On the Road

Today is finally my workshop day at the Trans Ohio Symposium. So this post will be very short.

I hope you all are well and having a great weekend!

Trans Dar?

Wednesday, as I was waiting for Liz to wrap up her Doctor's appointment and playing on my phone, this younger person walked in and sat down across from me. Of course, at my age, almost everyone is a "younger person".

Very quickly we engaged, much faster than I do with most people. Also my mind clicked into I am talking to another transgender woman. She was very presentable and was wearing a type of pink and blue necklace. As we conversed, I had an idea we both wanted to ask each other about being transgender but couldn't bring ourselves to be that bold.  She even mentioned the in house hospital gift shop was serving coffee from a local coffee shop which also has been known to host a monthly transgender meeting. So she was giving off all the right clues.

Later I began to think if I remembered Liz's Doctor  being mentioned as a trans friendly therapist in any of the groups I have been to. And it seems I have.

Damn, it's a small world!

Final Plans

The Trans Ohio Symposium begins tomorrow (Friday) and it's finally time to take a final look at the weather and plan my wardrobe. Initially, the weather was forecast to be on the warm and dry side but of course that has all changed. The latest forecasts are calling for wetter and cooler weather. Lows at night are predicted to be in the low 40's.

Now I am back to "Plan B". Or, planning on wearing my lightweight sweaters and leggings. It won't matter that much though, since I am comfortable in those outfits.  Plus, as you all have probably guessed, I don't fall into the feminine "over dressed" category very many times. Since I have been living full time as a woman for so long now, I do quite a bit of the dressing to blend with the greatest majority of the other women I encounter.

A great example was yesterday when I went with Liz to her Doctors' appointment. I wore a frilly, lacy blouse with jeans, light make up and tennis shoes and did just fine.

Also today, I have to finish up printing off my cover sheet and other papers I will need for my workshop. It will be interesting to see how many attendees I get since I am up against four other workshops. Plus, Liz seems to think the early starting time may effect the turnout too.

Finally, I just received a final reminder on my rental car we have reserved for the weekend. Knock on wood, but all the plans are moving forward well.

Mid Week Shuffle

Wednesday (today) is going to be spent doing errands and checking on the availability of the wardrobe I think I want to wear to the Trans Ohio Symposium coming up this weekend.

The weather seems to be cooperating with fairly warm temperatures and very little rain predicted. A couple years ago, it rained all the time seemingly.

Also, again this year, the Capital City Half Marathon will be running again on the main street in front of the Student Union of The Ohio State University where the Symposium is held. All of that makes it difficult to get across the four lanes of traffic to get into the venue. Essentially, you need to find a way in from behind the building through the campus.

We try to dodge that huge problem by getting the shuttle from our hotel to take us. Timing will be everything in that we are going to try to get there early enough to enjoy the complimentary breakfast/coffee and have plenty of time to set up for my workshop at nine.

Thursday, I am going to get more serious about putting together the outfits I would like to wear.

Great Memory

Last night, as I always do, I stopped for a cup of my fave coffee on my way to the transgender support group meeting. The manager has been there since I started to go in.

He is always nice enough to make small talk with me and ask about how my weekend was. Amazingly enough last night, he said isn't it about time for you (me) to head up to Columbus, Ohio for our party weekend. Otherwise known as our Trans Ohio Symposium Weekend.  I told him yes, it is coming up this weekend and I was amazed at his memory.

Somewhere along the way I must have made an impact with my barista!

Speaking of impacts, Leann wrote concerning my Easter Sunday/Mike Pence post here in Cyrsti's Condo:

"I did have a very holy Easter, thank you. Many so called Christians (and those like the woman who said Pence came from a good Christian family) are unwilling to acknowledge is that simply not violating the ten commandments in public does not make one a good Christian. Loving one's neighbor unconditionally is also required of a Christian. Pence and his ilk do not appear to be following this precept. Jesus tells us to love thy neighbor as thyself as part of the Great Commandment. This seems to be lost on far too many who claim to be following Christ. For these we should all pray for their conversion to true Christianity."

Thank you Leann, well put!

Trans Ohio Symposium

Since this Saturday at 9 AM is my workshop presentation at the Trans Ohio Symposium in Columbus, Ohio, I thought I better get started on my notes.

