Bad Lighting Part II

More from the piano bar.

I am NOT good at selfies!

Star: Queen of the Jello Shots

Dueling Pianos

Dan, Trisha, Star

More confetti!  Cover your drinks!  Really!

Linda, Charity, Andrea, Star

Bad Lighting

Some photos from the piano bar outing.  I wanted to get out to something casual last weekend, but Microsoft wouldn't let me.

pre-show.  Lighting not too bad

Star, holding the lighted menu

Shannon, Linda, Star, David, Dan (hidden), Deb

Confetti drop!  Do NOT drink the paper!

Trisha, Andrea, Deb, confetti

Shannon, Linda, Andrea holding court, Dave, Star, Deb

Look Your Best!

Q: I look terrible in this picture!  How can I get rid of these bags under my eyes?
A: Photoshop.

Or, if you're on a budget and have an iThing, there's a little app called "Facetune" that's been getting good reviews.  Alas, I'm an android girl.

Facetune says it can change the shape, tone, and texture of your face as well as whiten eyes, smooth wrinkles, and make blemishes vanish.  It sounds like the type of tool I'd love to play with.  It costs a few shekels, but since I'd also have to get an iThing, it's out of my price range.

If anyone's used it, I'd love to know how it worked for you.  Before/after pics would be welcome as well.

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Open the Door Richard - My Dead Head Friend P

First a comment on a comment to yesterday's post.  An anonymous reader wrote:

Don't paint all conservatives with the same brush. I'm a card carrying NRA member and a right wing conservative politically and economically but still a CD. I do not feel I'm out of the mainstream and should not be feared by the 'left wing' of the country (but I am).

Welcome to the blog, Anon.  I have friends all across the political spectrum and really there are two types of friends: the ones I talk politics with (like P) and the ones I don't (like J).  One of my son's friend's father works for a right-wing think tank.  I talk to him occasionally, but I avoid it because he likes to talk politics when he thinks he has a point.  I do not, and I don't return the favour.  I have a friend at my previous job who had an "I love Sarah" sticker on her wall and supported Bush, McCain, et al.  I've asked questions about her positions but a couple of days after one chat escalated into an argument I said "I'd like to talk to you about something."  She said "what?" and I said "anything but politics."  And we talk about anything but politics.

And I don't think we fear you, either for the gun carrying, politics, or the crossdressing.  And if you're ever in my neighborhood, let me know.

On to the topic du jour....

I met P for his dinner, my coffee, at the Chili's near my hotel while my wife met with an old friend of hers and our son entertained himself in our room (give him WiFi and he's happy).

We spoke about my marriage, my therapy, his marriage, his divorce, his life after divorce, and related topics.  Again, "ask the man who owns one."  At a lull in our almost-three-hour-squatting-at-Chilis session I said "but wait!  There's more!"

I then reminded him of the rally and my "costume" and said "that's not the first time I did that.  Nor the last."  And then he blew my mind.

He said, "a long time ago, you lent me a [vinyl record] album and when I took out the record, out fell a Polaroid of you wearing a dress and a long wig and my first thought when I saw you dressed for the rally was 'well, he's still doing it.'"

He never mentioned it before, certainly not at the time, which is definitely a good thing.  Being caught would probably have caused a purge (I've purged, but don't recall if it was before or after this) and pushed me further into the closet.  It would have changed our relationship, certainly for the worse.

He never mentioned it before.  Even at the rally.

Growing up in a two-bedroom apartment with a brother and sister and parents, it was hard to find a time or place to call my own.  I forget where I got the wig, the dress was probably my sister's, and I'd buy Polaroid film and put it in my father's camera and take pictures in the mirror (no timer or tripod).  No way I'd take a picture and let someone else develop it.  I did take some black-and-white, which I could develop and print myself.  But I had very limited hiding places.

One was record albums: pictures were flat, and my parents would never go in there.  My sister would ask if she wanted a record.  My (older) brother would just grab but I had records he'd never want to listen to and that was the hiding place.

And for all I know, the picture is still there.  I thought I moved them all to a new safe place when I moved out, but I guess I missed (at least) one.

We spoke a bit about the dressing.  He's a pure civilian, with absolutely zero interest in dressing.  He said in a subsequent phone conversation "when I'm with a woman, I'd rather get laid than wear her clothes" and I said "it's possible to do both."  I did reassure him I'm straight ~ like most civilians, even liberal ones (he has a lefty blog now), he is somewhat confused about gender and sexual identity issues.

But not horribly so, and he's open to further discussion.  And he's a good friend and a good resource in my troubled time.

