Saturday and going to the Red Dress party in Portland with Julie & Trixie.

It is the last Saturday of June already and tonight I an going to the Red Dress party here in Portland. Julie and Trixie are going and they had an extra ticket and invited me, which was really nice of them. Now of course I wanted to look my best so I figured I would wait till later in the day to get ready which gave me extra time to do things around the house, mainly yard work which of course is something I leave to my male side. I did go to the gym in the morning, yes 1 1/2 years of going now. I worked in my yard till about 3:30pm before going in and cleaning up and getting ready. Tonight being special I took extra time, yes I spent over 1 1/2 hours getting ready as I wanted to look perfect. Of course I would be wearing my red dress, this is actually a dress I bought back in 2020 for the red dress party that year but it was canceled that year due to COVID and this is the first year they have had it sense 2019. Now I have worn it a few times but tonight was what I bought it for. Of course I did a bold red lipstick and a smokey eye look and yes I did false eye lashes tonight. I was happy with the look. I had some time before I had to leave as I was planning on being at Julie’s at 6:30.

I arrived and Julie and Trixie were both ready and looking lovely in their red dresses also. We had time so we sat and talked as the doors don’t open till 8pm. It was so enjoyable; we did get a quick selfie before we left. We left about 7:15 and got to the Memorial Coliseum and parked in the parking garage. We got to the coliseum about 7:45 and stood in line waiting for the doors to open, well while we stood there I got a lady working there to take out picture. There were probably only 40 people in line by the time they opened the doors and we went in. It is in the basement of the coliseum and has several big rooms down there. We wandered around a little to see where everything was and yes we got some food. The food was good but not as nice a selection as in years past, it was basically chicken, pasta, soup, and macaroni salad. The food and drinks come with the ticket price. We wandered up to the little bar section and got drinks and sat down to eat and people watch, yes at some point everyone comes to this point so we got to see all the red dresses. Now there were 2 people wearing the same dress and they had to get a picture but it is surprising with all the people who come to these events, in years past a couple thousand, you rarely see the same dress. There was even one lady who was wearing the red dress from the original Star Trek series I almost went and asked to get a picture with her as I loved that show.

Later on we moved to the other room and they actually had a small casino set up, Roulette, Craps and a several blackjack tables. They gave you $100 to start with but you could buy more chips if you wanted, and no it was not gambling for real money. When you were done they would give you one entry ticket for every $50 you had and you could put it in one of 5 boxes to win a gift basket. It was fun, Trixie played roulette for almost an hour and won some chips before coming over to the blackjack table Julie and I were at. We played for maybe 1 1/2 hours and Trixie had enough for 4 tickets, I lost my chips and at the end Julie started letting her chis ride doubling her bet each time and won several hands in a row and wound up with $650 so she got 13 tickets to enter the drawings. It was a fun night although not as busy as in years past. Normally it is hard to move through the crowd as there are so many people but that was not the case tonight. Just from how it looked I would guess there were only a 1/3 of the people compared to 2019. Now it could be because they didn’t promote it as well this year. It was still a fun event.

We stayed till a little after midnight before leaving. It was such a fun night, Thanks Julie and Trixie for inviting me to join you. I have said it so many times but being able to go places and do things with my friends like every other person is so special as for many years I believed this part of my life would be in my house and never shared with other people. Some of the ladies in this group are the closest friends I have and more like family. On the drive back to Julies we talked about the night. It is always sad to see the night come to an end. I dropped Julie and Trixie off and drove home.

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

Red Dress Party in Portland 2019

It is Saturday May 18^th and yes that means the Portland Red Dress Party. This will be my 5^th year going and I am looking forward to it. Now I am going with Julie and Trixie. Julie bought the tickets for us and I drive, I don’t drink so it works out well, probably better for me, Thanks for the ticket Julie. Now I was going to get to Julies around 7:15 and we would have a little bit of time to talk before we leave as we can’t get in till 8pm. Now I started getting ready at 4:30 as I wanted to take my time and enjoy getting ready. I can only imagine this is how girls feel getting ready for a big dance, I really wish I had had time to go get a new red dress. It really was so wonderful getting ready and making sure I looked my best.

