Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Sharon's 'stone (Part II)

(completing Sharon's review of Keystone; she was giving how-to-girl tips at the end of yesterday's post)



When eating a bread roll, do not butter the entire roll at once.  Take a pat of butter and put it on your bread plate.  Break the bread into pieces that are big enough for one or two bites, and butter each piece and eat it.

Take smaller bites, and pause between bites for conversation.  When women talk, they turn to face each other and look each other in the eye.

LOVE this outfit!
If you have long hair you can tie it back with a scrunchie so it doesn’t fall into your face while you eat.

When eating meat, cut one piece at a time, eat that piece, and put your knife and fork down. Then repeat.

If you are eating a salad and the lettuce is in big pieces, you can use your knife to cut it into smaller pieces. 

She suggested that you only fill the top 1/3 of the fork with food.  And do not put the entire fork in your mouth, just the tip where the food is.

She also discussed makeup etiquette.  She suggested that you avoid wearing lip gloss before eating, because it will come off on your glass.  Instead, you can wear a matte lipstick.  Or just fill in your lips with a lip liner and some chapstick.  She said you should not fix your makeup at the table.  Its okay to make a quick check of it in a small mirror at table.  Then, if needed, go to the rest room to fix it.

When using the women’s rest room, make sure you sit down on the toilet and have your feet facing the correct way. Don’t be too chatty in the restroom and don’t stand in front of the mirror more than a couple of minutes.

Napkins can be useful.  Be sure to ask for extra ones when eating “finger food” or anything likely to be messy.  Make sure to wipe your hands before touching your glass.  You should dab your face with a small section of the napkin rather than the whole napkin.

Monica didn’t mention this, but I read somewhere that your should place your napkin on your chair when excusing yourself from the table during a meal.  It is not okay to leave a soiled napkin on the table while others are eating.

How to eat soup:  fill the spoon; lean forward; put the soup in your mouth and swallow it; rest the spoon on the soup plate next to the bowl; don’t slurp!; do not lift the bowl to your face.  It is ok to tilt the bowl slightly in order to get the last spoonful.

When drinking beer in a nice restaurant, it should be served in a glass. Don’t drink red wine or a martini in a martini glass) in a crowded bar or club, as this is likely to spill.

All of these tips seemed useful to me.  I look forward to practicing them the next time I dine out en femme.

Through her website, http://www.nouveaushe.com/, Monica Prata provides full-range femininity training in-person and online, offering lessons in wardrobe, makeup application and deportment.

Here is another website with useful tips about deportment:
http://www.elegantwoman.org/deportment.html




Monday, April 29, 2013

Sharon's 'stone (Part I)

My titles are getting out of hand.  

Sharon Rose was one of a large contingent of ladies who went to Keystone this year.  Meg was not.

Sharon's been in this blog about a dozen times: I posted her 2012 Keystone experience, I mentioned her at one of the soirees,  we had dinner together and met with Cynthia at her new digs about a year ago.

Sharon was kind enough to once again write up her experience at Keystone.  I'm posting it unedited, except for splitting it into two parts.




The 2013 Keystone Conference:  Bigger and Better Than Before
By Sharon Rose

This was my fifth year attending the Keystone Conference in Harrisburg, which is organized by TranscentralPA, the Transgender Education Association of Central Pennsylvania.  The conference has grown in size each year.  This year they had over 500 attendees, and added some new seminars.  As always, they had interesting and inspirational speakers and fun outings.

One seminar which I really enjoyed was Feminine Dining Comportment, which was given by Monica Prata, who is a feminine image consultant.  Monica works with transgender women to help them improve their confidence.  She has experience as a M.A.C. makeup artist and also worked at Nordstrum.

Several of us met in the restaurant for lunch and had bread and salad while Monica gave us some pointers about how to act when dining out.  Some of the advice was her personal opinion, while most of it can be found in standard etiquette guides.

First, you should dress appropriately for the type of food you expect to eat.  You should avoid wearing a white blouse when you expect to eat messy food like barbeque or pasta. But you can pack Shout wipes or other stain removers in your purse for emergencies.

