No Roadtrip Again

In past years, I would have begun my annual 750-mile roadtrip to Dayton, Ohio, this morning to attend the biggest ham radio convention in the world. But due to the pandemic, Hamvention was cancelled again this year.

Attending Hamvention gives me the opportunity to present as a woman for five days. Needless to say, that extended stay en femme is something I always look forward to and have sorely missed in 2020 and again in 2021. (The photo above is the gang at our booth at Hamvention two years ago.)

Due to my age, my family is urging me to fly rather than drive to Dayton in the future, so next year my “roadtrip” could be decidedly different if I take their advice. I am sure I will enjoy flying as a woman for the first time. And it will allow me to check off another entry on my bucket list.

Actually, there are not many undone items left on my bucket list. A lot of the undones are low priority; it is not important to me whether I ever accomplish them or not. Maybe it’s time to revisit y list and edit it accordingly.

Wearing Zimmermann

Jawn Galliano

The Booth Babe

I will not make my annual trip to Ohio to attend Hamvention because it was cancelled due to the corona virus. To relieve my Hamvention withdrawl,  I am repeating the story of my first Hamvention trip as a woman back May 2010. I hope you enjoy it.

There is so much to write about my long weekend en femme, but, first, let me set the scene.

I am well-known in the world known as amateur radio or ham radio. My notoriety in that world is as a writer/author. For over 40 years, I have written for the leading ham radio organization in the USA.

During that time, I have written monthly columns for the their magazine, articles for their books, and complete books, one of which was a best seller, and currently, I write a weekly column for their web site.

I am also on the board of directors of another prominent organization that represents a sub-group (digital experimenters) in ham radio. I also serve as that organization's newsletter editor and secretary.

As a result, I am well known in the ham radio world; I was once told to my face that I am a “ham radio legend.”

Each May, the biggest ham radio convention in the world occurs in Dayton, Ohio. I attend most years as I did this past weekend. I usually moderate a forum at the convention and staff the booth of the digital experimenters’ organization.

I did not moderate a forum this year because I was undecided about attending at all and by the time I made up my mind to go, it was too late to volunteer as a moderator.

I came out to the other board members and officials of the digital experimenters’ organization as well as my editor and her supervisors at the national organization I write for. In addition to coming out, I informed them that I intended to attend Hamvention en femme.

Not a discouraging word was heard. In fact, I received much support and offers of assistance, if needed.

Wednesday and Thursday

My weekend started with an early departure on Wednesday. I “cheated” and did not dress en femme because I wanted to get on the road as early as possible and getting en femme would have put a two-hour dent in my departure.

I drove 400 miles to Bedford, PA, where I stayed overnight.

Thursday morning, I dressed en femme and checked out of the Quality Inn. The woman staffing the desk during check-out was different from the woman staffing the desk when I checked in, so there was no confusion about who was staying in my room.

I arrived at the Doubletree Hotel in downtown Dayton about 2:15 PM. At check-in, the woman staffing the desk loved my top.

By the way, I registered at the hotel as “Stana” to add credibility to my femulation. (My credit card has only the initial “S” as my first name, which lets me get away with using “Stana” or any other “S” name I desire.)

In my room, I freshened up, changed from a top, leggings, and flats, to a black and white floral print dress and black patent platform slingback peep-toe pumps (see photo above left).

I took the elevator down to the lobby and visited the hotel’s bar. I perched myself on a bar stool, ordered a drink and relaxed before heading out to the board of director’s meeting.

The bartender treated me respectfully and I nursed my drink, but it was boring. There were two other customers talking about some ham radio convention and there was a hockey game on the television.

I left, fetched my car from valet parking and drove to the hotel uptown for the board meeting.

Entering the meeting room, I found two friends already there, who greeted me enthusiastically. As each of the other board members and officers showed up, they also greeted me as old friends even though I was sporting a “new look.”

The new board members were less enthusiastic because we were not old friends, but they were respectful and seemed accepting. Our accountant, who was not aware of my status, also was respectful and the waitstaff, who served our food referred to me as a female, so overall, the weekend started off on a very positive note.

The meeting ended and I was back in my room by 10 PM. I went to bed as soon as I could because I had to be up at 5 AM for my first day at the convention.

