Despite the rights and wrongs I made it happen !

[Teresa]

I'm sure some members were getting tired of my threads about attending my art group as Teresa .

It has been quite a saga of dealing with the rights and wrongs of it happening . When it was first suggested to my art tutor he told me his reservations so I agreed to go along with them . For those following the story they may recall me joining the group for coffee in an atempt to break the ice and recently I did join them to help hang the pieces for our annual exhibition and then met them for the private viewing day . By then they were becoming use to me and urged me to attend the new sessions as Teresa . I was also having problems with my wife who told me I was being disrespectful to my son , grandsons and my mother , she personally claimed beyond caring what I did ( which I knew wasn't true ) . I cleared that point up by directly asking my mother and son if they thought I was being disrespectful and both said they didn't have a problem with me returning to my old home town .

So today with the beginning of the new session I woke at 6.00am and showered , shaved , had breakfast and walked the dog before putting on my makeup and dressing in a neat Tshirt, jeans, cardigan and wedges , by 8.30am I was driving the twenty miles to my old home town . I usually arrive early for the sessions to drop my art materials off before parking the car . This morning I had an extra job to do and that was call into my local tyre fitter for a new front tyre. The company I use is run by a husband and wife , in fact I have known them for many years as I photogrphed their wedding , the husband has a large 4x4 repair garage and Caroline his wife runs the tyre fitting side . I walked into her office and said hello, she just stared at me not realising who I was , it took several minutes for the penny to drop . She was slightly shocked but OK , she knew I had split from my wife, now she put two and two together , I left her the keys and my contact number so she could call when the job was done .

So I headed off to the Art Centre to meet the group , as I entered the centre I bumped into a lady who I also knew from taking her wedding photographs , I said hello and she again stared at me with a blank expression , I really had to spell it out to her who I was finally she got the picture and also gave me a hug, she was surprised how I looked .

I had already started to paint when the the rest of the group arrived and everyone was so pleased I'd finally made it as Teresa but to them I'm Terri , I'm not concerned if they prefer that . We had some new faces so we all exchanged names , very soon we were chatting about art related subjects, nothing felt out of place . A younger woman was really lovely , at the end of the session she told me that she thought I was a woman and my voice slightly deeper but in a feminine way, she can't wait for next week . Our tutor really is a lovely guy , he was so relieved this had finally happened , I appreciated his fears of what could happen , even he was surprised how easily I just slotted back into the group . My only fear was after the first time could I keep it up, well it looks like they are going to be as disappointed as me if I don't .

Sorry it's a bit on the long side but just to finish , I headed off into town after to see if a lovely pair of yellow heels were still for sale in a charity shop but no they had been snapped up but I did find a lovely old gold linen jacket . It's too big in a size 16 so popped into my seamstress friend when I returned home , she pinned it up for me so I can practice my sewing skills with a sewing machine I'd bought from one of her sewing group .

All in all it was a wonderful day , it was great to prove how wrong people can be about the TG community .