Thursday, October 30, 2008

Ottawa and Quebec Canada




So this weeks trip was to Ottawa / Quebec Canada. (My customer was in Ottawa and my hotel was in Quebec). I'm really not fond of international trips as customs, immigration, getting local currency, etc are such a pain. I did not fly femme as I didn't want to add any more hassle to the trip then I had to. Had a long day getting there and arrived at my hotel at around 7PM and decided I wasn't going to do anything that night. My last name (my REAL last name, not Huddle) is of French origin so as soon as people in Quebec saw my last name everyone tried to speak French to me! I felt like an idiot, but I played hell finding the parking garage for the hotel. I drove by it three or four times until I saw another car approach what I thought was a warehouse door just to see it automatically open exposing the parking garage inside. Hmmm . . . one more thing learned about city life.
The view from my room was very pretty so I took a few pics:







 

Work went well my first day there and I was back at the hotel and getting dressed at 6PM. I decided to try my new wig and spent over an hour trying to make it look presentable. I like it but it sure does take a lot more effort to make it presentable after pulling it out of luggage than my short wig did. I'm hoping that maybe that is something that gets better as I get more practice working with it.



 Just my luck that they decided to have a snow storm while I was there. Made for kind of miserable driving but it sure was pretty to watch. There were a few TG friendly clubs I had found online, but I decided that given the predicted weather, maybe it wouldn't be a good idea to go too far or stay out too late, so I settled for the Casino that was about 2 miles away. As I was leaving the hotel and entering it's parking garage, I saw a man coming in struggling to open the double doors and deal with his baggage, so I held one set of doors open for him and waited. Instead, he took one look at me, smiled and dropped his bags, and held the door open for me! He spoke French so all I got was "no, no, no, (lots of words I didn't understand) mademoiselle" I felt kind of guilty but thanked him and walked on to my car! The snow started to fall very heavily on my way to the Casino so I tried to take a couple of pics.


 

Nothing terribly interesting happened at the Casino, which I suppose is good. No one gave me any dirty looks or anything like that. I lost my $40 dollars quite rapidly and headed back to the hotel. I stood at the entrance to the hotel restaurant for about 5 minutes waiting to be seated. This had nothing to do with my being dressed as they had done the same thing to me the night before when I was in drab.

 So there I stand waiting to be seated when a gentleman that is seated and eating his dinner notes how long I've been waiting. He stands up and calls angrily to a waiter in a different part of the room. Like the man who had held the door for me, this man also speaks in French so I don't understood him, but his tone is angry as he points at me and I again catch the word "mademoiselle". Considering this is really quite a nice restaurant and hotel, he must have been pretty angry to yell across it. I gave him my very best smile and thanked him. Wow, that's twice on this trip that I have been treated so well. This is very welcome as my confidence has been faltering a bit the last few weeks, so it was kind of nice to get some positive reinforcement. After being berated by the other patron, the host practically ran to speak with me. The bad news is that it was 5 minutes to 10PM and that is when they stop serving. I guess I could have made a fuss, but figured that I could stand to miss a meal or two.


My next (and last) day there everything also went well for my work. A very nostalgic day for me as they are setting up a new service center there just like the one I built in Austin a decade ago for my company. Brought back many fond, and not so fond, memories! Succeeded in repairing the instruments I was there to work on very early and spent most of the rest of the afternoon giving some improvised training to one of their engineers. Once their manager realized that I had built and managed a service center for years that was just like what they were trying to get off the ground, they wouldn't let me out the door until they had picked my mind clean for hours!
 

Eventually I DO get free and so return to the hotel and get cleaned up. By the time I'm ready, it's 7PM and I have to be up at 2:45 AM to get to the airport in time for getting through customs and all that garbage, so I again decided to leave the clubs alone and just go to the Casino that is so close by. At first I was gong to wear these boots out. Ultimately I decided that I didn't feel pretty in them and so they stayed home and my Mary Janes went with me.




