A Long Time

So I have once again come out of a long hibernation to share some news regarding myself, my dressing, the wedding dress fiasco and the future of the wedding. I apologize to those who had been reading faithfully, I'm sure one post every four or six months won't garner a faithful following but if you are interested please read on.

First lets talk about the wedding dress. The one where my wedding dress designer disappeared without me getting the dress or my money back. I took her to small claims court and just as I suspected she didn't even bother to show up for that. The good news is I did receive a summary judgement against her but without knowing if I can actually contact her, the search continues. The good news is with the Internet I have some clues as to where she might be. One possibility is California. Although, I did do a divorce filing search in Minnesota it doesn't seem like she is divorced and her and her husband still maintain a residence in Minnesota. As much as I don't like the idea of a face to face confrontation at their home, it is not out of the question. I will pursue this some more after the new year.

While the wedding dress/court case has left a bad taste in my mouth I have not lost the desire for my semi annual dress up week. There are couple of events worth mentioning with my dress up week at the beginning of December. Just as I posted in my last blog I had a boudoir photo shoot with a local photographer. It included a professional makeover along with a really fun photo shoot. I am still waiting for the finished product but I did go over the proofs with the photographer and all I can say is WOW! She did a fantastic job and I can hardly wait to share them. So look for a new post sometime in January with some photos from the shoot. These shots were just from my IPhone to post to some Facebook friends.



Yes, I have a couple of Facebook friends who know about my dressing. There were a few of the girls in my burlesque class back in November who wanted to be my Facebook friends. Right from the first class I fessed up that part of burlesque for me was wearing the fun girl clothes and they were fine with that and I'm sure a little curious. Not wanting to mix my friends who know and friends who don't know about my hobby I created a new Facebook account just for my burlesque friends. I have a few of my girl photos out there and I have received nothing but kind words. It's kind of fun having people I have regular interactions with know about the crossdressing side of me and be accepting of it.

Anyways, back to my dress up week. Immediately following the end of my dress up week I was sent to San Antonio for a business trip. Since I was still freshly waxed and didn't have a lot to do after normal work hours I packed a few of my girl things to bring along. Once in San Antonio I sort of got an idea in my head to go out dressed. I have been out in public a little in the past; walking to my car after the photo shoot, going with a friend to a drag show, a walk around the block at night, but nothing by myself that I would consider bold. I did some research on some alternative and LGBT friendly restaurants and found one about twenty minutes away.

I had everything I would need to go out, a semi casual dress, makeup, purse, jewelry, shoes. I just needed the nerve. So after work on a Tuesday, I made it back to my hotel, did my makeup and hair, got dressed and thought about really going out in the world like this. I checked my purse three times to make sure I didn't forget my hotel key and walked out the hotel room door. At any point somebody could walk out of their room and see me dressed in my female clothes. I made it to the stairs, down and out the side door and to my car seeing no one. I drove the twenty minutes to the restaurant and boy did it look busy. I got cold feet and drove around for about twenty more minutes before I decided I would take one more look. There was a spot on the street for parking right in front of the door. I parked and looked in, it still looked busy but it was now or never. Long story short, I bucked up, got out of the car and walked into the restaurant as a girl. There were maybe fifteen people in there. Mostly it was a bar/coffee shop/cafe. I walked up to the bar and asked for a Malbec and the bartender was very friendly, giving me two Malbec options. I also ordered some pasta and found a table to sit down. It was awesome! I was in the real world enjoying dinner, dressed as a girl and the sky didn't fall, there wasn't a riot, it was just me eating dinner out. Pretty much a normal everyday thing. I stayed there for about 90 minutes, enjoying their free wifi with my IPad and keeping track of my favorite basketball team who was playing that night. It was a pretty big step for me.

Lastly I'll write about the future of the wedding. The other day my wife brought it up asking if I had fun on my girl week and did I get enough dressing in and I had. She brought up the wedding asking if I still wanted to do that. My reply was I did but not for a while. I think she still feels bad about delaying it over Halloween 2010. I might have had my dress in hand if we had done it then. Since then, we had to cancel the April wedding because of the dress, etc, etc. It gave us a change to discuss why she wasn't ready back in 2010. She said there was a lot of stress going on right then. Work stress, going to Las Vegas (not her favorite place) so soon after being there for our first wedding, not having met my bridesmaid before or her date, being the center of attention. And to be fair she really hasn't seen me dressed up very much. We're still in the getting comfortable phase, I think. Talking about me wearing women's clothes is different than seeing me dressed in women's clothes with full makeup and everything. Although we have come a long way and she is getting more and more comfortable with it, especially if I make her a nice dinner.

She has suggested going out one night together while I'm dressed, maybe not locally but somewhere LGBT friendly, maybe a weekend trip somewhere. She has also suggested we go to visit my bridesmaid friend at some point. That would eliminate the just meeting someone new while my husband is in a wedding dress stress. One other strange thing she brought up was a new wedding dress designer. Someone inside my circle of friends that doesn't know about my dressing. This is a departure from where I thought she was regarding telling people about my dressing up. I'm still not sure about that but there is time. I also might consider trying to find a dress shop that would be willing to work with me. Although off the rack might not work with my long torso.

So right now the wedding is still in the works, I suggested our five year anniversary which she thought was a good idea. I might look somewhere locally for the wedding, it seems like Las Vegas might be a good place to avoid with so many people around. Who knows, I might be able to invite a few of my burlesque friends to the wedding if its local too. But I know it will be a small ceremony. So right now the countdown is a little over 1200 days away. Ouch! But I've waited this long...