Shoe Sale!

Yesterday as I was struggling through Facebook's latest meltdown, I received a message from Bernie Fatla, who owns "Le Dame Footwear." If you are not familiar, Le Dame makes women's shoes in larger sizes and specializes in  the needs of transgender or cross dressers.

Bernie let me know they (Le Dame) are having a sale you may want to take advantage of. I personally have had a pair of their shoes and can vouch for their workmanship!

Here is your link to Le Dame's on line site,  so you can check out their sale. Plus a couple examples of shoes.

Enjoy.

Therapy Now!

Yesterday was my monthly trip north to Dayton, Ohio to visit my therapist at the Veteran's Administration Medical Center.

Like so many of my visits recently, the conversation revolved around small chat. In other words, how have my moods been and what have I been up to. Since my bi-polar moods have been stable recently, we moved on to the feelings I had following the cross dresser-transgender support group meeting and what was coming up on Liz and I's social agenda.

As I wrote about yesterday, sexuality was my topic at the meeting. I have not heard back on my Trans Ohio Symposium workshop symposium and weather permitting, we are planning to go to the Transgender Day of Visibility in downtown Cincinnati on March 31 st. Interesting enough, the Cincinnati Reds major league baseball team has a home game that day nearby. It will be fun to see how many potential "visible" trans people will be scared off by a baseball crowd. I know at one point in my Mtf gender transition, it would have scared me. The weather on March 31st around here could be anything from a Spring rain to snow, so we will just have to wait on that.

Yesterday I was able to end my appointment ten minutes early so I could go over to the endocrinologist office and check and see if I needed blood work taken before I went. My endo appointment is on April 1st, so I hope it is not an April fools joke! I know it won't be, as they don't have much of a sense of humor around there.

One thing is for sure, time moves too fast. 

Sexuality?

I brought up the age old argument between sexuality and everyday life as a trans woman at last night's transgender -cross dresser support group meeting. I only said in passing (no pun intended), one of the bigger things I learned quickly when I came out was how my sexuality didn't really change.

The very few dates I had with men were always a struggle and very quickly I could see no real future ahead with the male gender. On the other hand, I was always attracted to women and enjoyed immensely my new interaction with them. In fact, I enjoyed it so much, I ended up socializing with several lesbians. During some of the lesbian mixers I went to, there were several women who were more masculine than I ever was. And looking at the long term, I am still with Liz, who identified as a cis lesbian. Now she believes she is more/was gender fluid.

I must have done pretty well because the moderator didn't have any input and the rest of the fourteen attendee's seemed to being paying attention. One of the most presentable trans women who is a couple years out of her gender realignment surgery even had a good comment on the discussion. Several of the group was busy having a love fest about how accepting cis women are and the transgender woman said all that was true until you find yourself between another cis woman and her man. It took a little while for me to understand with some women, the smiling face could be hiding a knife waiting to go into your back. Like so many other things, learned experiences only happen with time.

Speaking of time, our skin is something which reacts to time and we have been writing about here in Cyrsti's Condo. Yesterday we heard from Paula, today Connie:

"Shaving is a double-edged sword, so to speak. It does dry out the skin, but it also helps to exfoliate. I use an apricot scrub before shaving, as it allows for a closer shave, so I've got the exfoliation thing down. I follow up with a serum that goes deeper into the skin than a moisturizer, but I still use the all-important moisturizer after that. Usually, I will apply a light layer of a pore-reducing cream over the "T-zone." Because of my uneven and rather ruddy complexion, I brush on a foundation of mineral makeup. In order to bring back some color to my face (after having had covered it up with the foundation), I use a mineral blush. Of course, this is all after I've used a good cleanser in the first place.

I've spent a good part of my working life out in the elements, and most of it without sun block. I can only wonder how much better my skin might be today had I used it all my life. If all of the sun block properties of those things I put on my face now could be added up, I'd be using an SPF 60. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way, and I can only expect the benefits of the SPF 30 in my moisturizer. Unless I'm out in the direct sunlight in the summer, that's minimal protection. I've found that I can apply a waterproof* sunscreen over the mineral makeup without making a complete mess of it, but it's not too difficult to brush on just a bit over the top of the sunscreen to even things out again.

*Waterproof to a degree, as I hate it when I perspire and the sunscreen drips from my forehead into my eyes".

Thanks for the input!