I met a cute trans woman named Riley last weekend at the TNG munch/party, the first pre-op t-girl I’ve met in a long, long time. Meeting her made me think a lot about my own transition, and the progress I’m still making in my new identity.
Like most women, I have a lot of body image issues, but I’m always making progress to address them. For example, I don’t like my legs very much because my skin there has lots of marks from when I was a child that have never gone away. I don’t know why that happens, but fortunately the rest of my skin is pretty clear.
So in summers past I’ve never gone bare legged to work, no matter how hot it was. I would always wear long skirts, slacks or hose. This was dreadfully uncomfortable when I worked in the city and had to navigate the subways in the muggy heat of the afternoon. One thing I don’t miss about working in the city is riding crowded subway trains at the height of summer and being pressed on all sides by sweaty bodies.
But this year is different. Maybe it’s because I have such a supportive boss who accepts all my strangeness in stride. Maybe it’s because I’ve gotten so used to wearing skirts because that’s what I wore all winter, along with tights. Maybe I just don’t care as much about sacrificing comfort for appearance. But this summer I’m taking advantage of the female prerogative to wear shorter skirts and bare legs to keep cool on the hottest days.
I’ve been thinking about taking a trip somewhere while Puck is in Russia this summer, just to distract myself and because I haven’t had a real vacation in many years. I think it would be good for me to go somewhere I can reconnect with nature, maybe visit Vancouver Island to go whale watching from a kayak. Another idea would be to take a walking tour through Ireland. I guess I should go see a travel agency and find out what’s available.
In other news, people really like my hair color – I get lots of compliments on it. I guess I should take some pictures of it, but I haven’t been taking a lot of pictures lately for some reason. I actually forgot my camera last weekend for Jon’s party, but we were in a bit of a rush coming from Staten Island to get to Penn Station.
Maybe this weekend I’ll take some of me at the Folsom Street East street festival, where I’ll be at the Open Love NY booth and making a speech to accept a donation from them honoring my friend Diana Adams, who will be recognized with the 2011 Sexual Freedom Award.