Friday and Saturday (Days)

Friday and Saturday, I spent most of those days staffing our booth and occasionally, I visited the other booths at the convention. Both days were similar and in my mind now it is hard to separate the two, so I will summarize the days together.

Males dominate ham radio. Females only represent about 15% of the US ham population. This demographic was clearly evident at Hamvention and attending the convention as a woman was a revelation.

For one thing, there were no lines at the restrooms. Also, the restrooms were pristine and the floors were dry even at the end of the day. (Attending the convention in the past as a male, I usually avoided the restrooms after mid-morning because they were disgusting.)

Another thing, I was the object of many a male’s attention. Staffing the booth or walking around the convention hall, strange men smiled at me, said “hello,” admired me from afar, etc., etc. It was amazing!

During the two days staffing the booth, I met six readers of this blog. Three informed me beforehand by e-mail that they would look for me at the convention; the other three just showed up at my booth and recognized me.

(Another reader e-mailed me saying that she thought she saw me walking near a specific set of booths around noon on Saturday. I confirmed that I was at those booths at that time and wish that she had stopped me to say “hello.”)

I am not aware of the comfort levels of the blog readers who met me at the convention, so I don't want to out them here by mentioning their names or worse, their ham radio call signs, but I want to thank them all for searching me out and giving me an opportunity to meet and girl-talk with them for awhile.

It was wonderful to meet and chat with the people I already knew, but it was also wonderful to meet and chat with people I did not know explaining the technologies displayed in our booth. I don't know if that qualifies me as a “booth babe,” but in all my years of staffing our booth, mine was the first appearance of a female form on the booth’s firing line. I wonder if that helped to attract visitors to our booth.

Friday Night

Friday night, our organization has a joint dinner with another experimenter’s organization, which usually attracts 100 to 200 attendees at a banquet hall south of Dayton. I have attended this dinner every year I have attended the convention, so I am familiar with many of the attendees, who also attend every year.

I wore my favorite dress du jour: the retro green dress (see photo above center). I accented the dress with a gold scarf, my simulated snakeskin platform slingback peep-toe pumps and a new matching simulated snakeskin bag. The hem of the dress is short, so I was showing more leg Friday night than I did the rest of the weekend. I thought I looked very nice.

I drove to the banquet hall, bought a drink, sat at a table up front, conversed with the other folks who sat at my table and tugged at the hem of my dress the whole time. I knew some of the folks at my table already and the others were new to me, but no one seemed to mind the new me.

The food was excellent as usual and I enjoyed the speaker, who is an old friend (we go back about 30 years).

Funny story... my speaker friend showed up at our booth early Friday morning and I made a point of saying “hello” to him. I thought I detected some confusion on his part and felt that I should have explained what was going on, but he was in a hurry to get to his booth.

I caught up with him before dinner and began to explain, but he interrupted me and said he knew exactly who I was and was very cool with it. The only thing he wanted to know was what name do I go by now.

That typified the whole weekend.

An aside: It was funny how some of my friends and acquaintances recognized me immediately despite my new look, whereas others were clueless as to my identity and we had to be re-introduced. Go figure.

Saturday Night

Saturday night, my plans were to attend the Contest Dinner, which is the big event for the ham radio contest community attending the convention. My editor, who is a big contester, had invited me to attend.

When I checked out the web page for the dinner, I noticed that most of the men in attendance were wearing jackets and ties, which was unusual for a ham radio affair.

There were no photos of females in attendance; I wondered what I should wear, so I asked my editor. She informed me that she always buys a new cocktail style dress to wear to that dinner.

Still unsure about what to wear, I sent her photos of some of my cocktail dresses. She loved the red dress I wore to my support group’s banquet back in March, so that is what I wore to the dinner along with some bling and my black patent platform slingback heels. I also sexed-up my makeup and hair and tried a new trick to accentuate my cleavage. In my humble opinion, I thought I came as close to achieving the term “hot” as I possibly could (see photo above left).

I took the hotel shuttle to the hotel hosting the dinner and climbed a grand circular staircase from the lobby up to the mezzanine level where the cocktail hour was in full swing. As I climbed the stairs, a sea of 200 to 300 males congregating in groups around the mezzanine appeared and suddenly it seemed as if they all turned their heads simultaneously to look at me! I smiled back at them and worked my way to the top of the staircase, where I discovered I was the only female attendee present at that point in time.

I am not very active in ham radio contests and did not recognize one face in the crowd. My editor had not yet arrived, so I was on my own.

