I had an interesting dream last night. I dreamed I was staying over at my friend, Tracy's house and trying on clothes. I was wearing a pretty pink dress and looking at myself. I was a teenage girl! I looked just like I would have if I had been born genetically female. It felt like an alternate universe type of thing, but it was so nice! In the dream, I also had a conversation with her mother and she was treating me as I was another daughter and it felt wonderful!

Today I am celebrating my 7th Birthday as a legal woman. I remember that day well. I got up that morning and felt like a weight had been lifted. I dressed in my red skirtsuit heels, hose, blonde wig and did my makeup and then drove to the courthouse for my name change hearing. Standing there hearing the bailiff call me by my male name, knowing how I looked, was a little nerve wracking. The best look I got was from our family attorney who was there representing another client. It was priceless!

I have some wonderful news! I start a new job in 3 weeks working for an organization that provides job training for veterans who are transitioning out of the Military back into Civilian life or have been out of the military for a while, but need re-training to meet the demands of the modern technological job site . I am so excited for this wonderful opportunity!

I have had a lot going on lately. I am working with my sister-in-law who lives in Colorado, trying to get my career off the ground as a Mary Kay consultant. I am trying to get enough orders to buy my starter kit and some inventory to get started with. She gave me a task to find six women to place orders this weekend, but so far, I haven't had much luck. If any of you would like to place an order, you can go to http://www.marykay.com/kcampbell98934. Just let me know if you do, so it will count toward the total I need and I can offer you my sincerest thank you.

There is a law being proposed in Tennessee that would allow bullying in schools by people who feel they are justified based on their own religious, philosophical and political views against LGBT students.I wonder if they have figured out that federal Hate Crimes laws would trump any attempt to violate the Civil rights of these kids? This comes in the wake of the suicide of a high school student who was being bullied for being gay. I have heard that Michigan just passed a similar law. It is sickening that any State would legally try to justify violence against someone else as a RIGHT!

I went to my uncle's visitation tonight. Most of my family already knew about me and it wasn't as big an issue as I thought. Of course, there were some who avoided me, but that was no surprise. My aunt Susan paid me the greatest compliment I have ever had. She told me that she loved me even more because I am living the truth in my life and not shying away from telling the truth no matter what. Those words meant so much to me and I vowed to myself and to others that I will always live my truth, because for so many years, I couldn't out of fear for what others would think! Never again!

I have had a tough week. I started training for my new job with the IRS last Monday and had to take a very difficult test on Thursday to advance in my training. I failed the test and was disqualified for further training. I am once again trying to figure out where to go from here. Added to that, I am being blamed by my mother because we had to sign up for a new phoneline and DSL for my Home Office and we got a bill for that that was far more than the agreed upon amount.We signed up for a bundle plan through AT&T that included the new line, DSL and DirecTV in one plan for $97 a month.

Andrea James posted a link for a wonderful organization called Trans Youth Family Allies on her page today. I have contacted them to see if I can volunteer. I have seen and read stories here locally about parents who were totally clueless about what it means for their child to be Trans. One case resulted in suicide from being bullied and rejected by their mother. I tried to get our Trans support group involved in this worthy cause, but they didn't want to "Rock the boat" and chose not get involved.

Today we had a woman reported missing here in town. The 911 dispatch center put out a bulletin using the phone system with a description of the lady and said that her likely destination was the next street over from ours. Anyway, I told my mother and she thought it might be a good idea if I walked around the block to see if I could find her. I did that and didn't see her, so I turned around and headed back to my house. I had gone out and come back through the garage door. I wasn't home 5 minutes when the police came to my door.

My Grandma passed away this morning at 4:20 AM ET surrounded by my aunts and uncle. The next few days are going to be difficult, but I can take comfort that she is no longer in pain. Please keep our family in your thoughts and prayers.

Hugs,

Jen

Is there something wrong with the Kudos button? I just tried to leave one and it wouldn't register at all.

I got a surprise phone call today from the hiring coordinator for the company I recently did Customer Service training for. The IRS is hiring for positions beginning January 2012. The training starts September of this year. I went through a phone interview and I have been given a conditional letter of hire, pending a background check. I am wondering if those Federal agencies like the IRS would refuse to hire you if they find out what your former status is during the background check?

on how Transgendered people are portrayed in the media. Her name is Amy. I have been helping her by citing a few examples. She turned in a rough draft to her professor yesterday and she is supposed to get that back by Tuesday to rewrite it for the final version due on Thursday. I talked to her about how newspapers cover hate crime reports against the Trans community based on where they are in the country. Could anyone give me a few more examples to use just in case she needs more refined material?

I finally solved the problem that caused my computer to spontaneously sign out of Yahoo. I found out that it was the AVG toolbar. I disabled all my add ons and then went through by process of elimination until I found the one causing the problem. I downloaded session manager too, so I can log off and come back the next day and continue reading stories from open tabs without starting over. I'm so happy I figured it out!

I just tried to go to Fictionmania and it won't load. I wonder if it's down? I tried one of the stories in my bookmarks and it worked. I'm wondering what the deal is?

I was at my salon today getting a cut, color and eyebrow wax and my stylist brought me a magazine to read while I was under the dryer waiting for my color to set. Anyway, it was the issue of "Allure" magazine from November 2010. I flipped through and found an article about how Androgny has played a role in history from Greek Mythology to films made in the 1970's. It cited several historical examples of how women have lived as men to be treated better in the societies of the times in which they lived.

I wanted to know if anyone uses Open Office? I downloaded it and I really can't tell any difference between Microsoft Word. The templates actually look better than Word and the document and spreadsheet program is identical. They also claim it is compatible with Word and reads PDF files just the same. The part I like is that it's free. I couldn't afford to purchase Word when my trial subscription ran out.

You know the saying "When it rains, it pours? That sums up my week . First, the battery died in my car on Tuesday, then today, my AC adapter goes shot on my computer and then if that wasn't enough, my dog went to the vet with a yeast infection in his ears. It seems like things always happen like this at this time of the year. My sister paid the vet bill, but the car battery and AC adapter are not in my budget at all for the moment. I wish I had a fairy Godmother with a used Toshiba adaptor and a car battery laying around somewhere.( Fat chance of that one!

I went to see my doctor today and I took the diabetes test. My fasting glucose level was 154, so she put me on Metaformin and set new guidelines for my diet. I definitely have to lose weight too. The good news is that if we keep it under control, I can still have my SRS in the future. I am going to do everything possible to follow her instructions. I am grateful that we caught this early on before it turned into something more serious.

Hugs,

Jen