Saturday and a little Susan time and going to Willamette National Cemetery

Happy Mother’s Day Weekend. It is a beautiful weekend sunny and close to 90 today. I got up and went to the gym as always and then came home and did some yard work before it got to hot, I lasted till about 12:30pm outside before I was cooked. Yes when I am working in the yard I have no desire to be Susan as Susan does not like getting hot, dirty, or sweaty, that is my male sides job. I started getting ready about 1:30 and took my time. I have been working harder on my winged eye liner and I think I am getting better at it as I was happy with how it turned out today. I was all ready by 2:30pm and took a few pictures. My plan for the day was to go to the Cemetery and put flowers on my parents’ grave for Mother’s Day. I was going to stop and get flowers but I knew the stores would be packed, especially the floral departments so I went another way. My mom loved Lilacs and I have two planted in my back yard in each corner, yes my parents gave them to me when I bought my house so I went out and cut some off to take.

I got to Willamette National Cemetery a little after 3 pm and there were a lot of people here, in the section my parents are in there were 2 different couples and a group of 5 placing flowers but not real close to where I was going. I walked out and placed the flowers on the graves, it is nice to be here on Mother’s Day as I have said before my family was big on celebrating holidays together. I really did have wonderful parents, they taught me and my brother to work hard, be kind to others and take responsibility for your actions. I do think sometimes about if I should have told my parents about this side of me as they did say they had always wanted a daughter but only had 2 boys but by the time I was at a point where I might have considered telling them they had some short-term memory issues and I think it would have been hard for them although I like to think they would have been supportive of me. A few of the people left and a few more came as I think a lot of people think like I do and wanted to bring flowers for Mother’s Day. I stayed maybe 30 minutes as it got hot standing out in the sun. I left and headed home and decided to stop at the Starbucks in Orchards for a cool drink and I needed to write my blog from Wednesday nights dinner.

I got to the SR 500 exit and traffic came to a stop and just crawled from there so it took a little longer to get there. As I got to the split between SR 500 and 112^th street there was a couple police cars, two ambulances and a fire engine blocking Most of the ramp to SR 500, a couple cars pulled over ahead of them and one motorcycle that was badly damaged. There were two stretchers but just a sheet covering them so I think the people on the motorcycle didn’t make it. I got to Starbucks a little about 4:15 and went in. I got a drink and sat down to write my blog from Wednesday dinner. I do like coming to Starbucks to write my blog when I am Susan. It is just more fun to be out as Susan doing this then at my house as my male self, writing my blog. I did that for many years, I would go out as Susan with the girls on Friday night and Saturday morning write my blog as I ate breakfast as my male self. It was like telling a story about someone else, now I try to write all my blogs when I am Susan as it feels like I am writing about myself. I stayed here till 5:45 before leaving.

Now it was almost 6 and I didn’t want to go home and cook and I had a craving for pizza so I called COSTCO to get a pizza but I called to late as they were not taking any more orders for today as they close at 7pm. My next choice was Papa John’s so I called them and ordered one for pickup, I have gone to this one a couple of times both male and female and when I gave them my phone number they asked if it was for Susan or my male name so I am guessing they know as I know they know Susan is Transgender. I got there and went in and my pizza had just come out, the young lady who helped me was probably 20 give or take a couple years and was really pleasant. After I paid and as she handed me my receipt she told me I looked marvelous which made me feel good and I thanked her and left.

It was about 6:30 when I got home and had dinner and watched a couple movies on Hallmark channel, not Christmas ones but still good. Now I am looking forward to Sunday and a little Susan time in the afternoon at my regular Sunday Starbucks.

Thanks for reading my blog and sharing this part of my life with me.

Wednesday night dinner at Swagat Indian in Beaverton.

It is Wednesday and that means dinner with my friends. We are having dinner at Swagat Indian in Beaverton. This is the first time going here although we have gone to the Swagat downtown Portland many times. We picked this for two reasons, first we were looking for a place on the West side this week, we had thought about Giovannie’s in Beaverton which I love but they will no longer do separate checks which makes it hard when you have a group that could be 10 to 15. This seems to be a lot more common now which I think is bad as you lose customers this way. it’s the reason we didn’t do the Swagat downtown this week as they will only do 1 check for groups of 6 or more which is sad as we have been going there for many years. We used to go to Screen Door in the pearl district and also Irving street tapas but they also stopped doing separate checks and we haven’t gone back in over a year. Jennifer called Swagat Indian in Beaverton and asked and they said they would do separate checks for us so we will go to a new place tonight.

