Cyrsti's Condo "Sunday Edition"

"Ker Plunk!!! a rather late edition of our epic "Sunday Edition!"

Page 1.- Columbus Ohio Pride.  I'm thinking about now, I'm part of nearly a half million TGLBQ Pride celebrants in Columbus, Ohio- who are nursing hangovers-from yesterday.  Yes, the attendance was estimated at a cool half a mill. (Who does that?)

From my personal viewpoint, a good time was had by my intrepid group of four and I have only one crummy picture to show for it, but I'm passing it along anyhow. The guy who took the picture was just as messed up as the picture looks and is actually the best he could do before I took my phone back.

The weather actually wasn't hateful for this time of year and stayed in the low to mid 80's for the hottest part of the day.

The parade itself, started late and was very long, so I think we watched maybe a third of it before we headed back to the outside patio venue you almost see above.  I'm not a huge parade fan and got to see George Takei  actor from the original Star Trek and who has probably been "beamed up" from more gay pride parades than anyone in history!

Page 2.- Transgender Vets.  I was really surprised to see a Pride Color Guard actually kicking off the parade. I was so surprised I didn't get a picture of the one cop of three Columbus policemen saluting the flag and the group.

As promised, I wore my T-shirt my partner Liz designed for me which said "I'm proud to have fought for your rights which were denied to me."  I really didn't get much response except for one really drunk guy who never understood anyway.  No one even came close to labeling me with the Tra--y gender slur so the closest I came to problems was when I bitched out a couple for cutting the line at the "Porta Potties".



Page 3.- Who were those People?  At my age, it seems like everyone at an event like this weekend are young enough to be my kids - or worse yet my grand kids.  There were however a significant group of peeps outside of the TGLBQ community who came to support, party or just watch the show.  Ironically, my friends and I were surprised how much of a show there wasn't.

I went expecting groups of garish drag queens sweating off their makeup in the heat and half naked buffed gay guys milling around in the crowd.  Perhaps since we are in the relative conservative "Heartland" U.S.A., the only drag queens we even saw were on parade floats.  I did see one other transgender woman during the day, one cross dresser at night with another trans girl.  Needless to say, I certainly didn't check out 500,000 people, but I was looking. Per norm, I did get my share of looks and mostly from the middle aged women who were there and very little from the younger crowd.

Page 4.- The Back Page.-  I had a great time attending a very serious TGLBQ Pride event and the Goddess willing I can do it again next year.  As I have mentioned, Columbus is very diverse, and the community there has built itself into a commercial force.  It is simply financially advantageous for a business to be pro Pride and it showed!

"Mud Roller"

Ever heard of the term "mud roller" applied to a woman?

Back in the day in my high school (before electric lights) "Mud Roller" was a term applied to a girl in school most likely to get "down and dirty" with a guy.

The name wasn't particularly a bad one, except normally the girl in question probably wasn't going to be the one you brought home to meet Mom-unless you were me.  I don't think I was ever popular enough to bring home a "roller" but I did bring home a real live witch with curly red hair (to her waist) to say Hi to Mom.  Mom got the whole wrong impression-all I wanted was to have hair like hers!

In one of my searches , I just found a picture of a "roller" on one of the transgender / cross dresser sites, I just had to pass along!

I don't know how this person identifies but for now we will say he nailed the description perfectly...I could go farther but this a PG rated post!

Females-or Women-Part Two

I received a comment from Sandra on one of the older posts here in Cyrsti's Condo which bears revisiting!

Here is how the post started:

REALLY?

"Ever since I can remember, I have been fascinated with the feminine gender.  As with many of you, it's difficult to explain the deep, deep yearning I had to be a woman.  Of course any success I have experienced in the transition process has been self taught and I wonder when I see genetic females who aren't women, I wonder why.

On the other hand, I just don't grasp how so many females have no idea or will power to be women.  Then again, a dear friend who passed away some time ago told me it seemed to her so many women weren't teaching their daughters to be...women. 

So maybe that's it. Where I live, we have an extremely high teen maternity rate. I know the stats reflect more than kids having kids and young females just being "baby makers". Self esteem and family conditions play into their lives too.

None of that takes away from the fact I don't understand why these females so easily toss chances to be women away.  Especially when I know so many transgender women who can't wait to get out of the closet and have their day in the sun."

Thanks Sandra! I can only add the urgency females all of the sudden show (to get back in the game) when all of the sudden they are competing in the world for a mate again.
Sandra wrote:


I also think it's a pity that so many women simply lost the joy of being women. In some cases I understand them: for some reason — genetics, hormones, work routine, impossible schedules, lack of time, too much to do — they cannot prevent their bodies to become so much unaligned with what they have in mind that they simply start neglecting their own selves. Ugly males can dress whatever they wish, so long as it's male clothes; ugly women believe they have the same right to do so.

My own wife is a typical example. When she gains weight, loses her job, and basically is stuck playing games on the computer at home, she neglects herself completely. But then she gets a job, or goes back to university, and suddenly her self-esteem gains a boost! She throws her old clothes away, starts eating regularly, sheds her excess weight, goes to the hairdresser, even shaves her legs, and starts a new wardrobe. Suddenly she glorifies in being a woman again! The last time this happened, she even let me paint her nails for her — the first time I saw her with painted nails since we met at a Halloween dinner, 17 years ago!

So I think it really has a lot to do about self-esteem. Confident women will take care of their image, because they enjoy it. Depression and low self-esteem will make them lose all interest in the way they look.

Finally, I'm guessing, being a woman at the least is probably a "nurtured" response, brought on by peer pressure etc. Not unlike we trans women-who are "stuck" with how we were born and nurtured into a society we didn't fit in to.