 

















Again nothing of any note to mention on my trip to the Casino. I once again lost my $40 quickly and efficiently and returned to the hotel. This time I got there a bit earlier and WAS seated and served in the restaurant!
Still looking for a way to add a little variety to my pictures. I kind of like these:
 

Oh, you know what? I think I'm gonna have to learn how to speak French. It sounds so beautiful, especially when coming from a pretty woman.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Denver


This week was a trip to Denver Colorado. Denver is a nice place, fairly clean air, lots of green, and some hills and mountains (things I miss living in Austin).
Once again I decided to push my luck and fly femme. I recently found a skirt that is a perfect match for a light green top I’ve had for a while so I decided to give the new outfit a whirl.

I had just finished taking my obligatory “this is what I looked like before a day of travel destroyed me” pictures and was putting my camera away and getting my bags together when I hear my 19 year old son coming down the stairs. He has known about me for a couple of years now and is 100% cool with it, but I still try not to let him see me “dressed”. I think knowing about is one thing, but having to confront it and observe it is another, so I try to keep it out of his site.
As he comes down the stairs he begins to greet me.
“Hey dad . . . ," and then a distinct pause as he sees me " umm . . .hello!" he says as he cocks his head to the side and gets a shit eating grin all over his face. Good kid, that one . . .



This time I’m flying American Airlines but still no excitement going through check in or security, they all passed me through with out comment. I decided to get a root beer float at the Ice Cream shop they have in the airport. The guy behind the counter has served me a few times and treats me very well each and every time. He is sort of doing his own fashion thing, looking almost Amish with a short beard and low black hat. Clearly he doesn’t exactly follow the fashion trends and rules either. :)
I can’t explain why, but recently I have been kind of lacking in confidence. As I sat in the airport, I just felt like a tired, ugly, old man in a pretty outfit. I don’t like that feeling.
Taking the tram from my arrival gate to my next plane, all of the seats were taken so I had to stand. As I stood there I glanced at a woman that was seated and happened to catch her look at me. As soon as our eyes met you could see it click and her face lit up in the biggest grin you have ever seen. I smiled back at her and returned to minding my own business.
The guy that sat next to me on the flight from DFW to Denver was clearly not amused by my presence. When the flight attendant asked what I would like to drink, this guy rolled his eyes at her like “Oh God, couldn’t have given me another seat?!” Oh well, his problem, not mine.
Got to Denver around 5PM and got my baggage. Sort of stuck my toe out the door to see that it wasn’t TOO cold so I left my heavy coat in my bag. I don’t know if it was the altitude, the stress of trying to stay confident and brave while feeling ugly and un-passable, or what, but almost immediately after getting there I developed a killer headache. I mean the type of headache where every time your heart beats it feels like someone is hitting you with a hammer.
Funny, between the airport and Avis lot things changed dramatically because when I stepped off the shuttle bus in my sleeveless top I almost died of a heart attack. It was freezing and the wind was blowing sleet sideways. Got the car they had assigned me but there was no contract in it, so I had to go to the counter. No one batted an eye as I handed over my license.


