12:15 am - Friday 13th October 2000

Hmmm… an auspicious date to be sure, especially since I made my first dentists appointment in several years for today.

Maybe if I write long enough, something interesting will drop into my head and I can wax poetical about that? Heaven knows its worked for the last 2 years.
So far after the drama of Monday, very little has been going on. I've been working on diagrams for my thesis, something I have found to be rather stimulating and helpful which is a welcome relief from the otherwise depressing tedium. Wednesday was the usual coffee day with Bridget, Heather, Jules W and myself showing up. The presence of friends is reassuring, but the use of "him" or "he" in regards to me is still somewhat painful.
Thursday (just gone) I booked in for a shampoo and blow-wave at the University and I was soon immersed in the old ritual of "sit still for an hour whilst we tug painfully at your hair". The fact that my hair is now straight and limp however is what makes it bearable at the time.
I also figured since "it's only money" to do something I hadn't gone through in several years, the aforementioned dentist's appointment. My teeth are pretty good, but probably need to have the tartar scratched off, and now is as good a time as any. I thought about waiting until I went home to see my regular dentist, but I guess I have to start looking after myself at some point. I'm just glad I had my eyes zapped and don't need to worry about optometrist's appointments any more.

Today I also had a late coffee with my friend Peta (G) who is going in for an orchiectomy tomorrow. This is something I certainly have a close an abiding interest in, but in addition I also know that until I have the cold, hard cash, I can put it on the imagination back-burner along with my wistful desire of having some breast augmentation.

I did however have an interesting discussion with Marie (supervisors wife) about the buckets of money to be made by chemists in the drug design industry in the US. I think I may try to tailor my future to look in this direction, because the sequencing of the human genome means it will be an enormously expanding area over the next 20 years or so, and I'd like to ride the wave. Let's be honest, I'd be in it for the money not the love, but it's hard to argue with a 5 figure salary. ;)

In other news, last night I reinstalled my network card and it's driver, performed a comprehensive virus check, reinstalled the SDA log-on software and my computer still can't access the network. Sheesh! *throws hands in the air*

I suppose when I think about it, I really started my RLT in earnest at the start of July. This was when I went off to the Bathurst conference where I was firmly, utterly a girl called Steph. I lived full-time for a week, and the positive feedback I received through all my interactions gave me the impetus for things to fall in to place at my new home and at work. Again I feel slightly different from other TS people, because there was never a point (so far) where I said "Ok, now I'm gong full-time", it just happened by degrees.

This time last year, the combination or Roaccutane, Androcur and hay-fever were killing me (literally), I was seemingly in a perpetual bad mood (can you blame me), I was just starting to chat with Illara (Yay!) and I was having mood-swings from hell courtesy of being just under two weeks on Progynova.
Now, 224 diary entries later here I am.

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