When Worlds Collide

I don't know if you are old enough to remember that one. It was a scifi book written in the 30's and then made into a movie in the 50's. The story is of how the Earth is destroyed by a passing planet. The film actually won an academy award for special effects. It was kind of the Star Wars of it's day. The story line is also credited with the genesis of the Flash Gordon series. But in the original, the doomed Earthlings manage to build spacecraft, "Noah's Arks" of sorts and manage to get to the surviving planet to live on for another day.

Great Sharon, thanks for the scifi history lesson. What this post about?

Well this past weekend, I had worlds that collided. And I seem to have survived it as well. As I have explained, last Thursday I went to the Keystone Conference in Harrisburg. Now I had purposely selected that venue for several reasons. First it was three days, and that seemed like a nice number for me to try 24/7 on. Meaning not too long, not too short. Turns out, it probably could have been longer, a lot longer, but that is another post. Secondly I could get there in a reasonable drive. Third it was not too expensive. Fourth, I knew some girls from my local group would be there. And lastly, it was far enough away from where I normally hang my hat (as a guy) that the likelihood of being "outed" by running into somebody (who is not from my trans world) was really really low. After all it is over 100 miles away.

And so on items 1-4, spot on. And on the fifth one, well what are the odds of running into somebody you know, like 20%?, 50%?, guess again. 100%. Yes, bingo. How about the somebody you know being trans? Ok, that defies the odds.

On Friday evening there was a reception for attendees. I went and had a few drinks, a very nice thing as none of us had to drive for the evening. And on my way out of the reception to go get dressed for the evening I spied a person out of the corner of my eye. She was enfemme, but in a sort of natural way, and truth be told, looked a lot like she does as a guy (this is not meant as a slight, it was just that I managed to easily recognize her).

Well I knew her, and far as I knew up to that point, as he. You see we worked for the same company over 10 years ago, meaining my office was like five doors from hers, and have been in a fantasy football league together (something I was going to give up this year as it is a affectation of my make persona, I could actually care less about it at this point) for almost 15 years! She has been to my home, and I hers.

At first I thought it was a goof, meaning somebody that I thought looked like him, er her rather. But she was on the bus for dinner, and they said her name, and the last name was the same. So I knew then I had a challenge. Later I stood in front of her several times Friday night, and we actually looked each other in the eyes several times during the evening and I saw no recognition on her part. She did not know me. I was, "stealth". A good thing to know for the future if I need it.

Mind you Sharon looks a lot different than "Him" I guess. And I did not have my nametag on, and I had decided to use my real last name at the conference. But basically she did not figure out it was me. And so now I had a dilemma. Do I approach her on Saturday? Or do I not, would her knowing I know cause a problem. I was trying to think about what this means for me as well. I suspected she would be pleasantly surprised. We always got along.

So I go up to my former co-worker on Saturday morning, she is standing with her spouse in the hotel lobby, I say, Hi I am Sharon, there is something I have been meaning to talk to you about. She says hi Sharon, nice to meet you, but has a puzzled look on her face. I hand her my nametag. Which has my real last name on it. And then, her eyes widen, and she looks up at me and in my eyes and then has the revelation. She says, oh hon, give me a hug, arms open. She had no idea it was me.

Apparently my weight loss, change from wearing glasses, and of course presenting female totally threw her. We spent the day catching up, sat together for lunch and dinner, figured out that we have common trans friends, amazing. And it turns out she is now the membership chair for the another support group in my area. I said, you guys have some kind of secret interview process or something, she said yes, and that I had essentially just completed it.

Her spouse is totally supportive at this time and was by her side throughout the weekend. She has offered to meet and talk with my SO, and they proposed that maybe we all go to dinner together, with me and "J" (She is not out yet) in boy mode of course. We will see how that works, things are a bit strained with my SO. I could not picture her at my side at such a conference. And that was one thing that did surprise me about the conference, the number of spouses present. My hat is off to these, mostly, women. Who have decided to support their partners in their quests. It shows real love.

The nice thing is "J's" SO really wants to help me work this out, she took a real shine to me, came and got me as as I entered for the Gala and dragged me to a seat at her table and all, she is very sweet. And I guess I got a wish, I wanted a GG friend, that knew about me. And now I do.

So my worlds did collide. And what I had feared, yet again, seems to have converted to a plus. I now have two new friends, who are old friends. Who I do not have to explain any of this to. And who "get it" and who are actually "encouraging" me to continue on my path. That is remarkable.

So just like the characters in the film, I managed to survive the collision and tell the tail, and I also ended up on a new world to explore. Pretty cool.