I feel really bad for all the negativity in this thread. I'm sorry the transition for some of you has been so rocky. I have been living 24/7 for 10 months now and on HRT for 1 month. And even before living 24/7 I have practiced my feminine voice and walk for a year in preparation for living my life the way I wanted. It helped that I moved from one coast of the US to the other on the day I started going full time. It also helped That for a year and a half prior to that I was able to grow my hair long and have it be socially acceptable due to my age. The only people who know I'm trans are my fiancee, my endocrinologist and the HR manager at my place of employment. By the time I get a new job I'll have had my legal name changed and the gender flag on my ID changed to female.
At no point in the past months have I ever felt like a "tranny". I have not had a single incident where my status as transgendered has been revealed in public. The only comments I have received from others who don't know about me are either on how pretty I look (including an offer from a fashion design student to model for her at a runway show) or how someone loves my voice. My fiancee (who is significantly older than me) once had someone comment to her about how charming her "daughter" was.
So for the record, for some of us it is as easy as the hype makes it out to be. Though I'm sure that most for whom transition is easy do feel fortunate and grateful for the opportunities and gifts bestowed upon them by fate.