Going beyond transition

Category Archives: Traveling/Work

Tiny steps still move us forward (long post)

Posted on by Posted in Daily life, Life, Traveling/Work .

Well.. not THAT busy.

 

 

So, life has been busy of late. Not stupid busy like last year (last year I flew over 90,000 miles in the continental US/Canada; this year only I’ll clock only about 65,000) but still busy. I suppose it’s a bit of a mid-life crisis (although I could have sworn I had one of those about 15-20 years ago) but I’ve been re-evaluating where I want to be and settle down at. Right now I have 3 main areas: Edmonton (Alberta); GTA/Ottawa (Ontario); Halifax (Nova Scotia). There are pros and cons to each (most pros are related to family/friends that are in those areas). I also have to consider that ultimate “What-if I lost my job” and what opportunities would exist. This is one of the bigger cons for the Halifax area with weather being the 2nd thing (I can handle only so much rain and gray skies). But then there’s the ocean and the sound and smells that come with the Atlantic (very different from the Pacific). And, of course, being closer to family in both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick as well as getting back to my Acadian roots.

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A Month Later

Posted on by Posted in fitness, Life, transition, Traveling/Work .

It’s been a month since the surgery. A lot of the swelling has gone down and it’s nice to not have to wear a binder any more. That said, however,  I’m still sleeping on the Lazy Boy simply because I’m less likely to roll on my sides.  And since I still have a bit of swelling on my sides, it’s safer and easier for me to sleep on my “back” while in the Lazy Boy. The doc says it’ll be another couple of weeks before that swelling is completely down.

The weather is getting warmer here in Los Angeles. I was surprised how much I finally am ok with what I see in the mirror (although I’d like to get rid of my beer gut). I still can’t do full exercise but I have been trying to walk the dogs at least once a day for about 30 min. I’m hoping that I might be able to do some simple pushups, situps and simple free weight exercises in a couple of weeks. And then after a series of business meetings in the San Fran area, I’m hoping to get back into running and cycling again.

One of the things I’d really like to do is barefoot running but I probably won’t since I’m a bit of a wuss and fear cutting my feet (even though I know that with barefoot running, it can be easier to address those kinds of injuries). At the least, I’d like to do minimalist running — much like I did last summer in NYC. I truly enjoyed it and might even consider doing a 5K in the fall if I’m consistent enough with the running. To that end I’m probably going to start getting up earlier. Say around 4-5ish so that I can run/bike earlier without interfering with my work day. If I’m not teaching, that’d give me a couple of hours to do what I need. And then later in the afternoon I can do things like the situps/pushups and/or weight stuff.

I’m not sure about my bike trip for next year given what I’ve seen of people’s driving behaviours here in L.A. I still want to do it but I think I need to investigate some things more. In particular, I do need to read on other’s experience on doing this trip. It’s consider intermediate to expert. My biggest concern is timing and whether I will have enough time — 30 or so days, including weekends — to bike from Vancouver to Los Angeles. It’s the part of going over the mountains and the like that may slow it down. I may decide to avoid the issue of the border and start in Seattle instead of Vancouver. Then again, I may just push the trip back a year. One of the challenges is that I didn’t think that the recovery would take this long. I had planned on a few weeks (3-4) but more realistically, I’m looking at 2-3 months in total before I’m fully recovered. I still want to bike from L.A. to San Diego and back again over a two day period.

Anyways, on top of all that I’ve had my performance review and that went well. I’m still waiting to see what’s happening in regards to the green card. I was pleasantly surprised when my HR department started the process for me without me probing for it. I’m hopeful that it will come through and make somewhat easier for me here in the US. I wanted to take some Spanish courses at a local community college but they require that I live at least a year in California before I can apply. So I’ll be waiting until this fall before starting basic Spanish. In the meantime, I can — at the least — finally try for my driver’s license. It’s been at least 20 years since I last tried and while L.A. drivers on the freeways are scary, I think I could handle regular street traffic. I think I’ll look into AAA membership and see about taking one of their defensive driving classes.

Anyways, that’s the update so far. Life is definitely good right now.