I got home from work a little after 5 and started getting ready. Tonight I wanted a Cherry red lipstick and a smokey eye look and I chose my long green summer dress. I was all ready by 6pm and on my way as when I got home my GPS said it would take 51 minutes to get there. Well traffic must have cleared up as I only had a little slowing going through the tunnel and arrived at Swagat Indian a few minutes after 6:30 so I was way early. Now this place is actually in an old house, they do have a small parking lot behind it with about 8 spots but if you drive back and they are all full you really cant turn around easily so yes I had to back out down the driveway. Luckily was I got to the street a car pulled out right in front of the door which is where I parked. I saw Patty walk in and as I was getting out of my car Jennifer was parking just down from me so we walked in together. Now this is actually a small place being in a house, as you come in there is a little bar you can get a drink at but no place to sit. In the front room there are 5 tables that seat 4 and in the back room where we were there were 12 to 14 tables and yes 4 were pulled together for us to sit at. They did it in a square which was nice as it made it so we could all kind of talk with each other. There were 8 of us tonight with 2 on each side as you can see from the picture Jennifer took. It is me, Patty, Jenifer C, Jane, Biana, Alanna, Mary Ann and Jenifer T who took the picture.

Our waiter came and took our order and I got my usual, Chicken Makani which I like as it is not spicy. Yes Indian food would not be my first choice but as I always say it really is not about the food or where we go it is about being out with my friend. By the way our waiter was wonderful, and this really is a nice place. Small but very cozy and personable, if you are in the Beaverton I would check it out. Now tonight we had Jane who is our newest member, this was actually her first time out with our group. Her and her wife moved out to Oregon a few years back from the East coast and she was active in a group back there but has been looking for a group out here and came across our group. So of course we all introduced our selves and then let her tell us a little about herself which is always fun as I love meeting new people. Our group has been growing lately as Jennifer C joined last fall, and Bianca joined about a month ago so really tonight we have 3 of our newer members at the dinner. Jane seems really nice and I think she will be a good fit in our group although she does live about 1 ½ hours south of Portland so we may not see her as often.

Our food came and it was as good as the one downtown. We had a wonderful dinner and great conversation and as I said by the way they set up the tables we really could talk with everyone which in a group of 8 is nice. As always the night went by way to fast. It was about 9pm when we got our checks and I noticed our waiter did not put a tip on the checks which usually happens with bigger groups but I like this as yes I gave him a nice tip as he really did treat us well and we had great service of course they were not real busy but also the fact they were willing to give us separate checks. It was about 9:15 when we wall walked out together and left. It took about 30 minutes to get home and then it was time to wash away my makeup and go back to my male self-till the weekend. It was a nice evening though, thanks Jennifer for setting this up.

Now I am looking forward to the weekend which is Mother Day weekend and the weather for the next few days all the way through the weekend are in the 80’s to low 90’s and sunny. I would also like to wish all the mothers out there a Happy Mother Day. Yes I do plan to go to the Cemetery on either this weekend, it is hard to believe that it has been almost 3 years sense my mom passed away and 5 ½ years for my dad, yes I will also go on Father’s Day weekend.

Thanks for reading my blog and sharing this part of my life with me.

Sunday and an unexpected trip to Dream Nails

Today is Sunday May 5^th and it is Cinco De Mayo today, yes this weekend had 2 holidays as Yesterday was Star Wars Day, although I don’t celebrate either. My plan for today was simple spend a couple hours at my Sunday Starbucks in the afternoon to catch up on my blogs but that changed quickly. I got up today and took my shower and then it was tine to start my laundry as I need to wash my bedding, my Sunday Morning ritual. Well as I was getting my bedding off the bed yes I caught that corner of my thumb nail and broke some of the acrylic off, I had the corner of my nail exposed. I wasn’t supposed to go get my nails done till next week as I go every 3 weeks but this needed to be repaired today.

