Lilia
08-18-2012, 08:47 PM
WARNING – Long post.
We all have them right? First time out of the house, first time at a support group, first time at a public place. This summer has been one where I have done a few firsts that I thought might never occur in this girl's lifetime. I try to be a natural me. It's my hair, my nails, and my face (with makeup help). I do use breast forms. Also, I have been doing some laser on the beard area and that has helped a lot with how I feel in daytime sun.
This past May, one of the first events was we (my spouse and I) were invited to a small wedding. First let me say to those that don't know me and or my sweetheart, she is a beautiful compassionate lady and loves all of my facets as much as I love her. So, we get invited to this wedding and you see the couple that were getting married know both sides of my gender presentation and they are totally cool with it as well. More than cool really, affirming. We accepted the invitation right away for the wedding but something gnawed at me. You guessed it, I wanted to attend the wedding as a lady. Sure being IN a wedding party is somewhere on the bucket list, but hey, a 50+ yo woman must be practical and attending is a big step. I thought it over for weeks but I really wanted to attend the wedding as Lilia. I also didn't want to take anything away from the bride and groom as dear friends. So I called and asked, they said without hesitation, “Sure, that will be great”. The wedding went great, the bride and groom looked wonderful, as I said it was small and held at a business location after hours. There were many friends and lots of family attending with a potluck dinner that followed for the reception. No one said anything rude and I was just “one of the ladies” at the wedding. My only regret is they didn't have any dancing so I didn't get to dance with my sweetheart.
Next on the summer list was just to attend a public gathering as Lilia. Not too far from my home is the town of Bethlehem, PA. This is a former steel town of Pennsylvania. Today it is a cute little city and each year they have a music festival called Musikfest. This is mostly a free to attend multiple stages of music of all sorts of varieties. Food and merchandise vendors, downtown streets blocked off, you get the idea. I have attended Pride events with many of these same elements but this is the general public not a select GLBT crowd. So this past Sunday we (my spouse and I) attended Musikfest. We had a great time, listened to music, walked around town, browsed through the vendors. We were going to meet up with another friend but we never manged to meet up among all the stages of the festival. We did all we could until we were too tired and had to head home to get rested for the next day. The strangest thing... not a bad word was heard...again. I'm not sure I even caught a stray stare. We were just two ladies out for a day. One peculiar feeling was I wanted to hold my sweetheart's hand and then I thought if I did, we would draw attention as two lesbians. So that afternoon, I didn't hold her hand but we did sit very close together at the venues. Sometimes, you just can't win it all.
The next day was one of those BIG Bucket list items. We were going to the beach. A public beach with lots of people around. This was a Monday but still in the busy time of summer. We went to a beach near Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Rehoboth is a GLBT friendly town but we went to a State Park and beach because it had a shower house and restroom. I wore a two piece tankini top with a swim skirt bottom. I figured this would be the most comfortable for a longer day. I had to go a bit light on the makeup because I planned on getting wet that day. We had a nice time on the beach. We splashed a little up to our knees keeping my hat and sunglasses on while there were lots of people on the beach but later in the afternoon I really wanted to bounce around in the waves. So around 4:30, I dropped the hat and sunglasses and off I went into the water. It was wonderful, I got out after about 15 minutes of bobbing in the waves with a little too much excitement in my voice as my sweetheart reminded me to keep my voice in the proper range for a lady ;-) oops. The lifeguards closed the beach soon after that, not because of TG cooties in the water but because it was quitting time, 5:00 pm. We picked up to get showered and dressed to go to dinner. We went into the shower house and there I got cold feet. In each shower stall there was only one milk-white shower curtain separating each shower user from the larger room. I was hoping for a private changing area with a shower behind that. Many ladies, teens and kids were running around the shower house. Nope, I wasn't ready for that. We relocated the car to a quiet section of the parking lot and did our clothes change in the car. This was a little awkward but all concerned were spared of coronary complications. After we got changed and cleaned up, had a nice meal in the village of Rehoboth Beach and great walk on the boardwalk to cap off the night. A very memorable day. Again, all day not one bad comment or even any mis-gendered pronouns. These two ladies had a nice couple of days. I love my sweetheart very much.
Let's hear about other girl's Bucket List entries. I know we have kicked around the plane flights and that is one I will get to someday but I don't fly much these days.
I'll post some pics soon of my summer excursions.
