Cute Critter Moment

As you read this, keep in mind my daughter does NOT know I wear dresses.
Last night I was putting my (almost) 5 year old daughter Audrey to bed and was reading her favorite book to her - Cinderella. My daughter is a MAJOR girly girl and she adores frilly dresses like those that Cinderella and the other Disney princesses wear.
For those of you that are out there thinking "Oh that poor girl! She has a cross dresser for a father and he's making her wear that stuff" I give you my word I had nothing to do with her preferences in this regard. She came by her love of that stuff all on her own despite my not encouraging it, and my wife being a major Tom Boy.
So anyway, in this book, Cinderella gets married and they have a wonderful drawing of her in her beautiful wedding dress. My daughter looks up at me.
"I wish I had a beautiful dress like that!" she says with a wistful look on her face.
"You will someday sweetheart," I tell her, "That's a wedding gown and someday when you are much older, you will get married and you will have your own wedding gown."
She thinks for a moment and then asks "Did Mommy wear a wedding gown when you got married?"
"Yes, she did" I responded.
"Did YOU wear a wedding dress too Poppa?" she asks with not a hint of humor or sarcasm.
"No little one, I did not wear a wedding dress" I told her, probably with a bit of a wistful tone of voice myself now.
"Why not Poppa?" she asked.
"Because baby, some grown up made a silly rule that boys aren't supposed to wear dresses" I replied.
"Why not?" she asked, sounding just a little indignant that someone would just arbitrarily decide boys could not enjoy something she loves so much.
"I don't know why little one, but people would make fun of me if I wore a dress. It's kind of unfair huh?"
"Yeah, thats not fair Poppa, but you can still wear a dress in the house if you want to." She paused for just a moment as if a thought had struck her.
"But not MY dresses Poppa. They are TOO small for you!"
I laughed so hard I almost cried!

Still In Indianapolis!

I am traveling with an engineer my company has just hired so that I can provide him with OJT but so far that is working out well. It seems that he prefers a different hotel chain than the Holiday Inn where I like to stay, so I am at one place and he is at another. So the odd thing is that even though I could have gone out, I just couldn’t drum up any enthusiasm for doing so on my second night there. I just stayed in the hotel and played my guitar.












The third and last day there, things came together so that we were done with our work fairly early. Since he drove to Indy, he was able to head for home early, and I was free to get dressed and go out!






I started by going to a new Goodwill by the Castleton Square mall. Didn’t find anything that struck my fancy there so I headed into the mall itself.

Started by going through Macy’s (my favorite department store) and didn’t find anything I wanted bad enough there so I walked down to Von Maur. You know those little kiosks that they have in the malls? As a male, they never ever bother me, or try to get my attention. When I’m “dressed” though, they always just about attack me.
“Excuse me ma’am, can I talk to you a second?”
“Excuse me ma’am, can I show you something?”
“Excuse me ma’am, would you like a free sample?”
You know what? It’s a pain in the backside! You tell them quite clearly “No thank, I’m not interested” and they just keep yapping like you hadn’t said anything. Do they treat all women like this, or is it only cross dressers they act so aggressively with?
Cruised Von Maur a bit but didn’t find anything I wanted bad enough to pay their prices for so I went and listened to their piano player. The guy was just awesome so I took a little but of video just to get the sound. Sorry, my new camera apparently doesn’t do audio real well.

So as I’m walking back up the mall to Macy’s where I parked my car, I notice a couple in their 30’s sitting on a bench about 20 yards away and they are watching me like hawks, not even trying to act like they aren’t staring. Sometimes this bothers me, sometimes it amuses me. This time it amused me so I gave them my best smile and winked at them. They both broke out into huge grins. She slapped him on the shoulder and I saw her mouth “See, I TOLD you so!” to him.

Went to dinner at my favorite restaurant – English Ivy’s. As I’ve said before, this place is just great. Comfortable, awesome food, and very friendly. Had a great meal and then headed to a place one of the ladies at the Holiday Inn was kind enough to tell me about – Greg’s “Our Place”. I’d have to admit it didn’t do much for me. The music was really not what I enjoy, and it had pretty much only guys in it. I don’t have any interest in yacking with guys, so I called it a night.