When entering a building women generally do not stand on the outside and hold the door open for a man or another woman.  They might hold the door behind them after entering for a second or two to be polite when someone is right behind them.

She suggested removing your coat in the lobby of the restaurant, because sometimes tables are close together.  Fold your jacket over your arm and keep it in front of you.  Keep your elbows close to your body as you walk through the restaurant.  This will allow you to avoid bumping into other patrons.

When you arrive at your table, you can hang your purse over your chair if it has a long strap, or keep it on the seat behind you, or you can use a purse clip to hang it off the edge of the table.

You can put your coat on the inside of your chair, instead of the outside, in case you get cold during the meal.  If the coat is extra long, you can fold it over the back of the chair.

You can let the host/hostess pull out your chair for you if they offer.  When you sit down, be sure to smooth the bottom of your dress or skirt. Then sit, put your hands on the side of the chair, and scoot your chair forward.  She suggested that you not sit with your back against the back of the chair.  If you lean forward a bit, you can create an S-curve with your body, which is more visually appealing.  Also, do not sit squarely on both feet.  Keep you legs together; you can cross them at the ankles or lean them slightly to one side or the other.

 
She suggested ordering salad dressing on the side, since it can be messy to eat in some places depending on the type and amount of dressing.

Try to repeat the waiters name to remember it in case you need to ask them for something.  If your food was prepared incorrectly you can kindly explain to them what is wrong.

Food and other items should be passed around the table to the right, or counter-clockwise.  I have heard it said that the salt and pepper shakers are married and should always be passed together – even if the request was for only one. A kinder way to deal with that is to ask whether they also want the other.

I think this should also apply to coffee creamer and sugar/artificial sweetener.  I would offer to pass both even if someone asked only for one.

(more tomorrow)



Sunday, April 28, 2013

She's the Little Old Lady From...

...Flo and Friends?

I'm not a huge Flo fan, but these recent panels featuring Ruthie are worth sharing.




Saturday, April 27, 2013

Open Mike Night!

There's a relatively new strip in the Washinton Post called "Mike Du Jour."  On rare occasions, it's funny:


But they're rare.  Sometimes, they make no sense at all (like the one I posted back in January, or like day 4 below).  Most of the time, they're just horrid, like the sequence below, which gets Mike Lester into the brand-new Saturday CD Funny Hall of Shame.

Horrid.









Friday, April 26, 2013

No, I Didn't

I was kidding yesterday.  But I did wear a nice velvet dress (and great hose!):

More next week.  I promise.



Thursday, April 25, 2013

Uninspired, or Just Plain Tired

In the typewriter days, I'd be sitting at my desk with a stack of crumpled papers overflowing the trash can right now.   Two of the past three nights, I've enjoyed only 3-4 hours of sleep.  Last night, I slept better but had weird dreams (no dream dressing, alas).  I'm awake enough to be productive at work, and there's lots of it right now, but I can't get the creative side moving.  Work, right now, doesn't involve a lot of right-brain work ~ it's more applying knowledge, which I can almost do in my sleep (like today).  It's more like editing than writing.

Hopefully, I'll be back on track Friday.  I still have a game night, a gender discussion at Christine's, and an evening out with probably thirty girls.  This was a different kind of event, by the way.  Here's why:



This was in the Washington Post's "going out guide."

And this was going to be a dress-UP opportunity, and I took advantage of it.



Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Simple Pleasure ~ More Trying On

In addition to earlier posts about trying things on (like shoes and earrings), I noticed I have a lot of lip products ~ lip liners, lipsticks, lipglosses.

It's time to find out which ones I like, which ones look horrid... what to keep and what to toss.

I think, if I tried one lipstick and lipgloss per day, I'd have a hobby for a month.  And if I wanted to try all of the possible combinations of lipstick and lipgloss I can probably go for close to a year.

(I'll ignore the half-dozen or so lip liners for now.)

And if history is my guide, I'll like five, love two, and buy another dozen to try different shades.