Let's get out there.
- Lilia
We all have them right? First time out of the house, first time at a support group, first time at a public place. This summer has been one where I have done a few firsts that I thought might never occur in this girl's lifetime. I try to be a natural me. It's my hair, my nails, and my face (with makeup help). I do use breast forms. Also, I have been doing some laser on the beard area and that has helped a lot with how I feel in daytime sun.
This past May, one of the first events was we (my spouse and I) were invited to a small wedding. First let me say to those that don't know me and or my sweetheart, she is a beautiful compassionate lady and loves all of my facets as much as I love her. So, we get invited to this wedding and you see the couple that were getting married know both sides of my gender presentation and they are totally cool with it as well. More than cool really, affirming. We accepted the invitation right away for the wedding but something gnawed at me. You guessed it, I wanted to attend the wedding as a lady. Sure being IN a wedding party is somewhere on the bucket list, but hey, a 50+ yo woman must be practical and attending is a big step. I thought it over for weeks but I really wanted to attend the wedding as Lilia. I also didn't want to take anything away from the bride and groom as dear friends. So I called and asked, they said without hesitation, “Sure, that will be great”. The wedding went great, the bride and groom looked wonderful, as I said it was small and held at a business location after hours. There were many friends and lots of family attending with a potluck dinner that followed for the reception. No one said anything rude and I was just “one of the ladies” at the wedding. My only regret is they didn't have any dancing so I didn't get to dance with my sweetheart.
Next on the summer list was just to attend a public gathering as Lilia. Not too far from my home is the town of Bethlehem, PA. This is a former steel town of Pennsylvania. Today it is a cute little city and each year they have a music festival called Musikfest. This is mostly a free to attend multiple stages of music of all sorts of varieties. Food and merchandise vendors, downtown streets blocked off, you get the idea. I have attended Pride events with many of these same elements but this is the general public not a select GLBT crowd. So this past Sunday we (my spouse and I) attended Musikfest. We had a great time, listened to music, walked around town, browsed through the vendors. We were going to meet up with another friend but we never manged to meet up among all the stages of the festival. We did all we could until we were too tired and had to head home to get rested for the next day. The strangest thing... not a bad word was heard...again. I'm not sure I even caught a stray stare. We were just two ladies out for a day. One peculiar feeling was I wanted to hold my sweetheart's hand and then I thought if I did, we would draw attention as two lesbians. So that afternoon, I didn't hold her hand but we did sit very close together at the venues. Sometimes, you just can't win it all.
The next day was one of those BIG Bucket list items. We were going to the beach. A public beach with lots of people around. This was a Monday but still in the busy time of summer. We went to a beach near Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Rehoboth is a GLBT friendly town but we went to a State Park and beach because it had a shower house and restroom. I wore a two piece tankini top with a swim skirt bottom. I figured this would be the most comfortable for a longer day. I had to go a bit light on the makeup because I planned on getting wet that day. We had a nice time on the beach. We splashed a little up to our knees keeping my hat and sunglasses on while there were lots of people on the beach but later in the afternoon I really wanted to bounce around in the waves. So around 4:30, I dropped the hat and sunglasses and off I went into the water. It was wonderful, I got out after about 15 minutes of bobbing in the waves with a little too much excitement in my voice as my sweetheart reminded me to keep my voice in the proper range for a lady ;-) oops. The lifeguards closed the beach soon after that, not because of TG cooties in the water but because it was quitting time, 5:00 pm. We picked up to get showered and dressed to go to dinner. We went into the shower house and there I got cold feet. In each shower stall there was only one milk-white shower curtain separating each shower user from the larger room. I was hoping for a private changing area with a shower behind that. Many ladies, teens and kids were running around the shower house. Nope, I wasn't ready for that. We relocated the car to a quiet section of the parking lot and did our clothes change in the car. This was a little awkward but all concerned were spared of coronary complications. After we got changed and cleaned up, had a nice meal in the village of Rehoboth Beach and great walk on the boardwalk to cap off the night. A very memorable day. Again, all day not one bad comment or even any mis-gendered pronouns. These two ladies had a nice couple of days. I love my sweetheart very much.
Let's hear about other girl's Bucket List entries. I know we have kicked around the plane flights and that is one I will get to someday but I don't fly much these days.
I'll post some pics soon of my summer excursions.
Let's get out there.
- Lilia