Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Ten years ago today...

So I have been a bit lax with regards to blogging lately. After a bunch of September and October posts, I became swamped with a number of out-of-town university presentations and local panels & book readings. I have also been trying to focus in earnest on book number two. It had been going rather slowly, in a somewhat piecemeal fashion. So I have committed myself to waking up extra early (5 or 6am) each day to get a solid 2 or 3 hours of writing in before heading off to work (that is how I managed to write Whipping Girl). On the bright side, I have been making good progress! The downside has been less sleep and less time for blogging...

Also, I want to thanks everyone for all the quotes from queer women who partner with trans women and/or cis men. I plan to compile them this month - as soon as I do, I will put them up on my blog, I promise! (and for those still interested, I'd be happy to accept more submissions until then). So those who follow my blog, you have that to look forward to. Plus I will likely be posting some small excerpts of book #2 along the way...

But in the meantime, I really wanted to make a point to post today because it is a very special anniversary for me. Exactly ten years ago today, I began living as a woman. Granted, it is a somewhat arbitrary date, as I was female-identified well before then, and people were reading/treating me as female before then. But basically, it was the day that I officially stopped using my old male name and presenting myself as male.

It is soooooooo hard to believe that it's been ten years! I remember being on a trans email list when I was first looking into transitioning, and sharing an exchange with a trans woman who said that she had been living "full time" for a year and a half. And I remember being in awe of that. I was so anxious to transition, and the idea of being a whopping year and a half post-transition seemed absolutely mind-blowing. Now here I am ten years post-transition. Who'd a thunk it?

This whole late November/early December time period is chock full of trans related anniversaries (tranniversaries?) for me. November 27, 2000 was the day when I kinda sorta made the decision to transition. And two years ago tomorrow (December 7th) was the date of my bottom surgery. I feel the desire to commemorate all of these anniversaries by saying something really really profound. But despite all my efforts to be poignant, only two simple thoughts come to mind:

I am truly grateful to be where I am now.

And time flies like the wind. (But fruit flies like bananas.)...

4 comments:

  1. Happy Anniversary !
    I am looking forward to the new book.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Happy tranniversary, and extra points if you learned the fruit flies line from watching Studio Sixty.

    Yeah, even my bad days now are better than my good days before I stopped pretending to be [degendering assigned name deleted] before I stopped living in fear of what others would think, at least to the degree required to go to the doctor and ask for HRT.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Happy belated anniversary. I've read most of whipping girl, and so far it's one of the few books I've enjoyed reading. I love the intelligence and singular wit that comes through in your writings and slam poetry. I think more people should read your book.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Reading your book and loving it.

    ReplyDelete

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