Blogalicious

                                     Posing for my boyfriend on his birthday.

State of the Blog Update: 11/4/2012

Hey y'all, I wanted to get in an update on Tammy World from Tammy World and point out some new features and changes here on my blog.  On the right here we have my Facebook banner and if you are on Facebook and would like to be friends there, please send me a request.  The there is the pageview counter and we are now over 16,000 views here, yayy!  I get over 3,000 views daily on my main Flickr site but those are just pictures and to have this many people read intimate details of my life is a little daunting, but my purpose here is to share and give back so I am thrilled to do it.  Hearing from readers like Rachel, who writes me via Flickr about my page there and this blog, gives me inspiration to know I am doing some good by writing here about my experience.  Quite a few notes come in like this but this is an excerpt from an email from Rachel, "You can write on how girls like you and some others  help "closet" girls like me by making ourselves feel comfortable about who we really are. I no longer feel like I am some kind of sick person wanting to dress as a woman. I now know that this is part of who I am. Rachel is a part of me. I wish she could be a bigger part of my life but she will have to sit inside for now. But you have given me a little more insite as to how to channel my inner fellings."   Thank you Rachel and I am just trying to give back a piece of the inspiration I have gotten from others online over the years.

Below the pageview counter are the blog members and if you would like to follow Tammy World please click there to connect.  After that is the Blog archive with all the past posts and under that is a little bit about me and to the right of that I want to point out a new feature here, the links section. The links section contains some other good blogs and websites I hope y'all will check out.  I will be adding new links here from time to time so please keep checking back.  The first link is my Facebook friend Katie Scott's You Tube vlog.  She is new to the video blogging scene but is making quite a splash on You Tube so I hope y'all check her page out.  I do hope to get out to Charlotte some time to meet her, we are in the same state but a long ways away.  The next link is Lucy's Denise's website and I have mentioned Lucy here before when she began to live full time this summer.  In the UK they do things differently and she is waiting on the system to start HRT etc. but she has changed her name now and lives and works as herself, way to go Lucy!  Her girlfriend is Amanda Dailey, her blog is the next link and it is a very good read to get the perspective of how life is for the (female at birth) partner of a trans woman.  Then there is Sarah Wilson's blog and she has been here on blogger doing great work since 2010.  Sarah friended me on Facebook and told me she was following my blog and now I am following hers. :)  She also got me on T-Central, which is the next link on the list and this is an excellent site for finding lots of trans related blogs.  Thank you Sarah for pointing this site out to me and recommending Tammy World to be included there.  I am getting lots of hits from that site now.  After that is TG Central out of the UK and this is another great site to find lots of other blogs and trans related websites.  I really appreciate being listed there as well.  Just added to the link is World of Tg and this is a site that has started running my blog link under "Personality Blogs" very recently.  After that is my 2 Flickr pages, please check them out to see all my pictures past and present (at least as far back as 2008).  I still get the majority of my hits here from the links I include on my Flickr pictures.  Finally we have the Trans By Def You Tube channel which Katie told me about and she hosts videos there on Wednesdays.  If anyone else has a related link they would like included in this section please let me know and I will consider adding it. 

After the links section there is the select language translator and a box to click to follow Tammy World by email.  The language translator is cool and if you want to see what Tammy World looks like in other languages click on that.  I will say that a majority of my readers here are from predominantly English speaking countries but I get hits from all over the world and quite a few from countries where English is not the primary language.  I love how Blogger breaks down where the readers originate etc.  For instance, in the last week we have had 25 viewers from Germany, 16 from France and 9 from Russia, just to name a few countries where English is not typically spoken and people have read this blog.  I want to welcome all of y'all to this little slice of Trans Americana, Tammy World style! :)  Finally, at the very bottom of the page is the links to the most popular posts of all time here in the short history of the Tammy World 2012 blog.  Coming up, I have in mind a couple of conceptual posts I will be working on as well as part 2 of my coming out story, Hello World, that I started last week and a 6 month HRT update due in a couple of weeks . There is much more to come y'all, so stay tuned! 

                                           Worldwide: Tammy World 2012

While I am here today I want to update a couple of more things as well.

