Pain of Rain

In her comments to my Monday post, Pat convinced me to forgo my plans to wear pants and stick to my original plans to wear a dress on my day out on Tuesday. I seriously considered the pants option in light of the weather forecast for rain in Noah's Ark proportions, but I really wanted to wear my new sweater dress and it did not take much arm-twisting to change my mind, which, of course, is a woman's prerogative.

Also, I recalled that I had a mid-calf length trench coat in the back of my closet. Peaches gave me the coat, but I had never worn it because I avoid going out during a deluge. But I was committed to doing outreach, so it saved the day and kept most of me dry while I slogged through the rain across the campus.

My feet were not so lucky. I switched to flats when I did my slogging, but I might have been better off sticking to my pumps, which would have elevated my heels above some of the puddles I could not avoid. Bottom line is that I should have worn boots!

Anyway, I did my face, got dressed and was on the road by 9:30 AM. It was the debut of my new dress, new hairdo and newly-reduced (by 12 pounds) body. I have not weighed this little since I was a sophomore in college, so I was pretty jazzed with the new me!

I made a couple of shopping stops on the way to the site of my outreach, Southern Connecticut State University. First stop was Macy's where I shopped for a hat. I tried on almost every hat that Macy's had in their display and I only liked one, but I did not like it enough to pay $50. I proceeded to Dress Barn, where I found a similarly-styled hat for only $17, which I bought on the spot.

Starting out at 9:30, there was hardly any rain, but as I proceeded to New Haven, the light shower had developed into a heavy rainstorm. When I arrived at the university, I sat in my Subaru for awhile waiting for the rain to let up. But it did not, so girded my loins and prepared to test the rain aversion capabilities of my trench coat and umbrella.

Wearing A.L.C.

A femulating West Point cadet.

Tuesday's Photo Op

I did outreach at a Human Sexuality class at Southern Connecticut State University yesterday. Above is a photo of the class, Professor Schildroth and me after outreach. As you can see, I wore a dress rather than pants despite the miserable weather (thanks to Pat's comments for motivating me to do so). Also, thanks to Mary Anne for taking the photo. I will have more to say about my day out in upcoming posts. 

Wearing StyleWe.

Femulating at a World War I POW camp in the 1937 French film Le Grande Illusion. 

Back to School

Femulating in the Yale School of Drag Show (left) and at Belleville Township (Illinois) East High School (right).

I am back at school today, so I offer you two batches of school femulations.

৹   Starla’s latest online school yearbook discoveries

৹   Aunty June’s images from the Annual Yale School of Drag Show

Flickr is home for both collections, but they are located in different neighborhoods.

Aunty’s Yale images are in her Guys to Gurls on Stage and Screen Group.

Starla’s school gurl images are on my flickr page. You may view Starla’ new photos in two ways:

Method 1: Open one of the Yearbooks sets (A through Z) and you will find the newest uploads at the end/bottom of the set. (The oldest uploads appear at the beginning/top of the set.)

Method 2: Open my photostream and you will find the newest uploads at the top of page 1. The uploads get older as the page numbers get higher with the oldest uploads on the last page.

The contents of the Yearbook A through Z sets are organized according to school name, for example, the photos from Sacred Heart High School would be in the Yearbooks S set.

Wearing Bebe.

Harry S. Franklyn, femulating professionally in 1929.

Dress Like A Woman

Tomorrow, I will be doing outreach at a Human Sexuality class at Southern Connecticut State College. I planned to wear my new Dress Barn acquisition: a white cable knit sweater dress, but the weather forecast says a hard rain’s gonna fall.

Since I will have to slog through the rain for a half mile across the campus from a parking lot to a classroom, I will dress like a woman would for inclement weather: I will wear pants… woman’s pants, of course, but definitely a bifurcated garment.

⇳

Doing outreach is a crapshoot. There are usually four or five of us and we each spend about 5 minutes giving a brief trans bio. And then there is a question and answer session with the students.

About half the time, the students look like deer in the headlights and getting them to ask questions is frustrating. The other half of the time, the students who are ready to hit us with a variety of thoughtful and stimulating questions.

Some of the questions are memorable. I think my favorite was when a female student asked me, “Are you married?”

After I said, “Yes,” her follow-up question was “To a woman?”

Wearing Bloomingdale's.

Hansi Sturm, professional femulator, Berlin circa 1930

Weekend Wonderings

"Oh please it's 2016"

When I read a post like Joanna's yesterday, it gives me hope.

Black Friday

I seldom leave the house on Black Friday... certainly not to go shopping. Why deal with the traffic and the crowds when I can shop 'til I drop online and get comparable deals without all the hassle!

Allergy

After fearing an impending head cold for the long weekend, it turned out it was only an allergy attack. Lucky me!

Weighty Issues

Despite the Thanksgiving feast, I maintained my weight. My goal now is to lose more by year's end. 

There is a downside to losing weight... I have dresses that I have never worn that will be huge on me after I drop two or three dress sizes.

And so it goes.

Wearing ModCloth.

Femulating in the Fifties

Happy Thanksgiving!

Faith tosses the Unisphere and her cares away.

I was blown away this morning reading Faith DaBrooke's post about her first day at work as a woman. It brought tears of joy to my eyes. I was so happy for her.

