Shopping Karma

Nearly the first thing I do in the morning is sort through my email boxes. I check to see if any of my three collectible shops on Etsy and Ebay have sales and then look to see if there is a possible transgender story or two to pass along to you visitors here in Cyrsti's Condo.

I do quite a bit of networking the shops on Twitter and Pinterest and this morning I received a "follow" request on Pinterest from Blondellamy' Dean, A Curvy Girl's Boutique.  The request sparked my interest in that the follow request was for my TruNorth Pickers Shoppe,  which has nothing to do with fashion, makeup etc.Then I checked them out and found they offer sizes from 10 to 36 and a full line of fashion, accessories and makeup.  Hmmn, I thought do they know more about me than I sell all sorts of collectibles? At any rate I went to the site and subscribed to their weekly newsletter to add to my on line collection.  In many ways I am sort of like the person who liked to mull through weekly newspapers on a regular basis from around the country. (When they were relevant.) You can check out their store by following the link above.

Then, I jump over to Crysti's Condo to do this post and stopped by Femulate first. As Momma Karma would have it, Stana's topic today is called "It is a great time to be a tall woman." If you don't know Stana sets the "tall woman" standard at 6' and to put it into perspective, she is over 6' and I am slightly under.

As I sipped my morning "cup o joe" (coffee), my morning noggin thought Wow! both of these topics work well together because indeed most of us share size issues, transgender or cross dressers alike. To again put the topic into perspective, follow the Femulate link above to view how Stana has turned her height into a plus when she owned it and remember I have had to own the fact I'm stuck with many of the "football body" ready features I was born with.

My point is when I hear from those of you who immediately say "I can't present well as a woman because of my size" I think maybe you should do some research - and while I'm preaching at you, skip that Dbl Bacon Cheeseburger you have for lunch and consider a salad to get that weight down a tad.  Also, you are already defoliating your skin every morning when you shave, just follow up with wrinkle creams and moisturizers and you will look better as a girl and a guy. Plus, if you are worried about detection, consider replacing a different cream bottle you may have hanging around with the anti wrinkle formula.

Well the "Joe" is gone and my dog is bugging me for her walk. See ya all and be well kids!

**I have added the "Blondellamy" link to our fashion boutique room in Cyrsti's Condo.

UK Mail

Almost on cue, a day or after so we got mail here in Cyrsti's Condo from our friend Paula across the pond in the UK about a recent story we ran from the UK's Daily Mail:  "Most stories in the Daily Mail are a little odd, it is a paper renowned for it's lack of balance and conservative attitudes (that's me being polite) rather than it's journalistic integrity."

And now there is even more from the Daily Mail:

"Sam"

"A macho father-of-three construction worker who used to secretly wear women's underwear to work has now become a woman. After struggling with his gender his entire life, Sam Bowler finally decided to make the change. Much to the surprise of fellow builders, the lipstick-wearing digger-operator said: 'Call me Samantha.' Thankfully, within a couple of days the construction crew fully accepted their new brunette, bejewelled member of the team."

Truthfully stories such as this give me pause because for all I know, they just may be that-stories. Then again presenting this doesn't make me much different than most of the major news outlets today. On the other hand, this story goes past the sensationalism and into the torment and trouble we all face transitioning as transgender women and men.

Samantha

Also as ironic. if you follow Paula's link above to her blog, she has reference to her being on a construction job.  For those of you who have or are going through a transition on a job know unless your co-workers are totally clueless, they know something is up.  Hrt is changing your skin, hair and subtle body changes before their eyes.

The Daily Mail just cut to the chase and said Sam walked out one day and Samatha came back.  Probably much of the acceptance happened because the ground work she laid out and many probably weren't surprised.

So if this story is true, way to "Play it Again Sam!"

Whose Kicking Who?

This letter is making the rounds. It's from a father to his homophobic daughter after she kicked her gay son out of her home:

 Dear Christine,

 I’m disappointed in you as a daughter. You’re correct that we have a “shame in the family”, but mistaken about what it is. Kicking Chad out of your home simply because he told you he was gay is the real “abomination” here. A parent disowning her child is what goes “against nature.”

