So let's see, in late March they brought the traveling replica of the Vietnam War Memorial Wall to my town. I heard nothing about it on the news or by word of mouth or anything. I was just on my way to work one morning and saw all of the trucks, trailers, and lights, in a field that is normally empty, and then when I asked around about it, I found out it was the replica of the Vietnam War Wall. Anyway, I went back that afternoon to take a look-see at it for myself.
Each name on that wall represents a human being who lived, loved, laughed, cried, and gave their life serving the United States of America. That's an awful lot of names . . .
I took yet another trip to Detroit, but I was so sick there was just no way I was going to try and fly as Kimberly. Couldn't you just picture me trying look pretty while hacking, coughing, choking, sneezing, and constantly wiping my nose? Still, just for giggles I took a pic with all of my bags to mimic the pics I have taken while "dressed".
Checking in with the Delta counter for my flights, the female Delta agent that has taken care of me over and over through the last 10 years chatted with me a bit. She long ago put two and two together and now recognizes me in both, male and female mode.
"Hey, it's nice to see you again! I was just thinking about you the other day and wondering how you were doing!" she said with a smile as she processed my ticket.
"Well thanks! I prefer Delta myself but they keep putting me with your competition because they are offering cheaper flights to where I'm going." I told her, while sticking out my bottom lip out in a "boo boo" look. She laughed and we chatted for a few minutes before I headed to the gate. You will be glad to know that not one single TSA agent bothered to come walking around the area where I was sitting this time!
I had some time on my hands in Detroit and so I went shopping. I hit up an assortment of shops and then just for giggles, I looked up "Janet's Closet". "Janet's Closet" is a fairly well known store that caters mostly to TG's and has a pretty big online business and so I thought it might be worth a look. I took a few pics of the outside of the store just because it struck me as amusing that a store catering mostly to TG's was in the same building advertising "Drag Racing".
They had lots of hair in there, one was even a pretty close match to my short flippy hair and I seriously considered buying it but decided not to. What I really want, is to find the same make and model of my long haired wig, and so I approached the counter. Behind the counter were two pretty and friendly women who were clearly more than comfortable with TG's. There was also a male customer in front of the counter who was at least as bald as I am and there was a part of me that wondered if he might very well be someone I had chatted with or met before. I'll never know though, because it seemed he made a point out of never looking directly at me.
"Can I help you?" one of the pretty ladies asks me. I sort of laughed, thinking to myself 'no, I'm way beyond help!'.
"Well, how good are y'all with wigs?" I asked her. Of course as soon as the words left my mouth I realized that this was a remarkably idiotic way to phrase it, and so I elaborated. "If I were to show you a picture of a wig, do you think you might be able to find a replacement?"
"I dunno - do you have a picture of it?" she asked.
"Well, I could go get my laptop out of the car I guess. I know it's Raquel Welch but I don't know the model and haven't been able to find one that I am sure is the same model".
"We only sell from the manufacturers you see here, so I know we can't get you that exact one. If you want to look for one like it, you can feel free to try them on though. Just let me know if you need any help!" she said with a great big smile.
I was sick for the rest of my visit to Detroit and so never once got the chance to be pretty. Next thing you know, I'm back at home renting a jack hammer. "Renting a Jack Hammer?!" you might be asking. Well I'm glad you asked! You see when we were looking for a home to buy, we had of course gone through many of them, never finding one that we really liked until we toured the home we now live in. The front yard was immaculate and beautiful and we just fell in love with the place. Then we walked out in the back yard and were stunned to see a full sized in ground swimming pool! We really weren't that keen on the idea of a pool, but we loved the house, and so we bought it.
