East Bound and Down, Loaded Up and Truckin’
Just a quick update,
We Are on our way over to Maine to visit my cousin and his parents. He has a house out in the woods with all kinds of chickens. Yesterday we spent a while at Polar caves, you can climb down through gaps in the rock. They also have pheasants and some deer you can feed. I highly recomend it if you enjoy nature.
On the way back to the condo we stopped in a cute little diner in Plymouth called Main Street Station. The food was delicious and my girlfriend could barely keep me away from her fried shrimp. This morning we played some bingo and won our money back, plus some free fries and smoothies. Thats it for now, hopefully I will have my lab results back tomorrow.
Abbey
Anyway This Cake is Great, It’s So Delicious and Moist!
Well Hello.
I am typing this up as we drive down the highway because there is no internet at our condo so I will upload this when we find some wifi. Yesterday we arrived around 3pm and checked out the mountain. There is a recreation center that goes along with the condo that has 3 pools, a pond, and all kinds of sporting courts. It seemed pretty nice, we may go swimming later today. If we do I will have to get a swimsuit top or wear a tank top or something. After that we went out to find some shops and someplace to eat. We ended up in Woodstock, NH. We saw the wolfman at Clark’s Trading post and then got some mexican food before stopping at a few shops on the way back. I got a bag of candy and a hematite ring. I found some candy cigarettes that I’ve loved since I was a kid!
Since I discovered some Staghorn Sumac by my house I have been seeing it everywhere and we found a huge colony of it in one of the towns we stopped in. I If only they were ripe I would have stolen some and made some Sumac-aid. After that we came back to the condo and I played through Portal for the first time, it is really a good game. Today we are going to go check out the Polar caves and do some more shopping. I’ve been to the caves plenty of times but I thought Sam would really enjoy them. When I find a better internet connection I will post some pictures. I will most likely post another update tomorrow afternoon or when we get back to Massachusetts.
Until next time,
Abbey
Day 320 – Vinegar Hair
My girlfriend and I have been busy doing some major cooking lately. On Thursday we cooked for 4 hours and made 2 lasagnas and some italian bread. For the second lasagna we used gluten-free noodles because my brother has celiacs disease, meaning his body has an intolerance to wheat gluten. It was extremely delicious and totally worth it. Each lasagna had a whopping 4000 calories and there are still leftovers! The recipe we used came from allrecipes.com, this website has a ton of great recipes if you want to try something new! Just last week we made a filling beef stew.
I’ve also started washing my hair with baking soda and vinegar. Why you ask? Because the shampoo we use is full of chemicals that strip all of the oils out of our hair and cause the scalp to produce even more oils to compensate for the loss. So the more often you shampoo, the more often you will have to!
Shampoo is basically detergent, and a strong one at that. Baking soda is a much milder Alkaline that will still clean the dirt and grime from your hair. Baking soda is a common ingredient in toothpastes for this reason.
Because vinegar is an acid, it will neutralize the baking soda. (An acid canceling out a base, brings you back to high school chemistry doesn’t it?) This acts much like a conditioner would.
Some of the obvious benefits of not using shampoo is that your head will produce less oil and will be needed to be cleaned less often. No more over-dried frizzy hair! You will also save a lot of money on hair care products, I have become addicted to shampoo that costs $13 a bottle and I will save hundreds of dollars if I no longer need it.
How do I wash my hair with baking soda and vinegar?
It is very simple, first you need to make a solution of 1 tablespoon baking soda, to 1 cup of water. I put mine in a sports water bottle that fit about 3 cups so that I could easily squirt it over my hair. Next, do the same thing in another bottle with the vinegar, 1tbsp/cup of water. Apple cider vinegar is suggested but I only had white vinegar on hand, both will work just fine.
In the shower, squirt the baking soda solution over your hair and massage in for a few minutes, then rinse thoroughly. Then, spray the vinegar solution over your hair and do the same, you may need more or less depending on your hair type. I always comb it through when I take a shower to get out all the tangles.
After a good rinse you are done! It has been nearly a week since I used shampoo and I used this combination for the first time last night and my hair came out surprisingly clean. There is a transitional period where your body gets used to the lack of shampoo, oil production should decrease once it realizes it does not need to overcompensate for the oils the shampoo removed. This can take a few weeks to a few months, it all depends on your hair type.
There is no reason not to try it out for a few months to see if it works for you, and if it doesn’t, you can simply go back to your shampooing ways. Here is a blog that goes a lot more in-depth into the process. http://simplemom.net/how-to-clean-your-hair-without-shampoo/
I’m going to finish things off with a recent AA question, I will get another post up in a few days after my next electrolysis appointment.
