Inspiration

 From "Kira Moore's Closet" Blog:

Party On!

 To the left, a picture of my granddaughter, daughter and myself. Included to my right is my ex wife's husband who had the strokes and behind is my youngest grandson. 

Not shown (of course) is my daughters father in law who seems to hate the world with me in it. 

Connie, it seems has the same problem:

"I have the same problem with the F-I-L of my eldest daughter. I know that I make him very uncomfortable, which is great, because he had always made me uncomfortable before I was out. He's one of those with whom any conversation leads to nowhere. That is, he never gives more than a three word answer to any question - unless it is about his church and their fundamentalist teachings, the subject of which I have always tried to avoid. I rather enjoy watching him biting his tongue now, because he is afraid to talk about things that he knows would offend me, as well as everybody else in the family. It's not really that he doesn't want to offend; he's afraid of the repercussions. I still greet him with a friendly hello, and convey that it was nice to see him again upon his departure, but I'm so glad that just being myself is enough reason for us to not have to engage the whole time in-between. I'm thinking that he's just burning up inside that he sees everyone else accepting and loving me, and my happiness is not affected by his presence or glaring from across the room.

It's great that you had such a wonderful reunion. Let's hope we never have to go through such a separation again."

Let's hope not indeed! Thanks for the comment!

Finally

 Yesterday was finally my first day out supposedly under "normal" conditions in other words, going to my oldest grandson's graduation party.

Unfortunately,  Liz wasn't feeling well, so I made the nearly three hour round trip alone. 

Once I arrived,  my greeting was warm and inviting, even driving my daughter to tears. Other than that, not much else had changed. Her father in law ignored me when he wasn't busy glaring at me. The grandkids were all nice including my rainbowed hair granddaughter  who is on summer break from The Ohio State University. My son in law was pleasant but detached as always and his sister along with brother in law were busily getting drunk. (Sounds like a Christmas family dinner, right?}

A Picture Taken at my Very First Girls Night Out. 
That's me on the Bottom Row Left. 

Ironically, a year and half from the last time I saw everyone, very little had changed. Also my ex wife who is also the mother of my daughter was there along with her husband who recently suffered another stroke. 

What I enjoy most is the acceptance I receive from the overwhelming majority of the group. As I was coming out and entering the feminine world, their backing was invaluable.  I had years of toxic male behavior to make up for. 

Of course I dressed to blend. I wore my "Memorial Day" stars and stripes smock top with a pair of leggings and tennis shoes. 

The best part of the whole day was my daughter and I pledged to set up a girls breakfast get together with her, my grand daughter, Liz and I. She has time off coming from her job soon to make it happen.