Indianapolis July 2008

Uggghhhh!!!
So today I got up at 3:30AM so I could take my 8:20AM flight from Austin to Indianapolis “dressed”. I’ve already been notified by email that I’ve received free upgrades to first class and so life looks pretty good. Everything is running ahead of schedule and I’m on the way to the Airport at 5:30!


When I get to the Austin Airport, the first thing I see is that the security line is so long it’s unreal. Austin is a relatively small airport and very rarely has lines long enough to be concerned about. That’s OK though, ‘cause I always get to the airport about two hours before my flights just so that I don’t have to worry about little things like this, so I go to check in with Delta. I get to the counter and am informed that due to some sort of weather problem in Atlanta, my flight has been canceled. No worries though, “since you’re here early, we can put you on standby for a flight that leaves at 7AM.”
Sounded pretty good so I accepted and checked my bags – then things got interesting. I was there plenty early enough to make it through any line in time for my 8:20 flight, but now all of a sudden I’m in a huge line, it’s 6:30 AM, and I’m trying to catch a 7AM flight. As you can imagine I’m sweating bullets but finally get through the line.



As I get to the gate they are boarding the last group . . and there are no seats for stand by passengers. Delta moves me to American, who has a flight leaving Austin to DFW at 11AM . . . oh goody. THAT flight ends up delayed and doesn’t leave until 1130! By the time I get off the plane and on to the airports tram for my next gate it is 1PM. Guess what time my connection from DFW to Indianapolis was supposed to take off? You guessed it – 1 PM. So it is now past the time my flight from DFW was supposed to take off but I ran for it anyway just in case it was late too. Folks, if you have never had the pleasure of running through an airport in 3 inch stiletto heels, consider yourself lucky. It’s no where near as much fun as you might think watching Pamela Anderson do it on TV.
As I’m running/speed walking to the gate, knowing full well it should have left already, I’m starting to consider things.

• I’ve checked all my guy clothes.
• First flight canceled, failed to get standby for second flight, then moved to another airline. What’s the odds my bag with my clothes is actually going to get there?
• I have no guy clothes. What am I going to do if there are no more flights from DFW to Indy tonight and I have to stay the night in DFW?
• I don’t have all of my make up, so if I had to stay the night, catching a flight tomorrow “dressed” is going to present significant problems as well.
• What if I DO get to Indy and my clothes don’t?

As I approach my gate, I see that the gate area is empty and so my heart sinks.
“Damn, damn, damn – what have I gotten myself into?”
I get to the CSR at the gate and hand him my ticket and tell him:
“It looks like I’ve missed my connection. Can you get me another flight?”
He takes a look at my ticket and hands it back.
“You didn’t miss it yet, it was delayed 10 minutes and was gate changed to four gates down”.
I snatched my ticket and started running again. I got to the new gate just as they were removing the door stop to close the door. At this point they often wont let you board anyway, but they did let me on. I get to my seat, heart pounding, perspiration dripping down my face, and smelling like I’ve just come from the gym. I am the ultimate in grace, beauty, and olfactory sweetness – NOT. As I’m falling into my seat, almost over come with relief that I’m not going to have to figure out how to get along in DFW for the night with no car, hotel, or clothes, I note that the two seats next to mine have two teenage girls who are both just kind of staring at me. I gave them my best smile and said “Phew! I barely caught the plane!”
No joke, they both just stared at me for about 30 seconds (which is longer than you might think) as if trying to figure out if they really ought to be speaking with someone like me. Finally the one right next to me says “Yeah, I know the feeling. We’ve been traveling sine 3AM”. So there I sit, frantically fanning myself with my ticket, feeling terribly embarrassed about my appearance and the way I smell after that run across the airport when I hear angels singing. Yeah I know, y’all think I’m nuts but I swear I was sitting on this airplane, exhausted from anxiety and running, and with perspiration running down my nose, when I hear two beautiful voices singing in harmony. It took a moment for my brain to stop spinning enough for me to realize that it was the two girls sitting next to me. They had leaned toward each other, and with their heads touching they were softly singing in flawless harmony. I was just stunned! Anyone that has spent any time singing knows that there is a world of difference between two people just singing together, and two people singing harmony together. This was just awesome. They sang three of four songs and I finally got the chance to ask them about it. Turns out they are part of a church group traveling from California to Indianapolis to perform. Despite their initial hesitation, these two young ladies chatted with me off and on for the whole trip.
Oh, and when I got to Indianapolis? My bags were waiting for me at the Delta office and all was well with world.
Y’all might want to throw me outta the cross dresser’s club for this, but I don’t think I want to ever wear my pretty little three inch stiletto sandals for 16 hours again.
Ouch . . .

