April 20, 1998April 20, 1998I had picked up a little black sequinned dress from the outlet mall in Tracy. For the flight to Karen's, I had decided to travel light and only bring that one dress, a wig, heels, and makeup plus the other items that complete the illusion of Barbie. The first item on the agenda was to shop at the outlet mall near Karen's. That's where Karen had found a black evening dress to wear to Esprit in 4 weeks. Karen, her SO Pat, KT and me wander through the mall stores. KT finds a dress in her size, 4, at the first store. She had seen one just like it at the store in Tracy, but they only had down to size 6; and it looked like a bag on her. Anyway, now KT has a dress she wants for the dinner at Esprit. We continue shopping and Karen finds a rack in another store; marked down to $9.99. We look at them and decide it must be a misprint. The original tags are labeled $118. I'm frankly rather suspicious of these "original tags"; but for 10 bucks the dresses look good. They are knit, hi neck, long sleeve, and short hem. Definitely a Barbie dress. KT asks a clerk about the price and is reassured 10 dollars is correct. They even come in extra small size for KT. I picked a red one in medium and got KT a matching red one as well. She cleverly pulled out matching green ones; so we got the four. These look almost black when scanned, but are really a dark forest green.
We pack the buys into the trunk and head to another location for lunch. A sparkling new place in the decor of the fifties with a shiny 50's Cadillac convertible in the front near the registers. Klever Karen has two for one coupons for the meals and we come away with enough profit for more dresses. The mission for the weekend, other than shopping; was to attend the TGiF (Trans Gender is Fun) meeting. At Karen's, I try on the green dress and happily it fits perfectly, KT's XS fits her to a T as while. So now in matching green dresses, we decide to go as is, and not change back into what we had brought.
KT and I walk out to the car in the parking lot. No neighbors saw us, but Karen was worried about herself and was drab enough in enfemme to not attract much attention. Pants, blouse, tennies, & windbreaker. She would apply makeup and wig as Pat drove us over. The TGiF meeting is held at the private residence of Diane. She is pretty open about it, being a math teacher in the local junior college. She has newspaper articles about her change of dress in the classroom. Diane's home is on 1 1/2 acres overlooking 20 acres or so of land that can't be built on. So she has a rather private place in the woods. The meeting is a potluck social.
The majority of the girls there are TS. Several of the girls really impressed me with their voices. Very sweet and feminine sounding and passable. There are about 15-20 girls and SO's there. The home atmosphere and potluck style of TGiF tended to mingle everyone together. I managed to sit and chat with most everyone on a one on one basis or close to it. Diane has a collection of various newsletters, and magazines, catalogs and photoalbums of a TG nature. Some of these magazines I've seen advertised on the web, but never tried due to the cost. And the newsletters from the various groups in the bay area were very informative.
Sunday, Karen and I firmed up our reservations at the hotel for Esprit. We had thought of finding a low rent motel for the 3 days we will be up there before the convention. But decided the convenience of staying at only one place and not needing to unpack, pack, unpack, & pack was worth the additional cost. We are planning to drive up together, but separate cars. Due to Pat's schedule, they will be leaving hours later than KT and me. We measured distances, times and decided we would meet at a motel in Eugene, Saturday night. Then caravan up to Seattle; Karen hopes to meet some Pink Room girl friends there, who won't be attending Esprit. The rest of Sunday was endrab, driving up the scenic Russian River to the coast, then down the coastline through Bodega Bay (where Hitchcock's "Birds" was filmed) and back to the outlet mall. Karen had tried on my red dress and it fit her perfectly, so she wanted one. I also wanted to pick up a couple more in the other colors as well, for KT and me.
We made a beeline for the store and I discover that only one red medium size is left on the rack. That one is for Karen. We ate dinner at a local restaurant and then headed for the airport. I've offered Karen and Pat a flight across the countryside. It turns out Karen has never flown in a small plane before and Pat's ride in one was when she was eight. We walk out to the plane and I do my walk around preflight inspection of the plane, explaining what and why I'm doing. Pointing out the features of the plane, the control surfaces, antennas, and how the collection of rivets and aluminum all comes together in order to fly. Another few minutes sitting inside explaining all those gauges, dials, levers, and knobs inside the cockpit. My cockpit is full of stuff; a TWA captain once told me it had more than what he used on the L1011. So finally I button up the hatch, start the engine, taxi out , run up, and take off. The scenic coastline is just a few minutes away and I drop down low over the farm land so Karen and Pat can have a good view. A few zigs and zags and we head back to the airport. Karen says she now knows why I have enjoyed flying for the last 22 years.
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