maximum speed no more

I use Revlon Maximum Speed pre-glued press-on nails. There is no bottled glue mess, I can put on a set in less than five minutes, and they usually stay on until I want to remove them. And they look good and have been the object of many compliments from other girls.

I have been buying my Max Speedies on eBay at prices that are half list price or less. However, they have not been showing up on eBay lately, so I went to the local drug emporium to buy a set. There were none to be had! There were other Revlon nail products (all requiring glue), but no pre-glued Max Speedies.

Next, I checked the Revlon Web site and it did not list the Max Speedies, so I assume they discontinued the product.

There are other pre-glued brands, so I guess I will have to switch brands. Too bad because I was a very satisfied Revlon Maximum Speed customer.

Christmas dream

I had another crossdressing dream overnight.

For those of you who are new to this blog, I've written here before that I seldom remember my dreams and the few that I do remember usually involve crossdressing.

Last night's dream found me getting up in the morning to go to work. Just like real life, as I am getting ready for work, my wife is sound asleep. Unlike real life, after I shower and shave, I put on my makeup, wig, and one of my girly outfits.

In my dream, I know that I had just gone to work recently en femme, but I can't remember how I returned home from work. Did I change into boy mode on the way home from work or did I manage to sneak into the house en femme without my wife noticing me? Getting dressed in the morning is easy because my wife is sound asleep, but I am stumped on what happened at the end of the workday.

The dream ended with me dressed en femme, ready to leave for work, but stuck trying to figure how I am going to get back home.

the holidays

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, I will be busy visiting friends and relatives. I will be doing so in boy mode, but I wish I could make one visit dressed to kill en femme.

All my in-laws know about my crossdressing. It is a long story, but I was outed by my wife's cousin, who we had entrusted with my secret. My in-laws have had long discussions amongst themselves about my crossdressing, but they never mention it to my face. The family rat, my brother-in-law, even convinced my mother-in-law, to write my wife out of her will because I am "unstable." And yadda, yadda, yadda.

As a result, I have minimum contact with my in-laws, but my wife is forgiving to a fault, no matter how they have abused and mistreated her throughout her life, and she bought them all Christmas gifts.

So, Christmas morning, I will accompany my wife to my mother-in-law's home so she can exchange the gifts. I am just going along as bodyguard and will refuse any gifts that they may try to foist on me. (I don't expect any gifts because my wife has forewarned them that I won't accept any, but you never know with these people.)

I'd love to show up at my mother-in-law's tomorrow in my girliest Christmas finery. It is not that I don't have the guts to do it, but I won't do it in deference to my wife. But I can dream, can't I?

I wanted to close on a positive note: Tyra Banks. I have become infatuated with this woman and she is near the top of my list of women to emulate. So, I went to Google to search for a nice photo of Tyra to accompany this blog entry and I learn that Tyra gave limp McDonald's cheeseburgers to her staff as Christmas gifts!

Tyra just fell off my list of women to emulate, so I guess I have no good news this Christmas! But, Happy Holidays anyway!

crossdressing noted

I saw two crossdressing scenes this weekend, one on film and one on television.

The film was The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash, a 1978 mock documentary film that parodies the rise and fall of the Beatles.

In addition to highlighting the career of the Rutles, the film briefly mentions what each of the band members did after the break-up of the band. The George Harrison character, Stig O'Hara, played by Ricky Fataar, became an airline hostess for Air India and appears exiting an Air India office dressed as an Indian airline stewardess.



The television show was NBC's collection of the best commercial parodies from Saturday Night Live (SNL). I don't watch SNL as often as I used to in my youth, so I missed this parody when it appeared originally in 2005: a mock commercial for Me-Harmony, an online dating service that matches you to a completely identical member of the opposite sex.

The commercial shows five SNL cast members (four guys and one gal) as satisfied Me-Harmony customers. Each one crossdresses to portray their Me-Harmony match. It is very funny and well-done. You can see it here.

Also, I think the parody says something about crossdressing, but I'm not sure what it is!

25 to 1

This interesting advertisement appears in this week's issue of New York magazine. It is an ad for a singles dating service.

I wonder where they came up with the odds that 1 out of 25 women in singles bars are really dudes. Are those odds only applicable to the New York City area or are they applicable everywhere?

Personally, I think those odds are too low, but you never know.

Annapolis "drag" redux

It did not take much Googling to find out that Annapolis "drag" has nothing to do with crossdressing.

According to an article in the November 29, 1948 issue of Time, "drag" was the Naval cadet nickname for a date, i.e., the girls the cadets dated were called "drags."

I guess if a cadet dated a crossdresser, his date would be a "drag in drag."

Annapolis "drag"

I have seen the January 6, 1947 issue of Life magazine on eBay numerous times and I always wondered about the caption on the cover (Annapolis "Drag").

I assume that "Annapolis" refers to the US Naval Academy in that city, but does "Drag" refer to a crossdressing event at the academy. Is that a Naval cadet in drag on the cover?