Got settled at the hotel and a bit later met up with Michelle and her girl friend for dinner. I didn’t think to ask if it was all right to use her name in my blog so I wont. These were some really nice people and we spent a few hours in interesting conversation. We spoke about how we started cross dressing, how we had progressed, what it means to us, and of course about every day things. It sounds like Michelle has some very interesting things going professionally so I hope good things are in her future. Like a lot of TG’s, Michelle is struggling with reconciling her beliefs with her being TG. Fortunately this is not something I have a problem with. I think in our heart of hearts most of us know the difference between what is “right” and “wrong”, “good” and “evil” and nothing anyone can say to me is going to convince me that cross dressing is evil in Gods eyes.
Her girl friend has recently made major changes in her life, pretty much picking up and moving to Denver and just starting over fresh. She takes the whole TG thing in stride and honestly doesn’t seem to understand why people get so up tight about it. Would that there were more people like her in the world, and I don’t say this just out of a selfish desire to have more people that accept TG’s. As I see it, accepting TG’s so matter of factually tells you a lot about what kind of person they are. She is a very brave and intelligent woman and an interesting person to talk to.
As a traveling engineer, most of my time is spent alone, so it was a pleasure to spend the evening with them. I probably struck them both as being rude though. It had been a very long day for me and my head was killing me, so I called it a night fairly early.
Would you believe that the next day, my headache refused to go away, so all I did was eat dinner drab in the hotel. I had two or three spiced rum and cokes and THAT helped to ease the headache a bit. I was then in bed by 9:30, having done absolutely nothing of interest.
My third day, my headache had died down to a dull roar so after work I decided to get out a bit. Got cleaned up and dressed, looked at myself in the mirror, and almost stepped right into the shower to wash it all off. I just felt tired, old, fat, wrinkled, and ugly. Decided I had spent too much time and effort in getting ready and so I pretty much forced myself out the door to go shopping.


I know it was probably in my head, but from the very first I felt like everyone that saw me knew what I was. I still walked a bit through the mall, but felt like everyone I was passing by was staring at me. Yes, I know this was in my head, but we aren’t talking about logic here are we? After about 20 minutes I just couldn’t stand it and so I fled the mall and returned to the hotel. I decided to stick it out a bit and stayed “dressed” for dinner in the hotel. The restaurant of this Holiday Inn does not see much action, so I was one of two people in it. The same waitress I had the night before waited on me and she made no effort at all to hide her new found distaste of me. The night before she had been talkative but this night she was very abrupt – just short of being rude. One word questions and answers. When I ordered a rum and coke with dinner she asked if I wanted regular or spiced rum making it clear she DID recognize me from the night before. When she stepped out for a while, another lady waited on me for a few minutes and SHE was very friendly and all smiles.
Going through the HUGE TSA security line in the Denver airport (drab), I approached the TSA agent who looked absolutely bored out of his mind. I smiled and made a comment.
“Well don’t you just look terribly excited to be here.” Coming out of his bored haze for a moment, he looked up and focused on me.
“Yeah, so do you!” he returned. It was at this point I noticed his arms were completely free of hair and he was very closely shaven. Couldn’t help wondering if I had just traded words with another TG.
I thought I was going to be lucky enough to have an empty seat next to me on the flight from Denver to Dallas, but just before they closed the doors, this young, tall, and beautiful young lady comes striding down the isle and takes the seat next to me. I noticed that although she was not in any kind of uniform, she was wearing airline credentials around her neck. I struck up a conversation with her and then asked her if she was a flight attendant for American Airlines or another airline. She gave me this dazzling smile that just about melted me and informed me that she was not a flight attendant – she was a pilot! I apologized for demoting her and told her I thought it was awesome she was a pilot. Having a 5 year old daughter, I like the idea that my daughter might be able to achieve such things if she wanted to. On the other hand I considered telling her that male or female, I really preferred to see some grey hair and maturity on the pilot of any plane I was in, but I decided that given all of the prejudice she probably encountered in her career, she might not appreciate the humor.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Making still more progress on my 1967 Mustang

Got the engine and transmission installed.


67 Mustang Runs for first time in 2 years


It took most of the day to get her started due to a faulty coil. It WAS putting out fire, but apparently not quite enough. You know the funny part? I had over 8 gear heads, two of them professional mechanics, all working around my car and guess who figured out it was the coil? Yup, me, the dumb one. We tried to get her started for about 6 hours. Finally everyone went to get lunch and my wife, a friend, and I started talking it through.
We knew the coil wasn't dead because we were getting flames out the carb, but I thought maybe it just wasn't up to snuff. My wife went and got the new coil and I got it installed just as everyone returned from lunch. It started almost immediately and I got to be the hero. :-)

Maybe it's the fact that I myself am getting older, perhaps past my prime, but I feel an immense satisfaction in trying to restore this 40 year old lady. She might be 40, but she has far more class and style than any pip squeak modern car. I want her running down the road and strutting her stuff with pride and maybe even arrogance. With that thought in mind, I had to wipe a tear out of my eye when this 40 year old ladies engine started for the first time in two years.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Southern Comfort Conference


Holy smokes! Writing this blog is intimidating more than any other I have written. The last few days were simply overwhelming in both, the quality and quantity, of the events that took place. I met SO many truly unique and wonderful people. I’ve got to tell you, you have never seen anything like having close to 1500 transgender people in the same place at once – it was simply incredible.


