Visiting Southern Comfort

• Last Saturday, I went to my first CD/TG conference-- Southern Comfort. Friday night, I started prepping by packing. Even though I was only going for the day. I needed three sets of clothes– one for the morning workshops, one for the pool party & one for the dinner/gala dance. I had hoped to get a pedicure, but my wife said, ”I can do them.” She’s done them in the past &, to be honest, as hard as she tries, she’s not very good at it. She said all she needed was a cuticle tool & they'd look as good as the salon's. That was all of a buck at Walmart. So, I let her have at it. I should have gone to a nail shop. They didn’t look great, but like she said, who’s going to really examine them?

  I had also wanted to get a makeover, especially for the gala. It would make no sense to get it on Friday. I’d heard that there would two make-up artists at SCC. It turns out that I had visited one of them when I got a makeover prior to a Halloween party two years ago. So I was hoping that one of them could fit me in. But when I found out that one was charging $100 & the other wanted $95, I decided to do it myself. So I went to bed around 9 to get a few hours sleep before getting up at 1am to finish preparing and do my makeup. I wanted to give myself plenty of time before I had to leave, at 3, to make the five-hour drive to Ft. Lauderdale.

  My wife is so sweet. She got up to help me. She lent me a pair of earrings (even though I have more than her). She even put together a cooler full of snacks & drinks for the drive. She had offered to go with me to help with the drive. I appreciated that, but asked her if she planned on attending the events with me. She said, ”Oh no. I’ll just sit in the lobby.” ”For 16 hours?” I asked, ”No, you should just stay home.” The gala was scheduled to go to midnight. She asked if we could leave at 10. I said, ”What if I’m having a really good time?” I reiterated that she should stay home. She relented.
• So, I got a late start– about 20 minutes. I wore a jeans skirt, a white peasant top & ballet flats. The drive down was uneventful. I was hoping to make up some time, but wasn’t going to chance going over the speed limit & have to show some cop my license.
• Registration was at 8. Workshops started at 9. I got there at 8:20. I was told that parking at the hotel was $15, but all I saw was hourly street parking that would have cost me $25. I’m notoriously cheap. Nah, let’s call it frugal. So, I asked someone in a local shop about the hotel parking. They didn’t know so I went in the hotel & asked at the front desk. They said to bring my car around to valet parking and it would be $8 for the day. Well, I’ve never been a fan of valet parking, especially when I have some work equipment in the car. I also have a car door handle that’s a little tricky, But it all turned out OK. I had to get things out of my car three or four times through the course of the day. In each instance, I had to give them a picture ID (my license) to hold until I brought the keys back. I wasn’t crazy about that. I don’t like to give anyone a way to ”connect the dots”, but that worked out OK, too. They were cool about it.

So the conference was on the 8th floor. I got registered & had a bit of a continental breakfast that they offered before the first workshop. They had several, in different rooms, simultaneously. Not that I could do it, but out of the workshops available, I went to the facial/voice feminization workshop. The facial is basically plastic surgery. The surgeon was offering free evaluations and told me that he was looking at me during the whole workshop because he said that, to do me, would be such an easy job. My Adam’s apple doesn’t really protrude. He said that I already have such naturally feminine features that all he suggested was a facelift– what he called ”age reassignment surgery”. Yeah, Doc. I’ll let you know when I have the bucks for that. Next was a session on ”Legal Transition”. Pretty boring. Just instructions on how to change your name & important documents.

• After that was lunch. Then the pool party. Had to go to the car for my suitcase. One of the event organizers let me use her room to change. First time I had worn this swimsuit. Was a little nervous about my legs. I have some veins & some scarring from sports injuries. I don’t ever go out bare-legged because of that, but I had applied some Sally Hansen leg make-up, before I left for the event. It worked so well that I wore the jeans skirt without hose, too. On the way to the pool, I realized that I forgot to put on my cover-up. I also forgot my towel & sunscreen. I was told that I looked fine without the cover-up & that the hotel had towels & sunscreen at the pool. When I entered the pool area, I got very self-conscious. It was like everyone was staring at me, but it was because of how good I looked. I must have gotten 30 compliments. One person said that it was the cutest swimsuit, of anybody’s, & that I filled it out so nicely. People said I reminded them of Maryann from Gilligan's Island & Annette Funicello from the Beach movies. Here’s the link for the swimsuit I got. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Simply-Slim-Women-s-Off-the-Shoulder-Swimdress/56255593. Frankly, I thought I looked better in it than the model, in this picture, does. I have a picture, but don't think I can post pictures with a Bronze membership. However, it is posted on my CDH page. A lot of girls were in bikinis. I hope to have a bikini bod in time for next year’s conference.

  Also, a couple of guys were making moves on me, I wouldn’t necessarily call either cute. One was about 30. The other was about 70 & kept rubbing my leg in the pool until I had to tell him that I’m not that kind of girl. The pool was adjacent to the bar. A lot of guys were staring. I just stared right back. They had a steel drum guy playing. He didn’t need a whole band. He was playing along with Karaoke tracks. I didn’t swim—not with my wig on. There wouldn’t have been much room for that, anyway. The hotel dumped about 100 beach balls into the pool. For the most part, I just sat at the edge of the pool, all afternoon, chatting with other girls. It rained from time to time, but that was brief. Mostly sunshine—and I didn’t get any tan lines. To be honest, I’m kind of disappointed about that. I tried to get some people interested in playing Cornhole, but except for one game, no one had an interest.
• We had about two hours before dinner. I spent most of that redoing my make-up. I wore an LBD, but, even though I got some compliments, I wasn’t real happy with my look, especially compared with many of the other girls who were really glammed up. I looked around and saw the whole spectrum—crossdressers, transsexuals, gays, lesbians– & everything in between. And there was a definite anti-Trump sentiment, there, regardless of how much good he’s done for the country. I’m a conservative. Does that make me a walking oxymoron—or just a regular moron? 😉
• Dinner was buffet. I didn’t care for much of what they had. I had a swordfish steak & some kind of chicken thing. They crammed 10 settings onto tables for 8. The girls I sat with couldn’t figure out whose silverware, on each side of the plates, was whose. There was another set in front of the plates. I grabbed a fork from there. One said, “I don’t think that’s a dinner fork.” I said, “What the heck? A fork’s a fork.”
• After dinner, they had a speaker. Someone named Van Barnes, a trans whose life has, apparently, been a roller coaster. She was, basically, just telling her life story. Very interesting & inspiring. Also quite long.
• The gala finally got started around 9. All right. Let’s start dancing & partying! At least, half the crowd left. And for some reason, I just wasn’t into it, but I stuck around for about an hour to see if that might change. Nope. Knowing that I had that five-hour drive ahead of me, I decided to leave.
• I got about an hour up the road & got pretty sleepy. I pulled over & took an hour-long power nap & I was good to go. Twice, along the way, I had to stop & get gas. My wife said to just pay at the pump. At both gas stations, that didn’t work, so I had to pay inside. I had no issues. I was treated just like any other woman.
• I found out that being an occasional girl just doesn’t satisfy me anymore. I would definitely prefer to be a woman, but not just a pseudo-woman like many of the SCC attendees were. I want to be 100% female or, at least, be able to dress FT, but I can’t afford that. So should I just give this all up– go cold turkey?