I got home a little after 11:30 am and started getting ready as Susan as Dream Nails is only open till 5pm on Sundays. I did my makeup and got dressed, it was 12:25 when I was ready so I quickly called Dream Nails and Anna asked if I wanted to come now so I told her I would see her in a few minutes. I walked in and Anna was ready for me, there were 3 other ladies here, one getting her nails done and the other two getting pedicures. I sat down and pointed out the broken corner and told her I think I left them too long last time as if you read my blog from two weeks ago when the other lady did my nails she really didn’t want to shorten them. Anna inspected my nails and noticed 4 other nails where the corner of the natural nail was separating from the acrylic so she said we should remove those nails. Well in the end Anna actually removed the acrylic from all my nails, she said she wanted to try something new. Now a few years ago I would have said no as I would have been worried about people noticing but I just said okay and went with what she wanted to do. I was thinking she would shorten them way up and put tips on ad give me a new set of acrylic nails. that is not what happened, she cleaned up my nails and shortened them to about an 1/8 of an inch. She then applied a bonding agent and then something else and had me put my fingers under the UV light. She got out a box with container and I thought it was colored acrylic powder and she showed me some sample color to pick from, she pointed to one that looked pretty rosy-pink so I picked a softer color that looked more natural. She got the color I picked and opened it and it was not acrylic powder. Yes for the first time in over two years I will not have acrylic nails. Anna is going to give me gel nails, she is using ZEN builder gel and the color I picked was #9, turns out it is called Red Dragon.

I have done gel polish and acrylic nails but I have never done actual Gel nails before so this will be a new experience for me. Anna did say they were stronger and lasted longer and yes a little more expensive. She said I could probably go 4 to 5 weeks with them which sounds great but in reality it is the grow out that determines how often I get my nails done, with bright colors it would be every two weeks, neutral colors I can go 3 weeks. I watched as she put it on and it does take longer to do but the filing at the end is easier and quicker. She got all my nails done, shaped and smoothed and them put a clear coat on them which really made the color pop, my nails are a very pale pink color now but they look great and they seem not as thick but stronger but time will tell. It was $65 but that included removing the old nails, normally a fill is $55 compared to the $45 for acrylic so if I can go every 4 weeks it will be less otherwise it will cost me a little more but I am worth it. I paid and left, it was a little before 2pm so I drove over to my normal Sunday Starbucks to spend a couple hours and catch up on my blogs.

I got to Starbucks and went in, they were not busy but the man who was at the other Starbucks yesterday got here just after I did. Maybe one of these days I will say hi to him. I got my drink and sat down and wrote my blog from yesterday and posted it. I am getting better with working in WordPress, but still miss the ease of writing and posting directly from word. It was a relaxing afternoon and a couple tines it rained really hard, the lady next to me commented on it and we ended up talking for a little bit about it as it turns out we both like to watch the rain from inside. I stayed here till a little after 5 before leaving.

I did stop at Fred Meyers and pick a few things up and also Panda Express for some dinner before going home for the night. It was a good day and my nails look beautiful.

Thanks for reading my blog and sharing this part of my life with me.

Saturday May the 4th and a little time at Starbucks

It is Saturday May 4^th and if you celebrate Star Wars Day, have a great day. I got up and went to the gym as usual  got there just before 8am as I have a busy day and want to fit some Susan time in today, and worked out and stopped briefly at the Starbucks by Home Depot to post my blog from Wednesday night’s dinner. Now a funny side story. Julie and Trixie got home from Palm Springs last night and I picked them up from the airport at 8:30. I was my male self but I did do my eye makeup and a neutral lipstick. my eyes were a bronzy brown on the outer corner with a lighter browns on the lid, full mascara and a winged eye liner, it was a good daytime look for Susan and the lipstick was Maybelline lip ink in the color Seductress, somewhat neutral in color. I got them back to Julies and rode with Julie to take Trixie home so it was a little after 10pm when we got back to Julies and I went in with her and we sat and talked for a while. We talked till almost 11:30, it was so nice to have her back home again, it was almost midnight when I got home and went to be. Well if you have not figured out where this is going, yes when I got up this morning to go to the gym I forgot about the makeup I had on. I noticed it when I used the bathroom at Starbucks after the gym.  Now I like to spend most of Saturday as Susan but I did have some things I needed to get down today so my Susan time would be limited. Yes sometime my male self is needed. It was a little after 2 when I had most of what I needed to do done and started getting ready for a little Susan time. Now my time getting ready is my me time and so relaxing as it is putting away my male side for a while. I took my time as I wanted to try something new with my eyes, yes I still love playing with makeup. I have an eye shadow pallet with black and a sparkly grey and today I was going to use that along with the other colors. I also did a gel liner right on my lower lash line. In all I was happy with the look. It was a little after 3pm when I was ready and took some pictures. I did think about going to the Escape tonight but decided not to as it was to late in the day to post. So my plan was to go to Starbucks by my house for a couple hours and then back home to finish a couple things. I did call and talk to Cassandra while I was doing my makeup, I miss seeing her at the outing as she lives in Las Vegas now, we talked for about 30 minutes.

