Here Comes the Boy Bride

Over the weekend, I came across a copy of the November issue of Reader’s Digest and I was very surprised to see an item in the magazine’s “Life in these United States” section: a cute photo of a young boy and girl crossdressing as a bride and groom. 

The photo illustrated an item titled “He’s a Family Man” submitted by the grandmother of a five-year-old boy, who wrote, “When I asked my five-year-old grandson why he was so anxious to turn six, he replied, ‘So I can finally get married and have kids!’”

I have not read Reader’s Digest in years, so maybe the magazine has become more liberal, but it is one of the last places I would expect to see an image of a crossdressed boy.

Wearing ModCloth

'Little Billy' Rhodes femulating in the 1926 film Oh, Baby!

Welcome

The first time I attended a support group meeting, I knew no one. The person running the group emailed me where the group’s meeting hall was located, but she was not in attendance, so I did not even have one person to lean on at the meeting.

To make matters worse, instead of welcoming a newcomer and trying to make me feel comfortable, I got the cold shoulder. After less than a half-hour, I got out of Dodge, drove home and swore that was my first and last support group meeting.

But I had to get out of the house en femme and even though the support group meeting hall was just another closet, it was a step out of the home closet, so I went back. And the second time, a couple of people talked with me and I started feeling more welcomed. 

It is likely that when a newcomer shows up at a support group meeting, it is her first time out of the home closet. She is probably very stressed out and needs all the help she can get. 

I never forgot that first meeting and I promised myself that whenever a newcomer showed up, I would go out of my way to welcome her and chat with her if she was so predisposed.

I made some long-time friends that way.

Wearing Boston Proper

Piotr Gawron-Jedlikowski femulating Magdalena Narozna on Polish television’s Twoja Twarz Brzmi Znajomo (Your Face Sounds Familiar)

You can view the femulation on YouTube. 

Going Out

After I post this, I will begin getting en femme for the Connecticut Outreach Society's banquet tonight.

I promise to post photos and words about tonight in a day or two.

My Prom

In school, I did not date much. I interacted easily with girls on a day-to-day basis, but when it came to dating, I did not interact successfully.

Looking back four decades later, I realize that interacting with girls on a day-to-day basis was easy because I was so feminine, I was really a girl. However, dating girls was difficult because I had to act like a male and that was so foreign to me that I was lousy at it.

When I attended my high school's prom, my sister had to set me up with her best friend as my date. That date went fine because I already knew my sister's friend well; it was as if we were two girls out on a date. The only problem was that one girl had to wear a tuxedo.

I have been trying to make up for that wardrobe disfunction ever since.

I consider my support group's annual banquet as my do-over prom. It gives me an opportunity to dress to the nines in the correct wardrobe and be a prom queen for one night.

My do-over prom is Saturday night and you bet I am looking forward to it.

good news

Except for an occasional stomach rumble, I am the stomach virus that knocked me out last weekend. I have been eating normally, that is, “normal” or me the past two days and I am no longer exhausted.

Even better: I lost 5 pounds during my illness and only regained 1 pound. So, I will be in great shape to slip into the figure-hugging red satin cocktail dress I plan to wear to my support group’s annual banquet this Saturday evening.

Ooh la la!

another Saturday night photo

Here is another photo of me from my support group's banquet on Saturday night. In this photo (taken by my good friend Deja), I am performing in our annual follies. I think I am lipsynching Goldfinger here and not Money (That's What I Want) because when I did Money, I was much more animated.

Funny how the flash of the camera brings out my white bra. It was not visible in person, but shows up in the photos. Next time I wear that dress, I must remember to wear a black bra.

As usual, click on the image to magnify it.

me last night

updated below

That's me last night at my support group's banquet. I will have a full report here for you later.

As usual, click on the image to magnify it.

UPDATE: Last night, I attended my support group's annual banquet.

There were 49 people in attendance, all dressed in beautiful evening gowns and cocktail dresses. I wore the vintage ballerina dress with my curly auburn hair as you can see in the accompanying photo.

