So I decided to take Laurie's advice and make a new 're introduction thread' and let people know what I've been up to until now..
Some of you probably remember me, most probably don't, and that's perfectly okay.
What's new and exciting for Angela?
Well, I'm OUT. To pretty much everybody. I've been full'time for what seems like forever and it's *AWESOME.*
I'm out to friends, I'm out to family, I'm out at *WORK.* (All of these terrified the heck out of me, but once it was done it was done and there was no going back and that was *AWESOME*. I'm going to repeat *AWESOME* a bazillion times btdubs.) I will admit, a lot of crying occurred in the interim. My mother honestly thought I was handing her a suicide note when I came out to her (via letter form since I knew I'd be too choked up to say it out loud.) She was absolutely relieved that it wasn't and is even more stoked that she has the daughter she and my father always wanted.. My brother, he told me he kinda knew all along. (sunuva..) Same with my cousins ect, the general reaction was 'what took YOU so long?' *grinds teeth.*
Work has been actually, the least emotionally draining, of all my 'coming out.' Basically it came down to one thing, 'Does she have the right? yes she does. Does anybody have the right to object? No they don't. Moving on.' It hasnt been without its hiccups, ie male security guards groping me on the regular as 'routine checks' (against procedure fyi we use a wand, not hands.) Or the first 3 weeks of being full time at work having to use the mens facilities still because of a procedural 'err' (which has now since been corrected.) The guys were great about it though, they basically escorted me wherever and ensured no foul play happened. My own bodyguards basically. lol
Long story short I've learned I really need to give people a LOT more credit than I used to. My speech pathologist asked me at our last appointment, 'Angela, on average, how much of your day do you spend angry?' That particularly struck me because when I thought about it, actually thought about it, it was approaching 40%. She then said to me 'I feel awful for you because that sounds like a LOT of wasted energy.' Naturally shes right, I spent a LOT of time and energy on worry and anger and all that negativity, and it was for nothing. People have come through for me, and are continuing to do so. WEIRD RIGHT? BUT STILL *AWESOME.*
I actually have patched things up with my folks since, now that they know, ACTUALLY know, their daughter. Hell, I go for dinner dates with my Dad! (WHAT?! No really, he's a big softy. At least towards his not so little girl.)
That's basically all for now.
Oh!
Some pics
