My Volvo rental car informed me that the outside air temperature was 81 F at about 5 PM this afternoon. We are having above average temperatures for several days. It's very pleasant.

I'm glad I kept collision coverage on my car, even though it is often recommended that you not keep this on older, high mileage vehicles to save money. The adjuster called today and offered me over $3,000 for the loss of my car. I will speak with him tomorrow to work on getting something closer to $4,000. That's the Kelly Blue Book value for my make, model and year auto in excellent condition. Thanks to Kristoff for his advice on this.

Yesterday, I opened checking and savings accounts at a local branch of Bank of America. I used funds from my Minnesota bank, which has only four branches and they are all in the Twin Cities. The new account will enable me to get cash easily should I need it when I buy a used car.

I don't need anything fancy. As long as the car is reliable and gets good gas mileage, I will be happy. I prefer a stick shift, in part because I feel like I'm more a part of the driving experience with a manual transmission. Driving in the big city with a stick shift doesn't bother me at all.

First thing this morning, I checked with the recruiter about the state job I applied for. He responded that 'we are in the game.' As part of the application, I included my portfolio. Kristoff (thanks again!) passed on the idea of creating a portfolio from a friend of his who does the same type of work as I do.

I was contacted by three recruiters today about job opportunities. None of these were the best fits for my skills but I would be quite comfortable doing the work.

I'm feeling more at home in Chicagoland each day. Late this afternoon, I drove to Woodfield Mall in the western suburbs. I visited this mall many times in the years before I moved to this area. It is a very large mall and has been rated the most popular tourist attraction in Illinois. If that ranking is correct, I find it a bit peculiar. I would prefer to visit the terrific museums and other attractions in downtown Chicago that are first class. Of course, the mall is free if you don't spend anything. The downtown attractions are not.

Woodfield Mall seems small compared to the Mall of Death in the Twin Cities. Yet I find it much more pleasant. It's got a much better layout, it's less noisy and I don't feel overwhelmed by its size. The only thing I find strange about it is that there is no bookstore.

Yesterday evening, I drove to Westfield Mall in Vernon Hills. This is much smaller than Woodfield Mall but still very nice to walk around. My main purpose for these trips is to get out and drive places so I feel more at home.

Onto yet another subject. I have no problem admitting that I wear a wig. Until now, I have kept my own hair extremely short. Most of it is gray. Several people, whose opinions I respect, have told me I need to let my own hair grow and dye it to match the wig color. One advantage of this is that, in the unlikely event I ever find myself in a sexual encounter and the wig comes off, my lover will see long, dyed hair.

Perhaps when I have a job, and a little more money, I will be more interested in the possibility of a sexual assignation. After being on estrogen for nearly two years, however, I find that my libido is practically nonexistent. This doesn't bother me at all. If I am treated well by a man and we dance or get physically close in other ways, I get some arousal.

Stick Shifties! Yeah!

Well relieved your ok after your crash. Be sure to keep in tune with your doctor if you have any pains etc. Some of this maybe coming in later.

Great on the possible job! Good luck!

Re: Book stores. Amazon.com Its not the same as being able to feel, smell etc the books. And whats better then an OLD musty book!?!?

Just remember its not just Estrogen that makes up a proper Female Mix of hormones. Try to get labs of your Estrogen, DHEA, Testosterone and progesterone and talk to your new doctor about balancing them all with a compounded cream. It may end up costing less and give you a better outcome. Women have sex drives. Its "different" and it requires female levels of Testosterone but they have them. Don't give that up just because your TS. I think there is a total aversion to testosterone in some TS women. Doctor Bowers said (On the TV series she did) that a lot of her patients (and herself - SIGH ) are not sexual after GRS. I don't think its the surgery or the ability to attract men. Anyway, give it some thought and look at your labs versus natal female levels.

*Just my amateur opinion.

Stick Shifties! Yeah!

Glad you brought this up, MrT. I forgot to mention to someone scouting out a car for me that I would much prefer a stick shift.

mrt (imported) wrote: Fri Apr 02, 2010 8:18 am Well relieved your ok after your crash. Be sure to keep in tune with your doctor if you have any pains etc. Some of this maybe coming in later.

Both of my knees are starting to hurt much more than they were right after the crash. I included this info on the accident report I submitted to the great state of Illinois.

mrt (imported) wrote: Fri Apr 02, 2010 8:18 am Great on the possible job! Good luck!

Seems everything is a job possibility. I need to keep in mind that I've only been looking in Chicagoland for a little over three weeks. I'm still getting much more interest that in the Twin Cities. The three phone interviews I have had here already equals that total number of phone interviews I had in Minnesota in nearly 7 months of job searching.

