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Good afternoon everyone, I hope you’re having a wonderful day. @Birdie I love the good morning picture. I have an open door policy for coffee. Mindy🌈🐛🏳️‍⚧️🦋

I threw away most of my male ones, kept a few just in case (Dr appts etc). I had almost thrown those away to until this issue came back up again. Perhaps your right, over time hopefully I'll get more used to it. Having to switch back to regular male undies made me sad. I think going up a size may help to. It's not always sore, only when I wear them for long stretches. I don't feel myself in male undies. Thank you for the advice

Yes, I am. Very much.main-qimg-5c7e6d5b6bc999dced357d2ac1ceea0d.jfifmain-qimg-823fa5cdf3100353a1b658c6b0e423e6.jfif main-qimg-c1ec5dd5313fad9d21c0b2e959aed48e.jfif

There are so many unsung (no pun intended) musical giants we are not aware of.

Very much so.

Over time, the stress continues to lessen -- as well as the euphoria that accompanied my coming out and beginning HRT. And as those milestones recede in the rearview mirror, it has allowed me to feel much more normal, and to find my own expression of "non-binaryness". My clothes closet is probably 80% female items, and will likely stay that way for the forseeable future. Were I young, I doubtlessly would find a different expression, but at 75 I am happy with what I achieved. Another +1 to what @KathyLauren said regarding the worrisome and hateful behavior that we are witnessing. I can hope that this cycle will diminish over time, but to aid in that, each of us and millions of cis voters need to be involved in local as well as state/provincial, and national elections. Kind regards, Astrid

Thank you very much, I will def check these out. Hopefully I'll have better luck. Hugs

These work well to keep the bits in place without too much discomfort. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=menstral+panties&crid=3A0T4KFOGDZW3&sprefix=menstral+panties%2Caps%2C89&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

Going to a bigger size might help. I'm wearing high cut panties every day now - threw out all my male underwear - and ended going up a size just for the abrasion issue. I think that wearing them all the time has helped me "acclimate" as well.

Currently the material is stretch cotton bikini with no tucking. I've even tried to stretch out the front to create a pouch. Unfortunately I've only had limited success with that. I'm considering trying a bigger size..maybe that'll help. Thank you for the input

Maddee, that makes me so happy for you! I, too, am grateful for what I've learned about myself and for how far I've come in this past 1.5 years.

Correction: MUCH more peace than I had before. Profound improvement. Gratitude. Make it the best possible.

@Sally Stone I am genuinely sorry that I haven't been able to respond to your amazing story and example. Life has just been throwing multiple challenges my way. I live close enough to Harrisburg to have been seriously thinking about attending the conference next year. Of course, your latest discussion of living part-time gives me pause because the fits me right now. I've been tempted to reach out to the organization and start a dialogue. I have signed up for their newsletter. Any thoughts on if/how I should proceed?

It's never wrong to teach Peace, Love, and Understanding. —Davie

• My meditation teacher has a canker sore on her lip, so she teaches me silence.

+ 1 To answer the question, yes, I am at peace with myself. I only reached that point a couple of years ago when I finally realized that I didn't have to hate my masculinity and push it aside, to accept and make room for my femininity. There are many things in my life that I intensely dislike and actually resent, nothing to do with gender, but the inner glow that I constantly feel from my inner woman is strong enough to rise above all that. I feel serene as a result.

Although I like the health benefits of bicycling, I'm mostly a bicycle commuter. The nice thing about commuting is that it gets you out there even when you don't want to do it. And you don't have to slot a specific time for it. I've been working from home exclusively for 12 years, so that wound up with me just not biking very much. I was in a position where the doctor prescribed "rapid weight loss" to me back in 2011, and I decided back then that exercise might be counterproductive in those efforts contrary to what we hear so much out in the world. So I was able to lose 60 pounds solely by calorie reduction. I had good eating and exercise habits before I put on all that weight in my late 30's, so when the weight came off, I started feeling better and went back to those old routines. Back in 2020, I got really frustrated at not bicycling, so I setup a schedule to bike for fun (always reminds me of the line in Back to the Future "run for fun?"). My house is basically in a valley, so it is a climb out of here. I prefer the hills to the flat. It's fun to get the wind in your hair and go fast a little bit. I'm not as strong as I used to be. I'm always able to climb out of the neighborhood, but coming up the hill on the other side on the way back from downtown is too much for me now after a long ride and I've been walking my bike up that hill. There are not many other bicyclists around, but that hill is an intersection for bicycling traffic in this part of town and other bicyclists have been asking me if I'm OK? I always say yes, I like walking just as much as biking! I ended up riding 700 miles in 2020 (50 miles a week [Wed, Fri, Sun] for 4 months or so) and then 300 miles in 2021. I sold my car 6 months ago, so I've mostly been biking for transportation this year. It's funny how the car is a magnet to restaurants and fast food. I did a report on my spending this year and I've only spent $12 on fast food in the last 6 months. Here I'm going to run that report again!! Fast Food: 2024 (Jan-May) (no car): $12.53 2023 (Jan-Dec): $1,062.72 2022 (Jan-Dec): $624.96 I was working a full time job with a lot of other obligations during 2023 and I had a Fiat EV that I was driving all over town. I had it in 2022 as well. I've been on two 40 mile rides this year. One was a group ride through the rain and the other was to a doctor appointment. 40 miles is about as much as I can handle.

