Death by karaoke. . .

 

OK, so the second night in Pennsylvania I stayed in Philadelphia and tried out a club called “Sisters” that someone on one of the yahoo groups I am in recommended. As an added bonus, they were doing karaoke that night!

Got the job done, got dressed, and headed into Philadelphia. Despite all the time I spend in cities, I still HATE the parking headaches and so I was immensely relieved to find a parking garage literally a few yards from the club.

When I got into the club I found an empty table and swiped it. This turned out to be fortunate as the place filled up shortly after I got there and then it was standing room only. The bad news is, karaoke didn’t start until late, everyone had their own little groups going, and so I sat there bored outta my mind and thinking that I should just head back to the hotel. About the time that I was seriously considering this, I noticed a young man that was sort of hovering around my table. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him start to walk toward me, think better of it and sort of turn around, just to turn back and start walking toward me again. I was just trying to decide if I needed to be concerned when he saw me looking at him and started talking.
“I’m starting to feel a little out of place here!”, he said.
“Me too”, I said, “but how come YOU are feeling that way?”
“Because I’m the only transman here”, he replied.
“Way cool! I’ve never actually met a transman before, feel free to have a seat!”

I took a real good look at him and have to tell you I would have never guessed he was TG.
Well, turns out his name is Cody, and he was there with a couple of friends and so can’t leave them to sit with me. He did however invite me to join them and so I did. We talked a bit and both sang a bit. Turns out Cody used to work there at Sisters when “he” was a “she” and I’m sure that must have come with it’s own set of head trips. He was very pleasant to hang out with and was the perfect gentleman.

Thanks Cody, thanks for letting me hang with you and your friends so that I wasn’t lonely and bored.

The bad news is that I received further evidence that I’m getting old. When I read through their karaoke book, I found maybe two songs I recognized. Apparently the music I know and love is too darn old for todays crowd. I think I sang “Time in a Bottle” and did it reasonably well. I can’t recall what the other one was, but I clearly recall that the key was way higher than I was used to or capable of singing, and so I made a complete ass outta myself and sounded terrible!
I think they call that “Death by karaoke”.

January 19, 2008 - Missy Anne

Wow, I am SO far behind in my blogging! What can I say, I’ve been very busy with work. Every
week I've been to at least one and sometimes two cities and often traveling on Saturday. That’s something I dislike intensely but sometimes you have to do what you have to do!

So, where to start?

Let’s start with Pennsylvania and Missy Anne and wife who I’ve finally been able to meet in person after talking to them for several months on-line! This was a first for me as these kind and gracious folks actually invited me to their home for dinner, and a darn fine dinner at that. For those of you that travel a lot, I'm sure that you will understand how much a home cooked dinner means to me. For those of you that don’t travel a lot, trust me when I tell you that you can get sick of restaurants, even the fine ones.

These folks live just a bit off the beaten track so I was a bit apprehensive while following the GPS’s instructions and was just starting to wonder if I had blown it when their address and home came into view. As I got out of the car, Missy Anne’s wife poked her head out the door and laughingly said “You better not look better than I do!” Trust me, there was no worry about that because she is gorgeous. She is a very attractive woman with one of those perfect little figures that most of us would kill for. Sigh . . .
Missy Anne is no slouch in this department either! It was so cute! They both had on almost identical outfits – shoes, A-line skirts, and blouse. My wife always hated the idea of matching outfits. <sniff sniff>

So these folks were wonderful hosts, making me feel immediately welcome and like a life long friend. It turns out that Missy Anne and I have a lot in common. A fascination for techie stuff, metrology, and music. She even pulled out her keyboard and we farted around with it for a while.

It turns out that I am the first TG that they have met in person! This is the fourth or fifth time this happened to me and I am really honored and flattered by the idea. I still remember the first Tgirl I ever met in person and she was a great influence. Very confident, proud of who she was, and a decent and honorable person.