A lot of guys were checking me out, but not one had the courage to speak to me, so I worked my way to the bar and ordered a drink. Then I worked my way back through the crowd looking for a familiar face, found none and decided to escape to the ladies’ room to regroup.

In the ladies’ room, I touched up my lipstick, took a deep breath, and went back out to the mezzanine. By then, the staff had opened the doors to the banquet room and people were filing in, so I joined them and found the table front and center that my editor had reserved. I chose a seat and sat down.

Eventually, the room filled up and my editor sat next to me. She introduced me as “Stana” to all the other people seated at our table. After my introduction, one of the guys at our table commented that he recognized my call sign, but the person he knew with that call sign looked very different. I dunno if he was being a wise guy or was actually confused.

The food and speakers were excellent and there was a mass quantity of door prizes. It seemed that 25% of the 432 folks in attendance won something, including me.

When they drew my ticket and announced my call sign as a winner of a ham magazine subscription, I came out en masse to all the hams at the dinner who recognized my call sign and happened to see me get up to pick up my prize. No one confronted me about the outing, so I assume it was not a big deal to anyone except me.

Overall

Overall, the weekend worked out great. Everyone I encountered accepted me one way or another.

All my friends and acquaintances were very ok with the new me.

The strangers who engaged me throughout the weekend, hams and civilians alike, accepted me as a woman, trans or otherwise.

I could not ask for anything more.

Wearing Ann Taylor

Jonathan Tucker femulates in the 2000 film 100 Girls.

More Hamvention Shorts

My Hamvention picnic outfit

I have been attending Hamvention most years since 1978. Before 2010, I attended in boy mode. Since 2010, I have attended as a woman.

As a well-known writer in the ham radio world, I made a lot of friends and acquaintances and when I attended Hamvention, I was on a first-name basis with a lot of the people staffing the booths at the show as well as with the makers and shakers in the hobby, many of whom made presentations at Hamvention.

When I began presenting as a woman at Hamvention, the only people who were aware of the change were the folks I came out to. Everyone else had no clue. Either they assumed I was the wife of a male ham attending the show or I was one of those rare female hams.

As a result, I had to reintroduce myself to the makers and shakers and folks who staffed the booths. And to tell you the truth, the first few years I attended as a woman, I was very shy and did not perform a lot of reintroductions because I worried how people would react.

When I realized that most people reacted positively to the change, I became more confident and outgoing and began touring the show with great abandon just as I did when I attended in boy mode.

Now I am again on a first-name basis with the makers and shakers and folks who staff the booths, but now that first name is "Stana" not "Stan."

📻 📻 📻

I lost one earring (a favorite from Napier) and my lip brush at Hamvention. Actually, my lip brush probably never made the trip. Last time I looked, it was in the bag that holds my makeup brushes, but when I did my makeup in Ohio Thursday morning, it was gone.

Back home grocery shopping on Wednesday, I checked the makeup aisle at Stop & Shop. Although they have a large makeup aisle including a big selection of makeup brushes, they did not have a lip brush.

Next I tried Rite Aid which has an even bigger makeup aisle, but still no luck. In case I missed the brush among the huge array of products in the makeup aisle, I asked a sales representative and she said, "I haven't seen a lip brush for sale in years. Does anyone even use them today?"

I replied, "I do."

Since I was in boy mode, she laughed.

I ended up ordering a new lip brush from Amazon. And I found the earring on eBay. Yay!

📻 📻 📻

As a ham radio operator, usually you have no idea about the people you contact over the air.

For years, Bill and I were key operators in a ham radio network spanning Connecticut and we worked together to make the network function efficiently. I never met Bill until I ran into him at Hamvention. (Yes, we traveled over 750 miles to meet each other even though we lived about 40 miles apart.)

After that first encounter, we usually met up at Hamvention each year, until I began showing up as a woman. As I mentioned above, I was shy those first few years attending as a woman, so I did not go out of my way to find Bill. Then about five years ago, I saw Bill sitting in the audience of a forum I was also attending and when the forum was over, I made a beeline to Bill to reintroduce myself.

Bill was surprised, but seemed OK with the revised me and said that I had to be true to myself. Since then, Bill and I usually meet up at Hamvention as if nothing changed.