 

Singapore: the city-state to shop-til-you-drop

Posted on by Posted in transgender, Traveling/Work .

Singapore at night (view from Conrad Singapore Hotel)

After the weekend in Sydney, we did our teaches and then left on April 9th for Singapore. Since my flight wasn’t until the late afternoon, I headed down to the Canadian Consulate to drop off my form to vote in the upcoming federal election in Canada (May 2nd). I have quite a bit to say on that and will in another post but right now, Elections Canada needs to change a policy. Otherwise, I lose my right to vote. Anyways, Sydney was definitely interesting and I have to say that I like Australian Rules Rugby. Definitely faster and more impactful than American or Canadian football. Even hockey pales a bit in comparison.

Lamborghini outside the hotel

I had flown Qantas to Sydney and used it to fly to Singapore, a flight that was 8 hours long. It’s definitely far more enjoyable than most North American flights. Now as some of you may know, Singapore culture is more strict and yet, more open. Sex and showing affection doesn’t seem that prevalent although one needs to be careful about the area that one goes to as there is a thriving prostitution trade. English is the first language but many people come from other Asian countries like Vietnam, Cambodia, etc. looking for a better life (36% of the population is made up of “foreigners”). Interestingly, prostitution is legal and prostitutes are required to get health checks but propositions of sex is technically illegal. Additionally, Singapore still uses caning as a form of corporal punishment. I, personally, was on extra good behaviour and wanted to ensure I didn’t violate any laws along the way because I didn’t want to find out how pain that particular activity would have been. That said, Singapore still maintains one of the strictest drug laws:

Say no to drugs or else!

 

Now, Singapore is vastly more expensive than other cities we visited and it showed in the goods that were for sale. We even got to see a store that was selling a watch for $105,000 USD — and there were no security guards or the like. Expensive cars were the norm there including this one to the above. It seemed like everything was expensive in Singapore. As I had mentioned to a colleague, it wasn’t high on my list of places to visit because it struck me as one giant shopping mall. And it definitely lived up to that reputation.

The "Boat Hotel" (it has a pool, bar and restaurant on the "boat")

But it wasn’t just that. The hotels were in competition with each other and with Dubai. There seemed to be this desire to build the highest and most outrageous hotels around. There is actually a taller hotel than the one to the right and another being built to be even more spectacular than this one. Going up is big for Singapore, a place that has a density of 7000+ people per square km (compared to the meager 3.4 people per square km that Canada has!) One thing for sure, however, no matter how humid you may say where you live is you’ve never experienced humidity like Singapore. Every day of the year is at least 80% and the temp never seems to go below 28C/82F — without humidity and early morning. It’s about 35C/95F with the humidity! As we often say in Canada, it’s not the heat — it’s the humidity. I think that should be the motto for Singapore.

One of the students did take us, on the night before we left for Beijing, to the local market and got some durian.

Durian, the King of Fruit

Durian is known as the “King of Fruit”. It’s an interesting fruit to say the least. You’ll pick up on the smell first: very earthy. Now eating it is interesting. He did say that people generally like it or hate it. It’s very creamy in texture and I think I could handle a slice or two each year but beyond that it’d be too much. If you do try durian make sure to get some fresh young coconuts to drink and wash the taste out of your mouth (expect that it will probably stay somewhere in your digestive tract for a day or two). Oh.. and it makes the washroom visits rather.. err.. interesting.

Uh.... Washroom challenges.

Saturday afternoon I headed off for Beijing, very anxious. As a trans person who still has the wrong gender on his passport, visiting places where their cultural and society can make the US Christian Right-Wing look downright socialist is very scary. But, oddly and interestingly enough, I had not one issue. Perhaps a form of male privilege at work?

April 3rd in Sydney, Australia

Posted on by Posted in Traveling/Work .

On Sunday, I met up with a friend and he took me to visit the Blue Mountains, specifically the 3 Sisters. Before I met up with him, however, I went to get a massage. I had pulled a butt muscle. It was too much for me so I figured that a massage would help. It did release some of the pain but not all of it. It is always nerve racking to be somewhere and not know what options would be in place to get help. Hopefully it won’t worsen while on the rest of the trip.

