Cyrsti's Condo "Sunday Edition"

Such a week kids!

In our entertainment section, I took a ride on the "A-Train" yesterday.  As some of you know, I'm a huge train buff and yesterday in Cincinnati, my girlfriend and I took in two major holiday model train exhibits.  One was at the beautiful restored "art-deco" masterpiece Union Terminal and the other was in a conservatory.  Needless to say, we had a great time!

Food Review:  Following our long walks around the train exhibits, we built up an honest hunger and decided to try out a place we had not eaten called the "Swampwater Grill".  Both of us have a taste for Cajun cooking way up here in Ohio and didn't know it but we landed up in the right place. (We seriously have a knack for that!)  The "Swampwater" has a nice selection of Cajun dishes and a chef/co-owner from Western Louisiana for all you "purists"! We enjoyed a very unlady like dinner and loved it!

Holiday:  My daughter's family is Jewish so they don't celebrate Christmas and I don't celebrate the Jewish holiday's by mutual consent, so I'm going to break bread with her clan tomorrow before they head out on a mini vacation over Christmas to the nether lands of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  A chip off the old block, I used to love cold weather before HRT ruined my thermostat.  Christmas Eve and Christmas I spend with my brother's family and then New Year's back in Cincinnati with Liz.

Comment:  You are welcome Alice for your holiday video, I was happy I could find it and thought about you! Thanks for being a regular here in "the Condo" and Happy Holidays!  By the way, I think there are fewer womanless beauty pageants on the web these days because participants know their "talent" will be spread far and wide and perhaps more than a couple don't like it-particularly at the middle school level.

Well, that's it for another "Sunday Edition"! Hard to believe Christmas will have come and gone by the next edition is posted!  In the meantime, we have a couple more neat video's to pass along!

Merry Christmas Alice!

Alice is one of our regular visitors here in Crysti's Condo and I know follows all the womanless beauty pageants with great interest.
This unfortunately is not one of those Alice but yet I thought would be of interest to all of us if this happened in our apartment building and we were not asked to participate!

Are You "Fracking" Kidding Me?

For a change, one of Paula's fave "news rags" from the UK (just kidding) has come up with an article which hits close to home. "The Telegraph" announced U.S. scientists have found "gender bending" chemicals at fracking sites.

"Frack!!!"  Fracking is becoming a big business here in Ohio, just not close to where I live. So, I guess right now I don't have to worry about going off my HRT meds and just drink more water. Seriously, I'm not making fun of any more chemicals in our water and I have had my own conspiracy theory about those extra chemicals in our food and water.  Not only have they made cancer a huge growth industry, I think there is a distinct possibility chemicals have also expedited the merging of the genders.

I did get a kick out of  the Telegraph telling me  "fracking" wasn't the environmentally friendly process big oil has claimed it would be. Turns out it was my second big epiphany of the week. The first was when I learned "duck call boy" came out as anti-gay. Really?  A ZZ Top lookin bearded redneck from the Louisiana swamp not liking gay folk? What's this world coming to? Then again, I haven't seen many gay or transgender peeps on "Swamp People". Frack! Would an alligator say we tasted like chicken?

I was surprised though that it took the Telegraph to fill me in on the problems.  Must have been a "fracking" slow news day in the UK!

Cyrsti's Condo "Quote of the Day"

"Do not eat toast with wet nails!"  Guess Who?

Cyrsti's Condo "Woman of the Day"

From "Project Runway All Stars Season 3: Nina Discovers The Internet." We discover another stunning transgender model GiGi:
Go here for more!

The "Anti Jerry Springer?"

Jasmine Ford

Let's hope so! You can only hear "I was born a man" or "tranny" so much in the same hour. According to the Miami New Times a new talk show for the transgender "niche" will started on line this week.

 "Jasmine Ford, is lending her voice -- and face -- to Miami's transgender community with her talk show, The Gender Experience. Ford, 41, describes her middle class upbringing in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, as traditional, where topics such as gender disorders were never discussed. She recalls how other children around her would "solidify their gender identity and begin learning and mimicking the appropriate behavior prescribed for their sex." But for her, and others like her, this did not happen. "The popular description of being 'trapped in the wrong body' is an accurate one," says Ford."


The Gender Experience actually premiered last night,  Thursday, December 19, at 10 p.m. on TruRythme.TV. Personal inquires can be made to thegenderexperience@gmail.com, and the live taping will be held at CL Gaskin Center (5525 NW Seventh Ave., Miami).

For more on if you can listen on line and the story go here.

