A Quiet Week

Not much happening this week. I have chosen not to make the one hundred plus mile journey in mostly rush hour traffic to my Veteran's Administration LGBT support group meeting. They are just going to have to make it without me.

Sometime this week I am going to have to reserve our hotel room for the Trans Ohio Symposium. I still haven't heard back yet on my workshop proposal on Mtf  gender dysphoria.  A friend of mine is making her second trip to the "Keystone Conference", A Celebration of Gender Diversity, next week in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  As a sidelight, the LGBT group I am part of here in Cincinnati is thinking of starting it's own regional conference. Which is quite a bit of work! In a previous life, I was a big part of bringing a state service club convention to my old hometown.

Also this week, I am going to have to quit procrastinating and schedule my mammogram which my Doctor's have wanted me to get done since January. I better schedule it before my Endocrinologist appointment in early April, so I won't catch any extra trouble.

Finally, we supposedly have another Cincinnati Witches Ball meeting coming up. The last one was so rough with in fighting, I just wonder if the whole thing will collapse. We will see.

I hope you all have a good week!

Saturday Night

We did end up going out last night for a special dinner for a visitor from Oregon. Jennifer (the visitor was delightful). We ended up sitting right across from her in the group of twelve. I asked her if she knew Connie in Seattle :).

The gathering included Liz and I, one transgender guy and nine other transgender and/or cross dressers there. Oh, and I forgot, one lesbian. Subtract one of the cross dressers to keep the math straight. (No pun intended.)

A good time was had by all beginning with a neighboring table buying us two bottles of wine before one of them left. Maybe he was a closeted cross dresser himself? At any rate, he set the wine drinkers at the table up for success.

In addition, to our table, the staff of the restaurant was very nice and some of us are bordering on becoming regulars. It is still relatively chilly around here, so I wore one of my usual sweater/leggings outfits.

After dinner, we came home and most of the other attendees went to an Irish Pub to enjoy a bit of St. Patrick's  Day festivities.

Oh, to be young again!

Sports Fan?

Here in Cyrsti's Condo, I have written often about how I felt when I began to cross the Mtf gender frontier and began living as a transgender woman.

One of the problems I had was reconciling my life long love of sports with my new life. Slowly but surely, I learned I didn't have to. Following some unfortunate happenings at gay venues (being discriminated against) I began to seek out a few of my former haunts to see if I could succeed in them. A couple were big sports bars/restaurants. As it turned out, for the most part I could go, watch my sports, drink my beer and be a woman. And, as an extra benefit, I met a couple other women (lesbians) who happened to share my love of sports. We had a great time and on occasion even were joined by another trans woman friend of mine.

Perhaps my biggest sports events came at professional baseball and football games in Cincinnati. One of my friends and I went to a couple Cincinnati Reds games followed by a NFL Monday Night Football game, again in downtown Cincinnati. What I remember the most was the abject fear of discovery from sitting around the same people (strangers) for such a long period. Even outdoing my fear of using the rest room. It all proved to be unfounded because, surprise-surprise, the other people were there to watch the game...not me.

All of this brings me to a similar comment from Connie:

"A major milestone, early in my transition, was reached when I actually went to a Mariners game. Sitting for three hours in one place among the same group of people opens one up to the potential of scrutiny like nothing else could. That was my fear, anyway. While there is plenty of downtime during a baseball game to do some people watching, I don't think I have ever been considered to be much more than just another fan who paid for a ticket, thus having the same right to be there as anyone else. I've been to many games since, and the only time I've sensed disapproval at a game was for snagging a foul ball from the guy who was falling over my back to get it for himself. Everyone else gave me a cheer!

Really, though, if one is tentative about being in a crowd of people, I would urge them to try to forget about anyone else. Chances are that they aren't going to even notice you, either. Besides, there's safety in a crowd. I'm much more aware (and rightfully so) when walking alone in a parking lot; all women should be"

So, if you are thinking of pursuing .your love of sports as a transgender woman or cross dresser, hitch up your big girl panties and do it!