I got to Julies a little after 7 and they were both ready and looking beautiful, they always look great but there is just something about red I love. Now we talked a little as we watched the Blazer game. Now it was Trixie that realized the Blazers were playing at home tonight in the Moda Center which is right next door to the Coliseum where the Red Dress Party is. This means Parking will be bad so we decided to take and UBER to the party. Now this was nice as we got dropped off right in front and as it was lightly raining it was nice as we didn’t take coats. Now we only had to wait in line about 5 minutes till they started letting us in.

Now this is a wonderful event as it is a charity event so the money goes to good cause and the ticket price covers everything, food and drink of course I don’t drink but I got all the soda pop I wanted. now our tickets got us in at 8 and the general admission tickets got in at 9 so we had a little time to look around before it got busy plus we had the VIP area where we had food and the lines were not as long. Now they had an issue with food and as such we couldn’t get in to the VIP area till 9 which was a little sad, you would have thought they would have had things better prepared so we walked around and checked things out.

Now this is the best place to people watch as you will see 100’s if not 1000’s of red dresses and they are all different in some little way, well I did see 2 couples with the same dress but I think they planned it that way. Now we did get some pictures tonight. I wanted a picture with the crowd behind me, a sea of red dresses as far as you could see. Now Danika also showed up she came and met the group on Wednesday night in her male mode but tonight she got out as her female self. It was great she could make it. Now when they finally did get the food out it was really good and this really was the first year, they had problems

After 9 it really did get busy, it was hard to move around and the party took up the whole basement floor of the coliseum. Now I did see one lady here I know, as a matter of fact she has been at all 5 I have gone to and I am as I know she will be there as she works there I keep an eye out for her and just kind of look the other way when I see her. Now as I said this is a wonderful place to people watch as there are some dresses that are over the top, some are really skimpy and sexy and yes this is for everyone so there were even men there just wearing a red dress and everyone gets along wonderfully no matter who you are. We didn’t do any dancing tonight but we had a wonderful time and got some wonderful pictures. This is one of my favorites, Julie and I look so awesome together in this picture. Can you tell how much fun we are having by our smiles?

We stayed till about 11:30 before we called it a night. Now as we were leaving it was really raining and as I said we didn’t bring coats so we ran as quick as we could to the covered area while we waited for our UBER home and we did get a little wet. There were several girls waiting here and watching the road for their ride. We had to wait about 10 minutes before our ride showed up. Now we had to get from the covered area to our ride and it was about 100 yards in the poring rain. Once again, we walked (almost ran) in our heals for the car. I think it is the first time I have ran in heels and yes, we got wet and yes it was cold. Luckily our driver was nice enough to turn the heat way up.

We got back to Julies house a little after midnight. It was such a fun night out. Thanks, so much Julie for inviting me, you are awesome and one of my best friends. It was sad to see the night come to an end and say goodbye. By the time I got home and ready for bed it was 1 am, a late night but so worth it.

Thanks for reading and be sure and read my most recent blog to see what is new.

Saturday May 19 2018 red dress party

 

 

Just a quick note, there is still time to sign up to go on our Mexican Cruise, October 13 to 20 2018. We have 28 signed up right now let’s see if we can get 30. . For more information check out our web page or contact me.

It is Saturday May 19 and tonight is the Red Dress Party, and it is going to be fun. This is I think my 4^th time going and I am going with Julie and Trixie, thanks ladies for taking me. Now the red dress party is a benefit for charities and what is nice about it is it is all volunteer so you know the money raised goes to the cause. Tonight’s theme (yes, they do a theme) is Wicked. Now for me the theme is not important as I just want to be out and see all the red dresses. I started getting ready a little after 4 as I wanted to take my time, kind of like a girl getting ready for Prom. Now I thought about going shopping for a new red dress but didn’t have time so it will be a recycled red dress from last year. It was about 6:15 when I left as I was picking up Julie and Trixie at 7.

