Yesterday evening, I sent my "coming out as transgender" letter to my team. Today, my HR Manager told the management team. So, at work, I'm finally male!Tiger. Finally. And you know what the best part of this is? None of the managers or supervisors are giving me grief (at least to my face). I'm still the same Tiger they know and have a love-hate relationship with... Just more comfortable and relaxed. I would never have been able to come out at my last job because I wouldn't have had the support of my direct manager and the rest of the LP Management team. Here at my current job, though, the management team is incredibly supportive.

And I'll be honest. Being vain for a moment, I think I'm hot as a guy. I make a terribly awkward woman.

But, yeah, the journey is far from over. I still have my hackles raised about which bathroom to use. I honestly may ask if the office bathrooms could be designated non-gender specific; there's no difference between them. We'll cross that bridge later, though.

~ ~ ~

Step by step, things are happening in Life that are making it interesting.

- After having a mental breakdown almost two weeks ago, I'm rebuilding walls that I need and trying to reincorporate friendships and relationships in a much more healthy way for me.

- My father was sent to the hospital last week for having excess fluid in his body. Several liters were drained and tests were run on him. Congestive heart failure, which means that I need to start squirreling away money for a trip to Alabama sometime in the future. I. . . honestly don't know how to feel about this. On the one hand, I know Dad's basically one foot in the grave. On the other, Dad hasn't been there for me at all and I still have a great deal of resentment for him for that, even if I'm okay with him in general.

- I tossed my hat in the ring for the Coach (Supervisor) in Training position at work. The interview will likely be later this week. I don't expect to get the position, but I'm certainly going to give it my all anyways. ^_^

- I made Alligators with one of E's minions on Saturday. They're time-intensive to make, but pretty fantastic all the same. I'm stupid!happy with the fact that I learned how to make something that I grew up with. And what's even more amazing is that I made homemade almond paste to go in them. Murr.

- I had the first of many meetings with our 2nd shift Operations Manager last night. These meetings will be geared towards me learning about how our operation runs and getting me more integrated in the logistics component of our facility, making me more valuable not just to my current company but to other companies down the line.
-- Related to this, he also gave me a challenge. He knows I have a lot of energy and drive to change things for the better, but, sometimes, that can brush people the wrong way, as it has in the past. His challenge to me was to take things slow and do things on a small scale; get down on a personal level with individuals or small groups and win them over that way.