Jumping the Great Divide

I didn't really publicize the fact I was taking off on a mini vacation down into a very rugged area of West Virginia last week for about four days.
A genetic girl friend and I made the trip as two women and no we were not "roughing" it. If the truth be known I'm a huge rail buff and there are several historic operating train lines around the Elkins-Cheat Mountain area of West Virginia.
As fun and relaxing as all of that was, the fact still remained that I was leaving all vestiges of my male past behind for an unprecedented four days.
Interestingly enough, I have a ton of thoughts to pass along. So many in fact, I'm experiencing an overload problem of how to do it in some sort of coherent fashion.
My goal  for the next week is to try to pick bits and pieces from the trip and pass them along-including some of my friend's insights.
In essence, I'm unpacking my luggage and my mind.

Welcome?

OK, if I've heard it once, I've heard it a million times. "Welcome to Our World" 
From the first development of sore breast "buds" to the dry skin to the hot flashes, my genetic girl friends have laid it on me.
Hey, I love it. Obviously, I want to be in their world.
Also I should point out (as with most of my life) I'm fairly certain I'm doing this transition thing backwards. I have experienced a ton of feminine socialization, it's keeping up with their world physically or at least
coming up to speed has been the challenge.
I always knew of course that female was the high maintenance gender but really?
Filling a bathtub full of 10w30 weight oil to re-lubricate my skin which could have been reacting to the fact my body was doing a wonderful job of self combusting all summer is an example. As I have written, all those frilly girly shower or bath moisturizers just aren't cutesy girl stuff...you need them!
Now summer comes to an end and it's time to add another intensely feminine aspect to my progression-hair.
We all know how inherently sensual a woman's hair can be.  For out entire lives we watch girls and then women seemingly always primping or playing with their hair. In addition, you have probably read a couple of the articles concerning how much the average woman spends on her hair in a lifetime.
All right, go ahead and say it girls: "Welcome to Our World". In an incredibly short period of time, I've had to step up my shampoo game  to a shampoo with conditioner and now a shampoo with conditioner for regular color treated hair. Plus, lets not forget the spray bottle of "Freeze and Shine" which I'm supposed to spray five times on my hair before I use the blow dryer with more attachments than an old wrench set I kept losing pieces to.
As I said, I have a lot of catching up to do but that's all right. It's really different to reach up to adjust your wig and it's your head and hair and all ready I feel helpless to do much with the actual style I have.
I am fond of saying "I'm nothing if not persistent" and I have two really positive factors working for me:
The first is I'm told I have good hair to work with. The second and most important is I have some really good friends to help me!

The Power of One Three Letter Word

Not long ago I became embroiled in a sports conversation with two genetic female friends.
I happen to believe some of us are genetically predispositioned to dislike certain opposing sports teams as much as we are to be transgender. (Well, not really but it sounds good!)
In this case both of them are Pittsburgh Steelers  fans and if you must know I have felt the pain and abuse of rooting for the Cincinnati Bengals since they were founded in the 1960's. Of course (as I would have done to them) they were blasting me the same way the Steelers have blasted the Bengals over the years.
The problem? None, because they had to have used the "she" word in reference to my poor choice of teams at least 4 or 5 times in five minutes. "She" doesn't know football, "she" is the only Bengals fan left etc...(hey, I live an hour from "Cinci"...can't fool me. I know there are a couple more of us out there!)
Of course I knew it was in good fun and no matter how passionate women think they are about sports, rarely can they bring the pain like a man.
I'm fairly jaded and secure about my little place in the world but little did they know how much their acceptance of me and the use of the "she" word meant to me. They don't read this so it's very difficult to express my gratitude to them BUT there are more than a couple more of you who I know read "Cyrsti's Condo" who are in the same boat.
I can only say you make my soul sing with your unconditional acceptance of me and I thank you!!!
On the negative side, if my soul sings the same as the rest of me-maybe I should find some other way to express it!

Transgender Six.

July 1st marks 6 months on hormones for me.
Of course I'm asked "what's the biggest change?"
Very simply, the biggest change is the skin I live in. All this time I thought all the commercials I saw for women's body washes and moisterizers as so much feminine fluff. I was wrong.
My skin started to dry out on my face and proceeded down my body. All of the sudden I was the one checking retail shelves for body washes and seeking info from my genetic girl friends.
I'm not going to tell you the "fluff" isn't fun but all of the sudden my skin suddenly became a force to be recogned with. Sure skin is a summer fashion accessory but if I didn't moisterize and pamper mine-it let me know.
The second biggest question is "did I make the right choice?".  Easy answer: YES!
I simply love what my life is becoming and can't wait for more!