Due to my work schedule and finances I just couldn’t take the entire week off and so had to settle for only spending Friday and Saturday at the event. This is a mistake I will NOT make again should I get the chance to attend another SCC. If there is a next time, I will damn well be there for the entire event!

Friday started off the same as most days where I intend to travel femme. After my wife and daughter left for work/school, yours truly started running like hell to get ready and get to the airport. So help me, I have no idea what I did differently that Friday morning, but I was surprised when I looked in the mirror and later at the photo’s I tool that morning before I left. I don’t think I had ever looked better and so I was very pleased as I headed for the airport


I’ve got to tell you, it drove me nuts not having my laptop and toolbox with me. Alarms were going off in my head all day long that I was forgetting something because I didn’t have these things that I normally travel with. Got to the airport and checked in with the Delta counter. Even though he had seen me there countless times before, the gentleman that checked me in was clearly set back a step when he looked at my ID, but he recovered quickly and sent me on my merry way.

Got the TSA check point and then things got interesting.


“Ma’am?” she calls out to me while waving me forward “Next in line please”

I stepped forward and handed her my ID and ticket. I swear I’m not kidding, the young lady looked confused for a second or two.

“I’m sorry, I need your ID,” she says.

“Ummm . . That is my ID.” I assured her, giving her my best ‘I’m just a friendly neighborhood crossdresser, and not a psychopathic, axe murdering terrorist’ smile. Suddenly she had this honestly shocked look on her face! She had honestly had NO idea I was male when I handed her my ID.

“Will you wait here a moment please?” she asks, with just a hint of panic in her voice.

“Sure,” I told her, starting to feel just a touch of panic my damn self. That would be just about right – I’ve flown dozens of times with out a single hassle, and now that I’m on the way to the worlds largest TG/Cross dressing event, I’m going to refused travel! Shortly, the young lady and another TSA representative return and pull me off to the side.

“Do you have another form of ID we can see just to verify this is you?” he asks very respectfully, the height of professionalism.

“Sure,” I told him as I pull out a credit card that also has my pic on it. “I’m kind of surprised you ask though, because y’all have never had a problem with my flying before.”

“Oh, it’s no problem,” he says while comparing my ID, credit card, and face. “It’s our job to be careful and we just want to be sure you are who you say you are. Have a nice flight!” he says and hands my documents back to me.


I had a conversation with someone at SCC who told me I was fearless. I told her she was crazy, that I was often scared to death but just kept plowing on anyway, and she suggested that I should consider sharing that in my blogs as well. With that thought in mind, here is what you may not realize from my description of the above events with the TSA. While I wouldn’t go so far as to say I was scared to death, as soon as things left the by now familiar routine, I became very nervous and anxious. By the time I got through the X-ray machine I was pretty well drenched in perspiration and not at all pleased with events.


I got the Atlanta airport with no further excitement (just the way I like it) and then proceeded to walk around in circles, utterly lost. For all of the hundreds of times I’ve flown through the Atlanta airport, this was the first time I’d ever actually had it as my destination. I couldn’t find a sign anywhere and I absolutely could not find the rental car shuttles, even after asking people where they were. After walking around in circles for about 20 minutes, I was walking by a young man who was sitting down, clearly taking a break.


“You look lost,” he said. “What are you looking for?” He proceeded to give me clear directions and I easily found them. I mention it just because I thought it was neat that he was friendly and willing to go out of his way to help a cross dresser.


