December 2005

One of the things I’ve done right in my gender journey is to seek out a qualified therapist who has experience dealing with gender related issues. A qualified gender therapist can be a true oasis for you when you are first dealing with suspected gender issues. They can be an anonymous sounding board, provide guidance on what to do, help you evaluate options, help keep your marriage together if your married, and, help you get to the root of your gender issues (because maybe you aren’t transgendered, but it’s a symptom of another issue,perhaps abuse when you were younger).

One of the questions I often hear is “how do I find a qualified therapist”. This is an important point as most therapists do not have experience or education in dealing with transgender patients. If you end up choosing such a therapist, you may find you spend more time educating your therapist about what your dealing with rather than getting the help you need. That’s a bad deal (unless you are charging them $150 per hour, then you have a good gig going). There are two things you need (1) a list from a qualified source and (2) references from people where you live…

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   Okay, now I’m in heaven. What are the two best friends a woman has? Why chocolate and diamonds! So tell me, what’s better than actually wearing that chocolate (okay, get your mind out of the gutter!).

I’m not talking about slathering on your body some wonderful, chocolate confection, rather, how about a wonderful chocolate perfume It sounds too good to be true, so I’m going to have to order a bottle for the sniff test. And you can join in the fun by clicking on this link here, to see (or rather) smell for yourself.

   I posted about our Asiatic Annihilator here and here

Well we never DID catch glimpse of the Asiatic munching mauler nor even snap a picture. With Winter nye upon us, no blooms will be in jeopardy, that’s for sure.

Next year we’re considering a wall… this wall here looks promising; good to withstand winds of 100MPH (or 160.934 km/hr for our European and Canadian readers) I’m certain THAT will keep our culprit out.

I was actually looking from some funny (and relatively clean) jokes and stories to post up when I found this interesting article about Jennifer Lee Jackson, a transgender woman who is now full time. That story is at this link here.

What makes her story different is that she’s the first Mormon I’ve ever read about who’s transitioned. Her story sounds like many of ours who are trans (whether Male-to-Female or Female-to-Male). But her being a part of the Mormon church is an interesting piece that is well worth reading. Sadly, she was ex-communicated. This is also a common theme among many of us who are transgender and belong to a faith community of some type. Generally speaking, we get the axe. I’m not sure why this is. If one were a Christian, say, then decided that Christianity was simply groundless and then committed to preach a different alien gospel in that church body, well that would certainly be grounds for expulsion. But, to try and be a healthy whole person, follow the teachings of Christ, and then be tossed? Quite a puzzlement.

I like to shop as much as the next girl but this article I read in the December 2005 issue of Air Canada’s in flight magazine, En Route, made me laugh my diet coke right through my nose (talk about ruining a blouse!)

The article is entitled “The Future of Shopping” and it’s a bit much even for diehards who shop for a deal like I do. It’s too bad it’s not on-line as it’s way to hard for me to rewrite it here, let me post some excerpts…

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I could use another hobby, but this might be a bit extreme…

Albert Swank Jr., a 55-year-old civil engineer in Anchorage, Alaska, is a man with a mission. He wants to install a nuclear particle accelerator in his home.

See story at this link here

I caught this post on prostate health for male-to-female TG’s at Dr. Rebecca Allison, M.D., web site.  It’s something I worried about early on as I was coming to grips with being transgendered, "gosh, what do I do about my prostate if I transition".   Now you’d think I’d be worrying about my makeup, my clothes or perhaps a Friday night date!  But nooo, I have to worry about my prostate as a male-to-female TG.  With thoughts like that it’s no wonder I still don’t have the hang of my new oval brush and hair dryer!

While many of us may want to totally forget about these parts of us, we still have prostate’s and, we can get cancer and die from it.   See these links here for more help and happy reading:

Dr. Rebecca Allison’s Blog Post on Prostate Health
WebMD on Prostate Health
MedLine on Prostate Health

**UPDATE 12/22/2005**
Study finds that lifestyle and diet changes may stop or reverse prostate cancer progression.  See that study by clicking here.