To start with, I'm going to pass out a cover page and paper which simply outlines the questions and symptoms of my topic. Gender Dysphoria.

It goes something like this:

                                                            Gender Dysphoria

               Sex?          Sexuality?           Gender?

          Stress...Tension...Anxiety...Withdrawal...Emotion...Suicide

Somewhere along the line, I may come up with an outline and/or brief bio to save me droning on about myself for a lone period of time.

For once, I am going to try to stay on point and organized which is always not so easy considering how my mind works!

A Good Christian Family?

This post could be mistaken for an Easter Sunday religious sermon but it is far from that.

To start with, I am a highly spiritual but Buddhist/Wiccan leaning person. I believe in what Jesus Christ stood for and taught but see too many evangelical hypocrites talking out of both sides of their face concerning transgender issues. That is, if you are lucky.

Take last night for example. Our cross dressing "friend" was told the Mike Pence banana joke. Through a grimace/smile she managed to blurt out what a great guy Pence was (claims she knows him since both are both from Indiana) and came from a "good Christian family." I about threw up in my throat which was not a good feeling before dinner.

Backtracking a bit, the cross dresser did show up in all his feminine finery, along with his two delightful college age daughters. It's my fault but I did not pursue what could have been a very ugly pre-dinner conversation about current politics in our country. I realize of course, the cross dresser doesn't really have any serious "stakes" in the LGBT game. Since he never served his country, he doesn't have any knowledge of the torment caused by the Trump/Pence supported transgender military ban. Plus wouldn't coming from a "good Christian family" mean Pence would be more understanding? For sure, Trump is the furthest example of an anti-Christian we have ever seen in office.

OK, enough of my rant. As I said, it s my fault for letting him off the hook last night.

Finally, I hope all you devout Christians' are able to enjoy Easter Sunday for all the day brings to you!

Saturday Night Lights

Tonight I will supposedly meet the two daughters of the cross dresser I am not really fond of.  You may remember, this is the one who is madly in love with Liz and has made the comment that all transgender women on hormones are bitches. One good way to make sure we are one is to come up with a sweeping stereotypical comment like that!

At any rate, I am looking forward to where we are going to eat and seeing if the cross dresser comes as his guy self, which he has done in the past. I am also interested to see if the daughters show up at all. If either happens, I don't know why we were invited at all.

I will let you know what happens!

Fierce

Last night was the third Thursday monthly social for cross dressers and transgender women Liz and usually attend.

At last nights' get together, seemingly, everyone had a good time and even had a couple of trans men attend. The venue we go to is normally very empty except for our group and last night was no different. We even have the same server.

All went well until it was time to pay and Liz was handling the credit card receipt to our server. For some reason, the server proceeded to call me "he" twice in the same sentence...to Liz. I found out if there is one thing more dangerous than misgendering me to me, it's doing it to Liz. In a split second, Liz fiercely set the server right. I was not a he! It all happened so fast I barely had a chance to comprehend what just happened.

I love her so much!

Liz and I at last years' Cincinnati Pride 

Changing subjects and going back to my endocrinologist visit a couple weeks ago, Connie had this to say:

 "I'm surprised that your endocrinologist didn't tell you about laying off bananas while on Spiro. Bananas (with peanut butter) has been my favorite mid-morning snack since childhood. I can even have withdrawal symptoms if I don't get my beloved banana boost. I'm sure that is why I took note of Spiro's effect of a potential potassium build-up when I was researching it many years ago. I would sacrifice my daily banana, though, for the lessening of my testosterone, but my levels have gone down with age, anyway. 

Speaking of bananas, have you heard that Mike Pence is so homophobic that he eats them sideways? :-)"

In all fairness to my VA Endo Doc, she seems to be over worked and under paid and remembering back not so long ago, my Veteran's Administration Medical Center didn't even have an Endocrinologist at all. I really have had no problem with the care I have gotten at the VA but on occasion you have to remember you get what you pay for and be patient...or be the patient. 

Ironically, it was a transgender friend of mine who reminded me about bananas when I started on Spiro.  And yes I have heard that about Pence. Saturday night, we are meeting up with a cross dresser friend of ours who knows Pence's brother over in nearby Indiana. It should make for an interesting dinner conversation!