It only took a couple minutes to get to Starbucks and I had to park a little ways out as there were a lot of cars but they were not tat busy. I put my computer on a table by the window and went and ordered my drink. The young man working the counter greeted me by name, he used to work at the one I go to in Orchards but has been moved to this one now. We talked a little before I ordered my drink. I sat down and started working on my computer, really just messing around. Now the man at the table behind me, his name is Mark and I know this as I see him pretty much every Sunday at the other Starbucks I go to. I have never talked with him but like me the people there call him by name. I see him pretty regular when I come to this one on Saturdays so I think he does this one on Saturdays and the other one on Sundays. Now for me I like to go to a few different Starbucks just so I can be seen by ore people but also I just don’t want to go to the same Starbucks two days in a row and I wonder if that is what he is doing.

I did some work on my computer and did some research on my stocks, yes I find following my stocks and reading about them interesting. Some people follow sport, some fashion for me it is my stocks. I started buying stocks in late 1987 and have been managing my stocks ever sense. By the way there are a lot of financial web sites out their but my favorite is Yahoo Finance, I have used it sense they started in the early 90’s. For those who are younger at one time Yahoo was the internet, they dominated everything from search, to chat, profiles like Face Book and even groups, yes the Rose City T-girl started off as a Yahoo group. Their problem was they were the 800-pound gorilla and they took their lead for granted and just assumed they were the best and well you know how that goes. For a little history, Microsoft tried to buy Yahoo in 2008 for 47 billion dollars and yahoo said no, nine short years later in 2017 Yahoo was bought out for 370 million dollars, less than 1/100 of what Microsoft had offered. Sorry a little off track.

I caught up on e-mails and other things and really just had an enjoyable time here. I did check my social media but I try to avoid that as it is really getting political now, vote this way or that way, here is my take on this and yes it is political so feel free to skip over the red text. If you can be swayed by how you vote because someone posts something on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, or twitter I would prefer you not vote. Please do your own research and don’t just vote how someone online tells you to vote. I don’t care what party you belong to or who you support as long as it is you making the call based on the information you have read about, be informed. Now back to my blog. I stayed here a little longer than I planned as a little after 5pm it really started to rain and I didn’t want to get wet walking to my car plus I like watching the rain (or snow) out the window, it is calming to watch. It was about 5:40 when the rain let up and I left.

I got home and made dinner and watched some TV, yes I did watch one Star war movie as several channels had them on for Star Wars Day (May the Fourth). I did take a break about 7pm as I had a phone call I had to make and that lasted about 25 minutes, this was the reason I came home as I hate being out in public and talking on my phone. I did my dishes and as I did I chipped just a little of my right thumb nail, not bad, just enough to have a little jagged corner which I quickly filed. Probably because the last time I had them done it wasn’t Anna and she left them really square. I do like the square almost as much as the square with a slightly round corner which is easier as a sharp corner is a week point and breaks or chips easier. It was a little after 11pm when I washed away my makeup and went to bed. It was a good day.

Thanks for reading my blog and sharing this part of my life with me.

Wednesday night dinner at Who Song & Larry’s in Vancouver

It is Wednesday May 1^st, happy May Day, and we are having dinner tonight at Who Song & Larry’s in Vancouver. I picked this place as I like it and we haven’t been here for a while but also being May 1^st I was worried about traffic in Portland as Portland has a history of May Day protests that shut down street, and widespread vandalism and I just didn’t want to be any where near Portland. Now it turns out this year it wasn’t ad, actually probably the quietest in many years. The other good thing was traffic was light today as I think a lot of people took off work just in case. I got off late today but was still home about 5PM.

I started getting ready and I took my time as it will take me less than 15 minutes to get to Who Song & Larry’s. I used a cherry red lipstick with a gloss tonight. I was ready a little after 6 and took my usual group of pictures. Yes I take a lot of pictures and delete out the ones I don’t like, this is the great thing about cell phones and digital pictures. Yes I am old enough to remember having to use film you bought and then paying to develop them and only then you could tell if the pictures were good. It was 6:20 when I left as I just figured I would be early. I got to Who Song & Larry’s at 6:35 and there were lots of parking spots so I didn’t think they were very busy. As I got out of my car I saw Barb getting out of hers so we walked in together. She comes from Portland so she left early because she was worried about traffic and didn’t have any problem. We got inside and I checked in with the lady at the front desk and she said they were cleaning up our table and it would be about 5 minutes. We have 9 of us tonight and by the time we were seated 7 of us were here.

