Purging!

Sorry for not writing lately.  I hope and pray that will be changing a bit.

Most all of us have heard of purging, and quite a few of us have done it from time to time.  Purging, for the gender-flexible, usually involves ridding our alter ego's of their clothes, books, belongings, etc.  I've purged myself of Kelli's things many times over the decades... I mean... years (I can't be THAT old).  The reasons have ranged from trying to rid myself of all things feminine in my life to living situations that were less than private to having nosy girlfriends.

For the benefit of younger readers, let me just caution you that purging never improved my condition.  Even experts will tell you that your transgenderism, crossdressing, transvestism, transexualism, crossdreaming, gender dysphoria, eonism, whatever the heck you want to call it, etc., will probably not be cured (go away) by purging.  Your best course of action is learning to live with it and turning it into something more positive.  The only happiness my purging brought about took place in the lives of the ladies who frequented the local thrift stores in my neighborhood.

However, I just purged myself of something that I think will be positive.  I just purged myself of the internet (at least a big portion of it).  Best I can tell, I think I was addicted to the internet.  I could spend hours every day looking at transgender pictures and artwork, saving favorite TG captions to my hard drive, reading the latest TG fiction, etc.  I would surf the web every morning up to time to leave for work.  After work, the first thing I would do upon arriving home would be to prop up my heels, check my e-mail and start surfing again for a couple more hours.  Time for bed?  Not before I check the e-mail and Twitter again followed by more surfing.

For some time I felt that this was some sort of compulsive behaviour, but I couldn't see any negative effects.  It wasn't until I could no longer deny the fact that I was ignoring other things in my life because I was surfing the internet that I decided something had to change.  I finally decided one night a few weeks ago that I was no longer going to surf the internet, resolved that the next day I would commit myself to this change, and went to bed.

Then, things took a strange turn.  I got up that morning to check my e-mails before going to work and found my hard drive had been erased.  Everything was gone!  I was shocked.  Nothing like this had ever happened to me before.  Then I was very annoyed and a bit angry.  True, I had promised that I would no longer surf the internet, but in this day and age I rely very heavily on e-mail and Twitter.  I needed a computer for work and personal use.  It looked like I was going to be buying a new computer, which I did not look forward to doing.

Later that day, I was looking for some important personal papers.  My important paper filing system is very simple, but not very efficient.  I take a large box and label it "IMPORTANT PAPERS 201X", and all the important papers I get that year go in that box.  It works unless I can't remember the year.  So I'm looking in a box of important papers and find... the recovery discs for my computer.  What they were doing in a box of important papers, I'll never know.  I slapped the discs into the DVD drive and within an hour had a bare-bones computer running once again.  I was thrilled and started checking my e-mail.

Looking back on this, I can't help but feel a higher power was giving me a little help in my purging.  By ridding my computer of the browser, all my bookmarks, and any files that could easily be used to recreated a papertrail, I got a fresh start that I had never considered.  Having my computer wiped of its information has been a terrific blessing.

So now, I spend 2-3 hours a day at home and work on e-mail and Twitter, but that's pretty much all.  I have a few (less than six) blogs that I like to check everyday, but none with TG pictures/artwork or such.  In other words, they are pretty much "G" rated, or as innocent as TG subjects can be presented.  The hours that have been reclaimed for personal living are spent with my music, going outside, more personal interaction, and resuming work on a college degree.

Now if you're wondering if I've been tempted to return to my old ways, the answers is "Good heaven's yes!"  I guess it was the first night after I had rebuilt the hard drive on my computer, I was tempted to mindlessly surf the web.  As a Christian, I had to chuckle at myself.  Does the devil really think I'm that big of a pushover???

Kelli