Last Wednesday was really cool. We have a local restaurant that opened late last year, it has a really wide variety on the menu but Dee and I tend to go for the bar specials. Specifically we go in for the Wed night pizza special which is a 2 topping pizza for $5.99, how do you beat that? Dee had the great idea to invite our friend Dina along. Dina her husband and I went to high school together and she is the godmother to my daughter. Since learning about my transition plans both her and her hubby have been uber supportive of me.
Wed was nice for me on several fronts, one of which was simply a girls night out. In fact there was some mention of going out once a month like that. I have to admit when dealing with friends who were couples, I get to feeling guilty for leaving the husbands behind. I have to come to the realization that we will now have differing interests or as my friend Cynthia recently put it "You're not part of the boys club anymore Karyn" If anything it was just nice to be out with the girls and feel able to talk freely.
The 2nd part that was really nice was that the people closest to me tend to not notice the changes as easily in me. They still see the features of the old me and when they here stories of me getting addressed in female pronouns they can't seem to wrap their heads around it. While Dina was with us she got to see our waitress address me as she, her and ladies, it certainly made my night to have someone else see that.
Friday Dee and I decided to take advantage of the rainy day so we went to see a movie together. (Like we're ever apart) We decided on seeing the new "Mummy" movie as we both enjoyed the first few. It wasn't a bad movie but it was no where near as good as the first couple. I think it feels to rehashed and stale at times. The action is good and some of the effects are cool.
Saturday morning I was looking at the website for Nashua Harley Davidson and noted something interesting. If you bring in your old dealer's shirts you can trade them in for 25% off a new dealers shirt. A dealer's shirt is simply a Harley shirt and on the back it usually has a dealers name incorporated into the design. This could work out awesome for me as I have an over abundance of of men's Harley dealers shirts that I thought I'd have to either donate or throw away. Now at least I'm able to replace them and get a decent discount! We stopped a the dealer to verify that this was the case and sure enough not only was it the case, the girl behind the counter did't know and she said it was time to clean her closet out!
Saturday night Dee and I took the bikes up to Manchester (Manchvegas) to have dinner with a new friend. Not long ago there was a series of articles in our local paper and Cynthia was one of the people spotlighted. Cyn and I are of similar ages, sense of humor and both dealing with the same thing although her being ahead of me in the process.
When I first read the article I thought it was cool because it showcased local people as well as the Dr's I use. I had no intention of contacting her, I don't like invading other peoples privacy but when I mistakenly came across her My space page and saw she had my Sister Annah on it as her friend so I just had to add her as a friend to my, My space page.
Cynthia and I have been emailing for several months and tried to get together in the past. We were finally able to make this happen on Sat night and we settled on meeting at a BBQ place. I'm so sorry I did't have the chance to get to know Cyn sooner, she is such a bright, charming and witty woman. She playfully refers to herself as mom and with the love and compassion you see that she has for others there is no doubt that she has totally earned that respect. She is definitely a woman I hope to spend a lot more time getting to know and sharing some laughs with.
Cynthia reads my blog faithfully to see how I am doing, offer words of encouragement or anything else that I may need. She made it a point to tell me that when she looks at me all she sees is female and that I have nothing to worry about. It was most certainly something nice to hear and I'm hoping I can take some inspiration from her now to finish my journey.
Speaking of My space and my personal page I really need to get off my butt and start changing it over to more Karyn and less Kevin. This is the last "Webpage" I have that doesn't totally reflect what has been going on with me and was designed primarily around my love of guitar.
Sunday was a down day for Dee and I. We finally got the chance to visit with my friend Bob and spend time with his new son. Like Gianna, it is amazing to me how big he has gotten already and how he's at that stage of smiling at you which is so cute. Bob and his wife look incredibly happy and they are falling into their new family role well.
Last night was the first time I've cooked in over a week so we decided to have some homemade soup in bread bowls. Cooking has always been and seems to have gotten even more of a love of mine. We decided for miss fussy pants (Dee) that I would make her a cheese and broccoli soup and for myself I did spicy chicken fiesta soup. They came out pretty awesome if I do say so myself (and I did!)
Yesterday a friend of mine was interviewed by 20/20 for a future episode. I'm not going to discuss who or why yet but I am totally proud of her for stepping forward and telling her story. If she helps just one person it will be worth it. When I am finally able I will release the info here. Until that point I spoke to her after it was done last night and she seemed to be incredibly at ease with the interview.
Lastly and probably not the best part, I could't get to sleep last night and I did't fall asleep until 1:AM or so. Add in the fact that I get up at 5 am and today is my first day back you can well imagine how I am feeling right about now. Tonight will certainly be a rest night.
Karyn
3 comments:
It's really interesting what you wrote about leaving the husbands behind. Women need some women-only time just as guys need some guy-only time, but it's true that the dynamic has now changed.
There's a related phenomenon -- going out with a hetero couple you know but now you're a same-sex couple. Instead of two women and two men, it's now three women and one man. We did that recently with some friends of ours. Our male friend was handling it quite well, but I could tell it was a bit of a challenge. Just different. We had a chance to talk briefly, just the two of us, and that was good.
Hope you can make up for lost sleep!
Back in '04, early in my transition I'd only recently come out, and my sister's decided to throw a surprise party for my birthday. Lynn even went to Carvel and had a special cake made with LOTS of extra crunchies, because well that's our favorite part. For the first time in our many years together I really was one of the girls, not just the strange guy who really understood women and didn't get men. So it's the four of us, my two sisters and Sandy's husband Bill. Bill and I always got along well because we were (are) both computer types and had years of experience working in corporate America. I felt bad for him though as the night wore on, because he looked like he was drowning in a sea of estrogen.
I mean you do the math. Three randy women, only one of whom had a boy to play with later, up all night drinking wine and talking about stuff that make guys nuts. At one point as I was helping clean up, I caught a lost, all alone and out numbered look from Bill. I kinda felt bad, I mean I know what it's like to be on the outside looking in. I had no idea what to say to him so I consoled myself with the thought that I knew he was going to get some serious attention from Sandy when the party was over.
Three bottles of wine between us later (Bill was drinking beer) and Lynn and I went home. It was a wonderful night for me. It was the first time really I felt like one of the girls.
Funny I never really thought of it that way Veronique. I just naturally assume that my old male friends see me as me and not any one thing in particular so that never entered my mind. It's definitely a valid point.
Sam as always you always have such awesome stories to relate things too. I can't even begin to imagine what it must have been like for him after the 3 bottles of wine other than glancing at the clock hoping to get home and see a game .. LOL
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