Cyrsti's Condo "Sunday Edition"

Ker Plunk! Another edition from Cyrsti's Condo is arriving on your virtual front porch. Our "faux spring" is here in Southwestern Ohio, a great time for a cup o joe, or a "brunch beer" from Cincinnati's Bock Fest going on today. 
Page One: The Week that Was or Wasn't: This week, transgender women and men everywhere in this country breathed a sigh of relief when the governor of South Dakota vetoed the latest sweeping attempt to pass what's called a bathroom "genitalia" bill. More precisely, under the bill,you must use the restroom of your birth , not choice of identification.Before we all start doing our happy dance though,beware of a bigoted right wing legislator near you furiously burning the midnight oil  and wasting his constituents happy by wasting their time and money. Of course, I had to pass along an example of how "The Donald" would look in drag.

Page Two: Yesterday's Coffee-Opinion: As we just begin to see our share of the never ending (seemingly) political ads leading up to the Ohio primary, it's important to note my vote is worth more than most of the other states you may hear about in the more un-populated states because of the "U.S. Electoral College" or if the state has a primary or a caucus to elect. If you don't know what that means, don't feel bad, many Americans don't either. Very simply, if "yo girl" Caitlin Jenner lived in Indiana and voted for her guy Ted Cruz and I voted for Clinton in Ohio my vote would mean more.

Page Three: The Sweet Transvestite from? Last week I was approached by a friend to play Frank-n-Furter from Rocky Horror Picture Show. After some serious thoughts, I finally came to the conclusion of why the hell not ? Have some fun. 

I'm sure I will have much more to pass along to you before the Halloween Ball comes about in early October. Which, ideally, gives me another chance to have more fun at a more conventional Halloween party.

Page Four: The Back Page: Well that's it for this Sunday kids. Time to get on with my day. As always thanks for stopping my the Condo!!!!

Love you all!!!

Just Being Me

This morning Liz and I made our way to one of our fave groups-the Cincinnati Creative Meetup folks. A bunch of them fancy themselves as writers (as I do) but even I have managed to scratch out a bit more work than most.

Momma Karma though normally puts one or both of us close to an interesting person, regardless of their past literary successes. Of course (like it or not) I am sort of an attraction because I am transgender. 

Today, the person who ended up sitting between us for coffee and breakfast was a veteran too and writing about her experiences as a cis woman vet.

Of course we went from where and when did we serve to and what sort of care were we getting from the the VA. It turned out I thought mine was better in Dayton than hers in Cincinnati, which is probably not unusual.

From there came the fun part when I told her I was invited to the women's vets Memorial Day Picnic in Dayton this year and was tearing up as I told her. Not as bad though as when I made the point about Caitlin Jenner backing Ted Cruz, the all time worst choice of the candidates to support any LGBTQ rights.

With that, an exciting day of grocery shopping awaited and no we didn't see our friendly heels and hose cross dresser at the market, this time I really want to talk to her!

Helllloooo!

Before we get started, I would like to send a big "write out" to Kristina Nicole from the "Big Apple" who reads Cyrsti's Condo and is originally from Queens, New York. 

In it's a "small Facebook world", Kristina is one of two friends adds I just happened into. The other girl is from Seattle, where Connie is from. I asked her if she knew Connie or her man "Mick" but she didn't. 

At other times Facebook is too damn big. I finally have got the inactives from my past and have established a fairly strict set of rules for me to befriend you. Then again, the rules aren't too bad. Don't be some sort of fetish freak, from some country I have never heard of and a troll and there you are. Plus, I tell you the truth, I struggle with understanding what Facebook can or can't do for me, but I'm surviving!

Now, back to Kristina, I don't think I have had the chance to tell her my lead provider's nurse at the Veteran's Administration is from Queens.

At my age, I can't help but marvel how far we have come from the rural party line phone we had. It was no party when Mom or Dad caught us listening in on a neighbor!

Spring Into Spring?

Looking head on (no pun intended) on my newest hair color adventure. For once, my timing is fairly decent as the never ending gray color is beginning to slip through.

Trans Vet Pride

I'm considering going with a lighter red color this time around which will give me more options to stay ligher, go dark again or back to the vibrant "violet" which was such a hit last fall. Decisions, decisions,decisions. One thing for sure is I will have to color it again sometime around Memorial Day for my invite to the Veterans Picnic at the VA in Dayton and Trans Ohio Symposium. 