I got to Julie’s a little before 7, Trixie was ready and Julie almost ready. Julie took a little time and showed me her house as she has been doing a major remodel the last couple months. Her house really looks wonderful. Now tonight I tried my new clutch well probably more like a wallet with a wrist strap. When I was shopping a couple months ago at Sears at Lloyd Center Sears which has closed now they had everything 50% off or more and I saw this for $5 so I got it. I did make sure my phone fit in it though. Well that was all I was thinking about as tonight I discovered that with the phone in it about all that would fit in was some money, ID and credit card as it was really narrow. Well luckily, I was wearing my long wear red lipstick so I didn’t need that but there was no room for my compact in case I needed to touch my face up I guess I can go without these things for a night. Well when I got out of the car at Julies I discovered one more thing that didn’t fit in my little wallet clutch, mt car keys. Luckily Julie had a little bigger purse and so she put not only Trixie’s ID and lipstick in it by my car keys also.

It was about 7:20 when we left. Now this year it is in the down stairs of the coliseum instead of a ware house. It only took about 15 minutes to get there and we parked in the parking lot, $20 but so worth it as we didn’t have to walk far. Now the Red Dress party starts at 9pm but if you have VIP tickets you can get in at 8 which we did and even though it was not 8 yet they let us go inside. N ow it was a lot bigger then the ware house last years and also a lot nicer but then when you are getting everything donated including where you have I, you take what you can get. It was nice to walk around before it got really crowded and see what it looked like before they turned down the lights. Now the bad thing is I do know someone who works this event and I am always on the lookout for them and in the ware house I had the dim lighting to help me. I saw them a couple times and just casually went the other way. Amy way we had been here about 30 minutes and we came out of a door and there they were looking right at me. I just walked right by them and pretended not to know them. Now let me clarify, yes, I know them by name but it is from working with them but only a few days a year. I am guess if they probably didn’t recognize me and if they did it would not be by name but where they knew me from.

Now we did get some pictures tonight and of course the first was on the big red high heel shoe seat. Who says you can’t find heels in big sizes. We all took turns sitting on this and getting our picture taken. Now I will admit it is not easy to gracefully sit down on something so low with high heels on, took a little work to tuck my legs under and look at least a little feminine. I think it turned out okay though, Thanks Julie for taking such a good picture.

Wee then went into the VIP area where they had food and got something to eat, again all the food and drinks are donated so the sponsors are awesome and the food is really good. I had some pulled pork, chicken, mac & cheese with Cauliflower which was really good and of course desert. The other bad part is they had big bowls of M&M’s at all the bars where you got your drinks, I love M&M’s. I think I ate 4 bags plus split one with Trixie. I have no will power when it comes to sweets, the reason I don’t by them. This will be the big challenge when we do our Mexican Cruise this fall as from what I hear they have deserts out all the time. Julie took a few more pictures of us here at the table we ate at. You can see some of the people behind me in red dresses.

Now we did go and watch some of the entertainment, one was a group of drum players and they were really good, really loud but really good. I did plug my ears so I probably looked a little strange, hopefully the people walking around getting pictures of the crowd didn’t take a picture at that time. They also had some people from Circus Soleil that did a short show, maybe 20 minutes and it was really good. Now there were some that did dress up for the Wicked theme and they were great outfits but most 90% where just in the red dress. The point of the red dress party is to get in you must have a red dress so even those in costume had to have a red dress on, even the man and woman from Circus Soleil had red dress on.

Now the really fun part of this event is to people watch. You will see every kind of person, young, old, male, female, gay, straight and so on from all kinds of different walks of life. The only common thing is the red dress. Now it has amazed me over the years with so many people here in red dresses you don’t see the same dress twice, well sometime a couple will get matching dresses or you might see 1 or 2 but when you think they say there are over 1,000 people here each year and looking at the crowd I would say that might be low. It is hard to imagine there are that many different red dresses. Now yes some of the outfits are well let’s just say you wouldn’t ware one unless you were completely confident in how your body looks. There was one lady that had on an outfit that was way skimpier than a bikini.

We walked all over checking things out and Julie was standing waiting for Trixie and me a young lady came u to her and just started talking with her, she wanted a picture with Julie so as they were taking the picture Julie told her our trick for great selfie’s. I can’t hold the phone and push the button at the same time so what we do is set our self timer for 3 seconds. Then you can push the button and then hold the phone out and it still has time to focus before it takes the picture. Any way we talked with her for a while. She had wanted to come but something came up and she didn’t think should could and then at the very last minute she made it. Her red dress was actually a red sheet she fashioned into a dress, it was cute. Her name was Daphne and she was awesome.

