And now, something somewhat different.

 

There is something about the book "Soppy" that I love.  Is it the drawings?  Maybe. Is it the minimal use of words to convey the author's point?  Probably.  Is it the sentimentality about the mundane issues of courtship and living together?  This is a definite Yes!  Philippa Rice created a book that I find very touching.

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I can still remember how I felt being married.  I loved being able to share a quiet meal with my wife, knowing that neither of us had to say much of anything to communicate how much we cared for each other.  I thought I had this in a more recent relationship, but I was wrong. She needed to hear things much more than I felt comfortable saying them.  (She didn't complain about it. If you don't ask for something, you won't get it. And she didn't.) Yet, I still hope that I can find someone with whom I have that "quiet" communication, and settle down with her.  This will be much harder with me being TG.  But I can hope....

Recently, the same author has done a book about having a baby.  Although I haven't had the chance to view pages from this book, I expect that it will be along the same lines as Soppy - pleasantly sentimental, but touching on the mundane things that are not that romantic.  Maybe, I'll get this new book from the library to see what the author thinks of babies....

I wish I had hips....

 

One of the problems that I have with my body is that I don't have the hips to wear certain garments.  When the above dress was new, I looked OK from the top up.  But my hips left a lot to be desired.  I had no natural curves.  This dress has long since been retired, and yet, I'll always have the same problem as I did several years ago - my hips are not wide enough to meet the proportions of a typical woman of my age and size.

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Over the years, I have learned to dress appropriately for a woman my age.  And that includes wearing more traditionally masculine garments such as trousers.  But I prefer to wear the feminine versions of these garments.  Over time, for example, I have grown to feel much more comfortable carrying a handbag and not looking for items in my pockets.  So it has now become strange for me to wear any garments with pockets, save when I'm in Mario mode.  And, about the only time I've been in Mario mode these days is when I see my internist, my dates, and my family. On these days, the feeling of male garments is noticeably different that what I normally wear during the week.  

The other day, one woman started to ask me about the women in my wife - as if she needed a scorecard to keep them straight.  But then, I am very unusual, as I am a genetic male who finds females more interesting to have as friends than to have as bed partners.  And, if I had my choice, I would have been born as a cisgender female, so that I could partake of the richness of emotional experiences open to women.  This comes at a big price, and no one should forget it.  Females are often ignored because of their gender.  They are bullied (or worse) by males, as they have less body and muscle mass.  And they have all the major headaches of reproduction. Cisgender males have no idea how easy it is for them....

With all that being said, right now, I simply wish I had nice hips, so that my clothes would look better on me.

What do you do with an old wig when it's worn out?

 

It's too bad I can't do voice impersonations with the written word.  If I could, I'd be channeling Rod Serling's voice and doing a Twilight Zone type of introduction to this entry. Sadly, I can't, and will try to do my best with this limitation.

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Over the years, I have had to replace my wigs on a regular basis.  When I was out and about as Marian once or twice during the week, I replaced my wigs every 6 months or so.  These days, with almost daily use, I tend to replace my wigs every 3-4 months, usually having at least one emergency wig in reserve. Yet, I'm usually left with a wig that's serviceable, but not one that makes me look my best.  So what should I do with it?

Right now, I have a collection of several old wigs that should either be thrown out or restyled for other uses.  They are all in the same style, as there are very few large cap wigs that fit my head and look good on me.  Yet, I can do something with a few of them.  But what?

I expect that I will soon throw away most of the older wigs, keeping one or two for use as backups when I go on cruises.  (Why wear a good wig when going into the hot tub?)  But until then, they will be collecting dust in a dark part of my closet....

I'm already thinking of booking another cruise.

 

I miss the world we were in when this picture was taken.  I had met both a pen pal AND a Vegas performer on this trip, and had a great time sailing alone.  This was a growth experience for me, as I was unable to lean on anyone for emotional support.

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The cruise I'll soon be taking will be fun.  But it will not be much "to write home about".  I was totally bored in one of these ports, and didn't bother to tender to the island in the other.  When a cruise line has to tender its guests to a private island instead of using its own dock, bottlenecks will happen.  And on the one time I was at this line's private island, they had a hard time getting on and off the island due to the weather.

If my cruise wasn't visiting Charleston, SC instead of Nassau, Bahamas, I wouldn't have taken it.  Nassau was only worth the stop if one wanted to waste time shopping for overpriced goods.  Port Canaveral was far from anything interesting or reasonably priced.  But Charleston is a more than adequate place to stop, as it has history worth taking in.  (Fort Sumter is the place where many consider our Civil War to have started.)