I was amazed how many people did not recognize me because of my auburn hair. Even my good friend Diana L did not recognize me until I spoke.

I sat at the head table with our after-dinner speaker, Ann Stanback, from Love Makes A Family, and her spouse, Charlotte Kinlock. Charlotte mentioned she was from Waterbury, which is also my home town. Turns out we attended the same grammar school, but were two years apart and lived two streets away from each other. We did not know each other as kids, but we both knew a lot of the same people in the old neighborhood. As they say, "Small world!"

The hotel was rocking Saturday night. In the past, our banquet was usually the only event at the hotel, but last night there were other groups having events, too, and the place was crawling with civilians.

Diana L mentioned to me that one of the civilians approached her and asked about our group. She was surprised that we were crossdressers because she could not tell that there were males among our "ladies." That was a nice complement for our group!

A lot of civilians checked us out throughout the evening, maybe because we were dressed to kill when compared to the civilians or maybe because they had never seen so many beautiful crossdressers before. In either case, the civilians were civilized and there were no unpleasant comments or looks. In fact, some of the civilians were downright friendly.

During the "follies" portion of the evening, I lipsynced two songs, one right after the other. First, I did Goldfinger by Shirley Bassey, then I did Money (That's All I Want) by Josie and the Pussycats. I thought my Goldfinger was just ok, but one woman complimented my Goldfinger performance, so I guess was better than I thought.

I really got into Money (That's All I Want). It is one of my favorite rock songs and this version really rocked. The audience seemed to enjoy my performance. I noticed lots of people taking photos during my performance, so I must have done something right.

The banquets provide an opportunity to see old friends and make some new ones. Last night was no different. It was a very nice evening out en femme and ended too soon.

(I am very tired from staying out later than usual last night/this morning, so I apologize if the above thoughts are random and incoherent, but I wanted to document them before I forgot them. Tomorrow, when I am better rested, I may add some thoughts to my banquet story if I have anything more to say.)

another trip to Dress Barn

When I called Sunday to inform Dress Barn that I was on the disabled list and could not be the hostess at my support group's party, I asked the sales rep to hold the daytime outfit I was supposed to model in order that I could purchase it this week.

I returned today to pick up the outfit. The top is similar to the same as the one pictured here and the skirt is a black knee-length pencil skirt with a wide black patent belt.

Liz, the sales rep who arranged the party was not on, so I dealt with Denise, the store manager. The District Manager had them return the outfit to the racks yesterday, but Denise was able to retrieve them.

I could not remember what size skirt I had selected, so she handed me two sizes and escorted me to the dressing room to try them on (the smaller size fit). I was in boy mode and the other customers must have wondered what was going on, but I did not mind. Let them think what they want.

I talked with Denise about doing another party in the late winter and we shared some ideas about what worked and did not work on Sunday and what to do next time.

As hostess, I was supposed to get a 25% discount on purchases and I really did not expect to get the discount today, five days after the fact, but Denise gave me the discount anyway.

I paid with my Dress Barn credit card and after Demise swiped the card and returned it to me, she mentioned that I can get another card with "Staci" as the name on the card instead of my boy name. I was a little surprised that she knew my femme name because I never mentioned it to her, but I guess my reputation preceded me on Sunday.

I exited the store at the same time as another customer, who saw me exiting the dressing room with skirts in hand. Her car was next to mine and I noticed that its license plate displayed an Amateur Radio call sign, as does mine.

I pointed out that our cars had similar license plates and I asked her if she was a ham. She replied that the call sign belonged to her deceased husband. That led to a pleasant, but short conversation about ham radio and then we went our separate ways.

This Week

Thursday evening, I am participating in a panel discussion on "LGBTQ communities" at St. Joseph College in West Hartford for an undergraduate course called "Cross-Cultural Psychology."

***

Friday is Halloween and I have no plans to dress in costume yet. There is nothing officially going on at work to celebrate the holiday, but I am keeping my ears open to find out if anyone is planning to wear a costume on Friday. If so, I may dress in costume, too. Then again, I may dress anyway even if no one else doing so.