Now the last few years we have ran into 2 ladies we met the first time I went to the Red Dress part named Amy and Dionne so we were kind of looking for them. They have been coming up from Northern California each year and we have gotten a picture together each year, here is one from 2 years ago blog. We didn’t see them this year, as a matter of fact we didn’t see anyone we knew until we were getting ready to leave and we ran into Marla. Well I had to have a picture with Julie tonight so I got Trixie to take one just before we left. Julie need higher heels and I need flats. Such cute girls in pretty red dresses. There were some people in high heels, and yes some were holding them in their hands as it is not easy to ware them all night long standing on a hard floor. I wore wedges and even by the end of the night I was ready to take them off. As we were walking to the car we saw a couple girls removing their heels. It is hard work being a lady.

It truly was a wonderful night and I want to thank Julie and Trixie for taking me, we stayed out later than in past years as it was almost 12:30 when I dropped them off at Julie’s house and it was about 1 am when I got home but such a fun night and so worth it.

Thanks for reading and be sure and see what is new in Susan’s life on my most recent blog.

Red Dress Party PDX

Tonight, is the Red Dress Party in Portland, A benefit ball with all money going to Charity. Red Dress PDX is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization established and run exclusively by volunteers. Through our events and donations, we support queer youth, help friends, neighbors and family members living with HIV and AIDS, and help to fight domestic violence. This will be my third year going and it is a fun night and a wonderful place to people watch. Now Julie and Trixie invited me which was so nice of them. Now I did paint my nails red today for the night, I actually painted them about 2 as I watched TV. I started getting ready about 4.

It was so fun getting ready, so enjoyable. My Susan time is limited right now so it was wonderful to take my time. It is like most girls go through as they get ready for a big dance of Prom. Such a fun experience. Now I did have a new pair of heels I bought a while back but I didn’t have a chance to go out and get a new dress which was a little sad. It is so fun to experience the simple joys of being female. I was all ready by 5:45 and on my way to Julie’s to pick her and Trixie up for the party.

I got to Julie’s about 6:15 and they were both ready in their pretty red dresses. This really was a great idea they had as I love red so having everyone in red dresses is awesome. Now it didn’t start till 8 so we didn’t need to leave for about an hour so it gave us a chance to sit and talk. It was so wonderful.

We got to where the Red Dress Party was, it has been the same location the last 3 years. We parked ab few blocks away and walked, it was a really nice evening, just the right temperature. We got to the door and only had to wait about 10 minutes as we were a little early. Now our tickets let us in early at 8 so we were one of the first ones here and had a chance to walk around and see things before it got crowded. We walked around and had our picture taken and then stopped so Trixie could get her face painted. Now while we were there Amy and Dionne saw us and came over to talk with us. We met them in 2015 here at the Red Dress Party and again in 2016 and this is the 3rd year we have seen them and of course we had to get a picture together again. It was great to see them again and talk and catch up.

We walked around some more and got something to eat. By now it was getting busy and it was a fabulous crowd, everyone in a red dress. It is amazing how many different styles of red dresses there are. I don’t think I saw the same red dress and there were probably 1500 to 2000 people here tonight. This really is a great place to people watch.

We ran into Jamie and her wife and also Marla as they were also here so I got to talk with them for a little while. It was nice to see them as it has been a long time. Well it was that time yes Julie and Trixie got me out on the dance floor. It was easier to dance here just because it is so crowded. Really all you can do is stand in the crowd and sway and really no one can really see you. It was a lot of fun. After dancing we were walking back through the crowd when we ran into Victoria. We talked for a while, this was her first Red dress party.

We stayed till after midnight before calling it a night. It was such a wonderful evening and so much fun spending it with Julie and Trixie. It was sad to see the night come to an end.

Red Dress Party 2016

Tonight is the Red Dress Party and Julie, Trixie and I are going. I have been looking forward to this as I had a good time last year. I  got home at 4:15 I immediately started getting ready as I wanted to take my time and enjoy it plus I wanted to look really good tonight. It took me 2 hours to get ready and I enjoyed every minutes, kind of I imagine girls feel getting ready for a special event like a prom. Now the Reed Dress started at 8 but I was picking up Julie and Trixie first.