I got a good laugh at the Avis lot when I pulled up to the exit guard, rolled the window down, and handed her my ID.

“And how are you today ma’am?” she asks as she looks at my ID. “I mean sir. . . I mean what ever you want to be!” We both busted out laughing and I told that it was no problem, she was welcome to call me what ever she was comfortable with as long as it was polite and “G” rated.


Approaching Atlanta


Headed down the highway and suddenly the Village People “YMCA” comes on the radio. I thought that was kind of prophetic. At last I got to the SCC at the Crowne Plaza and that’s where Kimberly’s trip through the looking glass started.


When I entered the lobby I was stunned to see literally dozens of us standing and walking about. Some were gorgeous, some were . . . umm . . .different . . .

I recall seeing one person wearing a school girl uniform with a top that was WAY too small, exposing her entire and very ample and hair covered beer belly. Not a little bit of the hairy belly, or a hint of it, the outfit appeared to be designed to show the entire beer belly. Brrrrrrrrrr. . . .


Anyway, I walk past a LOT of people to the reception desk where I present my credit card, platinum Priority Club card, and ID. It’s one of the few times I’ve done this where I saw NO surprise on their faces, because of course by now this staff was VERY experienced with cross dressers arriving! How weird to not be “the” crossdresser and the Lone Ranger – here I was but one of hundreds.


Got my room key, grabbed my bag . . . and almost trip over Marissa (MJ) – one of my very favorite people from Crossdressers.com! We laughed and hugged, and when she told me she had lost track of the person she had arrived with, I invited her to come get comfortable and wait in my room. By this time, it’s only an hour or so until dinner, and due to my nerve wracking experience with the TSA, and an afternoon traveling, I now smell like a goat. That’s all right though, because I had gone way over board and packed at least six outfits for the two days!

Suzy, Marissa, and I


I got washed up, changed, and then gave Suzy Harrison a call. Suzy is one of the neatest people I know. She lives in Australia, has a great sense of humor, and tries not to take herself or life too seriously. We have almost identical lives and so have much in common. She has been married over 30 years. In a week I will have been married for 21 years. We both have children, we both are Field Service Engineers that travel a lot. Meeting Suzy in person is the reason I went to the SCC. I get out a lot, so I don’t need a very expensive excuse and event to get the chance to dress up, but the chance the meet Suzy was irresistible to me.


Meeting her in person was every bit as much fun as trading insults . . . err . . . I mean showing our mutual respect for each other on the internet. I swear, just sitting here writing this, I’m getting teary eyed, because it sucks that she lives so far away that we won’t be able to see each other.


So many things happened, and I met so many people, I can’t possibly describe or name them all. I met dozens of people I have traded emails with over they years from all across the country. I had several dozen more that I have never met come up to tell me how much they enjoyed my blogs (crazy nutters! LOL) I met about half a dozen that I had already met on my trips across the country. By far, I enjoyed the company of those from crossdressers.com the most. They were fun, enjoyed laughter, and were just comfortable people to be around.


Suzy helped me pick out new hair while I was there. I’ve been wanting a longer wig for a while now, and decided to go for it. The bad news is my wife will kill me if she gets wind of what it cost me, so y’all don’t tell her OK? (OK, this is a sneaky test to see if she ever reads my posts/blogs)


Went to dinner where we had a table or two set aside for all the gals from Crossdressers.com. Again, so many people and names that I can’t possibly keep them all straight, but there were a few that really stuck out for me.


Suzy I’ve already mentioned.




Marissa (MJ) AKA “Daddy Mom” - MJ was the quiet and thoughtful one of the bunch. With all of us loud mouths around, she was the one who brought a touch of peace and serenity.



Joann – wow this woman is gorgeous and also blessed to be petite. Much like Suzy and I, Joann travels and gets out a lot, and is clearly very comfortable with herself.



Tammi - Tammi is a lot of fun to talk to. Her eyes sparkle all of the time and she clearly enjoys life. I spent the wee hours of the morning on my last day there chatting with her until the lack of sleep, and my drinking to damn much caught up with me around 2 or 3 AM.



