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.