Pam Update:  I have mentioned my friend and big sister Pam from Oklahoma here before and I want to give an update on what's going on with her.  Pam had her birthday last month so she is again older than me and is my big sister :)  She recently returned from Mexico and is recovering from her FFS surgery but she's a fast healer and she is already out and about and preparing to return to work next week after having officially changed her name this week.  Congratulations sister!  She looks great after the surgery and she is definitely ready for full time.  Her job is a little bit of a high profile position, making presentations and teaching seminars, but she will be in the office for a little while before going back out teaching and making speeches.  I have always hated public speaking so I really admire her courage in more ways than one.  It is always difficult to transition in place with a job you have had a long time but she is doing great with it.  Most of the ladies in her office have accepted her and many have really embraced her and befriended her and this will make it much easier when she gets back into the swing of things at work.  It must be wonderful to be accepted as one of the girls in the office!  Transition is a struggle anytime but Pam is totally blessed in her situation and I really love how she has handled her transition, starting here in 2012, and followed through on all her dreams so far.  I admire her strength and I think enough of it rubs off on me so that I will be ok also. :)

Weekend Update:  Friday was my boyfriend Mitch's birthday and we were lucky enough to be able to celebrate together.  I drove up to Raleigh that afternoon and met him in an executive suite he had gotten us for the night.  We try to get late check out so it ended up we had the room until 2 pm Saturday.  So after I got settled in he opened his presents and I massaged him a little bit to get him relaxed after the long drive down, we went out to eat a great meal at O'Charley's.

After the meal we went back to the hotel and took some pictures then it was time to watch one of his favorite shows, the soap opera that is WWE wrestling, lol.  I haven't been a big wrestling fan but I love soap operas and it was fun watching the show with him.  After wrestling was over we took some more pictures in the room and then I put on some lingerie just for him, no pictures, lol.

We had a great romantic night and morning too and after checkout the next day we had a special lunch at Chili's.  I think the salmon there may have better than what I had Friday night, though they were both great meals!  After lunch Mitchell went to spend some much needed quality Daddy time with his kids and I did a little
shopping in Cary.  I lucked out at Rack Room Shoes and found a pair of 3.5" black heels that are an identical match to the pair the Little Dog chewed up while she stayed with us this summer.  They are so comfy and easy to walk in all day, I love them, plus they are size 10's and fit great and most of my shoes are 11's.  Also, I got them at half price because I got a pair of knee high leather flat boots like I have been wanting and I got them on sale too.  Then I went to Marshall's and got a couple of much needed sweaters, considering the weather here in North Carolina this week has turned cool already, bordering on cold. 

Speaking of shopping, and I am not a shopaholic by the way, I did run across a couple of other good deals this week.  Monday I was in Durham for therapy and discovered a mall I had heard about but never been to.  My friend Beverly had an appointment with the same therapist right after me, in fact I saw her in the lobby, and we met at Ruby Tuesday's for a late lunch when she got out.  That gave me a chance to do a lot of mall walking and window shopping but I did get a fleece lined hoodie at Sears and some cool ear rings from Dress Barn.  On the way to class in Greensboro Tuesday with Donna we stopped at My Secret Closet, an upscale consignment store, and I got some awesome deals.  I found an Alfred Dunner thick short sleeve top with the $46 tag still on it and a pair of white Ralph Lauren jeans, both marked at $11.88 and both 40% off on sale. :)  I also got a sweater for $4.75 and some $2.50 ear rings, bringing the total to around $21.  Overall it was a pretty good week of shopping without spending too much money. 

Besides going to class again this Tuesday I have another therapist appointment in Durham on Thursday to go over the final draft of my coming out letter to my parents.  I am having a lot of therapy right now but I am also feeling a lot of stress over the upcoming ordeal.  I want to be good and ready for when the time comes and I feel I am close to being ready now.   I have not been as depressed or as sad as I was in the couple of prior weeks when I was reliving old bad memories and such.  We do have the Holidays almost upon us and I want it to be as joyous a time as possible in Tammy World and I hope they are in your world too.  I am really enjoying writing this blog and I thank all of y'all for reading it!  Its time to bring on the Clampetts now and I join Jethro, Granny, Ellie Mae and Jed in saying "Y'all come back now, ya hear?"