1. No sign of the 'poof' effect so far!
2. Last night, although I intended to finish my job search at midnight, I was still at it at 1:30 AM. At that point, I called it quits for the new day.
By yesterday afternoon, I was already feeling burned out from near constant work to find a new position. So today, I took time off and drove to downtown Chicago to visit the Field Museum of Natural History. I haven't been there in at least 10 years. It was great to finally meet 'Sue,' the largest and best preserved fossil of a Tyrannosaurus rex ever found. Although the sign said 'she' was 43 feet long and 13 feet high, and had weighed 7 tons when alive, I was a little disappointed. When I viewed her from the upstairs gallery, however, and saw all the relatively small people gathered round I was quite impressed by the size of this beast.
The museum had a new, to me at least, and extensive well done exhibit on the evolution of life. My master's thesis was on an evolutionary biology topic so I found this especially interesting. The exhibit was extremely thorough. The fossil collection was huge, too, and nicely displayed.
Of course, I found the exhibit on gems fascinating!
There was a special exhibit called something like "Life Below Ground." This was also fun. As I traveled down the entrance, signs noted that I was becoming smaller. What was really happening is that the insects, fungi, roots and other inhabitants of this usually unseen world were becoming larger.
3. I got a call from the insurance agent whose policy covered the van my car struck after the drunk driver ran into my car. He wanted my view of what happened, which he noted was in complete agreement with what others had said. He was unaware, however, that the intoxicated driver had no insurance and had tried to flee the scene. He told me that since the accident was not my fault, his company (Farmers Ins.) was going to go after the driver directly despite his having no insurance. I was delighted to hear this.
I let him know that I would show up for any court proceedings.
4. I've decided to update my undergraduate class representative about my transgender status. This should make interesting reading in the next class newsletter.
The main reason I am doing this is to make it easier to connect with former classmates and alumni in the Chicago area who may be good contacts for my job search.
5. I am actively looking at alternative career paths, including teaching at private high schools where no certification is needed. I'm also looking at community colleges. All of this is likely a long shot, but the fact is I love teaching. I would even consider a private school teaching position in another country. There is a web site that helps locate these positions. Last night, I did locate several metro Chicago area openings at private schools for science teachers.
Late this afternoon, I called my Masters advisor to see if he would be a reference for my abilities both in teaching and technically. We had a terrific talk and he is glad to help.
He gave me the name and contact info of another former student who is now an associate professor at a university of Chicago. I will contact him to see if he has any suggestions or connections.
Finally, my advisor told me he knows someone at the Field Museum who works in their quite large botany department. He is another potential source of useful information.
I sent my PhD program advisor an email about the same subject. I will try to phone him tomorrow.
6. My chief electrologist let me know Sunday that, because of the unusual intensity of the treatment I am receiving I need to apply vitamin E to my face 2 - 3 times per week. This is to help my skin heal between treatments. I did this for the first time today and not only was it very soothing, it left my skin feeling and looking very good.
I decided I wanted to dress well to go downtown so I applied all of my makeup. I wore a nice dress, too, with my favorite off-black nylons. In my travels today, several men were eyeing me up and down and two of them smiled and said 'hi.' This was very nice!
7. I briefly toyed with the idea today of signing up for gender reassignment surgery now, and even trying to get a surgery appointment relatively quickly. I soon abandoned this idea as unwise, given the fact that I have no job. :-\ It would not do to tell a new employer that I would need weeks off work in a few months for what some consider cosmetic surgery. Even if I put a deposit down for surgery that would be a more typical year off, I would still be making an unwise assumption about how this would fit into a new employer's plans.
Now it's time to eat a quick dinner and get back to the job hunt.
Driving in the big city with a stick shift doesn't bother me at all.
) are not sexual after GRS. I don't think its the surgery or the ability to attract men. Anyway, give it some thought and look at your labs versus natal female levels.
