Another Must Read!

Another dear friend of mine sent me this a week or so ago, and in one of my new blond (or senior) moments it just escaped me!
I have started to follow another very entertaining blog called "Jessica Who" and she featured it recently.
So here it is! Follow the "Huffington Post" link. It's called "Dear Customer Who Stuck Up For His Little Brother."
Even if you have seen it before it is worth seeing again and if you haven't been to Jessica's blog, make that jump too!
Thanks my friend for the lead!

"Gayest Cities In America"

From the Advocate comes their third annual list.

The Advocate, a prominent publication for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities, has come out with its third annual list of the "Gayest Cities in America." And the list has critics buzzing.
An intro to the article says The Advocate is ignoring well-known gay havens such as San Francisco, Provincetown, West Hollywood and Northampton, Mass., and focusing on "the per capita queerness of some less expected locales."
The winners, some very surprising:

CAPTION

By Douglas Pulsipher, Salt Lake CVB

1. Salt Lake City2. Orlando
3. Cambridge, Mass.
4. Fort Lauderdale
5. Seattle
6. Ann Arbor, Mich.
7. St. Paul and Minneapolis
8. Knoxville, Tenn.
9. Atlanta
10. Grand Rapids, Mich.
11. Little Rock, Ark.
12. Portland, Ore.
13. Austin
14. Long Beach
15. Denver
Those who take issue with the list are legion. Comments on The Advocate site include: "Grand Rapids, Michigan? LOL!" ... "How Palm Springs and Miami are not on the list SHOCKS me. Salt Lake -- really?"

My own personal surprise was that Columbus, Ohio wasn't on the list and I have to agree about Salt Lake. Didn't think the Mormon's had it in them!

What is to Become of Me?

I passed along a post (Natural Woman) not long ago when BFF asked what sort of style woman would I become when I went full time.
Would I put as much time and effort into my hair, makeup and style as I do now.
Indirectly the same subject came up as a chatted with a transwoman who was actually working as a female. When the conversation came to makeup and hair and fashion, she essentially said "well, I used to do more of that stuff when I was a crossdresser."
Once again after thinking about the comment. (Which I considered to be yet another slight at the hands of a "more advanced" trans life form.) How would I be?
I can tell you I won't change that much. As much as I see a great percentage of the genetic female population ignore their image; I see many more excel at theirs.
If the higher "trans life forms" want to blend with the bland genetic females that is their right.
I feel my right is also a priviledge to exercise my life as a transwoman to be as stylish and attractive as I can.
Why would I have come this far to do less?
BUT if you look like trans actress "Jamie Clayton" in this picture...
Go for it!

In a Blond State of Mind.

Every now and then I'm a true believer in a woman's right to change her mind. This is one of these times.
I've passed along my hair stories more than once.
To catch everyone up my own hair has now grown down over my ears and I can actually feel it on my neck and bare back if I tilt my head back at all.
Much of my thought pattern these days is what color I should go to first on the wonderful day when I can get my hair styled and colored.
Over the past months, I was a big believer in presenting in a uniform manner with a consistent style and hair color.
I settled on a dark look which you see a picture of at the top of this blog. The picture was taken not long ago.  In addition I have a couple other wigs of approximately the same color although the other two were straight hair and one was shorter in length.
The only time I varied was I was a redhead on new years eve.
As I become closer to decision time, I have decided to try the blond style a try again.
The blond style I have is longish and straight and could be described as an "ash blond" in color show it's not a real showy blond and is closer to being age appropriate. (whatever that is!)
The next step is to run it past BFF and see what she thinks.
It's sort of ironic when I come to a point where I think experimentation is over, it may be just beginning!

Cyrsti's Closet

I'm trying to get into a routine of least once a week writing just an overall look at life.
This week is sort of a middle point of this month in several ways.
I'm 12 days or so in my HRT and about 12 days away from my check up with my prescribing doc.
The only real change I'm feeling so far is an incredible sense of well being on occasion. I don't know if it's physically based (from the hormones) or mentally based (because I am taking them) but then again it doesn't matter because it is real.
Other than that, life has settled into a very different routine.
Not working a regular job has been scary and liberating -all wrapped into one.
Scary as in financial considerations and liberating as in being able to really concentrate on my writings and selling antiques.
All in all I'm trying to take a breather before life sweeps me away again as it always does.
I'm sure it won't be long before life opens my door again and says "come on girl, it's time to go!"
One thing is for sure, I'll be ready for the knock on the door!

"Trannier than Thou?"

I understand this phrase has been used for awhile but in my protected little world I have never heard it until this morning.
As luck would have it I also came across a blog by "Jane Fae" which covers the subject again.
Over the years, I have found the cat fights within the transgender community to be simply worthless.
I cannot believe so much energy is wasted on the topic.
Here is an excerpt from Jane's blog:

"So why didn’t i transition years back? How come i’ve lived the life
i’ve lived: enjoyed, as some would have it, a life of privilege; and
only now, with everything else done and dusted, come to a realisation
that a large chunk of the past was built upon a mistake?

