Well, I had a wonderful lunch date with my friend from the support group site, and noticed several things. First, when I arrived, I did not have much hesitation, but simply thought, "I have as much right to go and have lunch as any other woman does" and went in.

The lunch itself was nice, especially when a little old lady noticed my wallet had fallen out, and pointed it out to me, telling me to tuck it better in my purse, like there was nothing strange about me at all.

And then my friend was talking about praying for me, how confused she felt with knowing both my male and female names, and she felt God saying "How do you think SHE feels?"

After lunch, we walked and window shopped, and no one payed any special attention to me and then, when we went into a Pennington's ,(a "plus size" store), the counter person said to us "How are you today, ladies".

No sarcasm, no mocking, as far as I could tell, just simple manners. By the time I was leaving, I was so relaxed, i had to actually think about the fact I was dressed as Dorothy.

All in all, a very nice day, and some steps forward, I think.