Unlike the cruise I took 3 years ago, the pandemic will always seem to be present in the background. When I get to the cruise terminal, I will be Covid tested before I get on the ship. Cruise staff will both be vaccinated and masked.  All passengers will also be vaccinated. Even if masking isn't required of passengers, most will likely be wearing them out of habit. It could be worse.  Could you imagine being on a mixed (vaxxed/unvaxxed) cruise and having to mask up at all times, then worry about which areas one can visit and what areas one must avoid?

Yet, the minor headaches of dealing with the pandemic haven't kept me from considering another cruise. Right now, I'm think of booking some sort of Hawaii trip.  But I could change that to an Alaskan trip at a moment's notice.  Until I am ready to make a commitment, I won't put any money down on a vacation.  Instead, I'll be tracking prices and hoping they go down.

Unfortunately, prices don't always go down.  Although the price of the cruise I'm taking dropped by $250 shortly after I booked the cruise, it is now the same price as when I booked it - under a slightly different pricing structure.  And therein lies the problem.  I'm not sure of how I can best perform price arbitraging on either a Hawaii or Alaska cruise.  But I want to do so to get the best price available over the next year.  And I hope I can do this effectively....   

Another Short Post

 

I don't have much to say today, save that I was fighting to stay awake after my third cup of coffee wore off.  Somehow, it's either my costume jewelry or my outfits that are getting positive comments from women, and I'm glad to receive them.  My sense of style is maturing, and I'm glad to be out there in the world.

With this being said, I decided to go through some storage containers to look for some dresses I received in Universal Standard's yearly Mystery Box sale.  I figure that I'll wear one of them to work in the morning (with a pair of leggings).  But if I don't like what I see, I'll switch to one of the dresses I've already worn with leggings, and enjoy the rest of the day.

Right now, I figure that I can safely wear dresses as over long tunics and fit in.  This is not the kind of place where women wear dresses in the winter - except, maybe, the way I'll be wearing them for a few weeks.  After that, it's back to trouser like garments again, with tunic tops above.

Thankfully, I'll be back in dresses for my next cruise....

Zooming with a friend in Texas

 

There is an indirect link between this character from the movie "Short Circuit" and the friend I was Zooming with today.  But I won't say what that link is....

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As I've said in earlier posts, I used to connect with friends in Texas during the worst of the pandemic. Our Zoom meetings were fun, but they didn't take the place of in-person meetings.  Now that people are getting out and about, there is little need for Zoom, save for people who live across the country from each other.

It's been a while since I've chatted with my friend.  Too bad that we no longer live near each other.  We would have had a lot of fun together.  But Zoom keeps us in contact, and we schedule a meeting every so often to catch up on things.  

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One of these days, I'll have to meet my friend in person again - in a city that the two of us want to visit. We've talked about Chicago, as well as some cities in the West.  Since she's young enough to be my daughter, I can guarantee that nothing would come of this other than a nice friendly get together.  Who knows?  I might just tell her about my transgender nature....

Another short entry

 

There was a presentation on my company's 2022 health care plan today. And I'm not sure if I should sign up for the company plan in next week's open enrollment, or whether I should continue paying my own way for health care.  Going with the company plan may save me $450/month in insurance payments, but might cost me in two ways: (1) Locking me into a job I don't like until Medicare kicks in, and (2) Costing me more in drug prices and medical co-payments. I won't go into details here, but I am leaning towards going with the company plan.  Unfortunately, I don't have much time to make a decision.

My firm was gobbled up by a larger firm at the beginning of the year. The smaller firm did not offer a health care plan I considered worth the money - I decided to continue purchasing my health insurance on the Obamacare exchange in New York.  The larger firm had more negotiating power, and got a better deal for its employees.  So this got me thinking about a simple question:

Why should the quality and amount of healthcare provided to a person be dependent on the employer that s/he works for?

This is something that bothers me, as the system we have here in the USA seems to be designed to have sub-optimal outcomes.  So several more questions come to mind:

Why should an employer be involved in negotiating health insurance coverage?

Why can't an employer subsidize an employee's health care in a way similar to non-taxed reimbursements for employee education at a local college?

Why shouldn't the final consumer of the health insurance product (the employee) be the one exposed to deciding which company's insurance product to buy, when "Apples to Apples"  comparisons can be made on the Obamacare exchanges?

Why can't ALL Obamacare exchange products provide nationwide coverage?

The answer to most of these questions are either political or historical.  We would be better served if corporations would get out of the business of buying healthcare for their employees, and if government would ensure that healthcare firms only sold policies that met minimum requirements.  We were on the way to doing this until Trump screwed things up by allowing "short term" plans to be sold instead of Obamacare exchange policies.  This allowed insurers to provide insurance that wasn't worth much, but gave buyers the illusion of getting value.  Yet, Obamacare has provided a path to a long term solution.

Since it's late at night and I can't do this topic justice, I will elaborate on it in more detail at a later date.