Correction

In the long history (8 + years) of the Cyrsti's Condo blog, I have been fortunate enough to have tried to seek out the facts I write about successfully. But, I am human too (and spell check isn't), so I have been known to mess several up too.

In the "Old and New Friends" post I inadvertently spelled Monika's name with a "C" not a "K". My apologies.

Monika also noticed the "Mom" comment about her too. Unfortunately, I didn't take the extra effort to mention we are both approximately the same age.

As you may remember, initially I got my feelings a little hurt when she commented negatively about my hair...just like my own Mom would have done. So, the "Mom" comment wasn't really about age at all.

There is a happy ending to all of this... I hope. After I got my hair done and colored Monika did make me a nice bunch of compliments.

That is what I would have desperately wanted to happen with my real Mom. Maybe it was all wishful thinking. I am sorry I put Monika on the spot though. It wasn't fair to her!

Short and Sweet?

This post is going to be decidedly shorter than the usual ramblings I turn out.

We have been having troubles with our internet provider and had to have a service person come to the house to solve the puzzle.

I'm not much of a technological genius, so most of the conversation between him and Liz was gibberish to me. Since Liz works from home and her computer/internet is very important, I just sat and listened.

Along the way, the service person said (in reference to me), she doesn't seem to know much about the system. I replied, I was basically only concerned with having the internet up and running enough to write my blog.

I was happy with being called by the proper pronoun and left it at that.

Break Down

Connie kindly read the lengthy article I spotlighted here in Cyrsti's Condo about the ridiculous transgender military ban. You can see the post here. Here is her (Connie's) take:

"Let me first make it clear that I think this ban is ridiculous, and unconstitutional, as well. Bravo for these women's efforts!

The part of the story that really intrigues me is this part:

"She’s worried about people who are only just realizing they’re transgender. Hendrick came out at 46 years old and hadn’t known of a trans person other than on television before 2014. She said one of her clients realized they were trans after seeing congressional testimony from a trans military member.
“When I realized what was going on with me, I was like ‘I have to transition now, even if it ruins my career. I’ve been alive for 46 years and I have not experienced life as who I truly am. I need to do this,’” Hendrick said.

I realize that my gender identity and dysphoria are mine, and mine alone. I can't expect that every other trans person has had the same experiences. However, it's difficult for me to believe that one goes through life, especially into middle-age, unaware of their own dysphoria - let alone never seeing some sort of similarity between themselves and trans people they have seen on TV. I also understand denial, but you can't deny something unless you've first recognized it.

I can only take her (Hendrick's) statement as her own truth. When I was 46, I was hiding in the closet, having lived with my dysphoria since early childhood. While she made a complete transition (physically, anyway) in just two years, I was still hiding myself in the closet at 48. In fact, it was another ten years before I could decide that I had to live the rest of my life as a woman. 

I certainly don't advocate following my path to transition, but, even had I not been the procrastinator that I am, I don't think I could have made such a drastic change in only two years' time. Although I don't believe in all the "rapid onset" nonsense, this case seems just about as rapid as it could be.

As I said, intriguing."

Thanks!