Oh, by the way! If you have heard rumors about Missy Anne’s cheesecake I’m here to tell you that they are true – it was awesome!

January 18, 2008 - Indianapolis

OK, so last week I was in Indianapolis again. I like going to Indy because it’s a friendly place, I’ve met people there that I like, and I’m there often enough that I have come to know my way around a little.
The first night that I was there I met my friend Gina for dinner at English Ivy’s. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – English Ivy’s is a GREAT place to have dinner. The food is awesome and they are more than friendly there.

After dinner we went to “The Metro” where they do karaoke on Tuesday nights. The Metro is a nice place and the karaoke there can sometimes be extraordinarily good, with people that have real talent entertaining you for free!


 

 

The only thing I DON’T like about the Metro is that there is not a lot of seating and the place is filled with cigarette smoke. I can live with some smoke, but this place is filled with it until you feel like your going to choke on it. Even worse, when you leave there your clothing and hair REEK of the stuff.
Oops – I got off on a smoking tirade there – sorry!

So we had been there playing pool for a while when Gina got a call from Kara who was gonna

join us. Kara’s schedule wouldn’t allow for her to come “dressed” so she met us in boy mode. It didn’t take us long to find out we were both musicians, though Kara has clearly taken hers a good deal farther than I have. I can’t recall the name of the groups, but she mentioned that once upon a time she had been in a band that had opened for some very big names.

There was this awesomely cute GG that kept flirting with us. It’s funny, I thought I was over that teenage type angst with pretty girls, but every time she got close I became a nervous wreck, with my heart trying to thump it’s way out of my chest. I guess it’s good to know that maybe I’m not all THAT old.

Eventually Kara and I dragged Gina downstairs to check out the karaoke. When we got down the stairs a there was a woman singing. I don’t recall the song, but I recall thinking that it was ambitious and she was going to regret it. I was therefore surprised when she belted it out like a pro and the place just went nuts for her. I got up and sang something mediocre (don’t recall what) and Kara and I sat down to wait for her turn to go up. “She “ (remember she was in boy mode) got up and sang Frank Sinatra “Fly me to the moon”, and holy smokes the place got quiet as soon as she started singing. Remember this is a bar/club full of people talking loudly and having a good time, and they got quiet to listen! I swear it sounded as if Frank Sinatra himself were up there and everyone was looking at Kara like they couldn’t believe their eyes and ears. She was freaking awesome!

Well, it looks like Kara and I are both going to be in Indy in mid Feb and we may bring guitars with us this time. She says that there is a place called “Illusions” where it might be fun to jam. I can’t wait!

The next night I went to “Talbot Street”. This is kind of an alternative club where people of all kinds come to hang out, and they have a huge drag show with several performers.
I’d have to be honest that I’m not a big fan of drag shows for several reasons. Maybe it’s the musician in me, but I really dislike lip-syncing. I would rather hear someone sing poorly than to see them pretend to sing to a professionals recording . The other thing I don’t care for about it is the presentation itself. Huge, overdone eyelashes, garish makeup, etc. I guess I just don’t like that this is what most people think of when they think of a crossdresser. If it makes them happy, then more power to them, but I will never go out of my way specifically to see a drag show.

I met a couple of other TGirls there - Gina, Christy and another girl I can’t recall her name now. I also met Doc there. I know I might get flamed for saying this, but Doc is the only “admirer” I have ever met that doesn’t give me the creeps. He’s a gentleman and a nice person and it was nice to have his company.

I sure hope things go as planned and Kara and I can get the chance to jam in Feb.!

December 22, 2007 - I wanna go home!

So my latest trip was to Detroit on Sunday 16 Dec where I planned to work with my customer on the following Monday morning, then get on a plane for Indianapolis that evening to work with a customer there. My trip to Detroit was supposed to be about 6 hours long, giving me all day Sunday to play. For that matter, I had seriously considered flying "dressed" for the first time since it was a short flight and I didn't have to see the customer until the following day. Luckily for me, my wife talked me out of flying dressed because the flight to Detroit turned into a nightmare of canceled flights, re-routing, and delays. The trip that was supposed to take around 6 hours took over 21 hours. Had I flown dressed, the cat would have been outta the bag after about 12 hours when the beard would have started showing!