If anyone can enlighten me, I would appreciate it.

good fit

The two dresses I ordered from Newport-News last Tuesday arrived on Monday*, but I have been so busy that I did not get a chance to try them until yesterday.

They both fit perfectly, but the heather charcoal sweater knit dress looks much, much nicer with a belt.

* I don't know why, but my last three or four Newport-News orders have only taken a week to arrive after I placed the order. In the not too distant past, there was usually a two to three week wait, so pillbox hats off to Newport-News for the improvement.

I'm a Tammy Lynn Michaels

I took the quiz twice. First time, I selected "female" as my gender; second time, I selected "male." Both times, the results were Tammy Lynn Michaels!

Next, I had to Google Ms. Michaels because I had no idea who she is. I guess I need to get out more!

I always suspected that when en femme I was a "lipstick lesbian" and this quiz confirms it!

What famous lesbian do you most closely resemble? Your Result: Tammy Lynn Michaels   You asked Melissa Ethridge out on a dare and now you're married! You are pretty much known as the wife of Melissa Ethridge, although you've had some pretty cool roles on TV and the movies.
Portia Di Rossi
Ellen Degeneres
Katherine Moennig
Rosie O'Donnell
Jackie Warner
K D Lang
Melissa Ethridge
What famous lesbian do you most closely resemble? Make a Quiz

bonding

crossdressing on ice

Twenty-seven degrees Fahrenheit was the "high" here yesterday and with wind speeds as high as 68 mph, the wind chill was -10ºF!

It is so cold, I don't want to do much of anything that involves going out, en femme or otherwise.

I planned to go en femme to the Avon representative Christmas party tonight, but it was postponed until some undetermined date in January, so I will be spared from the having to deal with cold winds going up my short skirts tonight.

The forecast is for "warmer" temperatures later in the week, so maybe the weather will be more inviting for crossdressing then.

the fabulous Michelle Pfeiffer

I watched The Fabulous Baker Boys on Encore last night. I have seen the film before and enjoy it each time I watch it. The Bridges Boys are excellent and Michelle Pfeiffer is fabulous in her role as Susie Diamond.

The highlight of the film is when Ms. Pfeiffer sings "Makin' Whoopee" as seen in this video.



Enjoy the video, see the film, and consider femulating a woman like her.

2008 spring fashions

Perusing the January 2008 issue of Harper's Bazaar last night, I fell in love with some of the 2008 spring fashions previewed in the magazine.



I love this outfit that appeared in the "Trends From New York" feature. (Click on any image in this blog to enlarge it.)



I also loved these shoes. The pair on the left appeared in the "Runway Report" story, while the pair on the right appeared in the "Fabulous At Every Age" article. The later was actually in the section of the article that featured fashions for women in their 50's, which fits me to a tee.

magazines

I have a variety of hobbies and interests. To keep up with what is going on, I subscribe to magazines that cover my areas of interest.

Over the years, I subscribed to a variety of trans-oriented magazines. I seldom renewed a subscription to a trans mag because I found them trashy, boring, and/or lacking information that I wanted. I gave up on them and I don't subscribe to any trans mags today. (Please recommend any that you feel are worthwhile.)

On the other hand, I do keep up with what is going on in the femulation world by subscribing to woman's fashion magazines.

Years ago, I subscribed to Allure when it was a skinny magazine, but packed with useful information for the crossdressing fashionista. After a few years, I let my Allure subscription expire during a femulation lull.

I resubscribed to Allure about a year ago and was surprised when the first issue showed up in my mailbox. The skinny magazine had become a bloated tome of 200 to 300 pages, chock full of advertisements and little useful information. Whenever a new issue arrived, I perused it once and put it in the recycling pile.

I let my Allure subscription expire and recently subscribed to Harper's Bazaar. My first issue arrived yesterday and it was a pleasant surprise! It was full of ads*, but it also was full of useful articles. I think it is more sophisticated than Allure and I will be returning to it often.

* One good thing about the proliferation of ads in fashion magazines is that they pay for the magazine, so subscriptions are cheap, usually about $1 per issue or less. For example, go here and you can get a one-year subscription to Harper's Bazaar for $10 or two years for $15.

stuck at home

My dear friend Diana often e-mails me to ask if I would like to go out en femme with her. I turn her down more often than I accept her invitation.

Diana is single and lives as a woman full-time. I am married and live as a woman part-time.

Most of the time, I am in male mode because my wife married a man and prefers me in boy mode. She dislikes it when I am in girl mode and to keep the peace, I agreed that I only do the girly thing on a limited basis.

I am in male mode most of the time also because my employer hired a man and might not be too happy if I showed up at work in a dress and heels on days that don't end the month of October.

When Diana wants to go out, she opens the door and she is out (lucky girl!). When I want to go out, it is more complicated. I need two hours at a minimum to transform from boy mode to girl mode. And if it is an evening outing, that means leaving work early to get ready.