Anyways, I took the train out to Penrith. The train system struck me as the same as Toronto’s GO train system. It was relatively cheap at $6 each way. It took about an hour and a half to get there. When I got there, I saw my friend and he took me to his car, which looked like a Bentley with the license plate of “Bling1”.

Neat coffee swirl!

Totally awesome!

We drove along the 32 to Leura where we grabbed a lunch and coffee. We then continued onwards and stopped in a local park where we visited some waterfalls and got to see the canyon (I cannot find the name of it) before reaching the main tourist area to view the Three Sisters area.

Waterfall before the Three Sisters

We hiked through the area and ended up take the “Brides Path”. When we reached the end of it, the view was awe-inspiring. For me, only few places in Canada reach that kind of beauty. What was really interesting was how few other tourists were around us. In fact, we only saw maybe two other people as we walked through the forest.

 

The 3 Sisters Rock Formations

It was so nice to be in an area where the air was coated in particulates and the only sounds were the Cockatoos squawking at each other. After hiking for a couple of hours, we headed back to the car and headed further up the mountain to the Blue Mountains themselves. At, I believe, Echo Point we found the tourist area but arrived just after the store had closed. But the canyon with the Three Sisters was definitely open. As we walked to the viewing area, I saw Buddhists praying and I could see why, given the beauty and stillness of the area.

The drive back took longer because of construction that reduced the highway to a single lane. On a sunny Sunday, this made it really busy. We got into Sydney around 7:30pm and found a cheap but really good Thai restaurant to have some pad thai (a whole $5AUS — which is about $4.50 USD). He then dropped me off at my hotel and I fell asleep the minute my head hit the pillow.

I didn’t get too much time for more touristy stuff for the Monday/Tuesday but on Wednesday my flight wasn’t until the afternoon. My first need was to head to the Canadian Consulate in Sydney to drop off my voter registration so that when I get back I can vote. It was rather rainy but I spent most of my time wandering around bookstores and doing some last minute touristy shopping. I got two official Australian Rugby shirts including a nice “Blacks” one. Australian Rugby is so much more faster than American football and you definitely need to pay attention. I think the next time I go to Australia, I’d like to see a game live.

Wednesday afternoon I took a Qantas flight to Singapore. Although I didn’t sleep on the 8 hour flight, I was thoroughly entertained with all the movie choices. Now, Singapore is very different than Sydney…

 

More in another entry.

Kinda Wordless Wednesday (or maybe not)

Posted on by Posted in Traveling/Work .

I’ve been a bit busy with work for these last two days (it’s Wed, April 6 at 7am right now) but I figured before I head off to the Canadian Consulate (apparently we have an election going on so I have to register!), I’d post a quick post about my visit on Saturday and Sunday in Sydney and surrounding areas. So I arrived in Sydney at 730am on the Saturday April 1. I had lost a day and apparently, my butt pulled a muscle in the process. I get into the queue for Customs, answer all their questions, realize I said yes to everything on the Customs Declaration form (e.g., bringing in wild critters, vegetation, etc.), redid the form and got through to get the luggage. I then got into a second queue where they would go through your luggage to ensure you aren’t violating any laws or such. As I waited in the queue a woman came along and asked me if I had any of the offending plant-life or other items. I said no and got a pass to leave the airport.

I headed off in search of a taxi and found one. Apparently the most well-known hotel chain isn’t that well known. I had to give my taxi driver directions to a hotel I had never been too.

Thank god for Google Maps!

I got to the hotel and checked in. It was interesting that my boss had told me that if I had Gold or higher status with Hilton that I’d definitely need to check out the Executive Lounge. I thought I had silver since I got a new card in the mail recently from Hilton that indicated as such.

Nope.

Me in front of the Opera House

I have Gold Status. Although my room wasn’t ready, they did give me a card for access to the Executive Lounge if I wanted to hang out there later in the afternoon. I left my luggage with them and went wondering through Sydney. I walked down to Circular Quay and found a place to have breakfast. Once refreshed, I then headed out to find the infamous Sydney Opera House. It was packed with tourists (big surprise, I know) and once I had seen it (and the bridge, although I never did get a chance to walk it), I decided to head through the Botanical Gardens. One reason was so I could see what was unique in Australia but also I was in a hunt for a cigar. What I didn’t know at the time was that Sydney has enacted even stricter anti-smoking laws than Ontario or California. I can certainly understand some of the reasoning for it but.. well, that’s more for another blog.

