Vignettes: "Aww... she's a girl!!!"

I have had an interesting week - in a good way - on both the work and personal fronts.

In fact, it would be fair to say I had an epiphany of sorts, courtesy of two unwitting catalysts.

I will write a post about this over the weekend. In fact, I have started it twice already and had to scrap it because of ongoing developments/realizations.

All I will say for now is that I have changed markedly - and for the better - since I came out to my parents less than two weeks ago.

Or perhaps it is more accurate to say that since that milestone day am I slowly realizing that these changes have been taking place under the surface for some time.

In either circumstance it is quite gratifying, as you can imagine.

Stay tuned for more... but in the meantime, on to the matter at hand!


Here is another one of those small vignettes I mentioned that seem to be occurring more and more frequently these days.

I mentioned in my previous post that R was encouraging me to play around with my hair a bit to try out different looks. And as it turned out, I inadvertently stumbled across a method to make my unruly hair behave on Monday.

Namely, exercise for 75 minutes on a very humid early summer day, then leave the gym without touching said hair (still thoroughly drenched) because the gym and locker room were inexplicably packed.

(As an aside, that is a strange phenomenon I have observed at every gym I have used. There will be the typical rush of "resolutionaries," as I once heard someone jokingly dub them, at the beginning of the year. By Valentine's Day, though, it is back to the small group of regulars, with one or two newbies who also become regulars.

(Except for two or three random days a year when the gym will be absolutely packed for seemingly no reason... and then return to the core group of regulars the next day. I have always been intrigued by what prompts a large number of otherwise unrelated people to make the same decision on the same day. Not necessarily about using a gym, but some similar, seemingly random act. But that is a topic for another day, I suppose!)

Anyway, after leaving the gym I stopped for my obligatory iced coffee and run through my email, then headed home for dinner.

After dinner, I finally decided the time was right to take a shower. I become excessively "dewey" (as April puts it) with a minimum of movement (I sweat while I am sleeping!), so I need to wait for at least an hour after exercising before showering.

As I was getting ready, I glanced in the mirror and was quite surprised at how... well, decent my hair looked. lol Usually it is going in 50,000 different directions, with cowlicks and stray waves fighting each other for supremacy.

So I snapped a few shots and sent them off to some friends, joking that I had discovered a hair-care method perfectly suited to me: sheer, utter indifference. :D What could be better?

On Thursday, I went to get my hair trimmed for the first time in nearly two months.

My stylist, J, was very pleased with how it is coming along, as am I. She jokingly threatened to give me the female style she envisions right then and there, saying only her professionalism was preventing her from doing so.

She asked if I wanted her to blow it dry, so I said sure. I never bother; in high tech, no one cares how you look, particularly if you are a boy (even if you are trying to pretend to be one!).

We were both astounded at how much lighter it was when she finished. For some reason having it straight really brought that out.

Once again, I took a few shots immediately after J finished and sent them to some friends. They were all positive, which was gratifying.

My friend and co-worker R, once again, had several suggestions for me, which I attempted semi-successfully.

She promised to show me several looks, and suggested I send some of the pictures I took to our manager, L (who lives and works in another state), saying she would definitely be interested.

I did, sending a handful of shots of my lazy style :-p and straightened-out style.

L was out at dinner with friends, as it turned out. She deemed both styles "cute," which made me very happy. :c)

(When I started to transition, I determined that simply passing would be my goal, one that seemed realistic if I worked hard and did what needed to be done. "Cute" was my stretch goal - my lloooonnngg stretch goal. :c) So it was encouraging to hear L's words, even if they came from a friend.)

L then told me she had also showed the pics to her friends.

Their reaction made me even happier:

"Awww... she's a girl!"

I am still beaming - and blushing - two days later! :#)

***

I am no Stace when it comes to photography skills (do check out her photography blog if you have not done so already; it is wonderful!).

That said, I was pleased with how this shot turned out - not least because my lazy eye managed to look straight ahead for once! I took it with my iPhone, and applied the Normal style, if memory serves.

Judge for yourself:

I like how it shows my freckles, which seems to be proliferating in inverse proportion to what remains of my body hair. Both are encouraging trends, imho. :-p

Yea!!!

***

Check out this breathtaking performance of "Into the Mystic" from Van the Man, circa 1974. This is simply transcendent:

The amazing keyboardist is Pete Wingfield, incidentally. Also, who knew Van could play guitar like that?!? He is one of a kind.

He had just released Veedon Fleece, one of my favorite Van albums. It is a stunningly beautiful, and intensely personal, piece of work, and well-worth checking out if you are unfamiliar with it. You won't regret it.

As a bonus, here is a stellar live version from 1986 of "In the Garden," from his wonderful No Guru, No Method, No Teacher album released that same year. Again, well worth picking up:

I was fortunate enough to see him on this tour, and he was magnificent, with this being a particular standout. What a talent...

***

I almost called this post The Judgement, just so I could post this amazing song from the late, great Solomon Burke. But then I remembered it's my blog... so I can do whatever I want! lol Lucky for anyone who checks out this tune! ;-p

This was written for Burke by Elvis Costello, incidentally, who included a great version on his terrific 2004 album, The Delivery Man.

Sigh... so much great music, and nowhere near enough time to listen to it all!