Tracy Schapes - Tracy, much like the other ladies I’ve mentioned, is just an awesome person. One look in her eyes and you know your dealing with good and kind person. She was SOO cute too (I’ll describe that in just a bit)



Deja True - About a month ago I started talking with Deja on the internet, but I really didn’t have much of a picture of what she was like yet. Deja is her own woman. When every one else flocked to do this or that, déjà went her own way. You were free to join her, or not, as you please, but she wasn’t gonna follow any crowd.



Dita - Oh my God Dita was a hoot! When she and Suzy got together, it was like a feedback loop, where the humor and sarcasm just ran out of control.



Georgia Girl - The young one of the bunch, and I believe the only one with the courage (and ability) to sport her own hair. I've got a hunch we will be seeing a lot more of her out and about soon!



Kris Haley - I’ve traded emails with Kris for around a year as she lives in Peoria IL, a city I visit fairly often. Funny thing, all of our attempts to meet up in her home town failed – we had to both go hundreds of miles from home to finally meet!



Michelle Madison - I have met Michelle several times before on my trips to the Boston area but this is the first time I think we ever really got the chance to actually talk to each other!



Jose - Jose is one of those neat people that have gone out of their way for me in the last few years by trying to help me find interesting and nice people and places to visit when I travel. A fine lady.



I could go on and on, but if I try to mention every single person I met, I will never get this finished!



Enjoyed a good dinner with outstanding company and just had a ball laughing and talking with the ladies at our table.
Myself, Suzy, Joann





Joann, ??, Tracy














Marissa, Deja, Suzy, Tracy




Oh, and when I say I “enjoyed” dinner, I meant it. I’ve been dieting for the last month trying to make damn sure I fit in the gown I bought, so here was my chance to actually eat for the first time in a month with out guilt. Darned if I can recall their name, but there was a really cute couple that performed for us and they were outstanding! I took a short video to give you some idea.

The guy was a transman and the lady was the cutest little lady you have ever seen or heard. She was a doll and was wearing this cute little dress that I’d wager most of us wanted.

After dinner, everyone change yet again! The after dinner thing was supposed to be some sort of Fetish dance. I don’t own anything even remotely “fetish” in style and so Suzy offered to let me wear a PVC skirt she had brought. I thought about, even went so far as to take a look at it, but just couldn’t bring myself to go there. Instead, I went for one of my favorite short skirt outfits.




I’ll bet some of you have realized by now that I can be sort of OCD but some things. When I saw Tracy Shape, in her adorable outfit, I was instantly hooked on her. Every time I saw her I just wanted to run up and give her hug and tell her how cute she was. I think I actually did this once or twice (all right maybe half a dozen times), but I managed to not do it as often as the urge struck me. Come on, take a look at her and tell me she is not just about the most adorable thing you have ever seen?

Leaving for the Club


Suzy looking hot in her PVC dress !


Enjoyed the SCC activity for a while then headed out on the bus for a local drag club called Le Buzz I think it was. The staff really went way out of their way to be great hosts and I give them a 10 out of 10 for that. The only problem for me is that I don’t enjoy drag shows, shoulder to shoulder crowds, and smoke filled rooms. Neither does Suzy so we headed to the outside bar just to find Deja already sitting there. She had this attitude like “Yeah, not my scene and it’s about time you two came to your senses and came out here”. We hung out and talked for a while, then headed back to the hotel and bed at about 2AM.


The alarm went off at 7AM . . . then 7:10AM . . . then 7:20AM . . . then I convinced myself to get outta bed at 7:30AM. Got dressed in one of my favorite outfits headed down stairs to meet the day.




I went to a couple of the seminars, met and talked with Jose, and then hooked up with Suzy who made me cry. She told me that she wouldn’t be out in the world if it hadn’t been for her reading my stupid stories. I told her she was being silly because she was one of the bravest people I knew, but she just kept yapping until we were both wiping tears out of our eyes. Stupid Australians anyway . . .