This year, as I was returning to our booth after making my presentation, I heard someone call out my name and I turned around to find Bill waiting in line to buy lunch from a food truck. He informed me that he retired as a state police officer (I had no idea he was a state cop) and had moved to South Carolina. And then he said he wanted to introduce me to his wife, who was also waiting in line.

It does my heart good when a friend or acquaintance wants to introduce me to their spouse. It is so meaningful to me because they have accepted me as a real person, not a freak, but a woman.

Wearing Veronica Beard

Scott Willis femulating on stage in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

Hamvention Shorts

Making a point during my Hamvention presentation

In my previous post, I mentioned there was a scheduling foul-up and my Friday morning presentation was postponed until Saturday morning and I would be presenting to a different group of people – not my usual crowd. My Powerpoint presentation was designed for my usual crowd and I would have liked to have tweaked it for my new audience, but there was no time for that.

As a result, I was very nervous and feel that I did not do a good job. On the other hand, the audience seemed to react positively to what I had to say and a handful of people said I did a good job, so maybe I am being too hard on myself.

Like last year, my presentation was videotaped, so when it gets posted on YouTube, I'll see for myself how I did.

📻 📻 📻

I saw about a half dozen Femulate readers at Hamvention this year (you know who you are). All were disguised as males, but it was great to see them nonetheless and I appreciate that they stopped by our booth to say, "Hello."

I also saw about a half dozen transwomen presenting as women. Some I know are post-op, the others, I dunno, but none stopped by our booth to say "Hello" to me. Although one post-op stopped by to see what our booth was all about. She spoke with me briefly, but there was no recognition on her part, so I assume she doesn't know me from Eve.

📻 📻 📻

As I mentioned before, going to Hamvention, I travel in boy mode in order to get on the road as soon as possible to avoid the commuter traffic in this neck of the woods. And as I did this year, I usually stay overnight in a Best Western on the Ohio border and depart for Dayton in girl mode the next morning. And on the way home in girl mode, I stop at the same hotel for the night and proceed home the next morning.

This year was the first time that the person at the front desk was the same coming and going.

When I showed up in girl mode Sunday evening, the front desk clerk did not seem to recognize me. At this hotel, I always request a room on the north side because the one time I stayed in a room on the south side, I was kept awake all night by tractor trailers downshifting on the exit ramp 200 feet away. So when I repeated the same request I had just made four days earlier, I thought she might recognize me, but she did not.

I asked, "I stayed here Wednesday night. Do you remember me?"

She replied, "No, I don't."

After I handed her my driver's license and she looked at it, she said, "Now I remember you."

And she added, "You look very nice."

📻 📻 📻

I overpacked again. (What else is new!)

I brought two pairs of shoes, a pair of jeans, a blazer, a shrug, a hoody, a jumpsuit, two belts and two wigs that I did not wear. I also brought some makeup, nail polish and jewelry that I did not wear.

Overpacking was not a big deal because I drove a car to Hamvention, but I plan to fly next year, so I have to improve my packing skills.

Wearing Boston Proper

Model Veit Alex and his mother.

Hamvention Wardrobe: The Long and Short of It

Full Booth Babe Mode

I had a wonderful long weekend at Hamvention. (But driving solo for 1500 miles puts a damper on the weekend, so somebody kindly remind me to fly next year.)

My wardrobe plans were to drive in boy mode the first leg of my trip on Wednesday so I could get out of Dodge as early as possible to avoid the morning commuter traffic in the Tri-State Area.

Thursday, I planned to wear my new Venus tailored romper for the second leg of my trip and to attend my group's board meeting in the evening. I thought I could enjoy wearing that leg-baring outfit without any pushback because not many people would see me. And most of the people who would see me were my peeps — the other board members and officers, people I have known for years and could count on to be perfect gentlemen.

Friday, I intended to wear my new Venus jumpsuit to Hamvention during the day and to my group's banquet during the evening. It was a conservative wardrobe choice because I would be making a presentation at the convention Friday morning.

Saturday, I planned to wear my vintage Studio 1940 ankle-length sleeveless dress to Hamvention during the day and to my group's picnic in the evening.

Sunday, I planned to wear my JCPenney white shorts and a new Haband short-sleeve print top to Hamvention in the morning and for the first leg of my trip home in the afternoon.

That is not what happened!