Anyways, I decided to head through the Gardens. And oh, what sites (see below):

 

Fountain near the Opera House

 

 

Big Ass tree (the trunk is 4 times as wide as me)

 

Another Big Ass tree (only about 3 times as wide as me)

 

 

Known as Flying Foxes, there are tonnes of these -- and they are ruining the Gardens (so says a plaque)

 

Once I had walked around enough in aimless searching, I decided to head back to the hotel. When I got there, the room was nearly done and so I headed up to the Executive Lounge to check it out. Free snacks, water, soda and juice with a view of the city that was incredible. I got into my room and was treated to a small but well designed room. And once my luggage arrived, my first thing to do was take a nice, long hot shower. Never had that felt so good.

I did a quick email check and then headed out to wander some more, this time in search of dinner. I nearly ended up in Sydney’s Chinatown but found a nice little place called the Pepper Lunch for a cheap but good dinner. I was intrigue by the things that looked familiar (e.g., Hungry Jack’s logo is actually the same as Burger King but a copyright name conflict prevented them from using “Burger King” as the name) and yet, were so different. The one thing that is apparent is that Sydney is truly a melange of Asia with accents and dialects of various languages from all over.

I managed to arrange to meet up with a colleague the following day so I figured time for bed…

More later (I’m seriously going to have to catch up soon or I’ll miss stuff!)

March 31 takeoff, April 2nd landing

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To say that I’m excited is an understatement. I turn 41 today. In some ways, this is a very scary prospect. I’ve achieved middle-age and as we all know, one doesn’t get younger (yes, an obvious statement but still, sometimes we need to say it)

Way at the back of the plane

Today I go on my first international flight since I was 9 years old (and I traveled alone then too!). I remember flying Lufthansa to Germany to visit my step-father’s parents. Times have changed for international flying.

The takeoff had to be the longest takeoff I’ve ever experienced. And to make it more fun I decided to take an aisle seat at the back of the plane. The very back — row 88, the last one. The plus is that I’m beside the washroom and the self-service bar. The downside is that I’m near the washroom and the self-service bar. I did take some melatonin and a sleeping aid in hopes of snooozing through the maority of the flight. I’m avoiding caffeine as much as  can so that I won’t stay up. I’m also drinking more water.

Because of the height this plane ends up at (nearly 39,000+ feet), the humidity is way low and thus, water is something that I will constantly want to have.

I did luck out, however. Even though I’m in coach/economy/cattle car, the plane isn’t full and I have an empty seat beside me so I stretch and don’t to worry about someone crawling all over me.

LOL. The pilot came on to tell us to change our watche to Australian time and that apparently they will go back Sunday morning.

So I lose a day but gain an hour.

Did I mention that it was exciting?

Oddly enough, I did manage to get some sleep.

 

More later…

An update (finally!)

Posted on by Posted in Finances, fitness, transition, Traveling/Work .

I know. I know.

I’m way late for updates. I have to admit work has been busy and I’ve been focused on that recently. It also had me traveling a bit so that added more to my challenges. It’s been fun being able to go to a variety of places for work. Recently, I’ve been to Orlando, Austin, Minneapolis (that gets almost as cold as Ottawa!) and San Jose. And now, I get ready for my most fun trip yet: Sydney, Singapore and Beijing! I’m truly excited about this and buying extra flash cards for the cameras (I’m going to bring both my Powershot and my Canon DSLR with me). I’ve managed to add in a few extra days in Sydney and Beijing to try to do some touristy stuff. Basically, I get 3-4 days in each city (2 days of teaching and 1 day of travel). What will be interesting is how being a transsexual might be viewed or challenged on these trips. I’ve gotten oks for travel for Sydney and Singapore (Australia requires a visa and Singapore I don’t need one) but Beijing is the one that worries me the most. I’m waiting for that one to return an ok on my visa (along with passport and my H1-B visa). I should know by tomorrow.