Some days, I'm able to apply for 10 - 12 job postings. Of course, some of these companies already have someone in mind for the position and are posting the job as a formality. I may have mentioned in an earlier post that some days I put in 10 - 12 hours on my job search.

Next Wednesday evening, I will attend a professional society meeting and carry plenty of business cards along. I need to get going on a more effective networking campagin.

To increase my marketability, I'm going to learn some advanced techniques for appllication tools used in my profession. In my free time, of which there is very little, I will start to learn C# so I can at least say I have first hand experience with object-oriented programming. Then, too, I need to keep my SQL query skills from becoming rusty.

A big thing these days is to advertise your skills on your own web site, while providing usefull information and perhaps a blog, so that may become another project. With C# and ASP.net, I could program my own site. I may be over reaching here, considering time limitations!

Anyway, I don't think anyone can say that I'm not trying really, REALLY hard to find a job.

mrt (imported) wrote: Fri Apr 02, 2010 8:18 am Just remember its not just Estrogen that makes up a proper Female Mix of hormones. Try to get labs of your Estrogen, DHEA, Testosterone and progesterone and talk to your new doctor about balancing them all with a compounded cream. It may end up costing less and give you a better outcome. Women have sex drives. Its "different" and it requires female levels of Testosterone but they have them. Don't give that up just because your TS. I think there is a total aversion to testosterone in some TS women. Doctor Bowers said (On the TV series she did) that a lot of her patients (and herself - SIGH ) are not sexual after GRS. I don't think its the surgery or the ability to attract men. Anyway, give it some thought and look at your labs versus natal female levels.

*Just my amateur opinion.

I have never forgotten that you are a big fan of Marci Bowers. The doctor I am seeing is the same one Erica Ann has gone to for quite some time. He may treat more trans women than any other physician in Chicago. His methods are different than those of the hormone doctor I was seeing in Saint Paul, and in a way I have had to start over on estrogen.

The new doctor cut in half the spironolactone I take daily to help suppress testosterone. I'm certainly not averse to testosterone as long as it is not interfering with further feminization. And according to Erica Ann, he likes to keep 'his girls' estrogen levels significantly higher than what I was able to achieve back in the land of 10,000 lakes. We'll be gradually increasing my dose over the coming months.

I continue to be thrilled with the electrolysis results. Since last Sunday's 4 hour session, I haven't had to shave. This afternoon, I went to the post office with no make up and looked fine.

Hugs,

Danya

Danya (imported) wrote: Sat Apr 03, 2010 3:42 pm I continue to be thrilled with the electrolysis results. Since last Sunday's 4 hour session, I haven't had to shave. This afternoon, I went to the post office with no make up and looked fine.

Hi Danya,

You are a much braver woman than me. Though I have not needed to shave my face or neck for almost 4 months now, I would never even consider going any place like the post office without wearing what I consider my cosmetic essentials, i.e.; moisturizer, foundation, blush, eye liner, mascara and lipstick, but that's just me.

I guess I feel that I always need to look my best when I'm out and about. Got to do my best the "sell the package", if you know what I mean.

EricaAnn (imported) wrote: Sun Apr 04, 2010 7:16 am Hi Danya,

You are a much braver woman than me. Though I have not needed to shave my face or neck for almost 4 months now, I would never even consider going any place like the post office without wearing what I consider my cosmetic essentials, i.e.; moisturizer, foundation, blush, eye liner, mascara and lipstick, but that's just me.

I guess I feel that I always need to look my best when I'm out and about. Got to do my best the "sell the package", if you know what I mean.

Hi Erica,

What, no toner before the moisturizer??

You always look terrific.

Under normal circumstances, like you I would not go out without all the cosmetic essentials. For now, though, these are not normal circumstances. I typically get up by 7 to 7:30 AM and get right to work on my job search. I should probably eat breakfast, but many days I skip it because I'm busy responding to interesting job postings and lose track of time. Some days, I don't finish until 10 or even 11 PM. Then I read a novel for 30 minutes or so and go to bed. I just don't have time to apply makeup for a quick run to the post office. I continue my job search, and related activites, on the weekend too. Although on Saturday or Sunday I take a few hours off to relax.

On the other hand, for a night on the town or an afternoon at the arboretum I would not dream of going without makeup. I absolutely want to look my best then and I make the time to prepare. We are worth it, after all!

Speaking of arboretums, if the weather is good next Saturday I will try to fit in the time to go to the Morton Arboretum you told me about. I just visited their web site and it looks like fun. On a drive today, I noticed a lot of daffodils and hyacinths in bloom. I'll take my camera along.

