It’s hard to believe, today marks the 7th year of my blog. On October 1st, 2002, I started my blog, then called my diary, on TransLife.net, which is now a mostly unused site that is in desperate need of a rebuild. Things certainly have changed in all that time. It’s hard to believe I began my transition so long ago now. At 28, I’ve almost lived a third of my life as a woman.
Lately Chris and I have been watching How I Met Your Mother (which is an awesome show by the way), and it has such a strong sense of nostalgia. Today I feel that nostalgia. I’ve put a lot of energy into telling my story over the years. It’s had its ups and downs. It’s gotten me in trouble. It’s gotten me notoriety. I know it’s had an impact on people, because I hear from those people on an almost daily basis. That makes me feel good. It by far outweighs any negatives…hands down.
I started this blog with the intention of sharing my story with the world. I wanted to be an example to other trans folk that are too scared of what might happen to them if they came out. I wanted to help educate the world on trans issues. Most of all, I wanted to show the world that people who are trans aren’t freaks. We’re every day people with every day lives that are just like everyone else’s. I think I can say I accomplished a lot towards those goals.
Over the past seven years, this blog has become more than that collection of goals for me. This blog truly helps me understand myself better. It helps me in a very cathartic way too. I feel like once I’ve written about an issue I have in my personal life, I can almost let that issue go finally. It helps me get things off my chest. I truly feel like I’ve become a better person because I’ve written this blog.
It’s a great feeling knowing that I’ve been able to do all of the aforementioned stuff just from a silly thing like a weblog. OK…I think I’m done with both reflecting on things and patting myself on the back. On to new stuff…
Not much happened since the post on the 15th. I caught a cold. That’s been fun. I’m still recovering. Let me tell you…I am quite sick of mucus. I’ve gone through at least three boxes of kleenex. All things considered, though, it hasn’t been a terrible cold. It was mainly a head cold. Lots of congestion, though my ears never did that whole “one ear has different pressure than the other” thing. Thank god…I hate that. I’ve just had a raw, runny, drippy nose.
Oh…some progress on this site! I finished my bio. You should go check it out. It has fancy lightboxes for the photo displays. I think I’ll tackle the speaker page next. I’ve been thinking about speaker fees. I want to get that online pretty soon. After that, I’ll tackle the photo gallery / media section. I’m trying to figure out how to use Ruby to build an xml feed for my photo gallery. That may take a bit yet.
I’m excited about a shindig that’s planned with some of my Milwaukee friends. We’re having a geeky lady shindig in a few weeks. It’s going to be fun, exciting, and nerdy all at the same time. I’m sure I’ll write about it in an upcoming post.
Chris’ 30th birthday is just over a week away. About a year ago, I decided I wanted to throw him a surprise party. That kinda got spoiled when he decided he wanted a superhero costume party instead. Well and now that’s probably not happening either. Instead we’re going out to eat. Amazing how things change. I’m looking forward to it.
There is a small hang up though. That same evening is the LGBT Community Center’s annual meeting, which I have to be present at to get elected to the board. I’ve officially filled out the paperwork and so forth to run for the board. I talked to the president about the situation, and apparently I definitely have to be physically present at the meeting at least for a portion of it. So, I’ve worked it out with Chris so that I can disappear for an hour to get elected. I think it’ll work out just fine.
Money’s been a bit tight this past week. I have my phone to blame for that. The bill for the fancy Android powered phone finally came due this month. I had stored away money for it, but even so, it made things a bit challenging. I made it through ok though. That’s really the last big out of budget expense I have. So it should be smooth sailing from here. That’s a good feeling. Speaking of good feelings, I also should be getting my health insurance cards any day now.
That’s pretty much it for me. This is the calm before the storm. This month is going to be stressful. I have two speaking gigs, elections, post-elections, party, halloween, best friend birthday, and of course…work. I hope I have some down time in the coming weeks too. I guess its good that I’m sick now instead of later.
Wow…a post shorter than 1000 words. I can’t remember when the last post was this short. Oh, before I forget…Question of the blog: Chris an I are of the mindset that turning 30 will be great and that our 30s will be our best years. Are you looking forward to your 30s? / Were your 30s awesometastic or craptacular?
Tune in next time for more excitement!