  There’s nothing better than a light dinner with someone you love on a Sunday night, try this original recipe from Beck’s Cafe to hit the spot.

Ingredients

1 lb of fresh string beans (also known as green beans - depending on where you live)
4 whole eggs
1 Tablespoon (T) Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/4 cup Feta Cheese
1 to 2 teaspoons (t) of Garlic Powder

How to do it

Place the 4 eggs in a medium pot that has been filled 1/2 way with cold water. Turn the burner on and bring to a boil, then boil till hard-boiled, about 10 or so minutes. When the eggs are hard boiled, take the eggs in the pot off the stove, then rinse in cold water, let them cool while you make the rest of the meal.

While the eggs are boiling, prepare the string beans by cutting the tips off either end of the green beans, then placing them in a large pot that you’ve put about 1 cup of water into. Once you’ve cut the tips off all the sting beans, and placed them into the pot, cover the pot and steam lightly. You should be able to reach that point by turning the stove top on medium then cooking them about 10 minutes or less. You don’t want to overcook them, but you don’t want them crunchy either. They should feel fresh when you bite into one, but not overcooked. When the string beans are cooked take them out of the pot and place them on a large serving plate. I love blue in my cafe, but pink, purple, red, or any color you like would be just fine

With the string beans down on the plate, dribble 1T of extra virgin olive oil over the top of the string beans. Then, sprinkle 1 to 2 teaspoons of the garlic powder on top of the green beans. When you’ve done that, sprinkle 1/4 cup of feta cheese on top of the green beans. Finally, peel the eggs, slice, and place around the bed of prepared green beans.

While you could eat this right away, it tastes best when you let this cool at room temp for about 10 minutes or so. If you have time to further cool it in the fridge for about 15 minutes, the taste is enhanced, but it’s really good at room temperature too.

Serve with a glass of chilled white wine or ice water and you are in for a wonderful delight!

Serves 2 as a main dish, or 4 as a side dish.
Calories per person is about 300.
If you’ve got a little issue with cholesterol, just take the egg yolks out.
Takes about 30 minutes to make.

Need a fresh idea for an invention?  Perhaps a cool user technology to get off the ground?   A web site to peruse while procrastinating from that big project?   Look no further than the Half-Bakery.   

What is the Halfbakery?

The halfbakery is a communal database of invention and speculation. Its users can publish inventions and add links and commentary to other people’s inventions.

This morning was just one of those mornings where I was frustrated to absolute tears.  I’ve still not gotten to the electrologist, I waffled between still thinking I’m half mad for even thinking that I’m transgendered, then re-thinking  where I’ve been over the past two months and remembering that the deepest clinical depression I’ve ever faced was the result of purging (more on that in a later post), and then my clothes not fitting (the result of my personal self-destruction over the past year unnecessarily agonizing over my GID).   

Then I put this song on, and sang, and life, was better…

Say to those who are fearful hearted,
Do not be afraid
The Lord your God is Strong
And with His mighty arms
When you call out His Name
He will come and save

He will come and save you
He will come and save you
Say to the weary one
Your God will surely come
He will come and save you

He will come and save you
He will come and save you
Lift up your eyes to Him
You will arise again
He will come and save you

Say to those who are broken hearted
Do not lose your faith
The Lord your God is strong
With His loving arms
When you call on His name
He will come and save

(repeat chorus)

He is our refuge in the day of trouble
He is our shelter in the time of storm
He is our tower in the day of sorrow
Our fortress in the time of war

(repeat chorus 2x)

Lift up your eyes to Him
You will arise again
He will come and save you
Lift up y our eyes to Him
You will arise again
He will come and save you

(He Will Come & Save You, Bob Fitts & Gary Sadler, 1995, Integrity Hosanna! Music/ASCAP)