Because, of course, there are those – purists – within the great trans
diaspora who take a very dim view of this late transitioning thing.
Why, they argue: if you transition after you’ve been married, or had
kids, you’re not proper. If you transition after teenhood, you’re not
proper. If you didn’t know, aged 7 and three-quarters…

If you didn’t transition in your mother’s womb you’re not a true transwoman."

Even though I agree with her, the whole argument gets so tiresome!
I have seen so much intellectual energy wasted on this by groups with in our community. Mostly on the so called big transgendered blogs. Time and energy which could be used to help our community.
Who cares if radical feminists don't like us anyhow? Isn't that why they are "radical"?
Can't we all just get along? Sometimes it seems all the estrogen and such ingested in what ever sort of male body seems to bring out more than a few of the bad female traits.

Certainly being "trannier than now" helps no one and is counter productive to our community.
So I said it and now I can get back to my life. Thanks for listening (or reading!)

It's All Fun Till Someone Puts An Eye Out

Sort of a crazy title? Well no one has ever accused me of taking the easy out or doing things normal.

But what does that have to do about putting an eye out?
Simple! All this time I was having fun and games and it took me this long to find out I was in a game until now.
No more hiding behind the makeup when my male life became too rough. No more weekend forays into the female world.
My life now makes my past seem like playtime.
Not that is bad. Children learn from playing and come out with two eyes. So did I.
All this time I was feeling sorry for myself for having such a late transgendered start. I really wasn't. From the age of 10 or so I was playing and learning in preparation for this part of my life.
The confidence I'm feeling now may be coming from the fact the fun is over and I still have two eyes!

Male vs Female Transgendered Aggression

First and foremost the following post is only written from my experiences and a very difficult post to write.
More than difficult-painful. Please remember I'm knocking on the closest piece of wood (my head) that karma doesn't bring any future pain to me.
Also consider I don't present 100% female, working on it but still identifiable as  transwoman  to many. I'm OK with that.
Finally, none of this is intended as a sympathy ploy, information only. I have considered the sources and I'm past it.
My idea for the post came after conversing with a friend about her no men preferences. I went on to explain why I personally don't believe in that.
As I was going through the reasons, my final one was that four times as many women have been aggressively mean to me as men .I've been lucky. I've out in the public as a woman for at least 10 years. (The last three nearly 100% of my leisure time.) Here's my total Women 4-Men 0.
I have had the cops called on me, been called a exhibitionist and verbally berated. All came from my use of the women's rest room facilities. Of course I look at using the women's room as a necessity number one. Come on, am I going to use the men's room dressed as I am? That's looking for more trouble that I don't want to even imagine. Really. I'm just trying to pee and go my own way.
Of course I have my reasons why genetic women have been so nasty with me. Two out of four were probably 65 or older. They were raised in an era when genders were male or female or hidden. Neither probably had a clue what a transgendered person is. One got her daughter to abuse me for being an exhibitionist? Really? You have to work to be an exhibitionist in a women's room with locked stalls. That experience hurt deeply.
The cop call came from an "unspecified source". I assume from the women who were watching when I went in. The police woman who responded was very professional and nice so the whole experience was just more than embarrassing than anything else. Over and done.
The final one was I truly believe envy driven. That night I just happened to be receiving a ton of positive feedback from women in the pub except her. She just happened to use the women's room as a place to corner me for a little "girl talk" which started with the word "Dude" and went down hill from there.
The reason for the unbalanced score is simple and certainly doesn't excuse men who commit the true violence against transgender people.
In my case I had the nerve to invade the sacred female refuge-the restroom. Enough is enough. Who does he think he is dressed as an attractive female and sitting across from me eating like a normal person???
No matter how advanced (or not) I was in my transition. In their eyes I was nothing more than a man in the women's room. What they don't realize is I and transwomen like me are the future. We aren't going away. The youngest of the four aggressors was at least 35 and they are on the way out. Like it or not the younger generation for the most part could care less. They are being positively influenced by more than a couple positive media images of us for a change.
Believe me all of this is not the main reason I don't exclude men from my social interactions. It doesn't matter much anyway. Most men are so insecure about their sexuality, a transwoman is the last person they want to interact with.
My personal solution to the problem is simple. Women such as that are not stopping me from living my life. Maybe one day I will be completely presentable as a female and it won't matter.
But you know it will always matter to me as long as any of my transgender sisters struggle with acceptance.
In the mean time I just don't want those poor misunderstood men to suffer! Just kidding! I had to add a little humor to such a painful post.

READ THIS!

A must read for all of you in a relationship with a spouse. Specifically a wife who is witnessing your transgender situation!
Follow this link.
Thanks so very much for sharing "Sherri". It means a lot!