Newbe from Madison, Wisconsin

[jamiejo]

Morning All

My name is Jamie, live in Madison, WI, but originally from Sydney Australian. been in the states for 11 years.  So, was married, I'm 35 years old, just over one year into my transition.

Came out to Ex-Wife: July 2010
Started HRT: September 10th 2010
Fulltime: April Fool's Day 2011
FFS: April 5th, 2011 (Spiegel)
GRS/BA: Planned for April 18, 2012 (Brassard)
Number of friends lost due to transition: 1
Face Electrolysis: 7 Sessions at E3000 (78 hours)
Body Laser: 6 sessions
Jobs: Transitioned on the job at an engineering firm and my two part-time jobs with zero complications.

My transition has been VLOG'ed (in my case TLOG'ed) on my Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/jamiejogirl

FFS Video: http://www.youtube.com/user/jamiejogirl?feature=mhee#p/u/46/1MZccLzYUvU

Happy Thursday to all,
Jamie

[justmeinoz]

Welcome to Susan's.  We let all sorts in here, even Sydneysiders! (Spoken as a recent arrival in 2 head island  )

Looks like things are moving along for you at a nice pace.  Glad to here your job was not affected.  I came out a couple of weeks after I retired, but let all my former workmates know what was going on anyway. No friends lost as a result.  Good to hear a good news story from your neck of the woods, some of the folk have had a bit of a hard time.

I will try and catch your blog too, when it is not so late here.

Karen.

[AbraCadabra]

Welcome Jamie from the South African connection,

you the second 'visitor' today that sounds like - SO ORGANIZED!!! :-) Great!

I hope you'll find our environment stimulating and rewarding with all the nice and ever so bright folks about @ 24/7/365.

Good luck and happy posting,
Axelle

[melissa42013]

How did you come out on April Fools Day?
I was toying with the idea of coming out on facebook on 4-1-2012 and changing my name. All my picts including picts of me with family, gender, etc and watch people get a good laugh then try and figure out why I never changed it back. I have a good sense of humor especially towards myself. The only down side I thought of is that I may miss the opportunity to educate people of the issue and negative responses to "my joke" may burn a bit.

Alos, I am a 38 year old "Pseudo-Engineer" as a marking gal I found that the engineers in R&D "LOVED IT" when I played armchair engineer in R&D meetings and on more occasions than they liked solved technical problems. I do have an engineering mind and now that I own my own plastics company I get to play engineer... (and janitor)...lol

[Devlyn]

Hi Jamie, it's nice to meet you! I'm up by Boston. You'll meet lots of new friends here, I promise! See you around, hugs, Tracey

[jamiejo]

How did you come out on April Fools Day?

AFD was just my official day of going  fulltime.  All of my family, friends and coworkers knew prior to this date.  It gave them the opportunity to get their head around it, ask questions, etc.  A week after AFD my clients were notified (I wrote them a letter) which went over extremely well.  Customers at the liquor, well some I told, some figured it out, most just think I'm new hire.  Since I had FFS on April 5th I took March 30 thru May 16th off to recovery and do my transformation, in front of my Mum & Dad - now that's pressure!!!

Develop a detailed plan - Execute the Plan - I guess I should have been in the military!

Jamie

[LivingInGrey]

oooh Madison is a nice(ish) place. Not a bad size if you like larger(ish) cities.

I ended up moving out of Madison, just couldn't deal with traffic and all.

Welcome to the forums.

[jamiejo]

oooh Madison is a nice(ish) place. Not a bad size if you like larger(ish) cities.

I ended up moving out of Madison, just couldn't deal with traffic and all.

Welcome to the forums.

Traffic???  Well you must be speaking of the Beltline than....totally agree, I only rare use it.  After moving from Sydney (pop 4.5 million), Madison is a nice place to take it slow.  Cost of living is cheap and a very accepting community.  Would prefer to live in San Fran, Vancouver, etc. but way too expensive.  The only downside is the seafood sucks by the time it gets to Wisconsin!

[LivingInGrey]

Yeah, unless you like lake fish your not going to get much of an option for anything decent.

I haven't spent any real amount of time in a major city... at least when I was old enough to drive. I'm more of a Town of 3000 kind of person I guess.

There are some real good Cajun places in Madison though, and a couple of good Asian places (and no I don't mean HuHot) depending on your style.

I still get down to Madison though from time to time. My family lives near to that area yet still and it's nice to go and visit State Street. Every now and then I'll swing by and look at the mural that was partly covered by the now bridge and parking ramp thing from the Monona Terrace or I'll spend a day in the Arboretum (grew up in those woods).

[melissa42013]

Jamie,
I agree with you totally on creating a plan of action. Too many people (IMO) rush into things without having a plan of action. I'm not a big fan of "analysis paralysis" but I'm going to make this whole thing as easy as possible on the people around me.

You mentioned transitioning in front of your parents. That scares the hell out of me. I cringe at the thought of this Christmas going home to see the extended family (who know) and the strange looks I am going to get. I will be one year on HRT and my hair will be down to my shoulders by then. The last time most of them saw me I had a military style cut and 30+ more pounds on me.

I am going to follow the "Jennifer Boyland" plan from "She's not there" and stealth transition until one day I just "flip the switch" and tell the rest of the people.

-M

[jamiejo]

You mentioned transitioning in front of your parents. That scares the hell out of me.

So I picked them up from the airport (they still live in Australia) as the new me which went over extremely well.  They were getting use to me through Skype.  The following day I had to work as male.  The next morning I work up and realized from this day forward I'm fulltime.  My parents and Aunt are down stairs having breakfast and waiting for me.  Gulp...suck it up and deal with it, haven't looked back.

YEAH...I finally have an Avatar.

[Jennifer]

Hi Jamie,

I love it when a plan comes together! It sounds like yours sure did, congratulations. I live near Green Bay and get to Madison often. Being a progressive (for Wisconsin) fun college town, 'Mad City' is one of my favorite places to visit. Snowboarding at Tyrol Basin and skateboarding at the many indoor skateparks, what's not to love? It's so wonderful that your workplace and family are so accepting; it gives me a little extra hope and inspiration. You look great in your avatar. 

Jennifer

[ByeBye]

hi, congratulations on ur planned schedule and for any vegetarians out here, the BOCA factory is in town.