As I look back on it, maybe my violet hair was a bit of a clue that I may be wild enough to take on the "Frank N Furter character from Rocky Horror Show. (How about 'selfies' with Frankie') to make some money for charity?

TransOhio 2015

Also, before I forget again, thanks to all of you who bought my book. All of the sudden I began to get bi-weekly reports from the publishing platform I am on and at one point Stilettos on Thin Ice was in the top 35% of all Kindle/Amazon non fiction books. (Can't make any of that up.) Now I have to get up off my arse and get #2 done!

They Have Wolves in South Dakota? Right?

The highly transgender discriminatory South Dakota Bathroom Bill was vetoed yesterday by South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard !  

From the Washington Post: “South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard (R) has vetoed a bill that would have been the first in the nation to restrict transgender students’ access to school restrooms and locker rooms.

At least in South Dakota, the wolves have been held off-barely and now it's time to look over our shoulders for the next battle and hard fought victory.

I picked up the statement from Lexie Cannes "State of Trans" site. you can read it here.

It's a HUGE victory! 

Plus, in a rare moment of clear rationale from a politician, here is the governors statement:

 "In a message to state lawmakers announcing his veto, Daugaard said that the bill would have introduced a new statewide mandate that “does not address any pressing issue concerning the school districts of South Dakota.”

“Instead of encouraging local solutions, this bill broadly regulates in a manner that invites conflict and litigation, diverting energy and resources from the education of the children of this state,” Daugaard wrote, emphasizing that local school districts should be able to decide how to handle questions about bathroom use without interference from the state or federal government.”

Good point since after all we just dodged a bullet (literally) around here when a student opened fire in a cafeteria, only wounding four. Makes you want to ask where are the priorities? 

Momma Nature and the Cult of Fashion

Admittedly, I'm not the most "girly-girl" in the world, but this time of year I have some fun and do begin to think ahead to wardrobe issues. I really hate to look into my closet and be attacked so I get a head start on the seasonal changes.

I live in what is called a bi-polar climate. Tomorrow we are supposed to not get about 35 degrees (F) then next week we soar into the upper 60's. So ideally, I have to cross three climate lines with my clothes next week. Winter, spring and summer. The last two make it easier to think about my diet of course. Plus, I am thinking hair cut for the first time since I began to grow my hair long. The look I have added here is a "tweener" when I was doing it and I am thinking close to the length would be good.

Speaking of diet, Paula clued me in on what a "stone" equaled in weight in Great Britain - 14 lbs or so. Thanks Paula!

Shelle also commented the other day about her beauty "regimen" and basically, how it was all about habit aside from the products you use, or can afford to use. I have always saw it as ironic that most transgender or cross dresser women can expect the results they see in all these Pinterest glamour shots without work. One of the only redeeming value I can see about still shaving my old gray beard every day is the exfoliation I'm getting.

I'm looking forward to the warm weather too, because HRT has wrecked my thermostat as I whine about continually. I am freezing most of the time. This year though, I have been forewarned to stay out of the sun because of my iron levels.(Sunshine and UV rays causes them to soar.) They are much better but all in all they look as if I am stuck with them as a hereditary condition. 

Such is life in the fast transgender lane and "Momma" has been good to me I know, and yes I am looking soooooo forward to a sun dress or two this summer. Even if I have to wear it at night!

Dilemma?

I tried this post earlier this morning and it was deleted by mistake by me-as far as I know, into the far reaches of Al Gores internet.

For those of you who didn't see it. I have been asked to play every gender confused kids dream, Frank n Furter from Rocky Horror Picture Show. That's good, right? Well not so much.

The whole invite comes at a time when I'm more than a bit tender about crossing any borders back into drag queen land.   Then again "Frank" maybe is so far into camp and out of drag queendom it won't matter and I am positively fearless on stage (or crazy.)

Plus, the group I am doing it for needs me to do it because, trans or not I don;t figure there are that many guys ready,willing and able to add a little mustard and take Frank on for the Halloween Ball.

At this point all the dots have not been connected for the evening but Liz has guaranteed me a great look and since the evening's proceeds go to charity, I am sure I can "rock the Sweet Transvestite from Transylvania."  If the dots are all connected - I will take some mustard with my onions. 

