And Ann Taylor

And so I continue from where I left off yesterday entering the Ann Taylor store at the mall, which has been a fashion failure for me in the past. After Katy, the sales rep greeted me, I began perusing the racks looking for the dress that a manikin was modeling. I gave up and asked Katy for help and she said that all they had left was one sized Large.

I thought that it might work, so I took it to the dressing room which Katy had started for me and tried it on. It fit! And it was gorgeous. I stepped out of the dressing room to model it to Katy and she said that the dress went well with my white booties.

I decided to purchase it and since it was long sleeved, I decided to wear it out of the store instead of wearing the short sleeve dress I arrived in; after all it was mid-winter and I had miles to go before I sleep.

There was a 15% discount if you used your Ann Taylor credit card. I did not have an Ann Taylor credit card, but it I signed up for one, I would receive an additional 15% discount. And so I did and that's when I let cat out off the bag.

During the process of signing up for a store credit card, you give them your phone number and Social Security number so they can check your credit and inevitably, your identity is revealed. I assumed this was going to happen, but I did not care that Katy found out that the woman she was waiting on was named "Stan." I only mention this in case you are in the same situation and do care about revealing your identity; in that case, don't sign up for a card.

After Katy bagged my Simply Be dress, I asked her to take my photo in my new dress to feed my blog. She agreed to take my photo and asked me the name of the blog. I told her the name and that it was intended for girls like me. She got it, so here is a shout-out to Katy in case she decided to visit Femulate.org!

I walked the rest of the mall, did some window-shopping, but did not make another purchase. I was getting hungry, so I walked to my favorite restaurant in the mall, Brio Tuscan Grille. Unlike some other restaurants I frequent, I never had a bad or mediocre meal at Brio and my winning streak continued with the chicken marsala I ordered on Tuesday.

My waitress was as charming as can be and another waitress stopped by to say that she loved my "go-go boots." After finishing half my meal, I was full, so I asked the waitress to wrap the remainder, then I paid for my meal and exited the restaurant and the mall.

I arrived home mid-afternoon after thoroughly enjoying my day out.

UPDATE: No Mail

My e-mail service is down. I cannot send or receive e-mails, so if you are waiting for a reply from me, I promise to respond to your e-mails as soon as the service is fixed.

UPDATE: No Mail Workaround

My e-mail service is still down, but I now have a workaround.

Love the coat! (Source: Pinterest)

The boys in the band go girly.

Simply Be Me

I had been waiting for the right day to wear my new Simply Be ribbed knitted dress. It is a short sleeve dress, so I was waiting for a winter day that was not too wintry. The weather forecast looked good for Tuesday, so I decided to go to the mall for a little shopping and a little eating.

My femulation began at 9 AM and by 10:30, I was ready to go in my new Simply Be dress, new Payless white kitten heel booties, new Jessica Simpson bag and my relatively new hairdo.

I arrived at the mall at 11 AM and it was so warm outdoors (65℉) that I left my overcoat in my car. I entered through the Macy's entrance, browsed the their dress racks, but nothing interested me enough to try on.

I proceeded into the mall and window-shopped until I arrived at Ann Taylor. I find their clothing attractive, but the last time I entered their store (over 25 pounds ago), everything I tried on was too small. I was hoping to be more successful now that I was a little lighter.

As I entered the store, a sales representative greeted me and said that she loved the colorful stripes of the dress I was wearing. Her remark made me wonder why I was bothering to shop for another dress!

Wearing Diane von Furstenberg (Source: DVF)

Carlos Marco femulates Soraya Arnelas on Spain's version of television's Your Face Sounds Familiar.

I Blend

You may recall that three weeks ago, I had a free dinner date courtesy of Prudential Financial. Stanley was invited and she attended dressed appropriately for a woman her age.

At the banquet hall, each attendee was assigned to a specific table and each table had a Prudential representative seated with the guests. The rep introduced himself and was available to field questions, if any. It was all very laid-back and there was no high pressure sales.

A week later, I received a call on my iPhone. I did not recognize the number, so I did not answer it. I received a second call from the same number a week later and another on Friday.

Over the weekend, I finally noticed that there were two voicemails left after the last two calls. I listened to the voicemails and they were from the Prudential rep seated at our table offering his financial services if I was interested.

He did mention in passing that either I was a no-show at the dinner or I ended up sitting at the wrong table!

There were three couples and two solos (me and a guy) seated at our table. Perhaps the rep thought I was with the wife or girlfriend of the solo guy even though we were not seated together. I also assume he was looking for a male Stanley at his table, not the lady Stanley, who was present.

I guess I blend in better than I thought.

Wearing Derek Lam 10 Crosby sweater, Rejina Pyo skirt, Tibi boots and Yuzefi bag (Source: Intermix)

John Crawford femulating in the 1961 British film The Impersonator.

I'm So Tired

Sorry, there were no Sunday Funnies yesterday! The past five days have been very hectic and the blog suffered as a result.