Thursday went as planned – I wore my new Venus tailored romper with my red Payless high heel pumps and matching red Kate Spade bag. I also wore a black camisole under the romper so as not to expose my bra.

On the road between Youngstown and Akron, the oldies radio station I was listening to played ZZ Top's "Legs" and set my mood for the day, not to mention the weekend. Although no one could see my leg-baring outfit as I traversed the Interstates, I felt very sexy wearing what I wore.

Arriving at my hotel, I checked in, moved my luggage to my room and took my laptop to the lobby to read emails and people-watch until it was time to go to the board meeting. In the lobby, I ran into a fellow board member, A, who was my ride to the board meeting.

As we stood in the middle of the lobby chatting, I noticed that I was being noticed. Almost every male, as well as a few females, who passed by checked me out. Some smiled at me and some mouthed "hello" as they walked by. Yes, she's got legs, she knows how to use them!

A suggested we repair to the bar before leaving for the board meeting. I agreed and while I drank a glass of wine perched high on a bar stool, the parade of admirers continued including a few who made suspicious repeated passes.

Another board member, B, who lives in Dayton hosted the board meeting. I have known him and his spouse, C, for over 20 years and they were very supportive as I came out.

When we arrived for the meeting, B was chatting with another board member, D, about some hardware timing experiments which did not interest me, so I visited with C in the family room. She gushed over my outfit and said I looked "cute." (That was a first.) And then she asked me if I intended to wear the outfit to Hamvention.

"Is it appropriate? Should I wear it?"

"You are young enough to get away with it."

"I'm 68."

She was incredulous. She thought I was in my mid-50's, not my late 60's.

"Well, you look young enough to get away with it. And if you do, just be prepared to receive a lot of attention."

Other board members were arriving, so I excused myself to join the boys and get on with the meeting.

📻 📻 📻

Up at dawn Friday, I got ready to attend Hamvention.

Made-up, underweared and stockinged, I slipped into my jumpsuit.

As I played with the finicky row of buttons on the front of the suit, I realized that it was not a good wardrobe choice. I assumed that I would need to visit the ladies' room more than once during the next 16 hours and having to get in and out of this jumpsuit would be difficult with its fussy buttons and my long fingernails. I have worn jumpsuits in the past that are easy off and on, but this was not one of them and I searched my closet for something better.

Something better was my vintage Studio 1940 ankle-length sleeveless dress, which I paired with a pair of black Payless ballerina flats (the most comfortable flats I own). In retrospect, it was a good choice because the weather was hot and humid on Friday and wearing the dress, I was comfortable throughout the day.

Overnight, I decided to wear my romper suit to Hamvention on Saturday. Short sleeved and leg-baring, it would be a good choice as the forecast was for more hot and humid. However, there was a scheduling foul-up and my Friday morning presentation was postponed until Saturday morning. Do I dare wear that sexy outfit in front of an audience of my peers, which trend conservative?

I thought about it and decided to go for it anyway. So up at dawn Saturday, made-up, underweared and stockinged, I slipped into my romper, slipped on my red high heels, grabbed my red bag and took the elevator down to the restaurant for breakfast.

The restaurant was packed. Mostly with other hams attending Hamvention, mostly male and mostly looking at me as my high heels clicked on the marble-like floor of the lobby and restaurant.

Arriving at Hamvention, I walked along with D and E, who gave me a ride to the fairgrounds. As I approached one of the exhibit halls, a group of guys from a ham radio manufacturer were shooting the breeze near the entrance of the hall waiting for the show to begin. When they saw me, they stopped talking and all eyes were on me until I disappeared inside the hall. And that is how my day went.

While traipsing around the fairgrounds of the Hamvention site, I wore my ballerina flats, but while staffing our booth, I was in full booth babe mode and wore my heels. Either way, I was an attraction.

No one seemed to mind what I was wearing when I gave my presentation. They laughed at my attempts at humor and applauded me when I mentioned that this was the 50th anniversary as a licensed amateur radio operator.

All this may sound like I am bragging. So here is an excerpt of what Brenda wrote in a comment on Monday, "Stana was an absolute knock out in that dress and was turning heads all over. As an attendee, she gets my vote for most beautiful woman at show. She also gets the 'hottest booth babe' and 'best legs' award."

It was a thrill!