I got to Julie’s a little after 6:30 and Julie and Trixie were Ready, I think we were all looking forward to tonight. we had time as we didn’t have to leave for a while so we sat around and talked, just 3 beautiful woman all dressed in red. The night was off to a wonderful start. It was about 7:20 when we left and were on our way. It was a nice drive and so much more fun having Julie and Trixie with me. We got downtown Portland and I found a parking spot about 2 blocks away and we were on our way. There were some other girls we walked with.

Now it was at the same place as last year so we walked to where the entrance was last year and walked in, there was no one there so we finally found someone only to find out the entrance was at the other end and someone had left the fence open by mistake. They were nice enough to let us walk through to the entrance instead of going back out and having go to walk all the way around. On our way I ran into one of the girls working here who knew me as Susan of course, she is the daughter of one of our members. it was good to see her again.

when we got to the entrance I ran into Jennifer. I met her a couple years ago and we are friends on Facebook. She recognized me and it took me a while as she has changes a lot. she is full time now and has long beautiful hair. Well we gave them our tickets and we were back inside. we walked in and got a drink and walked around for a while as it was still before 8, I think they let people in early because of the weather. We also got some food and went and sat down and ate. The food was all really good.

Now we had VIP tickets so we were able to go into the VIP area which wasn’t as crowded. Now after we ate Julie and I decided we needed to get some pictures. Now I had watched several girls taking pictures at a pole lie they were pole dancing so Julie and I decided the pole was the place for pictures. now I had watched one girl posing by the pole and she looked so good I decided to try the same pose. Didn’t look the same but I was having fun.

Now there were a lot of really cute girls here and so many pretty dresses. It is amazing all the different styles of dresses, I don’t think I saw the same dress twice. Now if you have never been here before it is the best place to people watch and everyone is so friendly.

We walked around some more and walked to the other end and danced for a while, yes I did dance again but then there were so many people on the dance floor that you really could not move much so I was able to pull it off.

We walked back to the other end to the VIP area and we saw this girl in a really sexy dress so we had to talk with her and yes Julie got a picture of us together. It was an awesome dress but wouldn’t look the same on me plus I am sure she must have been a little cold.

We sat for a while and Laura H. and Lisa also showed up. It was good they could make it. We were all talking and I saw a couple girls we met last year and they remembered us also. They came back to Portland this year for the Red Dress Party from the Bay area of California as they had such a fun time, Their names are Amy and Dion, This is a picture from last year. Amy and Dion are the ones I have my arms around.  We talked for a while.

Later we walked back to the other end and danced some more. still just as crowded but still fun. Julie was talking to everyone and having a great time. I am still not that out going but I am working on it. We really did have a fun time on the dance floor. WE walked back to the other end and on the way ran into Amy and Dion again and talked with them some more. They wanted to get pictures with us again so we did another photo op outside. WE didn’t get as many pictures as I planned but we were having so much fun I think we forgot.

this really was a fun night and before we knew it, it was midnight. Now the party was still going strong but we were getting tired. It was a wonderful evening and I am so glad Julie and Trixie invited me to go.

If you have never been to a Red Dress Party you really should at least once. We walked back to my car and I drove Julie and Trixie home. This will be the last time I see them for a month as they are going on vacation till the end of June. I am so looking forward to see pictures of their trip and hearing all about it. They will have so much fun.

Thanks for reading

 

Red Dress Party 2015 what an awesome event.

Well Saturday night was the Red Dress Party and I had a chance to go. My friend Julie had 2 tickets and her girlfriend couldn’t go so she invited me, Thanks Julie. Now I was really looking forward to this as I have never been to one of these before even though Julie has gone many times. If you have never heard of the Red Dress Party it is a fundraiser and all the money is donated to Charities this year Charities is Cascade AIDS Project and Our House. Everything for this event is donated and the people who put it together and work it are all volunteers. Now Tickets are kind of expensive $75 to $150 but it includes everything, food, drink and entertainment. Now as it is all donations they hold them in vacant warehouses so it is in a different place every year.

