The past few weeks, I've been working away from home quite a bit, and I've come to know some of the staff at the Marriott quite well. Tonight, I returned from a dinner meeting around 8 and decided to spend a few hours en femme. (For the record, the usual foundations, my medium length dishwater blonde wig, a light green shaker knot sweater and natural cotton slacks.) Sitting alone the hotel room isn't all that much fun, so I took a stroll to the lobby then out the front door and around the exterior.
I passed a few other guests outside and in the lobby with no apparent reactions. As I came near the front door on my return, I almost bumped into the young lady who works at the front desk in the weekday evenings. We had talked quite often before, but she had never seen me dressed as a woman before tonight.
Her response was everything one might hope for. She first asked if there was anything that I needed, and there wasn't. I just explained that I needed to get out of my room for a little while. At that point she asked if I'd like to stay and talk with here, as it was very quiet at the front desk. So, I did, spending the past 45 minutes just talking about her life, new baby, and new job and my job and family.
For a young woman who grew up in northeast Texas, she was surprisingly at ease. Not even an initial look of surprise. Everyone has different goals for themselves...for me, i value being able to feel and be treated as a normal person and to engage in people in comfortable, natural conversation in everyday situations. That, for me, is real.