Wearing Unique Vintage

Kenneth Williams and Charles Hawtrey femulating in the 1960 British film Carry On Constable. (📺 Femulation begins at 4:20 of this clip)

Ham Girl Gallery - Part 3

I am in Dayton, Ohio, to attend Hamvention. My dance card is full and I am too busy to write, but I may have time to post a photo (or two) from my weekend at the convention.

Ready to attend Hamvention on Saturday morning wearing a romper from Venus.

Ham Girl Gallery - Part 2

I am in Dayton, Ohio, to attend Hamvention. My dance card is full and I am too busy to write, but I may have time to post a photo (or two) from my weekend at the convention.

Attending the annual TAPR-AMSAT Hamvention Banquet on Friday evening.

The Beautiful Lady!

I am in Dayton, Ohio, to attend Hamvention. My dance card is full and I am too busy to write something new, so I am pre-posting something I wrote in the past.

"The Beautiful Lady"

In 2016, I received the Hamvention's Special Achievement Award.

Back at work on Tuesday after Hamvention, a woman in my group who works from home e-mailed me to ask about my vacation. I told her I went to Hamvention and took home an award.

Ten minutes later, she e-mailed me that she had never heard of it, so she looked up the Hamvention website and saw the write-up about the award.

Uh-oh!

If she saw the write-up, she must have seen my en femme photo next to it. But she did not mention the photo, so I assumed she was being polite and did not want to embarrass me.

She is a good friend who I have known for years and I did not want to make her feel uncomfortable, so I e-mailed her back, "I guess the cat is out of the bag."

Her response was vague, so I asked her if she saw my photo.

"No, I didn't see your picture. I saw the photos of the other winners and I was looking for yours, but I did not see it," she replied, "Let me look again."

Fifteen minutes later, she wrote, "OMG!!!!!!!!!!! I couldn’t find you. I was staring at this beautiful lady and didn’t see you! Duh! YOU are the beautiful lady!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !! I was staring at your photo for like 10 minutes… Damn, your presentation is amazing!"

And so it goes!

Wearing L'Agence dress and Attico boots (Source: Intermix)

Miss Garber was way ahead of the curve in Texas in 1996. She "was the only male student to wear make-up to the junior-senior prom," which begs the question: Did other male students attend the prom in drag, but without makeup?

Ham Girl Gallery

I am in Dayton, Ohio, to attend Hamvention. My dance card is full and I am too busy to write, but I may have time to post a photo (or two) from my weekend at the convention.

At my hotel, trying on my new callsign hoodie!

Hamvention Transition

I am in Dayton, Ohio, attending Hamvention. My dance card is full and I am too busy to write something new, so I am pre-posting something I wrote in the past.

Hamvention 2012

As regular readers of Femulate know, I do not present as a woman 24/7, although I would prefer to do so.

During Hamvention last year, a long-time ham radio friend mentioned that my transition appeared to be successful and wondered how my family has reacted to my living as a woman 24/7.

I was surprised by his comment and asked him what gave him the impression that I had transitioned and lived as a woman 24/7.

He was surprised by my reply and stated that "everyone" just assumed that I had transitioned because I was so feminine in every way. No one would think I was a male or had ever been a male!

Wow!

On a similar note, another long-time acquaintance noticed the engagement ring (a fake) that I was wearing at Hamvention. She asked me who was my boyfriend and when did we plan to marry!

And so it goes – it doesn't go much better than that!

Wearing Brahmin

Esme Percy femulates in the 1930 Hitchcock film 📺 Murder!

Now that I am attractive to men there isn't a man I want

I am on the road today somewhere between Connecticut and Dayton, Ohio, on my way to Hamvention. Since I can't write while road tripping, I am pre-posting something I wrote four years ago.

Candy Darling

"Now that I am attractive to men there isn't a man I want" is a quote by Candy Darling that appears in her book Candy Darling: Memoirs of an Andy Warhol Superstar.

Candy's words are my thoughts exactly.

I like bring attractive, but I want nothing to do with any man I attract. That may get me into trouble some day, but so far, so good.

Candy Darling was my first transgender idol. She was a peer and she was gorgeous. And she had the guts to go to New York City and be the woman she was meant to be. Unlike me who lived to please everybody except myself and did not take the 90-minute train ride to The City to be the woman I was meant to be.

I purchased Candy's book for $1.99 in Kindle format from BookBub a few days ago.

