Leaderboard

I had nothing on my agenda today so off to the mall to browse around. After entering the mall through Macy's my phone rings, look down and it's my son. So I answer the phone and he says "happy father's day". We chat, here ask how things are going in Oregon (he is in California). I did the usual, everything is fine then tell him about my transition. My expected response did not come which would be something like "why" but instead he asked questions which I answered and he seems fine with what I am doing. I told him that everyone knew except for him as I was not sure how it would be taken. At one point in the conversation I ask if it would be alright if I could come down and visit and he is fine with me coming down. Usually are chats are about ten minutes but after getting off the phone this call was almost an hour and only part of the discussion was about me while the remainder was about what he was up to and other family members. In regards to other family members, both him and he's sister chat on average once a month and she went and visited him last summer for a week. So I am very optimistic that I have a strong connection to both of my children now which is fantastic. In retrospect I was not looking forward to "the" talk about me transitioning and happy it was done now this way. UPDATE After the phone call I sent him a picture of me but did not hear back then remember him saying he was off to work after done talking. So two hours later I get a text message back in response to the picture that was all positive.

Eve, for the record I very much enjoy long drives. My first great drive was 1500 miles when I was 18 from the east coast to the center of the country. I will admit that on the 3500 mile trip each time when returning home the last 200 or 300 miles bothered me as that leg of the journey is known for police watching for people speeding. Never have been ticketed so knock on wood.

Hi, In an earlier entry I said that I was going to let you know how I got on in the Ardennes (southern Belgium and northern Luembourg), well we travelled in our Land Rover Freelander towing our caravan, started out at 02:00 Saturday morning, and got to Dover a little earlier than expected, P & O Ferries obligingly offered us an earlier sailing, which we accepted gratefully, we had bought club class lounge seats, the lounge was nearly empty, so we tried to sleep (not very successfully). Anyway an hour and a half later we were in France heading to the belgium border near Liege, where found that little improvement to the surfaces of Belgiums motorway's had been made, the pot-holes are shocking in places. So we finally arrived at La Roche en Ardenne 5 hours or so later, we were soon befriended by a Belgian couple and a Dutch couple camped adjacent to us. I was a little concerned prior to setting out from home, that there may be an amount of Transphobia in such a rural place, I have to state that my concerns were totally unfounded, I don't think that transphobia exists in the Benelux countries. Our friends from The Hague visited us staying in a small hotel in an adjacent village, we had a brilliant BBQ with Begian sausages and also some ostich and kangaroo steaks that I had purchased in England, what are they like? Kangaroo tastes like steak but is a little more dense and chewier, and ostrich is similar to a good quality pork steak, the sauasage was outstanding, the price of booze was amazing and I now have to lose the extra 2 and half kilosweight that I gained in a week, cest la vie! We had days out across the border in Luxembourg, we shopped for clothes, food, drink, and eat in restaurants on occassions. In Begium we travelled to the German border, and also across to Dinant and Namur, trying to get a real feel for the place, because it's a strong possibility that we'll move to Belgium in the next few years to retire. My wife was born in Brussles, parented by an American father and Taiwanese mother, so she has a strong affinity to her birth country, even if she moved to England when she was only 4 months old. I am surprised that there aren't very many British tourists in the area, but also pleasantly thankful ! Photos are on the edge of the ravine in Luxembourg City, a partial view of La Roche en Ardenne taken from the castle ruins, and of that Begian favourite frites with mayonaise, & yes they were nice! but I only had that one portion all the time away - honest! Next holiday is Luxembourg in September, I'm already looking forward to it. But the funny thing is I don't worry about travelling abroad as Eve anymore it's just natural to me, me being myself as I have alluded to in earlier postings and comments. Cheers, Eve

Karen, Can't we all! Eve

Hi Christie, I think you're making significant progress now, i think that you'll find that "things" start to speed up a lot in the near future............ Cheers, Eve

Mikah, I can always use improvement.

Good tips! You must be pretty well practiced.

My daugher is going to move from the Philadelphia Pennsylvania to Portland Oregon (20 minutes from my place) this coming Spring. I told her it would not be cost efficient to have her car taken on a train and a bad idea to sell it as the car is fairly new. In my late thirties I made the trip in four days across country (three times in three years in my forties) but thirty years later will more likely than not need one or two more days. So in total I am going to take two weeks off from work for this. Two days will be visiting my mother, brother and old friends (they are aware of my transition and fine with this). So I am flying out and driving the car back. Was just thinking that why not throw out this to this forum and others that might live between the two points to see if they might be interested in a visit? Would love to have the opportunity to get to see faces that are at this time only on the web.

Here's the synopsis as seen on abcfamily.go.com: "Ben, an ordinary Midwestern teenager, going through a unique situation. After his parents’ recent divorce, Ben learned that his dad is transitioning into a woman, Carly. In the series’ opener, “#WelcomeToMyWorld,” Ben is struggling in school, and his parents, Suzy and Carly, are not happy about it. Ben’s girlfriend, Danielle, would like to introduce Carly to her father, who is also transgender, leading to an awkward shopping trip for the four of them. And Ben’s sister, Sutton, returns home to Evanston to plan her upcoming wedding." I tuned into the first episode. I didn't know it was going to be another reality show, so that might have hurt the show's chances with me right off the bat - I was expecting a documentary, and expecting it to be all (only) about the trans people involved. It seemed to me that the first episode had too much "other" stuff in it besides what was going on with the trans characters. I'd rather watch a documentary, or a regular [scripted] program. I might tune in again, and give it another chance now that I know what to expect. I found episode #1 on hulu... perhaps you can view it there... http://www.hulu.com/watch/799388 I also found it on sidereel.com... you must accept cookies, and it appears you have to register on the site... http://www.sidereel.com/becoming_us/season-1/episode-1 It appears that both episodes #1 and #2 can be found on streamtuner.me - this site also requires registration... http://streamtuner.me/watch-becoming-us-online-streaming/ I also found links to YouTube, but once on Youtube, you are redirected to hulu I do not know how long these episodes will be available on these sites - I did not go so far as to check that info -Michael

