I'll have three consecutive evenings out as Grace this week, which will be my third, fourth and fifth times...so a big deal at this stage. Tonight was an art gallery opening for the girlfriend of a friend of mine. My first attempt to mingle with the general public and I think it went pretty well. Only my friend and her girlfriend, plus another woman who was there knew of me in dude mode so it was up to me to sell myself as Grace. And wow, I had to do a lot of talking in noisy environments! At the gallery I got cornered by a woman who chatted with me about graphic design for a good 15 minutes! Afterwards my friend, her girlfriend, three other women and myself went and had dinner. It was great, a solid three hours as me! If anyone suspected I was trans* they graciously never said or hinted. My friend knew me as Julie during my first attempt at transition - I was talking to her before we left the gallery and I was saying I felt I was doing ok even though I wasn't happy with my voice, she said she thought the change was so stunning she couldn't see me as anything other than a woman. She didn't have any problem remembering to call me Grace so that was really great (last time she was always misgendering me and forgetting to call me Julie). I felt self conscious about my voice especially when I had to speak up in a noisy restaurant but once I got used using it in conversation it wasn't too bad. Just need more confidence. Oh wait...two more nights to go!