The only intelligent thing I heard you saying in all this was that “you didn’t raise your son to be gay." Of course you didn’t. He was born this way and didn’t choose it any more than he being left-handed. You however, have made a choice of being hurtful, narrow-minded and backward. So, while we are in the business of disowning our children, I think I’ll take this moment to say goodbye to you. I now have a fabulous (as the gays put it) grandson to raise, and I don’t have time for heart-less B-word of a daughter. If you find your heart, give us a call. – Dad. "

 For the life of me I can't understand a Mother doing this at all, even though you all know I'm not a huge proponent of hoisting genetic women up on pedestal. She is still a Mom! I guess we can widen the definition of what a woman is versus just a female. Women are Mothers, females are baby makers.

 How great was it for Grand Dad to step up to the plate!

Lola

Thanks to the regular Cyrsti's Condo visitor who passed along this link about a visitor we mentioned earlier, Lola: Another of our regulars said she has sung it on karaoke nights! I don't know if there is enough Jaeger in the world!!!!

An Interesting Look at an Ancient Subject

Am I wrong or have pre historic drawings of men dressed as women been discovered in caves over the years or was that just in one of the gay restrooms I was in?

For whatever reason one of my cross dresser friends passed along this video for the Cyrsti's Condo big screen. In it, a drag queen explains why doing drag is similar to being pregnant.  I thought, really? How is this going to work?

As I watched though, the drag queen presented a couple good points.  My final conclusion was his ideas just cover the tip of the iceberg when compared with what transgender women go through, but he does have an "itty bitty" start: Similar to what many genetic women think about us!

Cyrsti's Condo Programming Note

Tomorrow (Oct 3) The Trisha Goddard Show (not known for it's deep ground breaking programming) is going to present a show on a transgender teen couple you have probably heard of:


Follow the link above for more information!

A Trans Girl has to do What a Trans Girl has to do!

Jenny Before

No offense to you British girls who visit Cyrsti's Condo but much of the transgender news coming out of the UK is nothing if not entertaining!

Check this story from the Daily Mail, about transgender woman Jenny who sold her house to pay for facial feminization surgery:

"A transgender woman unhappy with her masculine features has revealed that she sold her house in order to finance a £15,000 surgical makeover. Jenny Bowman, 56, had been left frustrated by the size of her nose and masculine jawline before discovering a procedure called facial feminization surgery after an online search. The operation, which softens and feminizes the features, isn't available on the NHS but fed up with her masculine looks, she took the dramatic step of putting her house on the market to pay for it."

Jenny After

All is fair in the battle for a better male to female transition unless you end up living in a box under a bridge.

How much can I get for my old dog on the open market?

"Lola" in my Rear View Mirror

You "more mature" kids around here in Cyrsti's Condo probably remember the Kinks' classic Lola. If by chance you haven't heard of Lola, here are a few of the lyrics which made the song so interesting to many of us:

"Girls will be boys and boys will be girls It's a mixed up muddled up shook up world except for Lola La-la-la-la Lola Well I left home just a week before And I'd never ever kissed a woman before But Lola smiled and took me by the hand And said dear boy I'm gonna make you a man

 Well I'm not the world's most masculine man But I know what I am and I'm glad I'm a man And so is Lola"

According to Wickopedia:  "The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, North London, by brothers Ray and Dave Davies in 1964. Categorized in the United States as a British Invasion band, the Kinks are recognized as one of the most important and influential rock groups of the era."

"Lola" itself , was a song written by Ray Davies. The song details a romantic encounter between a young man and a possible transvestite or transgender person he meets in a club in Soho, London, with the narrator describing his confusion towards a person named Lola who "walked like a woman and talked like a man". Released in June 1970, in the UK on the 12th and in the USA on the 28th, the single was taken from the album Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One and reached #2 in the UK charts and #9 in the US. It was ranked 422nd on the List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time."

In 1970, I was in college and worked a part time job as a DJ on the local radio station where the school was located. Nearly every night there was this guy who called and harassed the living daylights out of me to play anything by the Kinks so of course that night I played the newly released Lola. He called back so confused he could barely talk.  He asked if he had heard the lyrics correctly and of course I said yes and did I think Lola was a man?  I said most certainly to the disappointed kid - while all the while I was thinking how I could meet her!

Unfortunately the crappy "Dude Looks Like a Lady" Arrowsmith song gets most of publicity as a classic from our community.  But every and then, the grand old girl gets an encore performance opportunity on an area AM classic radio station in the area. In my mind she still looks as good as ever under the "electric candlelight" !

Cyrsti's Condo "Quote of the Day"

" Is it equally tragic to be bullied for who you are, versus being internally tormented for who you can't be?"

cyrsti hart