So they boarded us onto the plane from Atlanta to Detroit, let us get all seated and belted in, and then told us the flight was canceled due to weather.
Then they set me up on a later flight - that was canceled.
They offered to fly me into Grand Rapids, around 100 miles North of Detroit, but I figured if the weather was so bad that a huge airport like Detroit had to close, then I darn sure didn't want to be driving 100 miles in it.Eventually they rerouted me through Memphis and then onto Detroit. The flight to Memphis was then delayed so that I had to run like hell for the connection and I just barely caught the connection.

I just caught the connection.
My suitcase caught the connection.
My tool box did not make the connection. #%$*#~!!!!

By the time I make the lost baggage claim, get the rental car, and drive 40 miles north on the ice and snow, it's about 1AM when I get to bed. At 5AM the airline calls to tell me my tool box has been delivered to the hotel!

The view from my hotel room in Troy MI

Monday I got the Detroit job done and moved on to Indianapolis for the next service call.

Shot from the gate at the Detroit Airport on the way to Indianapolis

No problems this flight but apparently I ate something I shouldn't have and got food poisoning. Tuesday I spent with bad stomach cramps and. . . well. . . no delicate way to say this . . the "runs" . . . and I had them BAD. I didn't feel too bad other than that, I just couldn't get more than a yard from the bathroom. This was a bit uncomfortable as my customer was a 40 minute drive from my hotel.

Taken on the drive from Indianapolis to Columbus Indiana

Tuesday night when I got back to the hotel from my customer I had to go to the bathroom VERY bad, so I grabbed my laptop, locked the car, and ran like hell for the room!I was supposed to go out with Gina that night, but I decided to throw in the towel and called her to explain that I just couldn't do it. I then crawled into bed where I would sleep for about an hour and half, run for the bathroom, then go back to sleep for two hours, etc.

The following morning when I got to my rental car to make the drive back down to my customer, I discovered that in my haste to get to my room the night before, I had left my GPS hanging on the windshield. Yup, you guessed it, some no good, low life, scum sucking, son of a dog busted out my drivers window and stole my brand new, less than a week old GPS unit.  

What a new GPS unit looks like when you leave it on the window over night at a hotel

I know that a $250 GPS isn't worth someone's life, but right then I would cheerfully murder the guy if I could get my hands on him. The rental car company brought me out a new car, I bought another GPS, and went back to work.


That night I met Jenny for dinner.

Going to dinner with Jenny Wed night

I'm not sure how much Jenny would be comfortable with my speaking about here so I wont tell you much about her other than the fact that she was a very nice person and it was a pleasant evening. Still didn't feel very good and so called it a night after dinner and went to bed.
Fortunately the next day I felt a LOT better and went got to hang out with Gina again.

Going to dinner and The Metro with Gina Thur night

We went to English Ivy's for dinner as usual, and then went to The Metro for drinks and karaoke The last time I went to karaoke there it was awesome. this time it was kind of sad in comparison. I also found myself choking on the smoke in the place - I don't remember it being so bad the last time. Now my clothes and hair reek of cigarette smoke! :-(

Friday I woke up at about 3AM to discover that what ever it is I had, food poisoning or something else, it had NOT left me after all. I spent the entire trip home running from bathroom to bathroom. Pretty sure this trip goes down in history as my very worst ever and I just couldn't wait for it to end! The good news is I lost about five pounds and now weigh 145!
Darn shame it will be temporary!

December 08, 2007 - Lexington Kentucky

This weeks trip was to Lexington Kentucky. I searched the Internet for things to do here and about all I could find was horses, horses, and more horses. :-)
Well, I guess I'll just have to go shopping! I found the Fayette Mall and took a walk through it.

