Hi Shawn, welcome to tzone!
You're not alone now, you have us to talk to - and we'll do our best to help where we can
Don't panic about going out again - wait until you feel ready to; there's no need to rush anything. It's great that your girlfriend is supportive, even though she's freaking out. There's a good resource for partners and families of trans people called
Depend - they have a number of Yahoo groups that she might like to join to get support from people in a similar situation to her. My partner is a member of the one for the partners of FTMs, and she finds it really useful.
I understand what you mean about being happy when being yourself and hating yourself at the same time - for me, that's to do with the inner conflict between my mind and the fact that my external body doesn't match my mind. I've found it has improved the more I transition, and I've become much more comfortable in my own skin - I hope that makes sense!
Hope that helps - keep posting, and why not start a blog in the
My Story and Daily Blogs section - a lot of us have found it helps to be able to write down how we feel.
Dave