Journal Entry: 03/11/2012 - Real Girls Don't do Yard Work and Other Things

Well it's spring and spring brings yard work.  I have a corner lot with lots of landscaping and 4 scrub oak trees in my back yard.  Thank God for the pool or the back yard would even take more work.  Well I spent most of yesterday raking and bagging the leaves in the back yard.  My wife was nice enough to hold the bags open.  Thirteen bags later (a whole box) there are still three piles left.  We bought new bags but it's been raining all day so they'll have to sit there until they dry out.  There is also the issue of getting the leaves out of the space between the roof and the  frame of the screen for the pool.  There is a portion of screen that collects leaves. I have to blow them from on end to the roof of the patio and then climb onto the flat patio roof and collect them while I clear our the rain gutter.  There are palm trees to prune, regular weed treatments in the landscaping, fertilizing the lawn and pruning the bushes.  The oaks have to be pruned professionally.  That's just the back yard.  The pool area needs pressure washing and really could use a new coat of paint on the pad around the pool.  It does all get done but it seems to take forever.  Well one day into it and I've got a blister between my thumb and forefinger already.  So, I've concluded that real girls don't do yard work so next year (when my boy muscles are much less present anyway) I'm going to have to hire someone to at least do the hard part...the raking.  The rest is relatively easy.  Nope, real girls don't to the tough yard work and that includes me.

So, other things?  Well this past week I told my boss about Laura and she was great and very reassuring about my job.  Then I went to civilian personnel, armed with the information about protections for federal govt employees against discrimination against transgendered people.  She was also great and very reassuring.  There are two more people in my immediate leadership to tell and that will be all the important people.  I suspect there will be a discussion with the Wing Commander and perhaps the senior staff of the base.  There are the professional staff in the hospital where I work and the rest of the medical personnel.  There are Sq Commanders and First Sergeants across the base and my colleagues across the Air Force, including friends I've known for years in the Surgeon General's office.Well after my local leadership will be the colleagues in my office. All that could happen in the next couple of weeks.  I've already got the paperwork filled out for my name change and I see my endocrinologist on Wednesday.  I will being the requirements for gender marker change from the US State Dept (passport) and the Florida Driver's License Bureau.  All I need is for her to say that I have undergone sufficient medical treatment to complete my transition.  I'm going to ask her what that will mean for her.  I am confident that she will not require SRS but I am suspicious that she will want me to have an orchiectomy.  I've had a consult with a urologist about that procedure and it seems pretty simple really but my insurance wont cover a dime of the 5k its going to cost.  Well if it has to be done it has to be done.  It's possible she is ready to write the letter now but I'm suspicious she will want the surgery or longer on hormones first.  My driver's license is due to be renewed in June and I'd love to have it reflect my new name and a "F" gender.  I think I have enough time for the name change, I hope she will write the letter by then.  Somewhere along the line I will start presenting as a girl at work.  Because I have to have an ID to get on the base and get into my computer, and I won't be able to get them changes until the legal issues are resolved, I suspect I will not be able to present as a girl at work until those are done. June would be nice.  I also have a conference in July with my colleagues across the AF and the staff from the Surgeon General's office.  It would be great if Laura could attend that conference.  It's only once a year so otherwise it will be a year until these people get to put a face to my transition.  I could always send a picture, but it's not the same.  Every time I tell someone I show a picture, actually my profile picture from here, because it's human nature to imagine what I'd look like and I don't want them to have a false image....better or worse than I really look.  Then there are college transcripts and diplomas, professional license, passport and driver's license of course, bank records, social security, IRS and my personnel records and more.  Seems overwhelming to think of it all at once but I try to focus on one step at a time.

So that's about it but things do keep moving forward.  Oh yeah, my wife?   She is hanging in there.

I am sincerely,

Laura Catherine