***

Some time this week, I plan to visit the local Dress Barn to arrange a Very Indulgent Party for my support group. Here's the deal:

* Get up to ten friends (they'll do more, but ten keeps it fun for everybody) and book a party with Dress Barn by filling out their VIP form.

* I can book the party whenever I want, but they are willing to do it after hours if I want so we can have the entire store to ourselves.

* As the hostess, I get 25% off my entire purchase.

* My guests get 15% off.

* Staff will be there to help coordinate outfits.

* They provide refreshments.

Dress Barn has a reputation for being trans-friendly and they have hosted parties for trans girls before, so I expect they will go for it.

last night out

I attended my support group's meeting last night. It was the last meeting before the group's two month summer hiatus and there were about 15 in attendance. I knew most, but there were a couple of new faces, too.

We had salad, pizza, dessert, and refreshments, then we elected the officers for the next 12 months. I was "elected" newsletter editor (I ran unopposed).

The rest of the meeting consisted of pleasant conversation. It was a nice evening out en femme.

Due to time constraints (I was running late), I did not go shopping before the meeting.

random thoughts on Tuesday

The top five phrases that cause search engines to send searchers to this blog are femulate, fictionmania, kate salehurst, katesalehurst, and dresses for men.

• femulate is self-explanatory


• fictionmania is a web site mentioned here a few times. It is an online repository for crossdressing fiction.


• kate salehurst, katesalehurst is a beautiful trans-woman, who I mentioned here once or twice


• dresses for men is intriguing. Is it an indication that non-trans-people are looking for dresses for men? Are non-trans-males adding dresses to their wardrobe? Are women searching for dresses for their men?

***

I am going out en femme Wednesday evening, primarily to attend my support group's final meeting before the group’s two-month summer hiatus. Before the meeting, I also plan to go shopping. There is a DSW Shoe Warehouse that I must check out and Dress Barn is across the street!

Man! I Feel Like a Free Woman!

Shania Twain and husband-producer Robert "Mutt" Lange are splitting up after 14 years of marriage. Read all about it!

(In the world of femulation, Shania's hit Man! I Feel Like A Woman! has been lip-synced to death. I will admit to helping hammer a nail into the coffin of that song when I lip-synced a medley of Que Sera, Sera and Man! I Feel Like A Woman! at my support group's annual banquet follies back in 2004.)

Saturday night outing

My support group's annual awards banquet is Saturday night. It is the local T-event of the year.

In recent years, the banquet headcount has been in the 60 to 70 range. I wonder if the economy ("The Bush Era of Prosperity") will have any effect on the headcount. I hope not because, as they say, "the more, the merrier."

The weather forecast for Saturday night is "mostly cloudy, with a low around 24." I plan to wear the cocktail dress I bought from Victoria's Secret last fall. Like a lot of what Victoria sells, my dress is skimpy, so I will have to wear one of my fake fur coats to fight off the cold temps Saturday night.

I will be performing in the "follies" after dinner is served. I lip sync and for this year's performance, I found a very obscure song from the early 1960s that I think will be very apropos for the event; the theme of the song is gender envy.

As usual, you can expect a full report here after the fact with lots of photos, too.

out en femme this afternoon and evening

I will be out en femme this afternoon and evening. My outing will include outreach at Saint Joseph College in West Hartford, followed by dinner, and my support group's monthly Wednesday meeting.

Tomorrow (or later), I will have a full report for you here maybe with a photo or two.

fame and fortune... but not so much fortune

I received an e-mail from Diana yesterday informing me that this posting from my blog was reprinted in the newsletter of The Sunshine Club, a trans support group located in Hadley, Mass.

As occasional editor of my support group's newsletter, I have often reprinted postings from my blog, but this is the first time another support group has done so.

I don't mind; in fact, I am honored, but I just wish they had informed me that they were going to reprint it because I would have missed it if Diana had not alerted me!