Last Night I went to Sleep in Detroit City

So on 7 July I flew to Detroit “dressed” again. You know what’s funny about it? Having conquered that particular mountain (flying dressed) it has now grown a bit boring. All I got out of flying dressed this time was a very early start to my morning (3:30 AM) so that I could get ready. It didn’t really excite me or fulfill any particular emotional need in me this time. I just took a flight . . . as a woman.

 This time I wore one of what I’ve come to think of as my “comfort/confidence” outfits. Once a year or so I manage to find an outfit that I feel is a perfect outfit with just the right skirt, blouse, and shoes. This is one of them that I like the best.

In this picture I am sitting on my monster suitcase

The only thing that happened of note was when I went to put my bags on the rental car shuttle bus. To put it in perspective you need to realize that I carry at least two heavy bags with me – a 50 Lb tool box I need for my job, and a large 50 Lb suite case to carry a weeks worth of clothes for two people. 

 So while wearing my pretty skirt and heels I started to lift these two large and heavy bags up onto the bus when two gentlemen both jumped up and took them for me. I never got the chance to object or decline their help so I gave them my heart felt thanks in the softest voice I’ve got and sat down with a really odd combination of feelings.

• Embarrassment because my intent in visiting the world as Kim is obviously NOT to fool kind hearted and well mannered men into doing my heavy lifting for me.
• Concern because I wonder how they are going to react if they realize what I am and feel I’ve abused their chivalry.
• Joy and satisfaction that I clearly was presenting well and being accepted as I had hoped.

Oh, I also played what I’ve come to think of as “The Name Game” with the driver.
“What’s your last name hun?” he asks me, and so I give it to him in my softest voice.
My last name is fairly unique in the US, common in Canada, but I’ve never yet met another person in the US with my last name, and yet . . .
He looks down the list twice, going right past my last name because it’s pretty clear I can’t be Matt XXX. So he looks up at me again.
“What’s your first name?” he asks.
“Matthew,” I said, giving him my best “the cat’s outta the bag” smile. I swear I’m not making this up, he looks at me and asks again.
“I’m sorry, what was it?”
“Matthew,” I repeated again.
“Ahhh, I see!” he says, clearly having just had an epiphany.
On the way off the bus, one of the gentlemen that helped me onto it offered to take one of my bags off for me. I thanked him and assured him that I had lots of practice at it and would be just fine.




My Second Day

I decided to go to the Motor City Casino in Detroit. On the way there I saw the Oakwood mall off of the freeway and decided to go shopping at Macy’s. As I was shopping I noticed a woman in a very conservative suit and I sort of thought she seemed a little pensive. It took me a second to realize why – she was a crossdresser! I might be wrong, but I’m almost positive. All things considered, I figure it’s a heck of a compliment to her that I’m not positive considering how many TG’s I’ve met and interacted with. We made eye contact for just a moment and both of us looked away pretty quickly and went our own ways. I didn’t stop to talk to her because I wasn’t sure she was one of us and even if she was, I didn’t want to blow her confidence by letting her know I had read her. Walked through Macy’s and didn’t see anything that met all the requirements:

