sure hope that someday I will be in a monogamous relationship, will have to wait and see how the cards play out.

Looking your age. You know, it seems to me, that Transitioning does make you look younger than your real age, peope have also told me similar as you have said Karen, and when my close friends show me pictures of their former male selves they always look a lot older than their present feminine selves, even myself who as a rather sceptical "it'll never happen" person have to admit when looking at old photo's of me I am shocked at how much older I looked at that time. A strange phenomena indeed...............

Or did you always look young?

Glad someones having a summer anyway, it seems to be Autumn here already!

Cheers,

Eve

Eve and Karen,

Karen, you looked about 35 both as a man and as a woman.  Has been my experience that if a handsome man transitions into a woman, she tends to be pretty or beautiful.  The reverse is also true; when a beautiful or pretty woman transitions into a man, he tends to be handsome.  

Monica

Eve, I have always looked younger than my earthly age yet from transitioning everything has gotten much softer

This is from 2002 teaching defensive tactics

Then there is today (sorry to lazy to get dressed)

Karen,

In every picture of you as a man, you pass as a mid-butch Lesbian, and as a woman, you pass as a mid-fem Lesbian!  Of course, MANY Straight women have the same degree of femininity as you.

In other words, I would not have even thought you were a man in ANY of your pictures, as a man, and, DEFINITELY as a woman!

Monica

Monica, I took the following 100 question test and got ClassicFemme

http://www.lesbiatopia.com/2007/11/are-you-butch-femme-or-lost-in-middle.html

Karen, I just took the quiz and I came up Androgyne.  It described me to a 'T'.  Still feel I am a "mid-butch," which they may call "Classic Butch," although that wasn't one of their choices.  Presently, I dress more feminine and have a more feminine haircut in order to get along with my family and the community.  Have been described by friends as butch on the outside and fem on the inside!  In my opinion, I was raised in a traditional family, and I think my friends misunderstand my "old fashioned" behavior. Think "Classic Fem" is also known as "mid-fem."  My beloved was a mid-fem.  Highly recommend everyone who identifies as a Lesbian to take the quiz, because it does give you a lot of self-insight!

Karen, Monica, sorry to disagree with you both. You look so much younger as a female than in your male photo ! I do however presume that you have not had tatoo removal, and that you are in fact the guy looking straight ahead at the camera? Your face has changed so much...............and in my opion for the better too!

By the way, curiosity got the better of me and I followed the link and came out as true androgyne, however I'd suggest that the test might be ok for cis lesbians, but it can't really take into account past male experiences such as mechanical engineering and the ability to do things for yourself, I can fix most things mechanical or electrical, I used to do it for a living in my 20's and 30's. I'd have thought that my persona is more femme than recorded. Anyway I'd have described myself as pragmatic first and foremost.....................

I just took the quiz and got "strong femme" (33-40, so it was just outside of androgynous).

​Yes I am the one looking into the camera as I was explaining a technique for students behind the camera. On a side note, the person on the left is a MMA fighter and was impressed that I could control him and then after class got me to teach some of his students.

For those taking the quiz, how I did it was, did not look at before 1/27/2015 and only from there forward as I have changed a lot which actually started one year prior for what it's worth. Hormones did a lot for me

Interesting that the quiz was written in 1998, and is so accurate in 2015, 17 years later!