Ultimately I told her it was all Karen Hutton’s fault, because if it hadn’t been for reading her stories, I wouldn’t be out and about!


At last, it came time to get ready for the formal dinner! My first chance to wear a formal dress outside of a locked room. Make it or break it time for all the effort I devoted to finding a gown and making sure I’d fit in the darn thing. Showered, put my makeup on, and then reached for THE gown! Do you have ANY idea how hard it is to get into a long, tight, black, crosses behind your back, gown without getting makeup on it?!?! I was VERY careful because I knew I would cry for hours if I smeared makeup down the outside of my gown. Got it on at last and then put on my new wig – and almost cried anyway. You can’t imagine the relief and joy I felt when I looked in the mirror and saw that it had all come together to be even better than I had hoped and dreamed.






I absolutely couldn’t be happier with the way it all turned out. Took a few pics before I headed downstairs to the lady I had bought my wig from. When I bought it, she had agreed to touch it up for me before the formal. In about 30 seconds she had it looking fantastic where my 30 minutes of effort had failed.




Just before dinner, they had a gorgeous Tgirl playing a grand piano. She was just awesome and had the most riveting eyes I have ever seen. Dark hair and piercing bright blue eyes that I’d swear were brighter than lasers. A lot of us from Crossdressers.com got together for a group photo, that turned into a dozen group photos, that turned into a hundred group photos.



Everyone kept handing camera’s up, because of course we all wanted our own pictures. After about 10 minutes of taking the same picture over and over, I realized I was so far behind so many people, that I couldn’t even see the person taking the picture anymore. I decided to be funny and pulled a chair over to stand on it. You should have seen the look on Tracy’s face when she realized she had to look UP at someone! Well, it amused me at the time, but the more I think about it while looking back on it, the more I figure I was probably making an ass outta myself.

Got to the dinner and waited for Suzy . . . and waited . . . and waited. . . About 10 minutes after the dinner started I gave up and called her room. She answered with a note of panic clearly in her voice.

“What the hell are you doing still up there?” I asked her.

“I need help!” she replied.

“Well I’ll be right there then!” I hung up and told everyone I’d be right back. Dita asked if everything I was OK, and so I told her Suzy wanted a hand getting ready. Dita immediately sprang into action and we sprinted for the elevator just like Charlie’s Angles! All, maybe we didn’t run!




Got to Suzy’s room to find that she was having a “wardrobe malfunction”. Dita grabbed a box of pins and went to work while I stood behind the two talking trash and trying to look important and act like I was in charge. I can’t recall much of the conversation, just that sarcasm was the main theme and we spent the entire time laughing. By the time she was done, Dita had Suzy’s gown looking better than the designer had intended and we headed back down to dinner.




Enjoyed another fine dinner and then stepped out to wait for them to set up the room for the hard rock band that was going to play. We all stuck around for a song or two, then about half a dozen of us decided that while they were very good, the music just wasn’t our cup of tea.
Marissa doing her Angel Impression




Someone talked to the hotel folks and found that there was a latin club not far from us that had live music, so we all changed in to something less conspicuous and headed out. Nah – like hell we did! This was the first time I’d ever had an excuse to wear a gown, and I told everyone that there was no way in hell they were gonna drag me out of it!




We arranged for a courtesy van to take us to the club and off we went! OMG – you should have seen the looks we got when we arrived. Half a dozen crossdresesrs, some of us still in gowns – it was priceless.









 

The band was just incredible! I’ve never heard a live latin band before and was very much impressed. I took a few pics of the room and band and also a short video.




I honestly don’t recall who approached who first, but ultimately several of us were chatting up a table of absolutely drop dead gorgeous GG’s. I am still kicking myself that I didn’t get a pic of them! At one point they were playing truth or dare, and so we had this beautiful woman come up and tell us she had been dared to come pinch one of our “breasts”. As you can imagine, she didn’t get any arguments from anyone at our table!