Shortly after moving in, we were stunned when my wife became pregnant with my daughter. My son was 15 and we had never had more children despite the fact that we had used no birth control since he was born. After 15 years we had reached the conclusion that we just weren't going to have any more children and so we were stunned when she came along. As my daughter grew older, the pool became both a blessing and a curse. A curse because my wife had nightmares almost every night of my daughter drowning in the pool. Add to that the expense and hassle of keeping it filtered and clean. It was a blessing because it really was a lot of fun. My daughter ADORED the pool and would laugh, giggle, and squeal every time we took her in it. I would toss her up in the air over and over and every single time she would scream in delight and giggle for me. All of the giggles came to a stop though when the ground the pool and house are on started to settle as a result of the droughts here in Texas. First we noticed that we would fill the pool to the point where the water was almost ready to over flow one end of the pool, and yet barely entering the skimmer a foot lower on the other end. Then we noticed that the pool was leaking - a LOT. Soon it got so bad that we couldn't keep it full enough for the water to enter the skimmer, and if it doesn't enter the skimmer, you can't run the pump and filters. Our beautiful pool had now turned in to a green breeding ground for misquotes. Eventually we had no choice but to drain and inspect it, and when we did we found a wide variety of cracks running all of the way though it. We found them easily enough because the cracks were so bad that as the pool drained, water started to pour IN the pool from the surrounding ground through the cracks. We got two estimates for fixing the pool and they both exceeded $20,000 and only came with a four year warranty. Then we found out from a neighbor that they know two other people in our town that had to demolish their pools after multiple expensive repairs. It seems that the ground here settles and expands far too much for in-ground swimming pools to survive. I don't know if it's true or not, but the same neighbor told me that companies will no longer install in ground pools in our town. I can't afford $20,000 every four years to rebuild it, and I can't leave a huge concrete hole in the back yard breeding misquotes and just waiting for a child to fall in and get hurt, and so enters the jack hammer and at least one very tired old man . . .
The following week I was off to Cleveland Ohio, but still feeling poorly and so traveling as Matt. Toward the end of the week I did finally feel good enough to get out for a while one afternoon. I wore this pretty little brocade skirt, a plain blue top, and a pair of Jessica Simpson Mary Janes I found last week. They are very retro, with kind of a 1920's look to them and I love them!
I spent the afternoon and evening shopping the mall for brown or grape shoes as I still haven't found a pair to replace the brown shoes that fell apart on me a few weeks ago. I DID ultimately find a pair on sale at Macy's that are purely awesome! They have a VERY high heel, either 4 or 5 inches though, and so are higher than I really want for walking through airports, but I absolutely loved them and snatched them up. I'll probably have pics of them after my NEXT trip! I guess I still wasn't feeling so hot after having been sick for more than a week, and so my confidence was not what it normally is. As I walked from Macy's to Dillards, I felt like everyone that walked by me was staring and laughing behind my back. I know that's silly, but still . . .
In Dillards I was looking for some summer tops, and hoping that I could find something I liked that was a little different from my norm. It had begun to bother me that all of my outfits are essentially the same. Different colors and different lengths, but all were essentially fairly elaborate skirts matched and sleeveless sweaters. I have realized this long ago, but it has only recently begun to bother me. It also doesn't help that the sweaters are hot, and with summer coming, hot is going to be a bad idea soon. Still, nothing I find and try on seems to look good on me. I wonder if they have people that give fashion advice to poor redneck cross dressers to help get me out of the fashion rut I'm in? Anyway, I was looking through Dillards and see this awesome thin and floaty top on the manikin. It was a very light fabric that I assumed would be cool to wear, and was belted at the waist and very feminine, and so I thought that maybe I'd give it a try. As I was looking at it, the SA walked up and showed me where I could find it on the shelf. As I was picking up the price tag, I was thinking that it was maybe $40 or $50 and not sure I could justify that expense, and so imagine my shock when I see the price tag is $200! $200 for that little bit of gauzy material, and it didn't even come with the camisole or belt it was shown with! I almost dropped the beautiful top and probably gasped out loud, because I notice the SA look up at me.
"You know, I think I just realized that I'm WAY to poor to be shopping here. Thank you anyway!" I told her with a smile and turned looking for the nearest exit from Dillards.
I wasn't quite ready to call it a night though, and so I headed to the movie theater where I saw the remake of "Clash of the Titans". It was all right - not the best movie I've seen, and not the worst, but it was a pleasant enough way to spend a couple of hours. When I got back to my hotel and started to pack, it was time to decide if I was going to fly home pretty or not. I still wasn't feeling well, and had spent most of my outing today feeling a complete lack of enthusiasm and confidence, and so I decided it just wasn't worth it.
In crossdressers.com, we had had a conversation where some had insisted that no woman would wear high heels through an airport. Since I had claimed that they were wrong, and that many women do indeed wear their heels through the airports, I made it a point to actually pay attention. I'm pleased to report that I was right and that there were a LOT of women proudly sporting their 3 to 4 inch heels. The only problem with my paying attention to this was that it began to irritate me that I hadn't worn mine today!
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