We were seated and by 7 we were all here, tonight we had Patty, Jennifer, Alanna, Kris, Jamie, me, Barb, Gina, & Poppy. Our waitress came and took our drink order and yes I ordered my bean dip as they put cheese in it and it is really good. yes I know I tend to fill up on chips and bean dip and wind-up overeating but they really do have great food here. We ordered our food and I of course got the chicken & sour cream enchilada. We all sat and talked as we waited for our food, of course with a big group it is hard to talk with everyone. We did talk a little about our Christmas dinner we are planning, yes if you want a Saturday night in December for a group you really need to start early. We are going to do Mothers Bistro this year and they are going to break us up into tables of 4 to 6 but all close together, which will be nice as we will really be able to talk with each other and also go visit the next table. We are trying to pick which Saturday as some girls can’t make all of them but I am good with whichever one they pick. Jennifer did get our waitress to take a group picture and also individual pictures.

Our food came and as always it was really good, I really do think Who Song & Larry’s has the best Mexican food but then I also have a special spot in my heart for this place. This is the one place we have gone to the longest, there were other places before them but they have all closed. I think the first time we came here was in December of 2009. We all talked as we ate and had a really nice dinner and conversation; these dinners really are more about being out with friends then the food we eat. I really think being out and seen by people is really important as it gives people a chance to interact or observe us personally and not just make a judgement based on what they see online. After dinner we sat and talked a little bit before we paid our bills. By the way our waitress was awesome tonight so yes I gave her a nice tip. It is funny as I am a better tipper as Susan, again I think it help us look good and I figure a little extra for that is well worth it and I know some of the other girls feel the same.

It was about 9pm when we all got up and walked out together, it is always sad to see the night come to an end but I know I will see them again next week at dinner.

Thanks for reading my blog and sharing this part of my life with me.

Sunday and a little time at Starbucks

It is Sunday and am going to go to Starbucks for a couple hours. I had things to do early in the day so it was before 2pm before I got home so it will be a later start. I took my time getting ready and did my purple eye shadow today. I was all ready by 2:40 and was on my way. It only took a few minutes to get to Starbucks, one reason I like this one. They were not busy so I got my drink and sat down to work on my blog from Saturday. Now today when I write my blog I was doing it on google docs as I found a way to link it to my blog. I really hope Microsoft puts their blog template back into word as it really was easy to use and worked really well. I got to Starbucks and as I was getting ready to go in, one of the ladies who works here named Natasha was standing outside, she had just gotten off work so I stopped and talked with her for a few minutes. As we talked a man walked out and went out to his car but what we noticed is he through a bunch of garbage out of his car in the parking lot. We both talked about how wrong it was and what made it worse is he drove over to the Fred Meyers fuel station across the parking lot to get gas and they have trash cans there, what a jerk. She left and I went inside.

I got my drink and sat down to work. I sent out the information on our zoom call tomorrow and for our Wednesday night dinner, I picked a place in Vancouver as Wednesday is May 1^st and Portland has a history of May Day protest that block street in downtown. I started my blog in Google Docs and it was similar to word as far as putting pictures in but not as easy for the rest of it but it might work but I still like word better of course I have used word for years. As I worked a few more people came in, including 2 young girls probably 12 to 16 years old. They had some popcorn and went and got drinks and some other food items and sat at the table and talked. They were there for maybe 30 minutes and I only mention this as when they left they left a mess, both their cups left on the table, the wrappers of their food and some of the popcorn they spilled on the table and floor. It really was a mess and I felt bad for the staff that had to come out and clean this up. I finished my blog and it took a little time to figure out how to post it from Google Docs. I went in and looked at it and it was pretty messed up looking, the formatting was al off. In the end I pretty much deleted all of the text and pictures and pasted it back in, it would have been easier to just do it in word and paste it in so Google doc is not an option, I finally got it looking better and updated it.

I then did some searching online looking for another option to write my blog offline and found a program called Zoho so I downloaded that and will try that for todays blog. I stayed here till 5:30pm before going home for the night. now I am looking forward to Wednesday night’s dinner.

Thanks for reading my blog and sharing this part of my life.

Saturday and a little Susan time at Starbucks before going to the Escape bar and grill

It is the last Saturday of April and I will once again get a little Susan time. I had a busy morning as I took my car in at 8am for an oil change and a few other things so no gym today but I did stop last night at the gym to make up for it. I was at Toyota in my male mode, of course with some mascara and light eye shadow just before 8am and yes I took my computer as in needed to do my blog from last Sunday and also Wednesday nights dinner. I also posted to the group I would be out and planned on being at the Escape Bar & Grill at 5:30 for dinner in hopes others might show up. I was there about 2 hours before leaving. I had a couple errands to run so it was a little after 11 when I got home. I also needed to clean out my gutters today as they have some blockage which took a little extra time as I didn’t want to damage my nails. I normally just scoop them out with my hand, yes sometimes I need to be my male self and yes there are times my pretty nails are an issue. Yes there are times in my life and things I do that I do not want to be my female self for. It was a little after 2pm when I was done with everything I needed to do and started getting ready for the rest of my day as Susan.

