Walking to a park and a cat named Amy

Because I wished to keep off my lost weight, I started walking a mile into an adjacent riverfront park on weekdays, usually in leggings and a top. 

Idlewild Park was a large, 49-acre community park close to downtown Reno, on the Truckee River. It included a rose garden, duck ponds, two children's parks, a pool, and a skate park. 

That's another change. In Florida, I often wore skirts and tops or regular dresses because I appeared in public as part of my job. 

However, in Reno because of the new-found informal nature of my work, and the weather, I began wearing leggings, trousers, and pedal pushers.

I was finally contented as a woman, and I passed in ALL circumstances. No one in Reno knew I was a transwoman.

Living alone was something I had become used to in Florida and now it was normal. 

However, I did adopt a cat who I named Amy.

Denim jacket and snow boots

A week after I got to Reno, I rented a one-bedroom apartment at Regina Marie Apartments minutes from downtown Reno. 

But best of all, I could and often did walk to Idlewild Park or to the Truckee Riverwalk. Much nicer weather than Florida.

Consequently, I began wearing leggings, pedal-pushers, and Levis more often. 

Since the winter of 2021 was approaching, I got black jeans and a denim jacket and - can you believe it? - cute little snow boots. 

I hadn't been around snow for a long time.

As it turned out, a few years later, Reno would be inundated with snow.

 

I moved to Reno and changed my life

In June 2021, after that nasty pandemic was mostly over, and after I was fired from Human Resources Inc in Florida, I moved to Reno, Nevada and I created my own business to edit books. 

Since I had been working as a woman since early 2018, it was much easier to start my own firm. I have enjoyed being self-employed ever since I had four years of it in California.

In Florida, my blackish brown hair was starting to turn gray, so I went to a professional on Sixth Street to have my hair shortened a bit and dyed to a more natural, lighter brown.

I've always been so lucky that I have had my own hair through 49 years as a man and all my years as a woman.

I chose Reno because it had the Truckee River running right through the town and the beautiful Sierra Nevada mountains on all sides of the valley.

I had several clients immediately. Some of the clients who were also authoring books followed me from Florida. In fact, Howard, the guy I was accused of having an affair with, was quick to become a client. He hated the lie that got me fired. We never had more than a business relationship.

My job was to edit books by others and make them publishable. Something at which I was extraordinarily good.

Happy to be a woman in Reno in 2021.  

One of the reasons I moved from Florida

As with countless other women, during the 2020-2021 Pandemic, I spent a great deal of time in my home office, all alone.

I was so frightened that I had finally become a woman and then would die from Covid. 

What a vengeful God.

I wore my masks, got the vaccines when they became obtainable and worried about my future.

I was also sick to death of the overt religious Christians who ran everything in Florida and who would just as soon murder me as try to comprehend my transition.

However, the final straw that caused my decision to move from Florida in the summer of 2021, was Laurie Lykins, my boss at Human Resources Inc, had accused me of having an affair with one of our male clients.

It was phony and absurd. I dislike men and detested being having been male early in my life and would never have an affair with one. And I did not.

But Laurie took her trumped up charge to the board of directors, announced that I was a transwoman, and in a 7 to 6 vote I was dismissed in May of 2021. 

Frankly, I was ready to leave. The challenging work I was called upon to do was becoming more academic and difficult to write.

After commenting to my Facebook friends how I detested Florida, several people I trusted recommended Reno. After doing research on my laptop, I was influenced when I discovered that Reno had a beautiful river running through the downtown and lovely mountains all around the city. 

Reno sounded good to me. So, I said goodbye to Florida forever.