Score!

As a rule, I hate Valentine's Day. I never have a clue what to give, or how much to spend, or whether to be serious or light. Well, we went ahead and celebrated a day early, as it was Saturday, and she works on Sunday evening.

We had a lovely meal at her favorite Italian place. I reminded her about a Blackstone Merlot that she had loved another time, and she ordered a bottle. I don't drink the stuff, but I make a point to help her remember what she likes. This pleased her. We had bruschetta to start, tasty salads, pasta entrees, and raspberry tiramisu. A fine meal and good conversation.

As usual, she does most of the talking, especially at the beginning. I am accustomed to letting her wind down for awhile, then pick up the ball if any time remains. Tonight's was a long meal, so I got my chance well into the entrees. I decided to talk about our leadership crisis in my support group, a risky ploy, but it went fine. I described the situation, and she had lots of questions and ideas. She exhibited no discomfort as I called my friends by female names and pronouns. We also talked about the DSM-V draft that went online last week. I introduced the concept of autogynephilia to her, and told her how relieved we are that it seems to have been left out of the document. It was a very frank talk, without confrontation or editing. Delightful.

Oh, and gifts were exchanged. We had a good laugh when we discovered that we had chosen cards from the same series for one another, nearly identical! (Have I mentioned how long we've been married?!) She has been bugging me to arrange some dance lessons for over a year, so I quietly acquiesced. I'm actually looking forward to it, except that I'll have to lead, and my attire won't flow the way I would prefer. She gave me a sterling silver rope chain that I adore. It's very shiny and catches the light nicely. Being a bit of a magpie, I like shiny things.

In the same bag was another package. She said that it was a birthday gift to make up for last year! She said that she wants to feel like less of a louse, since she now knows that it was important to me. It was a sterling silver bracelet, just perfect. She told me that both pieces are men's items, but she got the most delicate things they had so that I could use them either way.

I do believe that she is starting to get it. I'm not seeing the flinching when the dread topic is broached, nor any reticence to discuss openly. Talking about TG issues did not put any kind of damper on her mood. I might just have to bump V-Day up past Groundhog Day on my list of preferred holidays.