I found a few things I liked, but nothing I couldn't live with out. The good news is, as far as I could tell no one made me, so life was good.
After the comment I received at the Glamor Boutique, I decided to try hip pads. The off the shelf apparel with hip pads incorporated just didn't seem to look right on me. Either I looked like I had dinner plates on my hips, or tennis balls - no happy medium, so I made my own.

I think they DO help my appearance but they are a pain in the butt! Have to wear a girdle to hold them in place, and lord help you if you have to go potty, because getting them back in the right place takes a bit of effort! Do you think they help my look enough to be worth the hassle?
Did my window shopping and then decided to hit up "Mia's" for dinner. Mia's is a small "friendly" bar that also serves food, and I've got to tell you, it was a darn good meal! I ordered a long island Iced Tea and darn near fell off my stool when I took my first drink of it. They don't hold back the alcohol there!
It seems like there were several small groups, all doing their own thing, and I sat at the bar pretty well bored outta my mind. Spoke with the bartender a bit - it turns out we were both into the "Tin Man" series currently airing on Sci Fi. She turned the TV on to watch it, but had to use closed captioning which makes for a bit of frustration. I'd been there for a little over an hour when two ladies sat next to me and I struck up a conversation with the one closest to me - Sharon. Turns out that she is from Texas, only a couple of hours from where I live. We talked a long time. She and her wife (get a grip, this WAS a lesbian bar!) manage the club down the street "Club 141/Z1" I think it is. She was a very nice person and I really enjoyed talking to her! The club they manage was not open on Tuesday nights, so I think I'll have to try and look them up when / if I get back there.

Got a call from Beth - turns out that she can get out! 
Beth is gorgeous and has a little bitty figure I'd kill for. I asked her if she did marathons and ate only rabbit food - she assures me she isn't an exercise fiend and eats like a horse. I'm pretty sure I hate her. Just teasing - Beth is a VERY nice person and I wouldn't hesitate if you get the chance to meet her!  My only regret is that with her work schedule, and my having to catch a plane in the morning, it seemed that she had just got there when I had to leave. With any luck, we will have more time if I get back again.

November 30, 2007 - It DOES get better!

Well everyone, I spoke to my wife some more about this tonight. She is honestly not upset, and trust me, if she was upset she WOULD let me know!The funny thing is that she said much the same thing that many of you have said here "Screw 'em if they have a problem!"

As my only pain was thinking that I had hurt my wife (however indirectly) I'm OK now. If she's not hurt, then I'm not. I honestly couldn't care less what these people think or know as long as they don't hurt my wife because of it.

I thank you all for your genuine concern. If y'all are "That kind of people" then I'm OK with that and proud to be a part of it.

Hugs from Texas!

November 29, 2007 - It Gets Even Better - NOT

As I recently posted, we found out Thanksgiving day that my Mother in law apparently knows about me and has been kind enough to share that with at least some of my wife's family. (Thanks Mom, love ya'! Really! Mean it!)
Well today it got even better. . .

My wife works at the same company I do so when I'm in town, we drive to work and back together. Today she let me know that one of the other ladies at our office was asked not to invite my wife and I to her "couples" baby shower. And I quote "I don't wont those kind of people around".

For this to make sense, you have to know that a woman who I now fondly think of as "Witch" used to work for my company, found out about me, and was completely repelled by it. Witch told the same woman who shared the "I don't wont those kind of people around" comment with us more than a year ago. It now appears that she told more people.

So way cool! My wife loves me for 20 years and gives me two wonderful children. I repay her by repelling her family and ruining any chance she has to make normal friends at work. . .

When we were speaking about it at dinner tonight, and it was all I could do to keep from crying, she told me "I know it makes you happy and I wont ask you to stop, but it hasn't been good for me."
Wow, I feel pretty much like the lowest thing on the planet right now.