Hi there, @Amy Powell. Welcome aboard, by the way! 🙂 Just wondering if your sensitivity is due to the material of the panties, assuming that it might be different to what you used to wear? Also, the style of the panties? And, is it sensitivity or pain? Do you tuck? I'm in the opposite position in that unfortunately, I don't have much feeling down there at all. I normally wear stretch cotton boyleg shorties during the day and good ol' fashioned cotton granny panties in bed at night, but I do have a selection of other stuff, including stretchy nylon panties in various styles too.

Yes, pretty much. I am happy with who I am. I no longer feel the need to pretend to be anyone or to act a part, either male or female. I am just myself. I feel a little self-conscious if I am not presenting noticeably female, for example if I am in my grubbies out in the garden. I always wear a hat if I am not wearing a wig, to cover my MPB. But mostly, if I am out in public, I just wear whatever nice clothes I feel like wearing that day and go about my business. In fact, I am so relieved at not having to act any more that, when one of the directors at the theatre asked me if I would consider being on stage, I said no way. I realize now how stressful it was to act a part 24/7 for 62 years, and I am enjoying not acting so much that I can't imaging doing it "for fun". I am less at peace with the direction the world is heading, and that stresses me quite a bit.

I think this is a perfect answer for me, as well. I am at peace with understanding who I am yet not fully happy with where I am in transition.

Hi there @BobbiSkunk. Welcome aboard, by the way! 🙂 I cycle a bit, not in a group, just alone when I feel like it. My bike is a basic hybrid with straight handlebars and a 2x8 gearset. My basic 'short ride' route is along a flat shared path in a linear park which runs next to a creek, with a loop at the end around a small lake, and back again. It is a bit over 6km (4 miles) and takes me around 15-20 minutes to complete. I sometimes go on longer rides either through town including short steep hill climbs and eventually to a path alongside the highway which then connects to the path along the creek, about 10km (6 miles) in total and taking around 45 minutes due to the hilly sections, or I head off on a gravel cross-country trail towards a neighboring town and turn around when I feel like it. I think the important thing to consider is not to push yourself too hard! I haven't actually been on my bike for a few weeks now, preferring to go for long walks instead, but if I went for a ride tomorrow it would only be the short and easy one. I wouldn't try a strenuous ride until I was 'back in the groove'.

More than I was.

@Willow, thank you for teaching me something! The Rockies are famous, and I have heard of the Appalachians too, but had no idea that as a result the land in between is a perfect nursery for twisters. I have also heard of what is known as Tornado Alley but just assumed that it was a fairly narrow north/south band of land not involving multiple states across. I know better now! Bushfires and floods are our go-to natural disasters here. Some of our fires are as savage as what California regularly experiences nowadays. I also live in a fairly active earthquake state, but they are generally small, often not felt, and nothing more than a curiosity. But we did have a magnitude 5.9 in 2021 up in the mountains which caused some damage in Melbourne 200km away. We seem to experience something between a 5.0 and 5.5 every few years but the epicenters are normally away from populated areas. Still big enough to give me the heebie-jeebies! One thing I learnt after a 5.4 we had in 2012, which was closer and felt stronger here than the 5.9, is that the Richter scale is logarithmic - a magnitude 5 is ten times stronger than a 4 and a 6 is ten times stronger than 5 and 100 times stronger than a 4. Scary!

Good morning Another early summer ish day here. Sunny, humid and upper 80s° (curious to see what our editor does with the degree symbol). Our son and his wife are coming to visit next week! Yahoo! She has never visited us in SC and he hasn’t been here for a long time. But we live on opposite sides of the country. i do realize that it is hard to find some one to take care of their Lab and now you can add a young energetic lab puppy so it’s two. i got some work to do cleaning and making their bed for them. But they have a real bed. (Tell you about that another time) @Ivy we were one state once but split over our differences. But both are beautiful places to live and each made vital contributions to making this a country or group of United States against the King of England. Sorry the history that I never thought I liked is spewing out. coffee is good this morning. We went out to dinner last night. Our son sent us money I guess it was for Mother’s Day to have a nice dinner and we finally got around to it. She had seafood Mac and cheese (full of lobster, crab and shrimp) and I had all you can eat crab legs. My wife’s favorite nice restaurant is a place called the Claw House. Well, time to walk the dog. She is reminding me of that. She is a strange one. In the evening she will curl up by the front door, or on our bed. In the morning she curls up at the back door. But and night she spends most of the night either in a chair or on the floor in our bedroom. Basically, where ever she wants that’s where she is. As long as mommy is close by. willow