Are the Knives Sharpened?

It's been a minute since I have written here about the differences I learned almost immediately in gender conflict. Or, the stamina it takes to be a transgender woman survivor.

Very quickly I found men would either head to the other side of the room, ignore me or lay down the occasional cheap shot. Women however were much different of course.

I learned many times a smiling feminine face was concealing a sharp knife behind her back. So I ended up being wounded more than once.

It will be interesting to see how many of the women tomorrow night (23) migrate at all towards me or away from me.

I have been to "girls only" events before and the big difference was family talk versus sports and job talk. Which I can still do equally as well.

The only thing I don't have is grandkid pics...a needed accessory.

The only woman I can see who would remotely find me offensive is a religious right winger and I don't want to be part of that! (She doesn't.)

So, my junior knife set is sharpened and I can't wait to have a good time.

It's All Just Paint

Back in the day, I always had an incredibly difficult time painting my model cars just right. Ironically that inadequacy carried on through to the present when I try to paint my own nails.

Last night though, I seemed to have a breakthrough of sorts as I gave myself a pedicure which is yet another girl thing I have to do before the Saturday "girl's only" bonfire invite.

While far from from perfect, I believe my work was serviceable and will be fine for my open toed footwear I plan for Saturday. Plus, once I started to try on clothes, not so surprisingly, I flew through option "A" and "B" and settled on "C". Which is by far the coolest most comfortable outfit I have for a 90 degree evening. Without having to go into too much detail. I' m wearing white culottes with a gray and blue striped top and macrame flip flops.

What is really nice these days is that I don't have to worry about wearing an overabundance of any makeup. Again making life much easier in the Ohio heat and humidity.

So maybe my problem was all the time, I was using too much paint! 

Ameila Gapin

My partner Liz is a runner, and me not so much, so imagine my surprise when she harrassed me for not even giving her latest "Women's Running" Magazine a second look. On the cover was a full length shot of Ameila Gapin runner first and transgender woman second.

The magazine itself did a wonderful job of taking on the task of the challenges trans women face when they compete as far as gender markers, testosterone levels etc.

I am not a runner, but I will gladly tell anyone who will listen, how estrogen and HRT will sap your body strength before you know it.

Ameila goes into it as only a dedicated runner can in this article. Plus, you can follow her SRS challenges on her blog link above.