Stephanie Brooks
12-04-2005, 11:23 PM
PROLOGUE
My wife and I have an agreement that I can go out en femme once a month. I stay in a hotel and can do anything I want, obviously within the bounds of respect for our marriage. This agreement is because she does not want me dressed at home around our daughter, and does not want me departing from or arriving at home en femme. While this isn't the ideal situation, it is working.
OPENING
Here's a situation for you. You walk into a hotel lobby to register. You give your name. You're a Frequent Guest at this hotel chain, so you're used to things going quickly and smoothly, when you hear, "Oh. You're already checked in."
"Excuse me?"
"Yes. Let me see... Jennifer Pool already checked in." He looked at me, realizing something was amiss. "Do you know her?"
"No." A normal guy would think, "Do I want to know her?!" My thought was, "Can she do makeovers?"
Yes, that's how this month's adventure officially opened.
THE OUTFIT
I wore a brown corduroy jumper (dress) with pink top, flats, earrings, and "Steve's" black trenchcoat. It was a very casual outfit, at least in comparison to other outfits I've worn.
THE ADVENTURE - PART I
I couldn't decide what I wanted to do en femme. I was hoping to go to a local music club, but I really didn't care for the type of music to be performed. My viable alternatives included a choice of two movies, dinner and bookstore, and mall and coffee. I used as scientific a method as possible to decide; I rolled a four sided die (one I use for D&D). It came up "mall and coffee".
Grand. I needed and wanted to go out, and this would definitely be a challenge. I almost changed to one of the two movies, but in the end went to the mall. I must admit that Marla and Angel's recent successful adventure influenced and encouraged me.
http://www.shopfairoaksmall.com/
Fair Oaks Mall has nearly 200 stores, better road access than Tysons I, and more parking. Being that this is the Christmas shopping season and a Saturday night, it would be busy. It didn't matter.
Around 7PM I entered one of the large "anchor" stores and headed toward the tobacco shop. One of my friends works there (3rd job, labour of love, free tobacco), and he knows of Stephanie. He's one of the people with whom I play D&D. While he's only seen small IM buddy icons of Stephanie, I think he's pretty cool about it. It didn't matter, as he wasn't working anyway.
So here I am at a large mall. The only offline friend I have who is even mildly positive toward Stephanie isn't around. There was no way I was going to return to the hotel after 5 minutes. Geez, that would have been a waste of time. So what's a girl to do in a mall at Christmas time? Why, shop.
I did. With a vengeance.
Every year I buy calendars for people, lots of calendars. The local malls usually have one or two calendar stores at the end of the year. They have calendars for everything. Cows. Guinea pigs. Hello Kitty. Fractals. I had a bunch of calendars in 10 minutes. I went to the register, gave the cashier the calendars and credit card, and moved on to the next store.
CREDIT CARDS
Never provide fraudulent information for a credit card. I have at least one credit card in my femme name. The femme card is an additional card on my main account. Social security number is Steve's number, and relationship is "self". In fact one time I was talking with a credit card company about an additional card, and when the woman asked how Stephanie was related to me, I said truthfully, "self". While she was noticeably surprised, it wasn't a problem.
On this adventure, this was the second time I'd used my femme credit cards. While never challenged, by providing truthful information to the credit card companies I figure I could withstand any reasonable challenge. It's far easier to tell the truth than to try and recall a lie.
That said, I made a conscious effort to ensure I signed all charge slips as Stephanie rather than Steve. ^_^
ADVENTURE - PART II
How do you pick out the crossdresser in a large and busy shopping mall? She's the only one wearing a dress.
After 30 minutes in the mall, I'd done some significant shopping and wanted a coffee. Yum yum, Starbucks. I bought a cup, began to drink it, and discovered how well long lasting lipstick stands up to extremely hot coffee: not very well. Oh well, it happens. I found a chair, sat, and enjoyed my coffee.
My final purchase followed at the See's Candy stand. You Left Coasters have it lucky. You get See's Candy all year long. We get it only at Christmas, and on the occasional (re: rare) trips to the west.
My shopping limit was reached after 45 minutes. It had been a successful night, but it was still early. Again, I didn't want to simply return to the hotel, not this early anyway.
On to Borders Bookstore.
ADVENTURE - PART III
Although there's a Borders in the mall, it's a small one. I went to the large one nearby. It was a short and uneventful drive.
Once at Borders, I hit my favorite sections - math, programming, science fiction, manga, and a few others. (Did you guess I like books?!) I made my final purchase of the night with cash.
The adventure ended after I drove back to the hotel around 8:30PM. I parked, retrieved my packages from the car trunk, and started walking to one of hotel side doors, one that requires a key to enter. A man was approaching it. It was an older man, one who seemed okay. He was a gentleman. He opened the door for me, and I thanked him.
It had been a good evening overall.
PASSING
I got a few looks from people along the way. When making purchases, in one case someone made an effort to compare my receipt signature against my credit card signature, though this happens in drab too.
My voice is not particularly feminine, though I try to get by on being pleasant and just being my femme self. Mostly it seems to work.
PHOTOS
The first two photos are hotel pics, taken with the cell phone on the tv - er, television. The next two are of me in the mall with the cell phone in my hands. The final one was another self-hand-held at Borders, with the math section in the background. You've been spared the really bad pictures.
EPILOGUE
I never met Jennifer Pool, but I suspect she had some small food item she purchased this morning, as it was charged to my room - and subsequently removed from my bill. Makes me wonder if she was naughty or nice.