I finished my taxes early and because of my move and the way that my pay got changed, I’m getting a sweet tax return. Because of this (and some money I had set aside for what I thought I would have to pay) I’m probably going to get a new MacBook Pro for myself along with a couple of other computers (so I can build a home lab environment). And, finally going to do something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time: top surgery. Even as a kid, having “moobs” was never something I liked. I just had no connection to them. I went to a couple of consults, asked a tonne of questions and finally decided on a surgeon. I put down a deposit of $500. I’m hoping that insurance will cover some of it (if it’s 50% or more, I’d be thrilled but any amount is better than nothing).

For me, this is the step I want most. Once done, I will decide afterwards if I want any bottom surgery beyond a hysterectomy (I want that simply because of the risk of cancer increases as I continue to take T and if I get that surgery, then my dosage can be reduced). I so want a summer where I don’t have to wear a binder — and perhaps even go topless. I still have my big bike trip for next year planned, although I need to get my training plan back into some kind of order. I’d like to be able to do this without wearing a binder.

Speaking of health, the training plan got shelved a bit after I threw out my back something fierce (sitting, standing or lying down was painful). I’ve finally got to a chiropractor and have been getting regular treatment to address this long term. The surgeon I saw said that likely this surgery will help with my back pain as he feels I’m overly “top heavy”. I suspect he’s right since I’ve had upper back pain all my life.

In other health fronts, we’ve been wavering on our eating and our vegan lifestyle. This is something that I definitely want to get back to. I have found that when I’m just vegetarian I feel listless and tired but when I’m vegan, particularly raw vegan, I have more energy, focus and direction. I think I need to re-read “The China Study” and re-watch “Earthlings” to remind me of the things I do not want to do and why I don’t want to do it.

Overall, I have to say that my transition has been amazing for me. There is one thing, however, that still saddens me and that is the loss of my dad. He’s around but just doesn’t seem to want to talk to me. In some ways, I understand why (he’s a very right-wing Catholic) but it’s still a bit sad. I suppose since we never really had contact when I was growing up it’s not that big of a deal for me (I’d be more devastated if my aunts, uncles and/or my grandmother refused to speak to me) but still..

Ah well… so that’s all my news for now. I’ll probably do some updates when I’m on the road over the next few weeks (I, oddly enough, leave on my 41st birthday — a week from today!) as I suspect it should make for some interesting reading.

The Start of a New Year…. Finally.

Posted on by Posted in Daily life, fitness, LGBTQ, Life, Novel writing, transition, Traveling/Work, vegan stuff .

I can honestly say that I’m tired of rain. Heck, at times, it’s been colder in Los Angeles (and wetter!) than in Toronto or other northern cities. Whether the cause is Global Warming or not, isn’t that important. What is important is that the weather patterns are a-changin’. K and I went to Montreal for the festive holidays and ended up staying an extra 3 days thanks to the blizzard that hit the Northeast. It’s interesting how all the Canadian airports had no issue with the storm (even though they handle these kinds of storms regularly) but the big 3 in question — JFK, LaGuardia and Newark — completely fell apart.

I’m thankful that we were staying with family and they had room for us for the extra days but I did feel bad about imposing on them for this extra time. I know that it impacts on the daily routine and sometimes that can be trying. It was still a fun visit, nonetheless. I introduced K to poutine (if you’ve never had this, it is an experience: basically, it’s french fries, cheese curds and gravy). We also indulged in some New Brunswick lobster (tastes very different from Maine or elsewhere). This trip was our last omnivore meal. We’ve reached a point where we want to return back to a vegan diet and primarily one that is a raw vegan diet. I don’t know if we’ll be able to do 100% raw vegan (and, if I could, it’d do 3-4 green smoothies a day) but I’m going to aim for at least 50% if not higher.

I haven’t been back on my bike since we got all the rain and I had all that travel but after my trip this week to San Jose, I should be able to start some cycling for a couple of weeks. One of the things I still have to do is coordinate with a hotel gym when I travel or walk where possible. Given that my next 3 trips will be San Jose, Austin (TX) and Orlando I think walking may be in my future.