Hugs,

Danya

I have been up since 5:15 AM, searching for my next 'opportunity', er....job! I found two very good possibilities and spent several hours preparing specific cover letters and resumes for each. When I lived in Minnesota, the unemployed worker counselors noted that we jobless folks (those of us who are 'between opportunities') need to learn how to brag about our accomplishment and how we can make specific contributions to the success of prospective employers. It's all about the employer's needs, particularly in this economy.

Residents of the near-Arctic land of 10,000 lakes have a reputation for being 'Minnesota Nice.' In part, this means that these luckless denizens of that frozen clime are reluctant to talk about what they do well. That just isn't 'nice.' The counselors said, more or less, to forget about being 'nice,' at least in the Minnesota sense of the word. Getting a job today means one has got to loudly toot one's own horn.

Fortuitously, I am not a native of the land of 2,000,000 cattle of the dairy variety. Rather, I am a bold and brash native of the eastern megalopolis. Well, I'm bold and brash at times, anyway! More typically, I'm rather low-keyed yet intense at the same time.

Anyway, I am getting more bold and brash now that I've moved to the Chicago area. As I was driving to my electrolysis appointment this morning, I reached a point on the Tollway near O'Hare Airport where I could see the downtown skyscrapers looming in the distance. For some reason, this reminded me of my first, distant sighting of the western side of the Teton Mountain Range in Wyoming. I was thrilled by its massiveness and excited by the promise of rugged slopes to hike and wonderful things to see.

Incongruous aside: Why is it that I actually enjoy paying tolls around Chicagoland??

I still react in a similar way when I see the Chicago skyline in the distance. It promises all kinds of fascinating adventures that, while of the manmade variety, are nonetheless compelling.

Somehow, being in the midst of this happening place is releasing my latent megalopolitan tendencies. I am becoming much bolder, and at times even brash, in the cover letters and resumes I submit online. I have some hope that this approach will pay off. Actually, I have decided it just will work. It would still be nice to know the 'when' about the whole thing.

I finished working for the day at 6:30 PM because I could not find any more interesting jobs possibilities. I could spend time on sharpening my skills in several areas, but I have had enough for one day. Although my electrolysis session was strangely relaxing, I need a more conventional respite from my work.

At today's session, I finished my 20th hour of treatment. I had only one electrologist giving me what felt like hundreds of bee stings. This was a good thing, but only because I like the results. I would have been even happier with both of my electrologists working on me.

At the end of the session, my tormentor said she saw signs that in the next week or two my face might go 'poof.' She meant that I might start to see some significant regrowth after weeks with very little. When that happens, we will go back to the 'tag-teaming' treatments with both women torturing me simultaneously.

After any 'poof' regrowth has been aggressively squelched, I should not experience it again. On the other hand, my electrocutionist has some suspicion that I will never experience a 'poof' period. That would be truly wonderful.

I took a relatively short break yesterday to drive to a local mall, where I walked around for awhile and bought nothing more than a chocolate malt. It was good to be out and I was excited to see how much the landscape has greened.

1. No sign of the 'poof' effect so far!

2. Last night, although I intended to finish my job search at midnight, I was still at it at 1:30 AM. At that point, I called it quits for the new day.

By yesterday afternoon, I was already feeling burned out from near constant work to find a new position. So today, I took time off and drove to downtown Chicago to visit the Field Museum of Natural History. I haven't been there in at least 10 years. It was great to finally meet 'Sue,' the largest and best preserved fossil of a Tyrannosaurus rex ever found. Although the sign said 'she' was 43 feet long and 13 feet high, and had weighed 7 tons when alive, I was a little disappointed. When I viewed her from the upstairs gallery, however, and saw all the relatively small people gathered round I was quite impressed by the size of this beast.

The museum had a new, to me at least, and extensive well done exhibit on the evolution of life. My master's thesis was on an evolutionary biology topic so I found this especially interesting. The exhibit was extremely thorough. The fossil collection was huge, too, and nicely displayed.

Of course, I found the exhibit on gems fascinating!

There was a special exhibit called something like "Life Below Ground." This was also fun. As I traveled down the entrance, signs noted that I was becoming smaller. What was really happening is that the insects, fungi, roots and other inhabitants of this usually unseen world were becoming larger.

3. I got a call from the insurance agent whose policy covered the van my car struck after the drunk driver ran into my car. He wanted my view of what happened, which he noted was in complete agreement with what others had said. He was unaware, however, that the intoxicated driver had no insurance and had tried to flee the scene. He told me that since the accident was not my fault, his company (Farmers Ins.) was going to go after the driver directly despite his having no insurance. I was delighted to hear this. I let him know that I would show up for any court proceedings.

4. I've decided to update my undergraduate class representative about my transgender status. This should make interesting reading in the next class newsletter. The main reason I am doing this is to make it easier to connect with former classmates and alumni in the Chicago area who may be good contacts for my job search.

