First Wednesday night dinner of June at the Old Spaghetti Factory on the Willamette River

It is the first Wednesday night dinner of June and tonight our group is having dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory on the Willamette River. Next to Who Song and Larrys this is the place we have been going the second longest. But before I get into my blog I just wanted to thank our Military man and women, we are just past Memorial Day when we honor them but this wee also has a couple things we need to remember and thank them for. On June 6^th is the 80^th anniversary of D-day when thousands of Americans died to make sure we lived in a free country. The other big one was the Battle of Midway June 4^th – 7^th 1942, which was a turning point in the battle in the pacific after Pearl Harbor. Yes Friday night June 7^th I will watch the movie Midway. Yes I am proud to be an American and I do fly my American flag from Memorial Day to Labor Day every year plus several other days. Sorry if I got a little off topic but I feel we as a nation has lost some of this pride in America and think it is important to remember those who helped guarantee our freedoms and way of life.

Susan at old spaghetti factory

I got home tonight and started getting ready, now I had already decided what dress I was going to wear, my white one so that did determine how I should do my makeup. yes I have discovered over the years that certain makeup looks look better with certain outfits. Purple eye shadow as it makes my eyes look brighter against the white dress and a pinkish purple lipstick. I was all ready by a little after 5:30 and took my pictures, today I tried not looking straight at the camera and I think it looks a little better. I left and was on my way to pick Julie up, I really love riding with Julie as we get to spend extra time together. I got to Julies at 6pm so we had time to sit and talk which we did till about 6:20 before we left. Traffic was light and we got to the Old Spaghetti Factory at 6:45. As we parked Gina was just getting out of her car and Kris had just parked so the 4 of us walked in together. We went inside and a few of the other girls were there already so I checked in and they said they would have our table ready in a couple of minutes. It was just before 7 when we were seated.

Our waiter came over and started taking drink orders as we waited for the last 2 to arrive. Tonight we had 12 of us which is always fun but makes it harder to talk with everyone. I did get a seat towards the middle of the table so I was able to talk with a lot of the girls other than the ones at the very end. I did get our waiter to take several pictures but I liked this one the best for the reason one of the other waitresses photo bombed us and I thought it was cute. It is Nicole, Poppy, me, Bianca, the son of one of our ladies, Gina, Barb, Julie, Jamie, Alanna, Jane, Kris and the waitress. We all ordered our food and yes I got the chicken parmesan as always, they do have a lot of great food here but this is my favorite and as we only come here every couple months I go with what I love. We sat and talked as we waited for our food and it was nice although with the big group we had 2 to 3 conversations going. Big groups are good as I can remember when we thought it would be great if we could get 8 to 10 out on a Saturday night to a gay club that did drag shows and now we can do better then that on a Wednesday night at a restaurant. But there is something about small groups also here you can all be involved in the same conversation. If you read my blog from Monday night it was just Nicole and I and we talked for over an hours.

Several of the girls tonight are pretty regular at going out but it was nice as Nicole joined us, she lives about 1 ½ hours north and gets down every few months and this week she was on the start of her vacation. Jane is one of our newer members and she lives about 1 ½ hours south and hopes to join us once a month. It was also great to see Gina out tonight as this will be her last dinner for a while as her and her wife have a place in Mexico and they are going down there for a few months which will be sad. Our food came and it was really good as always and the prices are reasonable. We do go to a diverse range of places and the prices range from $20 to $40 plus tip which in todays world with inflation is not that bad. I would highly recommend Old Spaghetti Factory as besides good food and friendly atmosphere you have a great view of the Willamette River.

We had a wonderful dinner and great conversation as always, these dinners really are about the social aspect instead of the food. Here is my list of what I feel is most important about our dinners and again this is my opinion only. The most important thing is getting together with my friends, the second is being out and being visible to the general public and of course presenting as ladies and not causing a scene so others can see we are no different from them other than how we present, Last is the food or where we go. After dinner we all got a little cup of ice cream which comes with your dinner and then we paid our bills and yes I gave our waiter a nice tip as he really did a great job, I really must admit we generally get really good service when we go out. we say and talked and kind of lost track of time and the staff was good about it and let us talk. I say this as they close at 9pm and it was 9:45 when we all left, I think we were the last people inside. As we walked out they thanked us for coming in. We talked a little more in the parking lot and Nicole brought her car over by mine as she has 2 more bags of clothes for me to go through which we moved to my car. It really was a nice dinner out with friends.

Susan at old spaghetti factory

Julie and I drove back to her place and talked on the way and we both agreed we have some really special ladies in our group. We ow it all to Cassandra, who started the group back in late 2007. Back then there really wasn’t social media so it really was just word of mouth and Cassandra’s drive to make the group the best, yes I may be a little biased on that. We are very active as we do a dinner every week and our Monday night zoom calls and sometimes on Saturday, yes this Saturday I am planning on going to the Escape and I hope others will join me. It was about 10:15 when we got to Julie’s and I dropped her off. It is always sad when the evening ends and next week Juie has family plans so she will miss the dinner which will be sad for me as I really enjoy riding with her.

It was about 10:45 when I got home and washed away my makeup and went to bed. Now I am looking forward to the weekend and some more time as Susan.

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

Susan at old spaghetti factory

Day off on Monday so I will be able to be Dressed as Susan for our zoom call tonight

It is the first Monday of June and I have the day off today. I did have some things to do today so it would be later in the day. It was a little after 3pm when I started getting ready. Lately I haven’t been dressing as Susan for the zoom call as I normally don’t get home till 5pm and by the time I can eat and get dressed it would be time to start the meeting and for that short of a time at home I just don’t. today though I figured I could go to Starbucks for a little bit and work on my blog and be out with other people. I did my makeup and I wore leggings and a marron-colored sweater top I got out of the bags of clothes I got from Nicole last time, it is actually a nice top but more for winter but being a cold and rainy day it was perfect. I was all ready by 4pm and drove the 1/2 mile to the Starbucks right by my house.  

I went in and ordered my drink and sat down to work. They were not busy as far as people sitting inside but a steady stream of people coming in to get drinks, this one does not have a drive through so it is perfect for watching people. I worked on my blog from Sunday when I went and got my nails done and also a pedicure. Yes going to the nail salon is one of life’s simple pleasures. Now I have been chatting with some girls online and yes we all have our part of this side of us we love, be it heels, jewelry, Lingerie, dresses or many other things and yes I do love dresses and heels but my favorite thing is makeup and nails. If I had to pick just one thing I could do it would be makeup every time and nails would be a close second. I started with makeup when I was 5 or 6 years old and didn’t even think about clothes till I was in high school. I do love dresses and heels as dresses are just way more comfortable and look so much better. For me I have never really thought about Lingerie, yes a nice garter and stockings look fabulous and if you have the right body shape well wow but for me when I am Susan it really is more about how I look toothers around me and not what I am wearing under my clothes. I guess in this way I am more practical for a lack of a better word. For me lingerie would really be just for me and really only when I am getting dressed or undressed. Again this is just my thoughts and how I feel. I think that is what makes our community so wonderful as we really are a diverse group of people with a common bond, our love or need to express our feminine side from full time to part time and everywhere in between.

I finished my blog from Sunday and posted it. I stayed here till about 6:20pm before going home and making dinner before our zoom call. It was just before 7pm when I started the zoom call. Tonight was a small group if you can call it that, it was just Nicole and me tonight. Now just as with our dinners it is nice also to have small groups. Nicole and I had a nice time talking. It was abut 8:15 when we signed off for the night. It was a good day.

Now I am looking forward to Wednesday night’s dinner.