"Trans-tainment Tonight"

From the UK: "X-Factor's" Rylan Clark kissing a transgender model who looks suspiciously like Andrej Pejic. (She isn't)

Transition on Duty

More and more stories are coming out considering transgender and transsexual veterans.
Most of course are from veterans who are no longer in the service. We are still deemed unfit for service by the US Military.
Recently, The Army Times ran a story about a trans man who is beginning his transition on duty-in Afganistan.

Here's part of the story:

"She’s a lesbian, and almost everyone in her unit knows it. She wears her hair cropped short and has a distinctly boyish appearance. And she’s becoming manlier by the day, now that she’s started taking male hormones. Call her Keith. That’s the name this 26-year-old specialist, now deployed to Afghanistan, plans to take when she completes a transition begun several months ago when she started giving herself testosterone injections every other week, under the direction of a civilian doctor who specializes in gender changes. “It’s going well. My voice is deeper, I’m getting more muscle. I feel more energy. I feel more like myself,” she told Military Times in a recent interview via Skype from her containerized housing unit in Afghanistan. Keith declined to be identified by her real name because under military policy, troops diagnosed with “gender identity disorder” are deemed medically unfit for service and face administrative separation. The repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” in September 2011 cleared the way for gay troops to serve openly but did not address transgender individuals, def
ined as people who don’t identify with their birth gender."

Of course there is so much more to this story and you can read it here.

Plans A, B and R

As I think back on the last four or five days, I would be remiss in not bringing this up from my trans girl road trip.

First of all, forget about plan A and B- lets go straight to the "R"...for rest room of course.
Going into this venture I thought I had one pretty secure plan"R". The bus of course would have a unisex toilet. As in the best laid plans of transgender folk everywhere-the bus restroom was pretty much declared off limits and the driver would pull into rest stops along the way. Scratch that plan!

My added problem is I take "Spiro". For those of you who take or have heard about Spiro. it's a drug which is commonly prescribed in HRT as a testosterone blocker. Well it also is a blood pressure drug which also makes you pee- a lot on occasion.
So here I was, stuck between the bus and the "R" place- down the road.

I felt another factor would be the average age of the women on the bus who were older than even me. My theory has always been the older the woman the less understanding they are about a transgender girl in the rest room. However,  it was time to hitch up my "big girl panties" and get with the program as alternatives were basically none. (The men's room or the woods?)

So here I was, not only using the women's room with at least 35 women who had to pee as bad as I did but standing in line with them.  I tried to not show the abject panic I was feeling as minutes turned to hours waiting for a stall to open.

Amazingly enough, I lived through the first experience and the second, third and so on. The reasons were very simple actually: extreme need and new hair. I can't and won't tell you wearing my own hair makes me this beautiful creature but it does give me relevance.

I also can't tell you I ever lost my rest room paranoia on the trip or perhaps ever will but I was able to not let it ruin the rest of the experience. In itself a major victory!

Horror Scope

I knew my run of crazed "Horror Scopes" in Cyrsti's Condo would continue somehow- even though this one goes in an opposite direction!


Don’t ignore the obvious, no matter how sweet you want that someone or something to really be. Facts don’t lie. Just own up to it now, as the price to pay only disrupts others and you’re already in the red in terms of karma coming to save your ass from your current turmoil. So, message of the week: Reboot! Reboot!

Really? I need my ass saved a lot!
Sort of reminds me of the one of the old WWII Submarine movies. Dive! Dive!

As always, "Horror Scope" is my term. You can do to Friskyscopes to get yours!!!

Getting "Weepy"

Damn hormones! Here I was actually needing my soft sweater jacket not for fashion-I was getting chilly. The next thing you know I will be jumping from the summer furnace I experienced into the winter freezer I really never have.  Over the years, I have loved cold weather. Be careful what you hope for? Kidding, I love I'm experiencing what I hoped for but never really understood. Specifically unexpected weepiness in this case.  I don't even really know if it's a word but it sure visited during a show we went to on the tour.
The show was country/gospel and mountain orientated which sort of fit where we were in the mountains of West Virginia (DUH!) Certain musical numbers for some reason sent me into an elevated emotional state and yes a few tears followed.
Fortunately it was dark in the place and I really didn't want to be the only person in the place crying-female or male or transgender. All was good...until:
At the end of the show, the performers wanted to thank all the veterans in the audience. Please hold your hand up if you are a veteran. My friend jabbed me in the side until I did raise my hand. OK, no big deal. I survived until..."all you veterans stand so we can thank you!" Well, I really didn't want to stand for not the reason you think but guess what-I did-to stop the abuse to my side.
Oh, one more thing I neglected to mention. Not only did the transgender girl end up sitting in the front row, I was in the middle of the front row. Where the hell was Jimmy Buffet when I needed him? But I digress.
I'm sort of funny about my Vietnam Vet status for a number of reasons which I won't bore you with. Mainly my deal is that as a group we were swept under the rug like the war itself and don't get me started on the mistreatment of Viet Vets affected by Agent Orange.
So being singled out and thanked for my service is as foreign to me as going in the first place and you thought standing as a transgender person would bother me.
I had to say, standing was easier than being drafted and I only had one very elderly lady thank me for my service in WWII. (Kidding-I hope!)

