Settling In
Posted on the 22nd of November 2008 at 16:01 by Bodil
This is my sixteenth day as Bodil, legally. My tenth day of being aware of the fact–even the mail takes a lot of time when you’re dealing with the government. It’s also my third day with a legally valid ID–a debit card with photo ID from my bank–to prove the fact, and the first shopping spree using this card has just been completed. I got a gloriously comfy and expensive pillow at 50% off, and two pounds of habañeros. Other things too, or it could hardly be called a spree, but these are the things that matter: nightly comfort, and Scovilles.
And how does it feel, you’d ask, being finally official? Nothing special, really, I’d answer. There’s no immensity of emotion, but I do have to report a certain pervasive, if faint, sense of relief. It’s a bit irrational, but I have this idea in my head that if someone should accuse me of being a man, I can now pull out my ID and say, “see, would a man be called Bodil?” Fortunately, these scenarios only happen in my head, these days–I haven’t been mistaken for a man, at least that I’m aware of, in four or five months.
It’s also a relief to know that if I’m asked to show my ID, it doesn’t automatically mean outing myself anymore. In fact, I’m going to Kristiansund to see my parents for Christmas, and this time the name on the plane ticket is what it ought to be. I’ll be going through the airport without being outed a single time. A shame, really–the last time was oddly amusing, even a bit exciting.
And that is the extent of my emotional response. Now, to turn those habañeros, soy sausages and tofu into a curry so potent it would invite UN sanctions. If I die from a capsaicin overdose today, I die fulfilled, and my headstone will read “Bodil.”
These are the best of days.