I took my time getting ready today and I did a smokey eye look but with Browns and Black which does take more effort to blend together, but if you get it right it really looks good, and I finished it off with my pinkish rose-colored lipstick. I was all ready by 3:15pm and checked my e-mail and so far no one had responded to my post about going to the Escape tonight. I decided to go to Starbucks in Orchards for a while till it was time to go to the Escape. I got there about 3:40 so I had a little over an hour. I went in and as always I was greeted by name when I walked in. I went and ordered my drink and had a little trouble as somehow my app on my phone logged me out and yes I couldn’t remember my password so I paid with my credit card as I had two people behind me in line. Yes that was the first thing I looked up on my computer and logged back in. I finished my blog from Wednesday nights dinner and did a few other things as this really was just a way to be out before going to the Escape tonight. I stayed here till 5:15 before leaving and going to the Escape.

I got to the Escape at 5:30 and went in, they were not busy at all, 1 lady at the bar and 4 people back playing the video poker machines. I ordered dinner and sat down and checked my computer and still no one posting they would be here so I figured it would just be me so it wouldn’t be a late night. My burger basket came and I had a nice dinner as I had to eat anyway. I posted my bog from Wednesday nights dinner online and watched a little of the Oregon Duck verses the Oregon Beavers baseball game that was on the TV. It is funny as I watch way more sports now when I am Susan as I really don’t watch them at home and when I am out someplace I can watch them, I am Susan as it is usually here at the Escape. A few more people came in and I did stay till 7pm but no one else showed up so I paid my bill and called it a night. It was a pretty quiet day but a little Susan time is always good.

Now I am looking forward to Sunday as I plan on a little Susan time in the afternoon although it will be a little later as I have a meeting at noon so I probably won’t get to Starbucks till 3pm but that is okay as it will give me a little time and let me catch up on my blogs. By the way I am going to try doing this blog in Google Documents and see how it works.

Thanks for reading my blog and sharing this part of my life with me.

Wednesday night dinner at Outback Steak house at Vancouver mall.

It is Wednesday and tonight we are doing our dinner at the Outback Steak House at Vancouver mall. I am looking forward to it as I missed last week being in Palm Springs with Julie which was so much fun. I did make reservations Tuesday night as we have a big group again, 10 of us, it really is more to let them know they have a big group coming in. it does amaze me though to think about it as I remember back in the early days of the group, 2008 to 2010 when Cassandra and I would talk and we thought it would be so great if we could get 6 to 10 girls out on a Saturday night to Embers, a gay club that did drag shows so very transgender friendly. Now years later we can get 6 to 15 girls out on a Wednesday night to just a random restaurant, we have come a long way from those humble beginnings.

I got home a little after 5pm and started getting ready which is a lot of fun, I really do enjoy my time doing my makeup and transforming myself into Susan. Now the weather today is cool, mid 50’s and chance of rain and as we are getting close to summer I decided to wear mt red seater dress as I may not get a chance till next fall now and it is probably my favorite dress. Yes I love the color red, I also did red lipstick and a smokey eye look. I was already a little after 6 so I had a little time as it only takes about 10 minutes to get there. I arrived and parked about 6:35 and walked towards the Outback Steak House, Jan was standing outside and Gina was walking towards the door also so we all met in front. The 3 of us stood there for about 5 minutes or so just talking, again 10 years ago I would have never stood in front of a restaurant in the Vancouver Mall parking lot in plan view of everyone going by but now it is no big deal. We went in about 6:45 and several of the girls were waiting inside. I checked in and the lady said our table was ready and we were shown back, the lady seating us thanked us for our patience before we were seated which was nice but unexpected as we were 15 minutes early. I wonder if she remembered the last time we were here as when we came back in December the big group before us took their time and we had to wait about 45 minutes but that was not Outback Steak House fault. We were actually seated at the same table this time.

By 7pm we were all here, tonight we had Poppy, Trinity, me, Gina, Jan, Lynn, Patty, Jamie, Alanna, & Claire. I was able to sit at the middle of the table so I was kind of able to talk with everyone. The problem with big groups is if you are at the end of a table you can’t talk with everyone. The big groups are good as it is wonderful as I said earlier that we can get so many girls out but really for conversations a group of 6 or less is the prefect size. Our Christmas dinner this year we are looking into that, having tables of 4 to 6 all seated near each other so we can also talk between tables and move around. Yes we are already planning our Christmas dinner as it is hard to get a reservation for a big group that time of year especially on a Saturday evening. The last two years we had 24+ people which again is amazing and this year we are hoping for 30. Opps got a little sidetracked.