So, given that it’s the start of the new year, I suppose I should put up some resolutions. I was going to compare them to last year’s but it appears I didn’t really post any. I suspect that was because I knew things would be somewhat in flux with the move and the visa really being the biggest concerns. Ok.. so here goes.

1. Return back to a vegan lifestyle. I truly can’t take meat or processed foods any more. There still is a part of me that wants to be pescaterian (damned Acadian genes!) but I’m going to avoid that as much as possible. As I said above, I want it to be primarily raw vegan (ideally up to 80%) where possible. I have found that my body is having a harder and harder time with processed foods in general. I’m also cutting out all soda, diet or otherwise. If it ain’t water or whiskey, it’s gonna be a tea.

2. Cycling 3-6 times a week. This will depend on how much on the road I am but if I get what I asked for (once a month) then I should be fine. In addition to this I want to ensure that I do 25 pushups a day and 50 situps (no necessarily all at once but in a series of reps). This would be the basic exercise for every day and should help build some of my core muscles.

3. Do a full completion of the P90X program. I have the DVDs and the space. I just need to do the damned things. I know a lot of trans guys who have done this and they say it’s the best at building up muscle, especially pre-surgery.

4. When not doing P90X or cycling, go for a run. I actually had enjoyed running with my FiveFingers and want to get back to doing that again. I think it’d be a nice alternating exercise to the cycling for me to do as a way to lose weight.

5. Do two centuries to San Diego and back. Nothing gets me on my bike more than having a goal. A century (100 miles in a single day) to San Diego would be a good way to gauge how I’m doing.  Doing it twice — once in May (?) and once in August (?) — would be a good way to gauge how my fitness levels are doing. It can also allow me to explore the area more.

6. Get my driver’s license. At 40, I’m weird in that I’ve never gotten it. And I’ll be honest in that the Los Angeles freeways scare the crap out of me. The average speed is about 80-100 mph (well into the 130-150kph range). I don’t know if I’ll ever use the freeways themselves but there are a lot of secondary freeways I could use. I’m aiming to see if I can get this by my 41st birthday or around there.

7. Walk the pups once a day when I’m at home. This will be particularly helpful for Jan to April since K will be working at her dad’s (an accountant) and that’s prime tax season. It’ll also help me get a little more exercise and keep them from being too wild. I particularly want this to be a 45-60 min venture. Pugs don’t need a lot of exercise but it does help keep these two from fighting with each other (they do this dominance thing a bit and the walks reduce that a lot).

8. Read a book a week and write at least once a day. I “hermitized” during 2010. I withdrew a lot because too much was going on and things are settling down quite a bit now into more of a routine. There is still a part of me that aspires to be a fiction writer. I used to want to write sci fi and part of me still does but given how much mystery I read I may lean that way. Or just combine them. I missed out on the 2010 NaWriMo but want to participate this year. I also have an intention of writing a technical book. I’ve been asked a few times to do a couple and there is one that is pending that I need to work on an outline with a colleague and get that started. I also need to be more diligent on my blogs and that is something I should be doing.

9. Get top surgery (at least) but perhaps a hysto as well. I’m thinking I may try to do this before the GOP repeal it (although I just read today how they are going start off the new session with that). I’m hopeful that my insurance provider will still keep the standard they are (as long as it’s consider a medical necessity by a doctor, they will cover it). I’m finding that my GID has been worsening in regards to physical appearance. Although I pass 100% of the time, I’m very self-conscious of certain things. And I’d like to have the top surgery before I do my big trip in 2012.

10. The actual weight loss goal — lose 60lbs by end of 2011. This means dropping from the 240lbs I had in 2009 (at 5’1″, it’s 50% body fat) to about 180lbs. I’ve been steady between 220-230 the last month or so. That is good but I need to continue to get that needle to drop more. My ultimate goal would be 150-160lbs. Although BMI and others say that still overweight, for my body type (stocky/compact) it’d be too much.

