Make Up Lessons are no Act!

Courtney Act that is. Check this Cyrsti's Condo look at Australia's drag diva:

Cleaning the Condo

High Tech!

Awww-right, birthday has come and gone. Hangover not so gone yet but it's time to take care of some house cleaning in the Cyrsti's Condo mail box.

It's a great time as we are in the middle of some fairly miserable fall monsoon rain activity here in Ohio. I know many of you have it a lot worse such as in the Dakota "Black Hills" which are now the "White Hills" under a foot of snow.

BITCH!

OK kids, comments on the Kinks and Lola video, Shelle : I'll pass too I'm kinky but not the Kinks - and to Pat who commented on the Kinks makeup in the video - didn't a bunch of the Brit invaders wear some makeup back then? (pre David Bowie) We will have to ask Paula but then again we know she already was rocking the mascara!

Regardless of all of all my cynical comments, I liked the Lola tune because of the lusty unapologetic way the Kinks sang it!

On "You Bitch!" : from Marian,
Only someone who was transgender would want to hear that confirmation of a feminine identity!
That is true except I have one genetic girl friend who values that as a compliment too and is sad she wasn't there for my "anointing.".  We all have to remember some girls just have that "swagger"!  She feels I have now earned my place in her corner of the girls sandbox.

Finally, just a great story from a person it's probably good I don't live close to:

"If I ever had my own blog it would likely be called "A friendly and fun loving CD" since I am friendly and like to have a good time regardless of my attire. After the time I sang (screeched) Seger's "Turn the Page" I went back to my bar stool and asked those around me if they knew why I picked that song. Several of the regular guys were clueless but there was a girl couple on the other side of the corner of the bar. One was very pretty and quite petite and feminine.

The other was somewhat butch with a bandanna, jeans, boots and t-shirt. The butch one instantly pinged on the line "...is it a woman or a man". She then pulled out her phone and showed me a photo of a guy with a shaved head, trimmed beard and mustache and facial stubble and said "That was me". I nearly fell off my bar stool (for the record that would not have been the first time I fell off a bar stool). It turns out that the two girls had known each other in high school back when she was a he. After not seeing each other in over 10 years they met recently applying for a job at the same company...a small world reunion. They had dated in HS and were now dating again. It was all rather romantic if you want my opinion.

We had a great discussion and even involved some of the others as we let folks know that there is a spectrum or range that covers folks like her and other folks like me. A rather memorable evening at the bar. I have been back to that bar several times while dressed but never ran into my two friends of the evening."

I'm relatively sure Pat and I could find some trouble to get into but girl don't upstage me by falling off your bar stool! If you insist on singing ...  we could call in the "Buffalo" Princess Bobbie who can sing if she doesn't choke on her damn cigarette first- like her "Bills" team did against the Browns...really? 

Well, If you would like to line up for your Cyrsti's Condo Sunday Morning Cheap Shot, maybe we can make it a regular feature?  Fun stories are cool too!

Preferably true ones in case the long lost Connie is visits the Condo!

And a quick add from Sally:

OMG. I always had such a crush on Dharma, but I didn't realise until watching this that Greg Aaron from Criminal Minds. Consider my mind blown. :)  Sally, after Alec Mapa (right) got done with Greg, he probably had a new idea of what a Criminal Mind was like!

Dharma and Greg and Friend Classic Drag

Alec Mapa as "Trina" on the Cyrsti's Condo big screen:

Cyrsti's Condo Fashion Nook

From one of my "fave sites" Fabulous after 40, here is more advice on how not too look "Fab-Boo!-less" while adapting the latest fashion to your style.

"How to Look Cool (not Kooky) in Camouflage."

 I know some of you are either recoiling in terror thinking of some of your old military garb or pulling your deer hunting gear from the closet but read on!

"Despite the print’s humble, utilitarian beginnings, camo has become a focal point in collections by Valentino, Proenza Schouler and other designers this season. This kick-started camo’s “of-the-moment” status as well as “love-it-or-hate-it” controversy. Regardless of how you feel about the print, no one can deny its wear-ability at any age! Camouflage can be surprisingly chic if you know how to style it right."

For more go here.

You Bitch?

It's football season in my part of the world and similar to many of you we have our share of very passionate fans who follow their teams to the heights of glory or into the toilet...including me.

As I did this transgender transition thing, at first I thought in order to do it right, I would have to become the stereo typical "foo foo drinking" woman down the bar with the girls. But as I looked a little closer, there were a growing number of women who were drinking their fair share of good old beer and I rejoiced!

Fast forward a year or so and I developed friendships with a couple of genetic women who not only would and could drink with me, they shared my passion for sports.

Using the word "cute" seems out of place here but this story fits the cute category, none the less. My mind is old and worn out and I think this may have happened last season when we were watching a game. One of the women is from Pennsylvania and is a huge out spoken fan of the "Steelers" and of course I live close to Cincinnati in an area with tons of Bengals and Browns fans.

That night a guy sat down next to her in an open seat as she prepared to raise hell about how the "Squeelers" were playing and it turns out he was from western Pennsylvania too. As luck would have it that night, the "Stinkers" continued to tank the game and I was having the time of my life and not being quiet about it!

Finally, he got frustrated enough to turn to me and said "You Bitch"!  I just smiled and said, "You don't know how long I have waited to hear that!"

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!!!!