Cyrsti's Condo "Sunday Edition"

Ker Plunk! Listen up! Another Cyrsti's Condo Sunday Edition is hitting your virtual front porch. Here in Southwestern Ohio we are entering our usual "schitzoid" March weather period. Today is sunny and in the 60's but with winds near 50 miles an hour and two inches of snow by Thursday, Maybe I can get a shot of "El nino" in my cup o joe? Let's get started!

Page One: The Week that Was or Wasn't: Perhaps a sign of old age is not remembering last week??? Actually, receiving my new Social Security Card last week from Uncle Sam was huge as was reading Connie's experience at SS and we will pick it up here: 

1. "The lady at the SS office was not so helpful either, as she was not up to date on the gender change procedure, even asking whether I had the "operation". The only thing she told me that seemed to make sense is that one should be consistent from one agency to the other. In other words, if you're wanting to change both name and gender for one thing (like your driver license), it's important to do both for everything else. I really don't care what gender Social Security thinks I am, and that extends to Medicare and the IRS. I want my doctors to know that I have a prostate gland that needs attention at my age, so an "M" is OK with me. Changing my gender on my passport, however, will be important, and the "M" connected with other federal agencies could cause problems should I even have changed to "F" on my passport. I don't want to find I can't leave (or worse, re-enter) the country because TSA has found the discrepancy or inconsistency. Even if I can't afford to take a trip out of the country right now, I need to make all the changes, starting with SS I think. When I do win that trip to Fiji on Wheel of Fortune, then, I will be ready to go! OK, that possibility seems remote, but changing my gender seemed impossible not that long ago, as well."
2. Thanks Connie! I really haven't given't a passport much thought although the way it's going, I may have to have one to travel to neighboring states around here!
3. Page Two: Yesterday's Coffee-Opinion: In February the Ohio Psychological Association confirmed LGBTQ people are just like anyone else! Here it is:
   First, OPA affirmed that modern science recognizes LGBTQ people as existing on a normal spectrum of human identity. That is, LGBTQ people are just like anybody else.  On February 13th, 2016, the Ohio Psychological Association (OPA) released a statement written by the Board of Directors and the OPA LGBT Committee. The statement strongly condemns the use of conversion “therapy” on minors. Follow the link for more. 
4. And!:Equality Ohio now has a link to follow key pro/con LGBTQ bills in the Ohio Legislature like this one::OH HB389 Sexual orientation/gender identity-prohibit discrimination/religious rights, A great way to see who holding the rights of the LGBTQ community back. 
5. Page Three: Entertainment: Transgender concert pianist Sarah Davis Buechner is going to be be performing March 6th at Xavier University here in Cincinnati. I mention she is trans at all because she risked her career to restart a as woman - and guess what, she still is as good as she was and undoubtedly happier for the process. 

Page Four: The Back Page: I truly didn't set out to have all this Ohio news in this edition, it just happened that way. (Story of my life!) I will say if your state does have an "Equality" site, you may want to check it out and discover the same info I did. It could get you a head start on where you can use the bathroom before you know it!

As crass as this may sound, I have to go so the dogs can go for their walk! Love you all! Thanks for stopping by Cyrsti's Condo and to Liz for pointing out all the Equality Ohio action!

Playing Chicken?

Tyson

Where is Neil deGrasse Tyson when I need him? Or maybe the other chicken guy, Colonel Sanders?

Seriously, Tyson is the ultra cool/chic astrophysicist not entirely sure what that is :) but you can figure it out by following the link. (Not Tyson chicken!)


Yesterday, through my usual fog, I happened notice after a close shave and a generous application of an Oil of Olay moisturizer, my face looked smooth and pretty good overall. So, I got brave and decided to just apply some contouring blush, light eye make up and lipstick  and see what the world thought of the new? improved ?? me!

As it turned out, I didn't take long to find out. Liz and I went to exchange Jr's (her son's) phones at the slightly redneck mall I write about. Amazingly to me , I received none of the side looks I normally get.

Maybe playing a little chicken and going more natural was good for me as a start to my spring/summer style. At the least I began to go through my closet today to evaluate the clothes I have to begin the season and build from there.

On the way home, we didn't even stop for a bucket of chicken because it's diet-diet-diet now for a month or two!