All of these are doable for this year. And now that I’ve written them out, I’ve basically made myself accountable to myself to complete them. In addition to all this, I will be migrating this blog (along with the others) to a new internet provider. I recently got an account to have my sites hosted on a virtual server. This will allow me to install and configure things the way I want it. When I get back from San Jose I will begin that process and post up a new link to the new address (it’ll be an IP to start with until the domain gets resolved to the new address).

Bring on 2011!

Life is on track again

Posted on by Posted in Daily life, transition, Traveling/Work, Uncategorized .

Well, life has been busy since my last entry. My cycling has dropped off some due to traveling and probably won’t pick up again until the week of Thanksgiving. And then again in mid-December. Although I do love my job, it’s hard to get cycling in when I want to. I recently got Chris Carmichael’s book, The Time Crunched Cyclist. Basically, it’s like his program he used for Lance but adjusted for the average cyclist who wants to do well. I certainly wouldn’t be able to do the Tour de France but i should be able to do a few centuries and my planned tours. I will have to maximize my cycling. I’m tempted to get a new indoor trainer. I used to have one when I lived in Canada (cold nights made it hard to bike then). I think the bigger challenge will be that I’m on the road so much right now and in the near future. The one good thing is that the week of Thanksgiving my company is doing a “shutdown” and I intend to leverage that for a fair amount of cycling. We recently got the dogs a bicycle dog trailer and I might even attempt to see if they like that. If they do, then I can bring them with me on rides.

In other fun stuff, I got my new visa. This is good since it’ll keep me here for a while. It was a bit of nerve racking experience but it’s done. I now have my new passport (with new name) and a visa (also with new name). I went to SSA to get a new SSN with new name and will start the process for a driver’s license as well. I think I’ll also get a California ID as I do need additional ID sometimes and it would be better, when traveling only in the US, to use the state issued ID. So little time and so much to do.

Thanksgiving week will probably be the week I look into finally getting top surgery booked. I still have some weight I need to lose before then. I’ve dropped about 20lbs since earlier this summer and I think I can drop another 30-40lbs before the end of the year. I certainly wouldn’t be buff or perfectly lean but I think I will be in a healthier position for surgery. What is interesting is that I recently checked my company’s benefits site and I noticed that the exclusion for SRS has been removed. In fact, all exclusions seem removed and it’s down to 4 general terms. Since I know quite a few trans individuals who have had Aetna successfully cover their surgery I think I’m going to actively pursue the surgery and coverage under my benefits program.

I can honestly say that this makes life look great. I often post on HuffPost and have been commenting on the articles about Cher’s comments on Chaz in an effort to dispel some of the misinformation on trans individuals. While that can often be discouraging it is the worst I see in life today.

Things are looking up.

Posted on by Posted in Daily life, fitness, Gratitude, Traveling/Work .

I love it when things come together. I’ve been poking about the lawyer’s site to see what was up with my visa and lo’ and behold on Friday, 3 months to the day that USCIS officially received the visa application it was approved. It was like a whole bunch of weight was lifted off my shoulders. I’m still waiting for details to come from the lawyers as to the next steps. Once I know, then I can move forward. I think part of it will include a visit back home to Canada to address my passport (and finally get all my ID in sync) as well as getting the visa itself.

Which then brings me to today’s little discovery. I decided to log into my company’s website and check out benefits and all that. I was looking at my coverage and noticed something. In the exclusions there was no mention of sexual reassignment. Yippee! Once I finish with the whole visa thing I will have two calls to make: one to a doctor and one to the DMV (Yes, yes.. I know.. I’m 40 and still don’t have a license).

Eh.. I don’t really need one. I did go out on a bike ride today (38KM on a single speed). It was awesome. It reminded me of all those times I’d just ride and let my mind drift into the ether. For some people they find spirituality in a building. I find it on a bike. I biked along the South Bay Beach Cities path (aka The Strand). The houses on there are amazing and it has to be the quietest path I’ve ever been on. I got as far as Marina Del Ray. The path itself is part of California Coastal Trail initiative. It kind of reminds me of the Trans Canada Trail but just not as long nor as cold.

I think I could kinda get used to all this… 😉