Ben & Nat's Wedding Part II

The Walk Part II: SW Marine Drive

After I walked my way across all the busy scary streets connecting the Vancouver airport to the rest of the city I felt a lot more relaxed and I was finally able to enjoy my walk. I had to find a street called SW Marine Drive and walk 12 kilometers north. I started to get pretty excited about the walk there too because I kept seeing signs that said this was a "scenic drive".

I rounded the corner and realized that there were no sidewalks for me to walk on. There was a bit of a shoulder to this road, but every place that wasn't actually a driving lane was turned into a parking spot by the local residents. I figured though that once I walked a bit I'd find a sidewalk, so I trekked on.

I was beginning to wonder when the 'scenic' part of the trip would begin. There were multiple signs up to this point advertising the scenic nature of this drive, but I saw nothing but cars, trucks and hedges. As far as the eye could see, the road was lined with the tallest hedges I've ever seen. I got the feeling that there were a lot of nice houses and maybe a view of the ocean right nearby, but I was about 30 feet too short to see it all.


This is the view from scenic SW Marine Drive. Some of the best and tallest hedges I've ever seen!


I was enjoying the walk quite a lot. Everything was green and there was plenty of shade. Then with no warning at all it started raining. At first it was a light drizzle, and then it quickly became a torrent. I was prepared though - I had brought some rain gear. I dashed onto a side street and found an outdoor pool. It was closed, but it had a bathroom so I snuck in and changed out of my soaked clothes. By the time I came out five minutes later it was a beautiful sunny day again. There was barely a cloud in the sky - you'd never know it had just stopped raining. The only evidence of rain was on the ground, where large puddles had formed everywhere. In the short walk back to SW Marine Dr I was getting really warm. I was roasting in that jacket but even though the rain had stopped I still had to wear the raincoat because the vehicles were spraying water all over. After 20 minutes the road widened and there was finally a sidewalk. I was no longer walking in the shadow of 30 foot hedges and the sun baked down mercilessly. I was now separated from the traffic by a couple of meters so I thankfully took off my raincoat. I could feel the heat escaping as I unzipped. The cool air felt so nice. I stopped, shook dry the coat, wrapped it in plastic, and put it into a pocket in my backpack. As soon as I had it perfectly stowed away it started pouring again. The thought of cool rain made me happy - but for some reason there were no clouds! I had all the wetness of rain plus all the baking heat of the sun. My choice was to either be cool and uncomfortably wet with no raincoat, or dry and uncomfortably hot with it. I knew the rain in Vancouver was frequent , but I had no idea it conspired against innocent visitors like me!

Summer Pictures

Almost Insulted by a Little Kid

I went shopping yesterday and as I pushed my cart down the spices and baking supplies aisle I was blocked by a woman, her cart, and her kid. She wasn't taking up too much room, but the kid was rather obliviously standing in the perfect spot to block my way. The woman, as she compared prices of 5 kg bags of flour, didn't look away from the flour section yet somehow just knew her son was blocking me and said, "Honey, the lady wants to get by" and then the kid scooched over for me.

It just doesn't get old for me - being referred to with a feminine pronoun. I pushed my cart past them with a strut in my step, holding my head high and feeling quite good about myself. Then I heard "Mommy, that lady looks like a boy!"

I gasped the gaspiest gasp I've ever gasped. I sounded like I had just come up for a breath after swimming two lengths underwater. I turned around to glare at that good-for-nothin little 5 year old and then I realized he wasn't looking at me at all! He was looking at the woman at the other end of the aisle who looked exactly like Harry Potter!

Insulted by a Computer!

I recieved some mail on my Cupid.com account today and it made me think I should probably upload some recent pictures to it. I selected a picture and after it uploaded this is what the website had to say about how I looked:

"Our auto-cropper could not detect a human face in your uploaded photo."

ONE YEAR!

July 1st:
It even sounds weird to me, but I've been living as a woman now for one whole entire year. I think I've mentioned some other anniversaries recently, but this truly is the big one. Despite the fact that one year ago I only owned 2 women's shirts and a skirt, I somehow found the courage to make the decision to box up all my 'boy' stuff and switch teams for good. Owning only two shirts isn't very convenient, so as a result I started off my new life as a woman very appropriately - with a whole lot of shopping.

With all that shopping came a whole lot of clothes, and it is these clothes that have put me in a real tough spot.

Having now spent a year in this role, I am in a rather unique position to determine once and for all which gender is better. I am a lot happier living as a woman, and I feel more free to be myself, but I can't really count that because it is only due to my transgenderism. A normal man wouldn't need to go to the lengths I have to just to feel happy, so I looked elsewhere to determine which gender wins. As it turns out, I am sorry ladies, but it aint us. The reason is simple: laundry. A man can put all of his clothes into the washer, then later move them all in the dryer and not even glance at any of the settings. If a woman were to do this she'd ruin all of her clothes. I've been doing laundry all night long tonight - and I really miss the old days of no-fuss washing. I am actually considering switching back to spend the next year of my life as a guy again.


P.S. (just kidding)