Until next time,
Abbey
Q: I was wondering how easy it is to start hormone therapy in Mass? I’m around the same area you are, and I want to start hormones a.s.a.p. I might be able to start them in like October, but they told me I have to get all these tests done first, which I hope to do in a few weeks. And I was wondering if there were any trans stores around eastern Mass, I know nobody in real life who shares these feelings.
-Ashley
A: Hi Ashley,
It can depend a lot on who you are going to see in order to get your hormones. For me it took about 4-5 months from the time I started therapy until the time I took my first hormone pills. The general rule of thumb is 3 months of therapy before they will give you a letter for hormones, but some will do it only after a few visits. I got my letter at around the 3-4 month mark but it took a while longer due to the time between my lab work appointment and my follow up. (This is heavily dependent on how busy your doctor is) The actual test itself is pretty basic blood work, it should take no more than a week or two to get the results back. From what I have heard clinics tend to prescribe HrT faster than a private therapist would but it is important to make sure they are professional.
There is one trans-friendly shop that I know of in Wakefield, MA. It is called Florence’s Fashions and is a small boutique store that has a variety of women’s clothing, wigs, and breast forms. The owner is heavily involved in the trans community and is happy to give you advice help with your outfits. Shopping at a big department store can be extremely intimidating for the first time, Florence’s provides a safe place to start learning what to look for when shopping for women’s clothing. They do not have much casual wear like T-shirts and shorts but they have a decent selection of dressier clothes. Here is a link for more information about Florence’s Fashions.
Day 295 – Coming Up Blank
Here is a picture from just after my 3rd electrolysis appointment(Chin is super swollen), I’ll be making a timeline of my facial hair removal soon.
I’m posting this from my girlfriend’s laptop because yesterday the screen on my Macbook Pro stopped working. It wase working fine when I closed the lid but when my girlfriend opened it the display wouldn’t react. I tried every method in the book to fix it and nothing worked. I tried hooking it up to my TV but that didn’t seem to work either so it looks like the graphics processor died. I took it to the genius bar at the Apple store and Applecare will cover the repair despite the laptop being from 2008. I looked it up and the particular NVIDIA graphics processor in it has been known to prematurely fail. In the end my Macbook with a new logic board should be on my doorstep in a weeks time free of charge! I am impressed that Apple is making the effort to replace faulty components in their products.
here is an article talking about the Issue: http://support. apple.com/kb/ts2377
Like I said, yesterday was my 3rd electrolysis appointment. Things went pretty well and we cleared all but a few hairs on my chin and we will be able to start on my upper lip next week. I know I’ve said it before but now I’m sure that we will be able to do a full clear in 2 more treatments!
My breasts are doing well, they definitely stick out a bit and look odd if I don’t wear a bra.
I’m working on a new feature to allow you to ask me questions and be able to see my responses to other peoples questions too! it should be up at some point today or tomorrow.
Abbey
Day 264 – Body Mods
It’s 6am and the sun is coming up so I thought I’d grace you with this wonderful picture of me with no makeup and messy hair (I also cut my bangs by the way). On Friday I went to get new lab work done to see how my levels are doing. My next appointment with my endo is on the 28th, only 16 more days! Hopefully my prolactin is within normal range and I can finally raise my dose of estrogen from 1mg to 2mg or so. If he puts me on 2mg I am going to ask how he feels about raising me to 2mg for a month to get used to it and then going up to 3mg after that rather than waiting the full 3 months until our next appointment.
If my high prolactin levels were indeed caused by the anti-psychotic that I was on, they definitely delayed my progress with hormones. I see other girls at 8 months with healthy A cups or even B cups when I can’t even fill out an A cup! It just makes me jealous; but my time will come, and I’m sure they will grow to my liking.
On another note, I’ve been growing increasingly interested in body modification. I’ve always liked piercing and various other forms of expression but I never was able to indulge in it myself. In a way I like to think of transition as an extreme form of body modification. 2 weeks ago I went out and got a second hole pierced in my lobes.
The jewelry is a 16g purple CBR. I’ve since stretched my first hole to 14g to fit a titanium barbell that I ordered. Once my second hole heals I will be putting in some stainless steel 12g circular barbells.
Aside form piercing, I’ve grown increasingly interested in some hardcore body mods. In particular, ear pointing. The cartilage is first cut at the top of the ear. Then a small portion is removed and the edges are scored and then folded into a point and sutured together. The result is a fairly elfy looking ear. Here are a few examples: #1 #2 #3
I’ve wanted elf ears ever since I was a little kid but I never knew it was possible. Now that I’ve realized that it can be done I am super excited! I’ve talked to a few artists including Steve Haworth and Brian Decker, who perform the procedure, and I’m confident I will get it done at some point. Though before I rush into things I will wait 2-3 months to make sure it is something I really want to live with for the rest of my life!
Abbey
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