Coming Out to Others

"Coming Out" to the ones you love is one of the most difficult tasks we will undertake and if you are like me, you will try to do it the wrong way. All of us who have come out totally or partially, have run the gamut doing it with a gradual "sit down talk" to a full blown "meet up" at the door in heels and hose...intended or accidental. Whatever the case, a genetic woman is going to "categorize" exactly what "Coming Out" means to them. More than a few immediately begin looking for a divorce lawyer but then again many don't.  Take this recent Cyrsti's Condo comment from Pat as an example:

  "The other night at dinner my wife passed me a nice comment about the cleavage that I had created as I sat across from her at the table. Just one more joy of being able to cherish my gender issues."

Obviously, Pat and I both were "out" to our wives, which I know isn't so common in the cross dresser / transgender world. For whatever reason, more than a few women refuse to accept "their man" in a pair of panties, let alone full feminine attire. As I have written numerous times my wife did not have any problems with me being a cross dresser. She couldn't. She knew from day one.  Done deal, who cared, worse problems. However, her life was good with me as a crossdresser not as a transgender woman. Which I understood.  In all fairness to myself though,  I didn't really know how I identified for much of our marriage and transgender was just a little known word. As I began to consider I was much more than a cross dresser,  I never wanted to admit it to her and my whole situation became one of "trust". I didn't love her enough to trust her with the knowledge even though both of us knew it would be the end of our relationship.  As we all know trust is the very glue which holds a relationship together.

Over the years, I have had numerous people ask me how I came out to the people I did.  The brutal truth is I have only came out as transgender to my daughter and a couple other friends who pretty much wrote me off. (one did-one almost did).  For the record, I have never came out as transgender to a male but have as a cross dresser. Why?  I think most certainly telling someone you have this "thing" about wanting to wear feminine things is easier than telling someone you want to be one of those feminine things. You are jumping "camps" and men immediately distrust you for wanting to and women wonder why you want to jump on board their bandwagon.

All the problems are compounded of course by being in a relationship which may even involve children.   An important point to remember when telling a spouse is she may not think your gender issue is a bigger deal than the trust issue which came hand in hand with it.  Specifically, how long has this been going on and why was she the last to know?  When and if you can seal this wound, then it's extremely wise to tell your whole gender story.  Don't be like me and say "a day or two a week living as a woman was cool when I was thinking about HRT."  It was about that time in our relationship when my wife laid down the infamous line "be man enough to be a woman and stop the torment for both of us."

I have no scientific stats to back this up but I think the younger generation is doing a better job of accepting relationships where one of the partners is trans.  At least I hope it's the case.  In the meantime, my best advice to those seeking to come out to love ones, don't get sidetracked by thinking they will get "freaked" by your gender choices.  They may already have figured it out or will get hurt by the fact you didn't trust them enough to tell them.

Cyrsti's Condo "Woman of the Day"

Canadian transgender Model Jenna Talackova continues to impress with an Elle Canada spread. Her reality show called "Brave New Girl" (reportedly) is still in the works.

Go here to Elle Canada for more.

Would You Bring You Home for Christmas?

Over the years here in Cyrsti's Condo, we have discussed the role of admirers (men who are attracted to transgender women for whatever reason) and even why more men aren't. When and if you can toss out the sexual aspect of a man with a transgender woman, the possibilities are endless.  Without going into a whole lot of detail, at the least we bring a totally different perspective into a man's life.  I have known many men over the span of my life who never totally got along with women.  Didn't trust them, couldn't communicate with them, their life was a gender stand off until many just said "to hell with it" and split up later in life.

Many of you have read me refer to an old cross dressing friend from the 1980's I'm still in touch with. We have debated this topic in depth on several occasions, especially around the holidays. We follow the exploits of several transgender or cross dresser women out on dates with their boyfriends and comment.  He is more conservative than I and thinks the video's are nothing more than a validation ploy to make the less than attractive woman seem more successful in the world.  On the other hand, I told him I don't see why more men don't date transgender women.  We offer much more than looks and many of us believe in the fading traditional feminine roles men covet,  but we are extremely difficult to find.

His final word always is "would you as a guy bring  you as a woman home to your family over the years." Good point!  I always hate it when someone puts me into a discussion corner but he is right. Every fiber of my being wants to stand up and say sure when truthfully I know I wouldn't.  But that's OK.  If I was dating a guy, I would understand. When and if he ever thought meeting the family was important to him, I would go as I went to my girlfriends holidays.

Being the woman I am though, I did have to have the last word.  I told him, with my male background I would understand why a guy would feel that way.  That alone, gives me more than a slight edge on most genetic women.