Wednesday evening, I went out for my free dinner and when I returned home, I chronicled the evening for the blog before I went to bed because Thursday was Day One of my daughter's move.

Thursday, we rented a box truck from U-Haul, brought it home and loaded it with my daughter's belongings. I never drove anything bigger than a passenger van before, so I was a little nervous getting behind the wheel of the truck, but I got used to it very quickly. The truck had a rear view camera to facilitate backing up and that was a godsend.

Friday morning, Day Two of the move, we drove the truck to my daughter's apartment in Hartford. The building (formerly a factory) had a loading dock and a freight elevator, so we were able to move everything up to her fourth floor apartment by loading the freight elevator twice. Our cousin showed up to help us move and we managed to get everything into the apartment in two hours. Then, we assembled her bed and quit for the day. My daughter rewarded us with dinner at Outback Steakhouse.

We returned to her apartment Saturday to assemble some other furniture and unpack the essentials. We quit after four hours, went home, ate dinner and crashed.

I spent Sunday morning removing the ice covered snow from the driveway and sidewalks. The snow overnight turned to rain this morning, which froze on contact making power outages a possibility. I am crossing my fingers that that does not happen. So far, so good, but I am trying to finish and post this as soon as possible, just in case.

And I'm so tired!

Wearing Veronica Beard (Source: Veronica Beard)

Oslo Grace, model

There is such a thing as a free lunch: the rest of the story

Wednesday evening, I had a free dinner date courtesy of the Prudential Financial. The event was held at the Aqua Turf Club, the finest banquet facility in the area, so I dressed appropriately for a nice night out.

I wore a "parker green" belted bell-sleeve sheath sweater dress from New York and Company with "Tomalah Ombre Pumps" from Nine West. I accessorized with earrings, necklace and watch from Avon and a black satchel handbag from Jessica Simpson. I also wore a new hairdo: Noriko Reese in a shade of red called "Cherrywood."

Aqua Turf is only 20 minutes from my home, so I left at 5:30 PM to arrive at 5:50 PM for a 6 PM start. As I drove into the parking lot, I was surprised by the number of people walking into the banquet hall. For a second, I hesitated and thought about not mingling with hundreds of civilians (turned out that there were about 400 people in attendance), but I gathered up my handbag, exited the Subaru and joined the throng heading indoors.

There was a line of civilians checking in along with a lot of Prudential suits milling about and it seems that they all looked up when the tall redhead got in line. One of the suits came over to me, asked my name and directed me to the correct line for my last name (there were three separate lines for three divisions of the alphabet).

I exchanged banter with another tall woman joking about which line to get into because the lines were not clearly defined. She was in my line and I was in hers, so we swapped spots.

The suits checking me in did not blink when it came to my male name that I was registered under. I think they were too busy to care.

After I checked in, another suit escorted me to my table, which was occupied by a 50-something couple. Soon we were joined by two other 50-something couples and one gent who was solo. I was seated between two women and we chit-chatted throughout the evening... some girl talk and some talk about retirement planning.

The speaker, Tom Hegna, was excellent. He was entertaining and informative, has written five books on retirement planning and convinced me that the annuity I owned was a good thing after all.

The food was good, too. I have eaten at Aqua Turf in the past and the food was always over the top, but I assumed that a free dinner might be cut-rate. I was wrong; dinner was excellent.

I also assumed there would be some high pressure salesmanship at the event, but there was none. However, I expect I will receive a call from a Prudential suit in the near future.

The event broke up at 9 PM and I arrived home shortly thereafter.

The evening went very well. No one gave me an odd, knowing look. Rather, everyone treated me as a woman and I had a wonderful time.

Wearing Diane von Furstenberg (Source: DVF)

Wearing New York and Company dress, Nine West shoes and Avon jewelry 

There is such a thing as a free lunch

I just arrived home from my free dinner. It's too late to write much about it, but I will say that it went well. Standby for a full report as soon as possible.

Wearing Escada (Source: Rue La La)

Yours truly dining out Wednesday evening

Dining Out

Recently, I have been receiving invitations from various financial investment businesses offering me a free dinner if I was willing to sit through their sales pitch on how to handle my retirement savings. I thought about taking up an offer and attending as Stana, but I did not because I was not impressed with the restaurants being offered.

The last invitation I received a few weeks ago was different — I was impressed with the restaurant. It is a dining establishment where I have eaten in the past and was always very pleased with the food. So I RSVP'd and will be going to dinner Wednesday evening.

It should be an interesting experience dining and socializing with a room full of strangers. I will let you know how it goes.

I fell in love with this outfit when I saw it in the daily email advertisement from New York and Company. So much so that I ordered the leggings, cardigan and blouse.

The result of Image-Googling "beautiful crossdresser" is this girl from Chile.

Winding Down

Ten work days left, then I'm out of here! What a great feeling!

Only ten more commutes to work. Good riddance to all you tailgaters on Route 322!