• I can afford it
• It would look good on me
• I want it bad enough to buy it

Got to the Motor City Casino and played the video poker machine. I put in $20 and played for a couple of hours. I was almost out of credits when I got a good hand and won about $70! I took my winnings and went to the Casino’s bar where I ordered a drink and then got suckered into playing the video poker games they have on the bar. I put in $5 and was down to about $2 when the screen went blank on me. They called maintenance (or what ever they call the folks that come fix them) and the lady walks up all smiles.
“What are you doing breaking our machines?” she asks with a huge smile.
“Breaking your machine my butt!” I told her, “I just won $10 Million on that damn thing when it decided to crash to save you guys from having to pay me!”
I’d be willing to bet she hears that a dozen times a day, but maybe not from a cross dresser because she had a pretty good laugh at it. They got the machine back up and running and I had a whopping $1.75 in it. Oh well . . . I still left the casino with about $40 more than I entered it with!



My Third Day


My last night in the area I went shopping at another mall in Waterford and again didn’t find anything,
so I headed back to the Casino. Been there about an hour and a half and am just short of having lost my self imposed limit of $40. It struck me that if I lived around a Casino, I’d probably be one of those people that you see there with their hair all wild, dirty clothes, blood shot eyes, banging away at the slots while desperately hoping for a big win. I’ve got $3 left of the $40 I was willing to loose when the slot machine graced me with $150 win. I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but I was smart enough to take the money and run. Would you believe I had two gentlemen open doors for me on the way out?
The evening was still fairly young so I went to GiGi’s, a Detroit hang out known for being very friendly to Tgirls. I got there at about 9:15 PM and the place was pretty much empty. The bartender told me they were going to have a drag show at 11. I asked her if the performers were likely to be the only Tgirls there, or if there were usually some in the crowd too. She said sometimes there were a few, but mostly only on Fridays and Saturdays. Well, my hotel was about an hours drive from there, and I don’t care for drag shows. If there probably weren’t going to be any local girls to meet and BS with it just wasn’t going to be worth the late night for me, so I headed out.

One of my pictures may be on your IPOD/Iphone!

So a year of so ago, I went to the Mall of America (MOA) in the Minneapolis area. If I remember correctly it was one of the very first shopping trips I took as Kimberly. MOA was huge, which of course you expected. It had an entire indoor Amusement Park and was just all around pretty impressive. I took a few pictures, trying give some hint of its size and depth and posted them on my Flickr account. Shortly after that, I received an email from someone telling me they were considering using one of those picture in their travel guide and asking for my permission. I told them I was tickled all to hell at the idea and to by all means go ahead.

Well, today I received another email telling me they had in fact selected the picture, and that it was to be used on the IPOD and Iphone! How cool is that?


















Here is the actual photo:

Kind of cool huh? Now the only down side is that my wife is mad as hell it's on there as Kimberly because it means she can't show her friends and brag me up! lol

Victoria Williams in Detroit

So on my recent trip to the Detroit area I was miserable. I’d been sick as a dog for a week and was
pretty much at my worst. I’d go to my customers during the afternoon and was in bed every night by 7PM shivering with a fever.


Victoria Williams and I had been chatting for days about possibly meeting while I was there, but given the way I felt, it looked like it just wasn’t gonna happen. Well, one afternoon I get a call from her wondering if we might get together. I started to beg off and tell her I just wasn’t gonna be up for it, and besides “You would do well to stay just as far from me as you can get ‘cause you don’t want what I’ve got.”
She laughed and told me something along the lines of “Don’t worry about that, I’ve been sick myself and oh, by the way, I’m in the parking lot of your hotel.”
“Well hell, I’ll be right out to let you in then!”
So she and I chatted for an hour or so. I like her quite a bit – good looking woman, a great attitude, and a good sense of humor. I’ll bet she is a lot of fun to hang out with.
With any luck, I’ll be over this stuff and back out and about the next time I’m here!

