Good evening, Taylor,

While my week has been pretty dull, my weekend was super busy again. And despite one bad thing, it went really well!

Let’s get the bad thing out of the way. I have a toothache. A really bad one, too. Ragdoll is going to try and work something out with her job so we can get time to fix it. It could be a little while, though. I hope not. When it’s not hurting it’s okay. But if something touches the tooth, it’s really really painful. Lots of soft food and tilted heads for our meals.

The good part, though. I think I know something I very much like. Hiking. Walking. I picked another forest near me with a lake. It was really close to town though so Ragdoll took a look to see if we should really do it, and figured out it was close, but very isolated and hard to get to, so it would be okay.

The 5th was my three month anniversary of being out, so she let me do as much as I felt I could handle in my half of the day. I drove the car again. In the daytime. With people around. I’m still super careful, and I need her GPS to tell me where to go, but she plugged in the GPS and off we went. She knows me better than I thought she did. The first stop was a little coffee shack.

I bought a latte (I really like lattes) and some water (for the hike) and followed the next route to the hike. I was super careful, and even the last part of the road was really rough, but we got there. And the hike went on and on and on. This hike was not nearly as hard as last week’s hike. This body is still not in good shape though since a little hill made us so winded. I’m going to have to shape it up.

The views of the lake weren’t really good, but it was nice to find a bench at the top of the hike to enjoy the lake and the quiet. I met a few people on the way and had a few words with them. I still get a rush of joy when I talk to people and make a connection, even if it’s just a small connection. I sat there for a while and enjoyed the moment. That is probably the best advice you have given me since I came out.

I know Ragdoll likes these walks too, so I let her out to walk back. She then drove from there to a spot she was wanting to take a picture of, then to a nearby lake where she let me out to take in the view. And it was a really nice view. Just a little lake in the middle of a neighborhood. I’d love to live here.

From there, she let me drive to get groceries, and then I put her back in to buy them. We bought some toothache safe food, but she also picked up a slice of cake and a package. When we got home, she put up her groceries, and let me out to put up mine. We switch a lot now, and it’s really easy. The hardest part is putting Ragdoll away when I come out since she just goes limp. I made her a little seat in the room we have to share so she’s not lying on the floor anymore.

Once I put up my groceries I still had an hour or so left of my half-day, and went over to the computer. And I found the slice of cake and a package! She wanted to celebrate the 3rd month-i-versary with cake and a set of texture toys! She knows I love feeling the textures around me, and bought me some so I could play with them. And the cake was good too, even if I had to be very careful with it.

That evening, though, things changed in a really good way. Ragdoll introduced me to her friend Lily. And Lily has someone else in her, too, the Cowgirl. All of us talked for a while before Ragdoll and Lily started watching a movie. It was a neat mystery, but not my type of movie, so I wasn’t really absorbed like they were. I was just happy to make another set of friends who I could talk with. I made another the next day, but he wasn’t feeling well and couldn’t talk. But I have friends now. Lots of friends. And I’m very happy that I’m real to them now to.

–Andrea