A little follow-up.  Before saving this, I went through a box of records.  This is roughly my first 30 albums.  I made a couple of discoveries:
* The Who Sell Out (#12) and Bookends (#25) are both missing, probably misfiled.
* In OR-FM Double Golden, (#27) both discs were placed outside their sleeves.
* Magical Mystery Tour (#23) is missing its sleeve.
* The Daughters of Albion (#13 and nobody, not even Paula, knows them) has some drawings that made me think I hit the jackpot ~ but no.
* All sorts of filler came with the Beatles' White Album. (#15)
* Got Live If You Want It (#28) had two Polaroids in it, one mirror shot barely visible, one arms-length of yours truly wearing a long dark wig, a hat, a black-and-red striped shirt and what appears to be a jumper ~ the shot is a bust shot so I can't be sure.  No makeup.  I would not have had a prom date. :)

More on P on Monday.  This has gotten a bit lengthy, even for me.

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Not Many Guesses

(check yesterday's post about the poll and please enter today!)

A bit over a week ago, I posted this picture:

click to enlarge

and asked if anyone knew who the ladies in the picture are and what the situation is.

Not many of you made a guess.

Anyway, it's a picture of me and the situation is, I had a couple of hours and access to Photoshop. :)

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The Floor Is Open

Until a couple of days ago, this picture has been sitting on my hard drive, unshared.  I wonder if anyone can make a guess as to who these ladies are and what the situation is.  Click to enlarge.

Send your guesses in comments or e-mail!

An aside: I know I'm going to have many new readers today because I was mentioned by Stana.  I hope y'all come back every day, and read some of the archives, but please please come back Wednesday.  Thank you.

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20th Century Meg

These are the earliest pictures I have. They're dated 10 Aug 1999.

This is before I started shaving any body hair, before I bought a decent wig, and before I figured out makeup.

I was learning makeup from two books: Kevin AuCoin's Making Faces and Michael Maron's Instant Makeover Magic.

The first book includes lots of before-and-after's, one of a male-to-female makeover. The second includes lots of makeovers of famous women, plus lessons on how to do different things, such as contours and eyes. Oddly enough, the second book is illustrated in black-and-white.

It also seems it's from before I learned to smile.

If you're laughing right now, I don't think I want to know. I'd rather let myself think I'm an inspiration. :)

And Please please please

tell me I've improved!

If She Doesn't Know, She Suspects

And if she suspects, after tomorrow, she'll know.

OK, I'll back up.

One of the women in the office saw me dressed last Halloween, and said something like "this isn't the first time you've done this, is it"? I admitted it wasn't but I think she took that to mean that I'd been out on Halloween before. She didn't ask, I didn't elaborate. I'm still ambivalent.

I'll write about my Halloween at the office soon. She's a key player.

Since then, she's asked to "see pictures" on occasion. I've joked about it ~ "are you sure? Did you get over the trauma of last time?" and "why? Don't you have enough nightmares?". I take a lot of pictures (yes, that's very unusual, I know) and sometimes one or two look OK. But they're scattered around my disk and although I've cropped and made minor edits to a few, most of them are just there for me to enjoy. Or cringe over. Or laugh at.

Then I told my friend Amanda about Meg by way of sending her an e-mail version of my But I Digress post. Yes, this is the same (gg) Amanda who doubted my pedicure. She was incredibly welcoming and I scoured my disk for pictures to send her. I should have expected her approval because she's not only open-minded but also incredibly intelligent and beautiful.

So now I have a folder with a couple of dozen pictures. If I can figure out how, I'll make a photo gallery here. I put them on a flash drive which I guard with my life, at least from my immediate family.

Once I put this together, I asked if my co-worker was still interested in seeing photos. She said she was, but I took off a few days, and then she went on holiday. She' s back, and I just saw her and she said she wants to see the pictures. I told her I have to run, but will be back tomorrow. Well, I certainly had enough time to show her the photos but I decided this is a "sleep on it" occasion. This is a wrong decision. I will be up all night trying to figure out the consequences of adding one more person to my small circle. She's not the quiet type ~ everyone here may know by the time I get back from Texas. She might even call out to other people nearby to see what's on her computer while I'm there.

Maybe I'll tell her I was just teasing about the pictures.

I'll sleep on it.

In these pictures, I have many different outfits, and some different wigs, accessories, shoes. Most are inside my house, but a couple are not. She's a smart woman and I think she'll have no doubts that this is NOT just a costume thing.

I'll see where it goes from there.

I wonder if I should show her my Firefox "persona" as well.

In an e-mail, Sara asked me "how does it feel to come out to people you work with for the first time?" The short answer is "terrifying".

I'll sleep on it. Or try to.

Options.... Sort of

Here are the new shoes that I bought the other day. Each are uncomfortable in their own special way. The heels (below right) press into my little toe, which is a solvable problem for my feet. The flats (right) press on my big toe, which I need to resolve if I'm going to wear them (maybe for the long drive).

Someone wrote and asked about the dress I am keeping but won't wear out that I mentioned in my previous post.

Here it is. And the shoes (above) are actually very comfortable, but they're barefoot shoes and I do not have barefoot legs. They need hose to get people to say "nice" instead of "nauseous".