5. I am actively looking at alternative career paths, including teaching at private high schools where no certification is needed. I'm also looking at community colleges. All of this is likely a long shot, but the fact is I love teaching. I would even consider a private school teaching position in another country. There is a web site that helps locate these positions. Last night, I did locate several metro Chicago area openings at private schools for science teachers.

Late this afternoon, I called my Masters advisor to see if he would be a reference for my abilities both in teaching and technically. We had a terrific talk and he is glad to help.

He gave me the name and contact info of another former student who is now an associate professor at a university of Chicago. I will contact him to see if he has any suggestions or connections.

Finally, my advisor told me he knows someone at the Field Museum who works in their quite large botany department. He is another potential source of useful information.

I sent my PhD program advisor an email about the same subject. I will try to phone him tomorrow.

6. My chief electrologist let me know Sunday that, because of the unusual intensity of the treatment I am receiving I need to apply vitamin E to my face 2 - 3 times per week. This is to help my skin heal between treatments. I did this for the first time today and not only was it very soothing, it left my skin feeling and looking very good.

I decided I wanted to dress well to go downtown so I applied all of my makeup. I wore a nice dress, too, with my favorite off-black nylons. In my travels today, several men were eyeing me up and down and two of them smiled and said 'hi.' This was very nice!

7. I briefly toyed with the idea today of signing up for gender reassignment surgery now, and even trying to get a surgery appointment relatively quickly. I soon abandoned this idea as unwise, given the fact that I have no job. :-\ It would not do to tell a new employer that I would need weeks off work in a few months for what some consider cosmetic surgery. Even if I put a deposit down for surgery that would be a more typical year off, I would still be making an unwise assumption about how this would fit into a new employer's plans.

Now it's time to eat a quick dinner and get back to the job hunt.

Danya (imported) wrote: Sat Apr 03, 2010 3:42 pm Glad you brought this up, MrT. I forgot to mention to someone scouting out a car for me that I would much prefer a stick shift.

I have never forgotten that you are a big fan of Marci Bowers.

Hugs,

Danya

Well ahh err... yes, Dr Bowers is quite a dish. If I were single she could put her shoes under my bed anytime!

Great on the new hormone doctor. I think from my experience with DHEA and Testosterone (And high E2 at times) its not a simple one dose fits all thing and having a good mix and program to keep it all adjusted is excellent! BTW the DHEA really does help me with proper sleep and probably more subtle things as well.

Stay warm! Mrs T sez "She had a car wreck?! Why didn't someone tell me?!" so write her an email and tell her your ok. Ok? Ahh the part about Dr Bowers maybe NOT mention

I purchased a used car today, just as my insurance coverage for the fancy Volvo rental was going to expire. It's a 2004 Ford Focus wagon with 42,000 miles on it. I talked the dealer down $1,000 from their listed price, which was already $500 below the Kelly Blue Book retail value. In addition, I convinced them to replace the three, somewhat worn tires with new ones to match the new right rear tire. I'll pick up the car Saturday afternoon.

As soon as I test drove it, I really liked it. It handles well, in addition to getting great gas mileage and having plenty of storage space. For some reason, all of my cars have been some shade of red and this one is no exception.

I got a call today from a recruiter for a 6+ contract position at Walgreens headquarters. They seem very interested. It would be great if I get the job and better yet, if it should turn into a permanent position. The recruiter felt I was extremely well qualified.

Then there was a later call for a permanent position I had applied for two weeks ago. I don't have much information yet, but the corporate recruiter is supposed to call back no later than Monday.

In the month I have been applying for work in the Chicago area, I have gotten more positive responses than in the 8 months I was looking in Minnesota. The amazing thing is that, with the exception of interest for this latest permanent position, recruiters are contacting me because of the resume I have on a technology job site. That did not happen a single time in Minnesota. So I am hopeful something will work out relatively soon. I'm prepared, however, for a number of additional months of unemployment.

Tonight, I need to go grocery shopping and I will go in 'blonde mode.' I'll use my relatively short blonde wig.

Hi Danya,

I'm so glad to hear about your new car. All the best of luck with it and BTW, welcome to the Ford family of fine cars. I'm a big fan of Ford Motors having driven Ford's for most of life and have always been well satisfied with their products.

I'm also very happy to hear of your pending employment opportunities. I happen to know a transgendered girl that works for Walgreens at their corporate headquarters and from what she tells me they are a very transgender friendly organization. Their insurance plan even covers GRS!

I'm not too surprised at the difference in the responses you're finding to your job search in the Chicago area. Kind of what we discussed all along.

Stay the course girl and be strong. Things will work out for the best, even if it takes awhile.