If you like books, then you should check out BookBub. Everyday BookBub sends me an e-mail containing great deals on electronic editions of books in topics of my choosing. Typically, the books cost $.99 to $2.99 and some are free. Note that the deals are only good for one day, for example, Candy's book deal has expired and is now back to its normal price of $9.99 $11.49.

I have added about 30 110 books to my library via BookBub. Some of the books are ones I probably would not have obtained at their retail price, but for a buck or two, I could not resist. Usually I am happy with my purchase, but even if I am not, I did not kill a tree in the process.

Wearing Alexis (Source: Intermix)

Femulating at Berlin's Eldorado, circa 1930   

Xenia Marks the Spot

My Internet presence will be sporadic from now until Monday as I will be traveling to and from the Dayton/Xenia, Ohio area to attend the annual ham radio convention, Hamvention.

I will try to post when I can, but I am usually so busy during Hamvention that I have very little time to get on the net.

If you are attending Hamvention, maybe we can have an eyeball QSO! I will be making a short presentation at the TAPR Forum, which starts Friday morning at 9:15 AM in Room 1. Also, I will be staffing TAPR's booths (Building 5, booths 5001-5003) throughout the weekend and attending the TAPR-AMSAT Annual Banquet Friday evening.

Anyway, I am cutting this post short because I have to finish packing.

Wearing Bebe

📺 Clément Hervieu Léger (left) femulates in the French television series Suite Noire.

Sitting to Pee: Here, There and Everywhere

By Starla Renee Trimm

Reading Stana’s discussion of her travels and the inevitable topic of restroom use when on the road in feminine garb (no one thinks about or discusses bathrooms more than T-girls) brought some memories into focus.

Back in the day, in my healthy years when I had a life and actually went places, I took quite a few road trips en femme. As I passed most of the time, I never had any serious problem using the ladies’ room pretty much anywhere. (And we didn't yet have reactionary politicians trying to pass laws making it a capital offense to simply pee in an appropriate facility.) Nevertheless, when travelling in unfamiliar places (especially here in the South), better safe than sorry.

What I would do when my bladder was crying uncle was to seek out a gas station/convenience store — not the large 7-11 type enterprises, but the smaller businesses that only had a small kiosk type island housing cashiers and a limited array of junk food and beer. Why? Because such facilities usually had small bathrooms that required key access. Besides the fact that they could only be used by one customer at a time eliminating the possibility of a negative encounter in the restroom itself, there still remained the remote chance that someone might see me entering or exiting the thing, have doubts as to my gender status and make a fuss.

Having to request the key gave me an "excuse" in the event of a confrontation. If they handed me the key to the little girls' potty (as was the case almost 100% of the time), I figured I was passing well and pretty safe inasmuch as I could always protest that, hey, that was the key the clerk gave me, so I assumed that was the bathroom I was directed to use.

And since even in male mode in such situations, I was sometimes given the ladies' room key simply because the boys' room was (a) out of order, (b) on the verge of being declared a toxic waste cleanup site or (c) occupied by a leisurely squatter who was taking his dear time while, as my Momma used to say, "my back teeth are floating" — the notion of being perceived as male, yet directed verbally or tacitly to the ladies' loo was not inconceivable. Maybe I was overthinking things by coming up with such complex planning, but you never know.

In any case, my confidence in such a scheme was bolstered and solidified on one road trip when my gas tank was on "close to fumes" and my bladder on "dam about to burst" as I entered the little hamlet of Waynesboro, Georgia ("The Bird Dog Capital of the World"). My only option for topping one tank off and emptying the other was the rather shabby looking enterprise at the center of town, manned by several bearded good ol’ boys in overalls, chawin’ tabaccy and generally perpetuating the “seedy side of Mayberry” stereotype.

Well, between having that brassy boldness that prior positive encounters produced, as well as the point of no return risk of an impending flood under my denim skirt, I did not even hesitate to stride into the place, flash a sweet smile at the Head Bubba and ask for the bathroom key. Whatever tiny residual concern remained that had not yet been overridden by urological distress was quickly dispelled as the dude handed me the ladies’ room key with a wink and a smile (and, I think, a bit of a leer), drawling “There ya go, darlin’.”

For once, I was far more comforted than offended by such sexist behavior!

Wearing Veronica Beard

Jerick Hoffer (aka Jinkx Monsoon) femulating in television's Capitol Hill.