Now I started getting ready for this at 4 pm as I really wanted to enjoy the time getting ready as it was like I was getting ready for a prom and I wanted to look as good as I could. I was driving tonight so I was going to pick Julie up a little after 7so I would need to leave my house by 6:45. it is such a wonderful feeling when I can relax and take my time getting ready. now I as I have never been to one of these before I texted Julie about heels and if we would be able to sit or would we be standing all night as I really wanted to wear my 4” heels as they are so cute, Julie texted back that there would be some sitting and she was wearing 3” heels so I went for it but I did also put my 3” wedges in the trunk just in case. I was ready and on my way by 6:40 and got to Julie’s right at 7. Julie was almost ready but took the time to show me around her beautiful house.

We left about 7:15 and there was no traffic so we got downtown Portland by 7:30, now there are no parking lots in this area so it is all street parking and we were early enough that we found a spot about a block away, wow things were going perfect. Laura was just arriving and parked right across the street from us. Now we did have VIP tickets so we got to go in at 8 so we only had a half hour to wait. Laura came over and we  talked for a while before we walked over and got in line. Now as we stood in line we got talking to the people in front of us, 3 guys and a girl and as you can imagine everyone was in a red dress. It was a little after 8 when they started letting people in. Now we had no more than walked in and I saw someone I knew and they would not be the last. Actually within the first 10 minutes we were there I saw 5 people I knew and they were not there for the party they were working it. Now 4 of them I didn’t know really well but one I did so I would be on the lookout for her all night, actually it was dark enough in here that I really didn’t think she would recognize me. Julie and I went in while Laura waited for her friend Ginny. We got some food and went back to the VIP area so we could sit down. Laura and Ginny finally caught up with us and we had to get a picture, Left to right is Julie, me, Laura and Ginny.

Now we took several pictures and this was the best group pictures of us. This is one of me sitting resting my feet. Now it was different tonight as I am not use to having to keep my purse with me all the time as we really didn’t have one place to sit and as I said it was somewhat dark in here and there were hundreds of people here.

Well it was time to walk around and see what was going on. We walked out to the dance floor and ran into Marla and Jamie. It has been a while since we have seen them so it was good to talk with them, now it really wasn’t easy to talk as the music was really loud. Now it was really fun to people watch here and with all the people here in red dresses I really didn’t see the same red dress twice so it is amazing how many different red dresses there are. Now I was surprised as it was about 75% men in dresses, I don’t know why I thought it would be more of an even split but this is what the Party is all about.

We walked outside to get a little fresh air and see if some of the other girls showed up as we knew w few more were coming. We ran into Little Julie and a couple others from our group so we were up to 9 of us now. I could not believe how many people were here and it was still early. As we were looking around we ran into Lilly and her wife and one of their friends, it was great to see them again so we had a pretty good showing of our group here. While we were talking to them we discovered that the other end of the warehouse also had a dance area and more people up there so Julie and I walked up to see what was going on there and ran into Kitty from our group.

Now by this time it was about 10 and being a warehouse the floor was concrete and I have been walking around in my 4” heels and the balls of my feet were killing me now. Although these are really cute heels and I love them they were not the right choice So I told Julie I was going out to the car to change shoes, I am glad I brought the other pair. I walked to where you go in and out and the lady I know was there taking tickets so I sat and waited for a little bit for her to leave as I didn’t want to risk coming face to face with her. I made it to my car and switch heels and my feet felt so much better.

I got back inside and found Julie and the others back in the VIP section, they were up on an elevated stand where we had a good view of all the people. There were red dresses as far as the eye could see. Now there were 3 ladies down talking by the bar in the VIP area that had on really cute dresses. Julie and I went down to get a drink so I had to tell them how cute their dresses were and we ended up talking for a while. Turns out they came to Portland from LA just for the party. They were so awesome and of course I had to get a picture with them. Now we were having so much fun tonight and we met so many wonderful people to talk to.

Later we walked back to the other side of the warehouse and Julie actually got me out on the dance floor for a little bit. Now I still am not that comfortable dancing but it was kind of fun and Julie helped me so I didn’t look as bad as I thought I would at least I am hoping. It really was a fun night and I really thank Julie for inviting me.

The night went by so fast and it was already 1 am. It looked like it was starting to wind down and people had left but there was still a good crowd there. I bet they had over 1,000 people here tonight a truly awesome event and all for charity. I am really thinking of going again next year.

Thanks for reading.