Our waitress came and took our drink order as we looked at the menu, of course as usual I knew what I was having when I picked this place, they have the best ribeye steak here. This is a little higher priced place but I have a gift card I bought. Now I do talk a little about my finances a little and one thing I do is I have a credit card that each quarter gives me 5% back on certain things and last quarter it was at Grocery stores like Fred Meyers so I bought a bunch of gift cards, Outback, Starbucks (which I am good for the rest of the year), McDonalds and several others. Yes I am paying upfront but it really does ad up plus a bonus I didn’t think about is the fuel rewards I get. I wound up with 4/$1 off and 2/50 cents off my gas purchases which also ads up as I usually get 10 gallons when I fill up, sorry sidetracked again. We all ordered our food and sat and talked. I tried to be involved in the conversations on both ends of the table but wound up more focused on the one to my right. Trinity has only come out a couple times with the group in the last couple years so it was nice to talk with her more. Her work schedule make it hard for her to make Wednesday night dinner but she has a bunch of vacation time she hast to use so she is also hoping to make the dinner in two weeks.

Our food came and as always it was awesome. we had a wonderful dinner and great conversation and as I said our waitress was awesome. These dinners are just such a wonderful social event and really more about being out with my friends with the added benefit of a nice meal. To get together like this is not only good for our group and members but also for the people around us as they can see we are just out having a nice dinner like they are and not causing a scene or problems. I think this does wonders for our group and the transgender community as a whole. I have said it many times before but for most people all they see or know about transgender people is what they see on the news or social media and that is not good especially social media as that is more about getting views and followers and because of that people tend to go to extremes which doesn’t make us look good on either side. When we are out this may be the only time someone see us (transgender) in real life and the impression we leave on them may form their whole view of transgender people. Hopefully what they see is just a group of friends having a nice dinner and talking with each other the same way they are and realize we really are no different. My personal opinion is always look at the good side of things. If I have a good experience I will leave a good review and a nice tip. If my experience is bad yes my tip will be lower and I won’t leave a review, yes I will never give a bad review as I disagree with trashing or talking bad about a business or someone else online, never post something you would not say to their face, if you can’t say something nice don’t say anything.

We had a wonderful evening and as always it went by way to fast, soon it was 9pm and we all paid our bills. We all walked out together and the staff thanked us for coming in and told us to come back, which is always nice. It was just a really enjoyable evening. Now I am looking forward to the weekend and a little more Susan time.

Thanks for reading my blog and sharing this part of my life with me.

Sunday and the end of my two-week vacation

It is Sunday and the end of my two-week vacation which is always sad. Yesterday I removed the red polish from my nails and went more natural and also shortened them down although they still look good. it was about 1pm when I started getting ready as I do want to go to my Sunday Starbucks for a couple hours and get caught up on my blogs from my vacation, they do take a little more work now that Microsoft stopped supporting posting my bog from word and I still have not fund a good alternative, it really is the formatting of it with the pictures. I took my time getting ready and today I used my silver and dark brown eye shadows and a coppery lipstick and was pretty happy with the look. I was ready a little after 1 and took a few pictures and yes showed off my shorter nails which do have a pink tint to them.

I got to Starbucks about 2:30 and they were not really busy. There was one open table along the window so I could plug my computer in and it was next to Ryan so I sat down to work and we talked briefly, mostly just saying hi. I got to work and the first thing was to send out the information for Monday night’s zoom call which have been smaller groups for aa while, last week when I was gone they had just 3 and this week we would have just 5 of us. I also sent out information for Wednesday night dinner, this week I am picking the Outback at Vancouver mall. I worked on my blog from Saturday when I went to Dream Nails and had my nails done and posted it. Sundays really are about relaxing for a while as Susan. I also did some work on my stocks as the stock market the last week has been down. I was missing talking to Julie about finance and stocks as she also manages her own stocks like me and we actually have several of the same stocks and investments. I know that may sound boring but I enjoy it and now that I am taking care of it when I am Susan just makes it that more fun. by the way if you have investments, even if you have someone manage them for you, you need to at least know what stocks you own, know what they do as a business, and at least follow the headlines on them. Just my opinion. I spent about an hour doing this.

