Nine-Eleven

This the date of one of the days in my life I will forever remember where I was and what I was doing-clearly and completely. ( I can't remember what I did last Monday.)  Today is September 11th and of course, I am writing about 9/11/2001 when my country was attacked.

I have yet to figure out the depth of hate and violence the human animal can lower itself to. But I do know this, scratch the surface of us all and the animal is not far away.

I am not going to write another word about 9/11, rather, I  am going refer to this set of George Harrison lyrics from the Beatles "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"

I don't know why nobody told you How to unfold your love.
I don't know how someone controlled you 
They bought and sold you 
 I look at the world and I notice it's turning While my guitar gently weeps 
With every mistake we must surely be learning 
Still my guitar gently weeps

Renee Reyes

As a follow up to our Cyrsti's Condo post on successful transgender woman exec Martine Rothblatt-  we received this comment from J.AlanaS:

Hey Cyrsti, while searching for tips on transgender makeup I came across Renee Reyes  (left)  She's made a few fortunes and had the experience of being outed in the board room. For those who haven't been to her website or viewed her profile, I'd recommend it. Also, she has links on other sites that cover transitioning.

Thanks so much J.Alana!  I followed the link (as you can too above) and agree it's a wonderful informational place to go for transgender women who are transitioning -or are considering it!

Also, I used a quote and sent along a link on the same subject (Martine Rothblatt) from Helen Boyd.  Here is a partial comment from Jen Smith. from here in the Condo:  


I guess in short, someone who transitioned had to be able to overcome some serious obstacles to get there. I'm sure that people that can accomplish that can accomplish many other difficult things. Maybe to them most other obstacles look a lot easier to overcome?

Thanks Jen, and In my case, I wish I could reclaim all the time and energy I wasted being part of a person I wasn't. How much more could I have accomplished? On the other hand, some people just have a knack for making fortunes or being in the spotlight and I agree - after transitioning genders, much in life is a cakewalk! 

Cyrsti's Condo Idols!

I  just love the style of "Dita Von Teese!"

Need I say more?
OK, I do. She was once married to Marilyn Manson. Did she do his makeup?

Cyrsti's Condo "Quote of the Day"

From my friend Missy this morning who I recently came out to:

"I don't know why you would ever worry about going out as a woman.  You look like a woman, maybe not "Jeniifer Lopez-but a woman."

I will take it!

Martine Rothblatt

 If you missed the story, the highest paid female business executive in the United States is Martine Rothblatt. She earns $38 million-a-year as head of United Therapeutics,  married parent-of-four and underwent SRS in 1994. Now she has been named top in New York Magazine's list of the 200 most successful entrepreneurs - one of just 11 women on the list.

I wrote at the time I hadn't had much of an opportunity to read about the expected backlash to all of this but Cyrsti's Condo regular Jen Smith did:

There were a couple of links on this, and I read some of the comments on one of them. There were a bunch of negative ones, but there were few that were "battling back" :-)

Just seeing a trans person in such a powerful position, dominated by older males mostly, is what I though was the real takeaway. I guess she made her money before transitioning. But rather than fade into privacy after transition, she kept going with her career fully in the public eye. 

It's just so encouraging to hear and read about things like this in the press.

Indeed Jen! and thanks!  One of the links which caught my attention came from the always topical en/gender blog from Helen Boyd  (here's an excerpt which should get your attention!)   

I (Helen) just LOVE that, the idea (finally!) that trans is perhaps an ASSET, that it implies an individual’s ability not just to be self-made, but to be determined. Overall, interesting article about a highly eccentric person – eccentric because she’s rich, natch – and some passing mention of cyborgs and AI and the robot she made of her wife.

Follow the link to read more!

Biggest Fear?

I know many of you are deep in the closet and I remember completely the pain and paranoia it creates.  The problems of near misses and discoveries are legendary.

Of course I have my own, and many of you have commented here in Cyrsti's Condo about yours, but here is one classic.   From an acquaintance of mine years ago, who just happened to open the door to the wrong person when he was cross dressed.

I am going to switch pronouns now and say she was able to cross dress extremely well into an attractive classy woman.  She also was single and her house was pretty much a central "meet-up" point for a group of individuals I knew who spanned the full spectrum from an admirer or two to transsexual women.

As she told the story, a couple of friends from our group were due at her house at a certain time.  As the time came, the doorbell rang and when she opened the door it wasn't the expected friends at all.  The person outside was one of her male co-workers!  When he saw her, he got this little grin on his face and asked for his male friends name.  Even though her mind was exploding at the moment, our cross dressing friend said she managed not to lose her cool and said they were going out later and he had just ran up to the store.

Fortunately, this was in the mid 80's back in a time when his career could have been totally ruined by being outed at all-but he wasn't.  Instead, in the very intensive male job he worked at everyone wanted to know who the new hottie he was dating was.

Even though he had the benefit of appearance when he cross dressed, he said he was always careful to see who was at the door before he opened it.  No matter when it was.

I'm going to try to come up with a "best of" list of my screw ups in a later Cyrsti's Condo post!

Cyrsti's Condo "OOOPSS!"

The only caption I could put on this unnamed cross dresser picture is....

"I worked soooo long on my perfect makeup job and the wife and kids came home early!" Dammit!

Maybe I can use the old womanless beauty pageant story at the VFW?

Cyrsti's Condo - "Star Gazing."

It's time again kids (as we do every week) to look at our Friskyscopes! If you are a Libra, as I am- get ready to NOT be a meek and quiet little baby girl this week:


(September 23-October 22): Stop the complaining and the wondering why, because this is a time when positive ideas and thoughts can propel you ahead. Don’t be shy about using force in how you present yourself, because you can’t be too aggressive now — especially verbally. While you still will be in just-about-arm’s reach of your goal, be proud of the progress you will make this week.

Cool!!!! Now that is my kind of "scope" and now here is my "guest" sign of the week. It was a tough decision this week picking you Capricorns! :



(December 22-January 19): You’re going to hear a lot of sob stories and excuses now. Prepare for the wave of bullshit to come in like a tsunami. However, since you know it is on its way, you will be prepared to view it all as a comedy and be amused at the many ways people try to shock you and wrongly assume you are more naive than you appear.


For more-go here!~

Cyrsti's Condo "Cover Girl" of the Day

Our feature cover today is the Vietnamese Mtf transgender woman Khanh-Chi-Lam!