Today I was thinking about the real life experience (12 months test) that a person is required by the WPATH guidelines and how I seemingly did extremely well over 12+ months and believe this is partly from having studying female mannerisms, realizing from many observations how female and male anatomies are different yet with the right preparation from watching cisgender females a cisgender male can compensate for what surgery can't give you which is the natural movements of a cisgender female and the lack of hips and longer legs. Granted that some of us have longer legs and have a more female curve but many don't. Watch a cross-dresser solely dressing for sexual gratification and we will see them wearing pencil style skirts while a male-to-female that has studied cisgender females may more often wear a skirt that flares out slightly to balance out broad shoulders. Sticking with hips and broad shoulders we can compensate by wearing high waisted jeans. I believe that no matter how well one does compensates with clothing a true telltale sign to others is when a beautiful woman walks down the street like a man, then questions begin to circle through their heads, is that a man or a woman? The aim of studying female movement is so that you can come to possess it for yourself, so that is not copying what women do, but rather making it part of your natural being, as it is for other women. One thing that is seen between males and females when walking is men's feet generally are outward while female's feet are more inward. Take note of this when out in public and I am sure you will see this too. There are natural reasons for this that men do not possess yet one can mimic by imagining that you are walking along a line, but try to curve your feet into that line as you go, rather than letting them move parallel to the line. This should produce a slight, but natural-looking jiggle, that should help you to achieve an acceptably feminine gait. Thinking of walking, how about sitting, where are your leg's, spread apart as a typical male or knees close together or touching. Are you sitting forward or backwards, where are your hands and when talking are you talking with your hands? You simply don't practice and do but practice, practice, practice and evaluate until it becomes natural and the key here is to constantly evaluate one's self.

Yes indeed we can all improve upon ourselves as the majority missed out in the early years of being brought up female.

Monica, I will be on the East Coast around April but not sure about getting to New York, will have to wait and see as the last trips took me through to Ohio then PA.

Karen, Wish I lived on the west coast. If you are ever on the east coast, I would love to show you Beacon, New York! Monica

Good to hear about your trip

Seems one hell of a long drive!, Birmingham to Luxembourg was bad enough! 3 hours to Dover and 5 hours on the continent.............I had to unsieze my joints when I got out of our Land Rover Freelander............ Good Luck, and drive safely, vaya con dios. Eve

I was watching a television show called "American Odyssey" where men in the show (in North Africa) are walking around in robes. I stopped and thought, wow, I have completely forgotten what it's like to have male parts swaying around between my legs and it has been just over four months since those parts went away. Now I can't fathom this at all, what was it like, nope, no memories. I think part of it was that after 2013 I was tucked 98 percent of the time as I could not bear to things moving around between my legs. I honestly thought about the above for a good 30 minutes and zilch. Thinking of my new breast, I am guessing in time the same will happen, can't remember what it was like to be flat chested. In the end not remembering things from the past is yet more closure

Hi Karen, I can identify with not remembering, I have had boobs for nearly 3 years now, admittedley small at first, for the last year they have developed to a reasonable size, and I can't remember what it was like without them...............I just hope that when my turn for GRS comes around the same happens again. Oh god, tucking is such a pain in the ass (figuratively speaking!, pun not intended!). Cheers, Eve

Happy Friday everyone! Later this afternoon I have my appointment with an endocrinologist to discuss HRT. It's very much a preliminary discussion, I just want to hear from a doctor what's involved (hopefully it won't be much different than what I've discovered through my own research and reading people's entries here, but hearing it from a doctor makes it more "real"). I was originally scheduled for tomorrow morning but they called yesterday to see if I could come in today instead, which is great since they're in Queens (trekking from Jersey City to Queens on Saturday morning would have been quite a drag). I assume the doctor will cover what needs to be covered, but my therapist did suggest thinking about what questions I have for them, rather than trying to think about that during the appointment. So I've done that, but if anyone has suggestions about questions, suggest away . The endocrinologist was a reference from my regular doctor, and I saw his name on a TG website, so I know he's familiar with MtF HRT. That should be a good lead-in to my "contemplation" (ongoing) this weekend. What also helps is that I'm getting used to actually being called Christie :-) I underestimated how weird that would be, but it makes sense that after 48 years of being called one thing to suddenly be called something else would take some adjustment. But it is getting more comfortable. The last step in terms of the name transition at work will be early next week when an email goes to the entire faculty and staff letting them know - we're discussing today how that will happen. xoxo Christie

Well Veronica, your humour really is outstanding, makes me smile a lot ! Eve

oooh. How satisfying Sun bathing with my transman friend today he commented on how cool it was that each of us was there on the beach in the bodies that we'd worked so hard for. I'm already forgetting the flat chested feeling - really looking forward to the next step. It's been nice to read about your journey after SRS! It's a little comforting as I am gearing up to go under the knife.