My wife and I have an agreement that I can go out en femme once a month. I stay in a hotel and can do anything I want, obviously within the bounds of respect for our marriage. This agreement is because she does not want me dressed at home around our daughter, and does not want me departing from or arriving at home en femme. While this isn't the ideal situation, it is working.
OPENING
Here's a situation for you. You walk into a hotel lobby to register. You give your name. You're a Frequent Guest at this hotel chain, so you're used to things going quickly and smoothly, when you hear, "Oh. You're already checked in."
"Excuse me?"
"Yes. Let me see... Jennifer Pool already checked in." He looked at me, realizing something was amiss. "Do you know her?"
"No." A normal guy would think, "Do I want to know her?!" My thought was, "Can she do makeovers?"
Yes, that's how this month's adventure officially opened.
THE OUTFIT
I wore a brown corduroy jumper (dress) with pink top, flats, earrings, and "Steve's" black trenchcoat. It was a very casual outfit, at least in comparison to other outfits I've worn.
THE ADVENTURE - PART I
I couldn't decide what I wanted to do en femme. I was hoping to go to a local music club, but I really didn't care for the type of music to be performed. My viable alternatives included a choice of two movies, dinner and bookstore, and mall and coffee. I used as scientific a method as possible to decide; I rolled a four sided die (one I use for D&D). It came up "mall and coffee".
Grand. I needed and wanted to go out, and this would definitely be a challenge. I almost changed to one of the two movies, but in the end went to the mall. I must admit that Marla and Angel's recent successful adventure influenced and encouraged me.
http://www.shopfairoaksmall.com/
Fair Oaks Mall has nearly 200 stores, better road access than Tysons I, and more parking. Being that this is the Christmas shopping season and a Saturday night, it would be busy. It didn't matter.
Around 7PM I entered one of the large "anchor" stores and headed toward the tobacco shop. One of my friends works there (3rd job, labour of love, free tobacco), and he knows of Stephanie. He's one of the people with whom I play D&D. While he's only seen small IM buddy icons of Stephanie, I think he's pretty cool about it. It didn't matter, as he wasn't working anyway.
So here I am at a large mall. The only offline friend I have who is even mildly positive toward Stephanie isn't around. There was no way I was going to return to the hotel after 5 minutes. Geez, that would have been a waste of time. So what's a girl to do in a mall at Christmas time? Why, shop.
I did. With a vengeance.
Every year I buy calendars for people, lots of calendars. The local malls usually have one or two calendar stores at the end of the year. They have calendars for everything. Cows. Guinea pigs. Hello Kitty. Fractals. I had a bunch of calendars in 10 minutes. I went to the register, gave the cashier the calendars and credit card, and moved on to the next store.
CREDIT CARDS
Never provide fraudulent information for a credit card. I have at least one credit card in my femme name. The femme card is an additional card on my main account. Social security number is Steve's number, and relationship is "self". In fact one time I was talking with a credit card company about an additional card, and when the woman asked how Stephanie was related to me, I said truthfully, "self". While she was noticeably surprised, it wasn't a problem.
On this adventure, this was the second time I'd used my femme credit cards. While never challenged, by providing truthful information to the credit card companies I figure I could withstand any reasonable challenge. It's far easier to tell the truth than to try and recall a lie.
That said, I made a conscious effort to ensure I signed all charge slips as Stephanie rather than Steve. ^_^
ADVENTURE - PART II
How do you pick out the crossdresser in a large and busy shopping mall? She's the only one wearing a dress.
After 30 minutes in the mall, I'd done some significant shopping and wanted a coffee. Yum yum, Starbucks. I bought a cup, began to drink it, and discovered how well long lasting lipstick stands up to extremely hot coffee: not very well. Oh well, it happens. I found a chair, sat, and enjoyed my coffee.
My final purchase followed at the See's Candy stand. You Left Coasters have it lucky. You get See's Candy all year long. We get it only at Christmas, and on the occasional (re: rare) trips to the west.
My shopping limit was reached after 45 minutes. It had been a successful night, but it was still early. Again, I didn't want to simply return to the hotel, not this early anyway.
On to Borders Bookstore.
ADVENTURE - PART III
Although there's a Borders in the mall, it's a small one. I went to the large one nearby. It was a short and uneventful drive.
Once at Borders, I hit my favorite sections - math, programming, science fiction, manga, and a few others. (Did you guess I like books?!) I made my final purchase of the night with cash.
The adventure ended after I drove back to the hotel around 8:30PM. I parked, retrieved my packages from the car trunk, and started walking to one of hotel side doors, one that requires a key to enter. A man was approaching it. It was an older man, one who seemed okay. He was a gentleman. He opened the door for me, and I thanked him.
It had been a good evening overall.
PASSING
I got a few looks from people along the way. When making purchases, in one case someone made an effort to compare my receipt signature against my credit card signature, though this happens in drab too.
My voice is not particularly feminine, though I try to get by on being pleasant and just being my femme self. Mostly it seems to work.
PHOTOS
The first two photos are hotel pics, taken with the cell phone on the tv - er, television. The next two are of me in the mall with the cell phone in my hands. The final one was another self-hand-held at Borders, with the math section in the background. You've been spared the really bad pictures.
EPILOGUE
I never met Jennifer Pool, but I suspect she had some small food item she purchased this morning, as it was charged to my room - and subsequently removed from my bill. Makes me wonder if she was naughty or nice.