It is so nice to be able to ignore e-mails and meetings at work regarding stuff that will have no import until after I exit.

I will finish my last writing project today, so then I will switch to maintenance mode and organize my files for the two writers who will replace me. Also, I can start going through the stuff in my office (20 years' worth) and decide what to take home and what to throw out.

Meanwhile, my old boss came by yesterday and invited me to go out to dinner to celebrate. She also invited my previous old boss to the celebration. Problem is that their schedules won't permit us to get together until after I leave, so we will do dinner in June.

I came out to both of my former bosses years ago and they always encouraged me to dress as a woman at work for Halloween. In fact, they were both fine with me dressing as a woman all the time at work if that is what I chose to do. Needless to say, I will be presenting as a woman when we do go out to dinner next month.

Thought for the Day

If I knew then what I know now, I would have been sitting to pee like forever.

Needle & Thread jacket, Zimmermann bralette, 10 Crosby Derek Lan shorts and Vita Fede sunglasses (source: Intermix).

Lee Pace femulating in the 2003 film Soldier's Girl.

My Ticket

After attending the StampShow, I drove to the Pond House Cafe, a restaurant in the middle of Hartford’s Elizabeth Park to dine with my friend Diana. Diana arrived at 5 PM sharp and we dined outdoors on the restaurant’s patio.

There is not a lot to say about dinner. The meal and the dinner conversation were great, the restaurant staff used the proper pronouns, called us “ladies” and seemed genuinely glad to have us as customers.

There were only a few other diners and they did not seem to notice us, except for one. Midway through our meal, a couple, probably in their late 60s, were seated opposite us; the woman had her back to me, but her dinner partner (I assumed it was her husband) was facing me and almost every time I looked his way, he was looking at me. His facial expression showed neither approval or disapproval, but he was studying me intently; so much so that I thought about going over to him and asking him if we knew each other. I was certain that I did not know him, but maybe he knew me or thought he did or something else was going on. (I think something else was going on, but I don't know what.)

After dinner, I drove across town to Real Art Ways for their monthly Creative Cocktail Hour. “Real Art Ways is one of the United States' leading innovative contemporary arts organizations, with programs in Visual Arts (commissioned public projects, curated exhibitions, education), Live Arts (innovative music of all kinds, performance, spoken word) and Film and Video (feature films and artists' videos)”

Real Art Ways is a very cool venue and has openly welcomed transgender folks for over a decade. Over the years I have attended about 20 of their Creative Cocktail Hours. It attracts a very eclectic crowd and is always an interesting evening.

Thursday’s installment was like old home week. In addition to Diana, three other girls from my old support group showed up and we had a good time talking about the old times as well as the new times.

We were ensconced strategically on the deck outdoors, which is the gateway between the indoor and outdoor activities. As a result, I saw everybody as they passed to and fro and they had an opportunity to see me. And I could not help noticing the guys, especially the middle-aged and beyond checking me out.

It was all so affirming, but a little disconcerting to receive so much attention and nothing more. None of the admirers made an attempt to approach me or my friends nor strike up a conversation. It was great conversing with my old friends, but it would have been interesting/different to interact with an admirer, too.

On the other hand, maybe they were not admirers. Maybe they were just amused by the appearance an obvious femulator.

On the other hand (that's three hands now), maybe they were just intimidated by an attractive woman and afraid to do anything but gawk.

Yeah --- that's the ticket!

Anyway, I called it quits early --- at about 8:30 PM. It was a long day and a woman's got to know her limitations, so I said my goodbyes and rode away into the sunset.

 

 

 

Wearing SVEE.

 

 

 

Contestant in the 2012 Mz. Relay for Life womanless beauty pageant in Cape Coral, Florida.

Weather Wearied

My cold is pretty much gone. Thank you all who wished me well and a quick recovery.

The cold peaked Saturday and squashed my plans to go out Saturday night.

I was supposed to go to dinner with my friends Diana and Krista and Krista's friend Amanda. And after dinner, we were going to attend an LGBT Valentine's Day dance. I even purchased a new red dress for the occasion (see photo). So I was very down and out about missing a girls' night out because of my cold, which I attribute to being worn out by the weather.

Last week was a winter wonderland in my neck of the woods and I saw way too much of the rear end of my snow thrower. I probably put in close to six hours moving snow, which wore me out and lowered my resistance to whatever bug was in the neighborhood. At least it wasn't the flu bug!

I thought i would improve my attitude by watching a film Saturday evening, so I put on a DVD of Woody Allen's latest, Blue Jasmine.

Bummer! The film was very good, but was not your typical Woody Allen fare. I was not amused; I did not laugh once and went to bed doubly disappointed by the turn of events.

It snowed again Saturday evening and I found out this morning that the Valentine's Day dance was cancelled at the last minute due to the weather. The group plans to reschedule the dance real soon now.

And so it goes.

 

 

 

Femulators in street style circa 1965.

 

 

 

Wearing Madeleine.