Yes Virginia-Hormones Do Work

Another quality transition transgender woman video from YouTube of course!

 

The Not So Sweet

Many times the hardest part of this transgender path I'm traveling is taking too much for granted.
I'm thinking the whole world accepts my girl world and life is good. Then of course, here comes reality.
The first dose came at a buffet in **Birmingham, Alabama. The trip down from Cincinnati had been very effortless. Of course I got the usual curious looks from my fellow passengers but nary a side look at a restaurant near Bowling Green, Kentucky.
In Birmingham however I came really close to a total laugh and smirk from an employee at the place we stopped. After a brief moment of hurt, I moved on knowing my chances were good I would never be back. So to hell with him.

I'm not necessarily picking on Alabama here but one of the other ugly moments I think almost occurred when we stopped at the so-called welcome center when we got into the state.  The women's rest room was dark, crowded and smelly to start with. In addition there were two other women not on our tour I'm fairly certain didn't approve of me being there. Fortunately, the bus was close by and we left one of my fans still glaring in the distance. She reinforced my theory that the most active transphobic peeps are women.

For some reason that experience really bothered me for awhile which didn't make any sense because this wasn't my first rodeo. The good part was I didn't have long to dwell on it!
The only other instance was predictable and not negative when you consider the source. Our first dinner as we arrived in New Orleans was a group affair at an upscale venue. This was actually the first and last we had as a group.  Girlfriend and I were sitting towards the end of the long table with four other women easily over the age of 70 and our tour guide. One started asking me how the two of us got together.  I'm still not good at  projecting female in every one on one conversation which at the least gives me a chance to win the other person over no matter how I look to her. I simply failed miserably with this woman who started to slide the "he" word into the conversation about me to others. Plus as luck would have it we encountered each other in the restroom where she softly said "Oh you use the women's room". Overall though, she was a delightful person and I'm fairly sure she had never encountered a transgender person before. She was simply in uncharted territory.

I guess looking back at the seven days, all of this was fairly minor. I do have to make the excuse that most of the time I was utterly denied mirror access. Believe me, during 12 days I need all the help I can get. Finally, I know as time goes by and HRT works it's magic my public presentation will improve but bottom line is I will always have certain male facial angles and body structures which will be challenges. What disappoints me is when I don't take advantage of what I do have which happened several times during the trip.

Enough of these negatives! The next couple posts will cover more of the fun I had including one of the Q&A sessions I had with girl friend about a boob job.











**Please note my experiences in any of the places I mention are isolated and do not reflect an overall opinion of places I know nothing about.

The Blood, the Mud and the Beads!

We arrived in time to check in and walk the 4 blocks or so to Bourbon Street and the Lundi Gras party.
The night turned out to be a combination of a "bucket list"/learning experience.  We started down Bourbon Street fairly comfortably and fairly early with street side drinks in hand. Certainly the crowds were large but nothing unmanageable. We paused several places to lean on a wall and people watch. Here I was as my real self partying in New Orleans! Life was good then BOOM! We moved another 4 blocks or so up the street and then I found out what life in a "mosh pit" must be like. No one moved, beads were flying from as high as two stories up and of course were under your feet. I found out quickly this part of Mardi Gras was ideal for a 20 something person but girlfriend and I went, experienced and bailed! Remember too that the actual "Fat Tuesday" celebration was the next night.

I'm sure that those of you who visit Cyrsti's Condo and have been to New Orleans will vouch for the fact you need to wear comfortable shoes and clothes be ready for a lot of physical contact and be ever alert for flying beads!
The main lesson though was you can party and enjoy the whole experience more if you chose your battles on the fringes of Bourbon Street. Which we did on Tuesday night which is the actual Mardi Gras.

My girlfriend is a Wicca so she had an active interest in some of the shops in the area one of which was down near the cluster of gay venues and a block or so off the main street. Also, we had a chance to find a place where we could sit in an outdoor back patio area. Order drinks and food, enjoy each other's company and have restroom access. At my age taking the meds I am and drinking Louisiana's own Abita Beer I need to plan for potty breaks. As we all know, not the easiest deal for a transgender person. Where we were sitting though, I could watch the traffic to the women's room and make my break while the going was good (no pun intended). As it turned out, that particular restroom  was a story unto itself. It was small and I have no idea of what the woman ahead of me had to eat before she used that restroom...but the place was positively radioactive. Other amenities included the wooden board over the back of the toilet tank and the obligatory water and TP on the floor. Outside of the smell, I found the overall condition of the restroom was about normal for the ones I visited in the Bourbon Street war zone. My biggest problem was not coming out of the room and facing the women waiting to get in (to see if they were going to make a stink about me using the restroom) it was the embarrassment of them thinking I made that stink to start with!

The key to the evening was the weather. The intermittent rain stayed away for the most part and the weather stayed around 70 degrees so I could wear my off the shoulder top and feel a little exotic. But the evening was far from over and I will tell you more in an upcoming post!

My disclaimer here is that New Orleans is a positively wonderful and fascinating place and Mardi Gras is just a part of it!