Since there are a number of complications in my girl life, I have to pick and choose my en femme outings and as a result, I have to turn Diana down more often than I would like. I just hope she doesn't get tired of my rejections and stops asking!

actor femulates Camilla for film role

Rupert Everett makes an unexpectedly glamorous appearance in the new St Trinian's movie in a cross-dressing role apparently inspired by Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall.

The flamboyant actor, who dons a blonde wig and knee-length skirt for the part of "pantomime dame" headmistress Miss Camilla Fritton, proved to be a striking doppelganger for the royal.

You can read the rest of the story from the Daily Mail here.

Tuesday, Tuesday

I found this in my e-mails this morning:

"Just a note to write that every day I take my vitamins and read your writings. You express feelings which I have and I feel less alone."

What a sweet thing to say!

To tell you the truth, I can use some vitamins and a little inspiration myself this morning. My allergies were bothering me last night and I had a hard time falling asleep, so I took two allergy pills to knock me out.

They did the trick, but I should have only taken one because I feel bushy-eyed and bright-tailed this morning and so far, coffee has not turned me around.

To make matters worse, it feels like a Monday rather than a Tuesday because yesterday I worked from home (to avoid dealing with the icy road conditions).

All work and no play makes Staci a dull girl, so during a break yesterday, a 20% discount e-mail offer from Newport-News moved me to do some online shopping. I spent a long while on the Newport-News Web site, adding anything that I liked to my shopping cart.

When I was finished shopping, I reviewed the contents of my shopping cart and removed everything except for two dresses: a zip-front V-neck dress in "royal purple" and a sweater-knit dress in "heather charcoal," which I ordered (and now wait anxiously for their arrival).

updates

I updated my questions and answers page and added top 30 things every crossdressing man needs in his wardrobe to emulate a woman to my adventures in femulation page.

flicks for chicks

I am a big movie fan.

I like a varied genre of film. There are only a few that I do not like: action films and slasher films. I also don't care much for feature-length animated films, but I love cartoons.

Although I love dressing as a woman, I do like films that appeal to manly men, for example, war films, especially World War II films, westerns, spy films (Connery's 007 are my favorites), mob films, science fiction, horror films, etc.

My guilty pleasure is the chick flick. (I am writing this just after watching Friends With Money.)

Perusing the list of 100 great chick flicks, I've seen most of them, liked most of the ones I've seen, and consider some of them as my favorite films of all time!

As a crossdresser, I guess liking chick flicks is just another expression of my inner chick.

out yesterday

I went out en femme yesterday.

I ran late, so I had to forgo my shopping plans and drove straight to the university where I did outreach at two Human Sexuality classes.

I want to look my best when I do outreach, so I usually dress up and yesterday was no exception. I wore my favorite dress (the leopard sash-tie wrap dress that I bought from Newport-News), favorite shoes (the Joy Baby Doll Pumps I bought at Payless), black tights, and my short white fake fur car coat. Needless to say, I was overdressed compared to most of the females (students and professors) on campus; I looked like a visitor on campus and that's what I was.

Females were in the majority in both classes; each class had about 25 students with two males in the earlier class and six in the later class.

Usually, the later afternoon class is less energetic, but that was not the case yesterday. Both classes were enthusiastic and asked a lot of questions. The second class even applauded us at the end!


Coincidentally, the two same questions that were never asked before came up in both classes:

One was, "How do you hide your genitalia?"

My answer was right out of my Wednesday blog: I wear a panty girdle to keep my genitalia in check. As I wrote on Wednesday, I tried a gaff, but discovered that it was very uncomfortable and that my male parts would escape frequently and required regaffing. The panty girdle did a much better job keeping those parts in place and was much more comfortable.

The other question was "Do you do hormones or have you had surgery?"

The answer was "no," but I assume the students asked because they thought I might do hormones and had surgery because they thought that it looked liked I had, which means I looked more womanly than the average guy in a dress. So, I took that question as a compliment.

During the question and answer session in the second class, Maryanne, the transsexual I was paired off with, went on about how it was not about clothes, it was all about gender. She wished that we all wore sackcloths and then we would not have to deal with the clothing issue.

I was ready to jump in as soon as she finished because for me, it is all about the clothes! But just as Maryann finished, the professor, who knows me well, chimed in, "But for Staci, it is all about clothes!" Everyone had a good laugh after her comment.

After the first class, we walked to the Student Union for a bite to eat. I missed it, but everyone else commented on how another professor passed us in the hallway and turned around to get a better look at me. I hate it when that happens and I miss it!

The women in the first class loved my shoes and after the class, a number of them asked me where I bought them. Also, the woman working the Dunkin' Donuts shop in the Student Union where I bought coffee and a flatbread sandwich complimented me on my retro necklace. I thanked her and pointed out my matching retro earrings.

I was tired by the end of the day, but surprisingly my feet did not hurt because my Baby Doll Pumps are so comfortable even with a three-inch heel.

It was another wonderful day out en femme and as always, I look forward to the next opportunity to be the woman I sometimes am.