It was about 5pm when I packed up and left as I still needed to do some grocery shopping and yes laundry when I got home. I stopped at Fred Meyers and did my shopping and yes it took a little longer this week as skipped the last two weeks because of going to Palm Springs. It is nice doing my shopping as Susan as that is another part of my life I have turned over to my female side to take care of.

I got home just before 6pm and started my laundry and sat down to watch a couple movies on Netflix. The rest of the evening was just relaxing at home to get ready to go back to work tomorrow, which is always hard after two weeks off. It will probably be a longer day as I will have things to catch up on.

Thanks for reading my blog and sharing this part of my life with me.

Saturday and going to Dream Nails to remove the red color from my nails

It is Saturday and my vacation is almost over but for my nails it is. Today I will go to Dream Nails and get my nails done and remove the red from them which is always sad. I do love red nails but on the bright side there is an advantage to having a more neutral color, the grow out is not as noticeable. I usually get my nails done every 3 weeks but looking at my nails today you can really see the grow out now and if I waited another week they would look bad so yes with red nails I would have to get them done every two weeks which would be 8 extra trips to the nail salon a year so I do save a little money. I did have things to do this morning after being gone for a week so it was a little after noon when I started getting ready. I took my time getting ready and did my eye makeup and lipstick the same as I did for my drive home yesterday from Palm Springs. Now I will admit it will be nice to take a break next week from being Susan and doing makeup every day. It was about 1pm when I had my makeup down and was ready to get dressed so I called Dream Nails to see when Anna could get me in. Anna answered the phone and I was a little sad as she was leaving to go to Seattle to visit a friend and wouldn’t be back till Sunday night, but she said she could get me in on Monday but that wouldn’t work for me. I told her I needed to go back to work and I needed them done before then so she said she could get one of the other ladies to do them and asked if I could come in at 4pm so I did get a little more time with my nails, I said that would work although I will miss Anna doing my nails.

I finish getting dressed and decided to go to the Starbucks right by my house as it is across the street form Dream Nails and do some work. I took a few pictures and was on my way. I got there and went in and they were not really busy, the lady at the counter greeted me by name which is always nice. I got my drink and sat down and worked on my blog from Thursday nights dinner at Tropicale. I wrote the blog and caught up on some e-mails and other things. It was a relaxing afternoon. I stayed here till 3:50 before I left and went to Dream Nails.

I parked and went in and the lady was ready for me, I don’t know her name but she has done my nails before but always when I was getting extensions. I sat down and she gave me the colors to pick from but the color Anna uses was not on it so I told her I wanted #866 soft Tulip so she looked for it and couldn’t find it so I wasn’t sure what I would do. I did notice a box set in the corner behind Anna’s desk so I told her that might be it and she went and got it and it was the color I wanted, yes a little more work when Anna doesn’t do my nails. She started to remove the color and yes the first nail is the hardest. Now my nails are 7/8 of an inch right now which is the longest I have ever had my natural nails and by that I mean my own nails with acrylic on them. I have had a little longer but that was when I had extensions put on. As she removed the color she asked me if I wanted them shortened and I said yes as they were way to long at least for my male side. She shortened them a little and got them prepared for the fill. I looked at them and she had only shortened them a little so I asked her to shorten them more and she did. They were too long for my male side so I asked her to shorten them more and she did, it looked like she was shortening them about 1/8 of an inch at a time. I asked her to shorten them again and she did and I thought they were good now so she started my fill.

She used the same acrylic Anna uses with the slight pink tint to it for my fill. She filled my nails and shaped them. Now I love the square tip when my nails are short, longer I like the coffin shape. With my nails shaped she smoothed them but really didn’t thing the acrylic down so my nails were a little thicker then normal as Anna had made them a little thicker because I was growing them out. Now it was time for the gel polish, she put 2 coats of #866 soft Tulip on my nails and then finished it with a topcoat. My nails looked beautiful and she did do a great job. I paid and left. When I got in my car I took a picture of nails and the color is a little more noticeable and I also noticed they are a little more square, Anna usually rounds the corners a little as you can see in my Flickr and Instagram page. They do look great but the more square corners will take a little getting used to.

It was 5pm now so I went to Panda Express to get something to eat to take home as I need to go to the grocery store tomorrow. They were not busy so it was a quick stop and then I went home for the night. I had a nice dinner and watched the movie Star Gate which I recorded last Friday before I left to go to Palm Springs. It was a good day even though my nails are not as pretty. Now I am looking forward to Sunday and my last day of vacation before I go back to work. I also noticed my nails out in the natural light has a definite pink color to them, this I took in my backyard.