There Goes the Weekend!

Pink fingers, gold toes

Saturday night, there were three local trans events: there was a "dance party" at a local restaurant ~ trans and civilians.  Some girls went to different clubs in DC, at different times.  I wanted to get out and decided the dress pictured here would be a great dress for any of the events.

Usually, the party is preceeded by dinner.  Not this time, and I was more interested in meeting some of the girls than meeting civilians, possibly admirers.  The earlier DC event was at the place I saw the drag show last month.  There would be no drag show (drag is on Sunday) and the food was OK but not special, so I skipped that too.  The other event started near midnight, and I didn't sleep well the night before.

So I skipped all three.  And I'm at a time in my "dressing career" when I can skip all three.

But I really wanted to wear that dress.  So it went with me to Fringe.  There were quite a number of women in dresses or skirts; mostly sundresses, but some were quite dressy for the event.  I don't think I was much out-of-place.

In all interactions, pronouns were proper, and I scored two "ladies," and one "dearie" (from a guy!) at Fringe.

I spoke to several people, including an elderly, slightly inebriated woman ordering a beer at the main tent ~ she ordered the same brand as I did, but she got the IPA and I got the lager.  I said "their lager's good, too," and she replied "I've always liked IPA's."  I said "lots of people do," her beer came and we parted.  It was just unexpected, like when someone speaks with an accent that doesn't match their appearance.

So I rode the Metro, got tickets, chatted a bit, enjoyed a couple of shows and came home.  It was similar to the last visit: uneventful.  I think the new normal is what I'm aiming for.  There's no stress, no expectations, and maybe if I didn't pass in someone's eyes they'll answer "yes" when asked if they've met any transgendered people.  Right now, only 8% do, although if we all decided to wear a sign that said "I'M TRANS," at the end of, say, a week, I bet the number would be closer to 100%.

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Fringe Benefits

I spoke with a number of people on Fringe Day.  A couple were just random people either talking to me or me talking to them.  Most were people who either had to interact with me or were talking to everyone.

The first I can recall was someone who was at the entrance to one of the shows.  I thought that was

All around the water tank
waitin' for a train

where we get our tickets, and asked.  He said it was around the block, on the other side, so off we went.  We had already walked at least a half-dozen blocks, and now we had to backtrack a bit.

The next was a man handing out postcards plugging his show while I was on line waiting to get my tickets.  I also spoke with a couple of other people on line, just to pass the time.  I chatted with the person giving us our tickets, and went to the ladies' room there (single seater but the door didn't lock so I was ladylike).

We walked to the theatre, gave up our tickets, found seats.  I don't recall if I spoke to anyone before the show; I know I spoke with one or two people while waiting for the doors to open at different shows; after one show, we waited to go to another show at another stage in the same building.  After confirming that the teenage boy leaving was indeed one of the main cast members I tapped him on the shoulder and told him how much I enjoyed the show.

On the street, a man stopped us to try to get us to donate to the SPLC.  It's a worthwhile organisation, but I don't trust people I meet on the street like that.  He made a point of mentioning that they help gays; he made a point of not mentioning trans.  Or maybe he just conflated them; many people still do.

We ordered lunch at Fuddruckers; I tried to make a point of chatting a bit with people who Had No Choice but to talk to me ~ ticket takers, cashier, and so on.

I saw someone on the street who I'm pretty sure was trans as well.  She just walked past us; we walked past her.

After the last show, "A Lesbian Belle Tells," the monologist was returning to the stage to do a Q&A.  An impromptu receiving line appeared, and I joined to tell her how much I enjoyed her show.  She, not surprisingly, thanked me but I think I saw a bit of surprise on her face.  I think community members (and I'm reluctantly merging LGB with T) are more... something.  Aware maybe? of other community members.

Nobody cared that I might not be what I seemed.  No questions, no funny looks, no remarks or odd tones....  It gets easier (except I do need to remember the dozens of mannerisms, and especially my voice, at all times).  I do need to loosen up; it's against my nature but much more feminine.

It was... uneventful.

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Meg 'n' Marian

Most of the pictures we took Sunday were non-Meg but I thought I'd share the couple I do have.

First is at the Metro station we departed from.  The second is Marian and me in the Hirshhorn.  Guess where? :)

Below that is Charity with her favourite hat.  Click to enlarge.

Out at Last, Out at Last!

I haven't been out a lot the past few months.  The last time was to see Orlando, in early March.  I missed game day, and I haven't been to game nights in quite a few months.

Saturday was a clothing swap but I have a lot of work to do to get my (already late) taxes done and organise my financial.  With the pending divorce, my cash flow is crazy and it took a number of hours to figure things out.  Plus I have to get off my current ISP, which is associated with the house, and onto a private ISP.  So I've been contacting people and businesses to change my address.

That was Saturday.

My friend Marian was also in town last weekend.  I wanted to get together but couldn't arrange it until Sunday.  Charity came along, and we met metro'd in to DC and met Marian at the Smithsonian castle.  She was chatting with the guard before I got there; the guard didn't seem to find anything out of the ordinary about her, or about us.  We were talking and she mentioned that she'd like to get some coffee and the guard interrupted and said there's good coffee inside.  We bought coffee and pastries and sat around and enjoyed a snack.  I went up to the information desk to find out what was going on on the mall (there were a bunch of teepees outside the castle, which turned out to be a Keystone XL protest).  The information lady didn't know but started to walk over to the guard with us, assuming he would know (I already asked; he didn't).  But it was nice of her to offer.

And so went the day.  When I say "nothing out of the ordinary," I saw no odd looks from the moment I left the apartment, to the metro rides, to the various museums we went to.  We were treated as anyone else (including having our bags examined by mall security) and we acted accordingly.

I did decide to take advantage of the restroom in the Hirshhorn art museum, because it wasn't crowded and we'd be heading towards more crowded museums from there.  Something horrible happened there.

There was no paper in my stall.  Fortunately, for me, paper is optional. :)

The restroom remained empty which allowed me time to touch up my lipstick after my coffee and we moved on to the mall area, and to the American History museum.

Another friend mentioned that she would be at a drag show (herself in drab) that evening but I had agreed to pick up my son around the time the show began so I had to skip.

Pictures tomorrow.

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