"Who's Who" In This Blog

Throughout this blog I use abbreviations for almost everybody other than myself.  Part of this is that it's quicker to type say J instead of my wife's full name.  But the larger reason is for everyone else's privacy.  I have no issues putting myself and my life on display here, but I don't think it's fair of me to do that to everyone else.  Now, truth be told for anyone who knows me, these people would be easily identifiable simply by knowing myself, or pretty much anyone else I talk about.  But for the "rest of the world", I do think it provides a bit of privacy to those people while still letting me share the things I choose to share.

However, for those that don't regularly read this blog it might be easy to see these abbreviations I use and have no idea of "who's who" and how they relate to the things I'm writing.  Therefore I'm going to give a short explanation of each of the abbreviations.

• Madison - Not an abbreviation obviously, simply myself.  I guess I could have (or perhaps should have) chosen to write this blog under a pseudonym, but I didn't and what's done is done.  :)
• <My Old Name> - I do not use my old name unless I have to, and this blog does not meet that criteria, so anyplace that I (or my wife as co-author of this blog) would need to use my pre-transition name, you will see <My Old Name> instead.
• J - My wonderful wife and co-author of this blog.  I could not ask for a better, more understanding wife and partner.  She has been and continues to be 100% supportive of my transition and everything else in my life.
• M - My "ex-wife", now in no particular order, my "best friend", our "roommate", and in reality really my "sister".  I refer to her as any/all of those things as they are all accurate.  We were a horrible couple, but since our divorce many years ago we have become as close of friends as we could be and she has been incredibly helpful and supportive of my transition.  It's funny, she never could have done so while we were married, but now I couldn't ask for a better friend/roommate/sister than her.
• P - My (and M's) daughter.  She doesn't get included in this blog very often as she's at that age where she doesn't want to spend a lot of time with her parents; but she is a wonderful daughter and not only took my transition in stride, but is also very supportive.
• M2 - This is M's current husband and our other roommate.  He has has moments, but if push comes to shove he's a good guy.  It's funny to me in a way as M is the one that initiated our divorce proceedings, and while her second marriage didn't work out either; this one seems to be doing well.  The funny part is that I see a lot of things in him that I used to see in myself, many of which were things that drove M and I apart.  The running joke (at least for me) is that if M didn't want to be with me, then why did she end up married to somebody that is fundamentally so much like I was.
• D - A friend of myself, M, J, and even P I suppose.  M, J, and myself worked with D years ago, before D transitioned to a woman.  Truthfully, seeing D a couple of years ago post-transition - is what really helped push me to decide to transition.  She was so much happier and looked so nice - it made a huge impact on me.
• Our Cats:  Emily (rest in peace), Boots, Francis, Sampson, Ginger, Maxie, and Princess.
• Our Dog:  Murphy

There are others that come up from time to time such as one particular uncle and aunt, or J's parents, but none of those are frequent enough subjects to merit their abbreviations, and besides it's probably hard enough to read as-is.  :)

- M