It is a big step and it is one I dream of taking someday. Congratulations, Faith!

↕

I never had allergies as a kid, but as I approached middle age, I started having allergy attacks. Nothing horrible; not worth going to a doctor to find out the cause (I think I am allergic to being a man).

The thing about allergies is that when they start, I am not sure if I am getting a head cold or is it just an allergy attack that will go away soon enough.

Tuesday evening, I felt the signs, so I popped an allergy tablet and a zinc cough drop. I felt a little better when I went to bed, but I had a lousy night's sleep and awoke feeling worse, so I guessed that I was getting a cold and not being attacked by an allergy.

Of course, the timing could not be worse for a head cold with a long holiday weekend ahead of me, followed by an outreach session on Tuesday.

Our supply of cold medicines was depleted, so I popped another allergy tablet and a zinc cough drop and drove to work. An hour in and I feel pretty good, so I am crossing my fingers that it is not the start of a head cold.

↕

Tuesday, I will be out most of the day presenting as my true gender. Doing a little shopping and an outreach session at a Human Sexuality class at Southern Connecticut State University. I am so looking forward to a day out as a woman!

↕

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wearing Metisu.

Pretty Private Allan Murray femulates Marie of The Dumbells.

Shake

Old Spy Films

Over the weekend, I watched two Michael Caine Harry Palmer spy films for the first time: The Ipcress File and Funeral in Berlin. Both were very good and Funeral had a trans moment that I was not expecting.

The scene lasts about five minutes and takes place in a Berlin drag bar whose employees and customers include femulators. There were about a half dozen femulators in the scene and it immediately brought to mind Eldorado.

New American Pickers Episode

I collect stuff and as a result, I regularly watch American Pickers on History Channel. "The show follows antique and collectible pickers Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz who travel around the United States to buy or 'pick' various items for resale, for clients, or for their own personal collections," according to Wikipedia.

New episodes air Mondays and in this past Monday's episode ("The Greatest Pick on Earth"), the Mike and Frank picked a huge collection of sideshow artifacts. When the guys showed up at the site of the collection, they meet a woman who is the sister of the deceased magician who collected the artifacts. She revealed that there is a fellow on the premises, who assisted the magician, but he is transgender, so she suggests they call him "Mary."

They meet Mary and she helps the guys pick through the collection. She also discusses how she participated in the sideshow business.

I was very surprised to see a trans person on this show, which tends to be testosterone centric. The guys seemed OK with Mary. No untoward comments were made about her, but I could not help noticing that at the end of the show, Mike hugged the magician's sister, but shook hands with Mary.

Wearing Eloquii.

Edda Edda, a professional femulator (Berlin, circa 1930)

A Challenging Holiday

I love Thanksgiving for all the following reasons:

∞  A guaranteed four-day weekend every year
∞  The food
∞  Big balloons bumping down Broadway
∞  The food
∞  The Rockettes*
∞  The food
∞  Sleeping in late on Black Friday
∞  The leftovers
∞  Did I mention the food?

That being said, I lost 12 pounds since early October and I want to keep it off, so Thanksgiving will be a challenge for me. Wish me luck!

* Going to New York City to see Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in person, I sadly discovered that The Radio City Rockettes are not in the parade! They only appear at the end of the parade in front of Macy’s storefront for the television audience.

Wearing Alexis jumpsuit, Alexandre Birman shoes,
Nathalie Trad bag and Vita Fede earrings.

Romy Haag

Thanks, But...

We celebrate Thanksgiving Day on Thursday.

"Traditionally, it is a time to give thanks for the harvest and express gratitude in general," according to Wikipedia.

No harvest here, so I guess I express “gratitude in general.”

Mother and Father are deceased, but I know that they are around in a spirit-in-the-sky kind of way, so I want to thank them for raising me and not interfering with my feminine ways when I was growing up.

Maybe they could have been a little more encouraging by buying me some dresses to wear around the house (so I wouldn’t have to borrow my sister’s) and buying me some dolls of my very own (so I wouldn’t have to borrow my sister’s). It probably would have made my sister happy, too; I wouldn’t be borrowing her stuff and she would have had a sister to play with.

On the other hand, it could have been a lot worse and they could have forced me to be masculine!

So, thank you Mom and Pop for letting me be me.

Wearing Dress Barn.

Mart Sander femulates on Estonian television's Your Face Sounds Familiar.

Very Suitable

There's a lot of truth to my Dress Bar ad parody. They don't have Transfashion Specialists at Dress Barn, but their sales reps might as well be.

I shop at Dress Barn frequently. The staff at the local store knows me in boy and girl mode and they are very good at making me look my best as a woman no matter which gender I shop in.

One time I was shopping for a new dress  in boy mode and the sales rep suggested a frock that I would have never given a second look. I tried it on and was not thrilled with the way it looked on me in boy mode. (Which is often the case trying on womenswear en homme.)

The sales rep sensed my lack of enthusiasm, but urged me to buy the dress because she "knew" it would look good on me en femme. If not, I could always return it for a full refund.

I trusted her opinion, bought the dress and when I wore it en femme, it looked gorgeous and received lots of compliments.

And so it goes.

Wearing Metrostyle.

Kansas City femulators, circa 1965