Cyrsti's Condo Packing 101

Similar to so many other "jender jumping" issues, packing for a trip is yet another!
The days of tossing jeans, t shirts, socks and undies into a suitcase are gone. Not only did I have to plan for all the female accessories I would need, I had to plan for four to five days worth.
Of course the makeup was the easy part and my new "natural" hair style helped me not agonize over a wig. The hard part was planning outfits.
I was fortunate in that the entire trip was female casual too so I could mix and match sweaters, tops and jeans.  I think I would have only needed an extra top or so to have done better. The whole trip was an ideal starter venture for me but not without quite a bit of angst.
Finally, I shook off my considerable indecision on clothing choices and just started packing....everything. This  was huge! The whole process reminded me of how full circle I have been able to come since the cross dresser meetings I attended years and years ago. As it turned out, the feelings were just the beginning of how weepy I would feel later in the trip.
I know you are dying to know what I forgot!  It turned out to be just a minor article-my jacket. Really? Yes I did but I was lucky.
My drive to meet my friend for the trip was nearly an hour and a half away and for one of the very few times in my life I was running ahead of schedule. On the way, I had time to stop and shop at a deep discount store for some sort of jacket.
Amazingly enough I found a very nice sweater jacket at a very nice price AND it was the only one they had AND it was my size. The last time that happened was when all the planets aligned with some sort of esclipse of the sun.
So, as with most other life experiences, Packing 101 wasn't as easy or as hard as I thought it would be!

Jumping the Great Divide

I didn't really publicize the fact I was taking off on a mini vacation down into a very rugged area of West Virginia last week for about four days.
A genetic girl friend and I made the trip as two women and no we were not "roughing" it. If the truth be known I'm a huge rail buff and there are several historic operating train lines around the Elkins-Cheat Mountain area of West Virginia.
As fun and relaxing as all of that was, the fact still remained that I was leaving all vestiges of my male past behind for an unprecedented four days.
Interestingly enough, I have a ton of thoughts to pass along. So many in fact, I'm experiencing an overload problem of how to do it in some sort of coherent fashion.
My goal  for the next week is to try to pick bits and pieces from the trip and pass them along-including some of my friend's insights.
In essence, I'm unpacking my luggage and my mind.

All Hallow Back in the Day

This one goes wayyyyy back in the day:

" I won't tell you how many years ago this occurred . Only that I had a decidedly better figure! It was "back in the day" when a Halloween party was a rare coming out event. I believe as a transgendered person you can only do one party with the same people before they start to gossip. If you care. I got an invite to a classic party in an old Victorian mansion in one of the town's historic districts. At the door was an antique coffin with a very real skeleton observing the guests. My first wife (who figured that some day I was going to take off and be a girl full time) didn't much care I was going to the party with a female co-worker-dressed like a complete tramp. Halloween is a great time for genetic and TG females to strut their stuff. (Who do they think they are kidding?) Shaved legs, heels, micro mini dress and long blond hair pretty much described my outfit. When we arrived, I pretty much didn't say much and I found that a lot of the guests didn't really know I wasn't as I appeared to be. I was in heaven! Later in the evening, a couple did approach me to tell me how good I looked and didn't know the truth initially and did I want to go with them to another party? Reluctantly I had to turn them down. My ride was with my co-worker and I thought it would be rude to do that to her. The couple left and I asked the hosts who they were. It turns out he was a very new politician who was running for a state representative seat. As the years went by, he went to Washington and became a very powerful congressman. I've often wondered how deep the attraction was that night and did I destroy my chance for a job in the capital or even a "tell all" book? Let's see: "Monica and Cyrsti" A Life Under The Desk! lol"

Pick the Trans Woman!

Actually she is Liu Shi Han and is in the middle of this group of genetic women.