Joann was so brave – she jumped right out on the dance floor and got busy!

Eventually the shuttle bus returned to claim us and we headed back to the hotel. It was at this point I realized that it is not wise to stuff a large Blackberry, camera, glasses, makeup compact, cash, and credit cards into a tiny purse that does not zip or snap closed. I realized this when I closed the door to the van . . . and heard everything in my cute little purse hit the very dark floor of the van. Got to MJ’s hotel and held everyone up while I tried to round up my belongings. Everyone said good night to MJ and then we headed to our hotel . . . where my cute little purse once again dumped all of my belongings. Said my good byes to just about everyone but just hated for the night to end, so Tammi and I sat downstairs chatting for a while. When we called it a night at around 2 or 3 I think, I realized I had probably had too much to drink. I realized this when I discovered that my 4 inch stilettos were not as easy to walk in as I had thought they were! When the alarm went off at 7AM and I had to get up to go to the airport I was no longer thinking I had drank too much the night before, I knew it for sure! The throbbing headache was clear and unambiguous evidence that I had gone too far. Ouch . . .


I just can’t stress it enough – this was a AWESOME and magical experience and I just can’t wait to do it again!

Friday, October 3, 2008

Cute Hair In Boston



My last evening in the Boston area, I hooked up with my friend Kristen at the Randolph Country Club where they were having an open mic /Karaoke night. On the way to the club I got a call from my 5 year old daughter who was on her way to bed. We had the usual bedtime phone conversation. When we were done and she was handing the phone back to her mommy, I heard this really loud noise on the phone, then my wife.
“Did you hear her kiss?” she asks me.
“Oh is that what that noise was? Well tell her I got her kiss and kissed her back!” I asked my wife. Then I hear my daughter in the background, with a heavy Texas accent
“Did I git ‘im Momma?” All right all right, maybe it’s only adorable to me but I thought it was great.








When I first got to the club, I went to the bar where they have the Karaoke books sitting, ordered a drink, and started browsing the list of songs. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a lady with short blond hair waving, almost frantically. Since I didn’t know her, I figured she must be waving at someone behind me so I turned to see who she was interested in – there was no one there! I turned back to her and she was smiling from ear to ear and still waving at me. I pointed at my chest and did the classic “Who, me?” look. She nodded, pointed both of her hands at her hair, then at mine, making it clear she thought it was cute that our hair looked a bit alike. About now the noise in the bar subsided so that we could hear each other.
“Cute hair!” she said.
“Well thanks,” I said, “So is yours!”
“Yeah, but yours has that cute flip to it!” she replied.
“Yeah well yours is real!” I told her. “The flip is easy, I just wash it, then brush and hang it upside down to dry. That would be a lot harder for you to do what with your hair being attached to your head and all!” There was around a dozen people at the bar and everyone busted out laughing. Score one for the cross dresser that doesn’t take herself TOO seriously.





Shortly after that, Kristen arrived and we chatted a bit. I got up and sang, but the guy couldn’t get any reverb out of his system, and I sounded terrible. Kristen was kind enough to take a few pics for me but I had to chuck most of ‘em. Important note to self – only allow pics from the front ‘cause the pictures that showed my profile were way unflattering. They have since been shredded and burned.














My wife works for the same company I do, so when I’m in town we eat lunch together. Today we went to the mall for lunch to look for some accessories for the formal dress I plan to wear at the Southern Comfort Conference this Saturday. As we are driving there, my wife tells me that she needs to go to the sporting goods store to get some supplies for an upcoming fishing trip she has planned with her sister in a couple of weeks. Suddenly, she just busts out laughing.
“What’s so funny?” I ask her when I recovered from being so startled.
“We are so bass ackwards,” she says, still laughing.
“OK, I don’t get it,” I said.
“Well let’s see,” she says, “we are going to the mall to buy you jewelry to go with your gown for the upcoming ball, then we have to go to the sporting goods store to buy me fishing supplies! This doesn’t strike you as funny?”