You know you are passing as a woman when:

Another woman calls you hon or sweetie.

A woman talks to you in the ladies room

A woman started complaining about men.

A woman messes with here bra while you are next to her.

A guy with his wife checks you out. (stares).

A woman checks you out (glance), and snubs you or smiles.

A woman asks for your advise about makeup or clothes to purchase.

A man holds a door open for you.

An adolescent girl looks to see how you are put together.

Nods and smiles at you when her husband acts like a typical man.

When you get a dirty look from a woman when her guy checks you out or smiles at you.

Although I was not at the site during the shootings, I was on the campus of Kent State University the day of the shootings and walked past that site earlier that morning.

I walked around Buckingham Palace one week after the funeral of Princess Diana. seeing all of the flowers and tributes to her.

I flew on an airplane the day before 911 and on Friday after when flights were resumed. The airports we empty and it was eerie.

I drove past Abbeville Park the scene of riots in Belfast, Northern, Ireland.

I shopped at a Chinese market that was bombed 2 months later, by terrorist in Jakarta.

I was in a convenience store 1 mile from Columbine High School and heard sirens when the shooting there occurred.

I toured Dealy Plaza (many years later) looking out the same window that Lee Harvey Oswald shot John Kennedy.

These events all had an impact upon my life but it is incredible to me that I could be so close to these events in history. There is absolutely no exaggeration to anything that I have mentioned in the above paragraphs.

Probably the biggest impact on my life was the Kent State shootings in 1970, because I was there that day.

Now it is focus ordinary things. I often stop a Panera Bread and sit a with some lady friends. We share so much in our conversation: I love to hear about mothering, or fashion, and sales at store nearby. We also talk about craft projects. Oh yes,I enjoy the gossip and the differences about men and women.

It is also so much fun for a female stranger to walk up to me and ask my opinion about makeup or the color of a top. Also a conversation in the lady's room.

I am even more comfortable about interactions with men. It is so nice to get that attention. A stare or a smile. I am also realizing how to react to and deal with men. A cute man was so eager to help me in the hardware department at Target yesterday. It is so cute to have a man try to impress me with his masculine knowledge of things. So gratifying to me. I just loved it.