Wilmington NC

Spent this week in Wilmington North Carolina. My company had already sent one of my peers twice to get a system up and running, and he had failed both times, so now they were throwing me at it. I wont bore you with all the tech details, but it was a unique system and not our standard product, and so I was more than a little nervous heading out. The good news? I did all of my reading in the nights before I went and so I had it up and running in less than an hour.

Not much to write about as far as TG time as very little happened of interest. This might be a great place to hang out most of the time, but just doesn’t appear to me to be a great place for cross dressing. Both nights I went out, my confidence was shot all to hell. The first night I was there I did nothing and just went to bed early. I’ve been sick for a couple of weeks now and it’s starting to take its toll on me.

The next night, I tried on a couple of dresses I took with me just for the purpose of pretty pics. Sorry for the blurry images – my new camera has a problem when used with the timer. (Please don’t flood me with recommendations for things to try – I’ve tried them all and nothing helps).

The first dress is all sequins and it feels absolutely decadent the way it hugs you and fits like a glove. I bought this dress about 7 years ago and at the time could not fit into it. At that time, I started to diet and exercise and lost 40 lbs just to wear this dress. (I’ve since gained half that back and am working to drop it again)

The next is a dress that I almost threw out for being “too small”. Silly me, this dress was meant to be tight. Pretty sure the concept was that a woman with a figure would be wearing it and she would want to show that figure off. Well, my figure isn’t all that but hey . . .

In the end, this is the outfit I wore out:

I went to the only gay bar I found out about: Ibiza. Supposedly they do Karaoke tonight (Thursday).
So I parked the car and was walking on the side walk to the club when a guy in his 20’s walked by me. He took a look at me, looked away, then looked back again. As we cross each other he looks straight in my eyes and more or less yells “Hah!” very loudly. POOF – there went my confidence, thank you SO much.
Entered the bar at about 930 to find it absolutely empty. I am literally the only customer there. I got a drink and chatted with the bartender a bit. He tells me there are Drag shows that start at 1230 and the place will probably be full then. Maybe I’m old, or a wimp, but there is no way in hell I am going to just start my night out at 1230 when I have to work the next day.
Turns out they do NOT do karaoke so I asked him if he knew of a place that does. He turned me on to Valino's Restaurant & Martha's Karaoke Lounge and told me it was “more or less a Lesbian” place.
That’s fine with me as I am usually a good deal more comfortable around Lesbians than at your typical gay bar anyway. I went and checked the place out and discovered it was attached to a family restaurant. Hmmm . . . . doesn’t look like the sort of place you would expect to be “friendly” and so I didn’t bother to go in.

Returned to the hotel and went to the lounge where I chatted with the bartender there. He had just got out of the Army and seemed very friendly so we chatted for about an hour. I got in the elevator to get to my room and there were two gentlemen and a little girl (6ish) in it already. As it got to my floor (and theirs apparently), one of the men looks at me and with out any hint of sarcasm waves toward the door “Please, ladies first”. I turned a bright shade of red and told him “Thank you!” So, one guy laughs at me, and another treats me like a lady. I’m confused – am I passing or not?


The next night I found a Goodwill, and so got dressed and went shopping! I’d been there maybe 5 minutes when I walked by a young lady I’d guess was around 15 or 16. As I walked by her, she looked me up and down and gave me the meanest, most unambiguous, “you disgust me” look I have ever had pointed in my direction. POOF – there went my confidence again. Confidence gone, I finished shopping the store, went back to the hotel, cleaned up, and went drab. Now in boy mode, I headed back to Valino's Restaurant & Martha's Karaoke Lounge where I ate dinner and then did the karaoke thing. The restaurant made no effort at pretension. It’s décor was very 1950/1960 and I didn’t care in the least. The service was great, the food was outstanding, and it didn’t cost me an arm and a leg. I WILL eat there the next time I’m in town.
Karaoke got started at about 10:45 - a lot latter than I liked considering I had a 7AM flight in the morning to get home, but I did have fun for an hour or so. Still haven’t decided if I would go there dressed or not next time. (I probably will)