Wow, I'm definitely becoming more sensitive to things. So with the titular self recognition, I kicked my exercise up a notch (HRT waiting until weight loss done, so more exercise means sooner HRT!) and have been going all out on grooming I never bothered with before (everything from teeth whitening to full body lotion application). This apparently did not go unnoticed. I was talking with my family and something about my increased exercise came up, and someone said (in completely good humor, as they have no idea) "So, who is she?". I didn't even understand the question at first, and must have looked confused, so she said "You're doing (insert laundry list of changes here), so who's the girl?". It had never crossed my mind someone would think that was my motivation, so I just kind of mumbled something unintelligible and ducked around a corner to kind of gather my thoughts for a second because I really wanted to just say "me" (but that would have been the worst timing ever). Finally I managed to call out some line about Amazon causing a chain reaction of cheap product recommendations after I bought one thing and I was getting pulled in by impulse buys, but that single moment I was caught so off guard... I don't even know exactly, it's not like it felt horrible, but it didn't feel good. That an errant comment can throw me so off is a new one for me.