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Your Innvestment |
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Vol. 10, No. 2 |
November 2001 |
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HOME PAGE - NEWSLETTERS - LINKS TO OTHERS - MEMBERS PAGE |
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Your Innvestment |
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Vol. 10, No. 2 |
November 2001 |
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| www.Innvestments.org |
My how time flies this time of year. As this newsletter is being published there are only a few more weeks until our big annual Innvestments Christmas on Cape Cod event. The evening will start out with a Fashion Show featuring many of our own girls. Then a delicious buffet dinner is planned, awards to be presented and entertainment for the evening with Karaoke and music by Soundscape Entertainment. See the enclosed bulletin for more details.
Once again Joan and Pat opened their lovely house for our group to enjoy another great Halloween Party. There were about 30 - 35 guests there, most of us bringing our spouses to enjoy the fun. A delicious meal of salad and lasagna was served and as usual Cindy M. baked a Halloween cake for dessert. Prizes were awarded for the Highest Heels, Largest Hair, Shortest Skirt and Best Overall costumes. Everyone I talked to had a great time!
Once again many of our girls from Innvestments attended Fantasia Fair in Provincetown during October. Some of us went for the all night parties and some for the learning experiences. I was there for four days and kept busy from morning to night each day attending lectures and being with friends. The best times for me were meeting new friends and just letting the woman in me shine for all that time. Wish I was there longer to do all the things I wanted.
Your Innvestment is a publication of Innvestments, P.O. Box 354, Sagamore, MA.02561-0354. Innvestments is a non-sexual service organization founded to support and to provide a socially acceptable outlet for the crossdressing, transvestite, transsexual, transgendered community located primarily in Southeastern Massachusetts, Cape Cod and the Island. All rights reserved. Permission to reprint any article appearing in Your Innvestment is hereby granted to non-profit similar organizations provided that publication and authorship credit is given. Any commercial use of Your Innvestment material is hereby prohibited. Some material may have previously appeared in print. Publication and authorship rights of material reprinted from other sources remain with its originator. The editor/s of Your Innvestment are not under any obligation to accept information and advertisements. Information and advertisements may be published in any form deemed acceptable. Any information about services, products or sympathetic locations published in Your Innvestment is not considered an endorsement of such by the staff of Your Innvestment or the Board of Directors of Innvestments. Innvestments is also know in open publications as Cape Cod Cross Dressers.
Noelle R. (NoelleRose@aol.com)......President
Denise S. (Denise@innvestments.org) .Vice President
Brenda L.(Brenda@innvestments.org)........Treasurer
Membership (including newsletter) is $30.00 per-year (pro-rated after January) with a $15.00 meeting fee. Meeting fees payable only for those attended. This pays meeting location fees charged to the group, and for pizza and soda or full/partial payment for food in the hotel dining room for all. New this year: By paying your annual dues of $30 and becoming a member you will be entitled to a $10 discount when you attend our major functions (Christmas and Valentines Parties). Also note that we have dropped the mail only dues because it just was not used very much.
The best way to go shopping, of course, is to
go dressed. You attract far fewer stares when browsing through
the Lingerie section at Marshall's en femme than you do in drab.
But it doesn't always work that way. Once, while looking at skirts
and blouses, I encountered a direct gaze from a young lady, who
promptly broke out into a big smile. I had been read! I smiled
back, slightly embarrassed. But the great fun is to go public
and pass.
My first experience in this delightful sensation
took place on one of our motor home excursions. I sometimes carry
a few dress items for once-in-a-while dress-up, and I happened
to be on location as my alter ego, Jennifer when we pulled into
a Welcome center on one of America' s expressways. I ventured
forth to pick up some road maps. My first time out, mind you.
And it was absolutely astonishing-- no one paid any attention
to me! I hurried back to the motor home to report to my spouse-"NO
ONCE NOTICED ME!" Well, she sort of deflated me by pointing
out that no one pays attention to old women in our society. They
are totally invisible. (I should mention that I am no spring chicken
and dress accordingly. No short skirts no net stockings. Conservative.
Tasteful (I like to think). And subsequently I found, as my spouse
pointed out while strolling through Cape Cod Mall--no one pays
attention
This "successful" motor home experience
was followed some years later by another one, and I'm not sure
whether I got away with this one or not. My wife had left me in
our motor home to go mountain climbing and I took the opportunity
to transform. In the meantime, a wind had come up, threatening
the awning on our motor home, so I went outside to take it in.
While doing so, a couple that we had befriended at the campground
dropped by to visit and I (weakly) informed them that "they
aren't home right now." Later, when my wife and I (in drab
attire) saw them again the women mentioned that they had stopped
by and " some strange woman was taking in the awning."
There have been other inevitable embarrassments. The worst involved my spouse. She had left for a trip, and I used the opportunity to dress, when, having forgotten something, she suddenly returned and I appeared, hastily back into drab, with remaining traces of lipstick. You see, I had never mentioned cross-dressing to her before we married. A BIG mistake, because, not surprisingly, she was hurt by my lack of candor, and, as it turned out, by my lack of faith in her quality of understanding. It's settled now, and it is because of her encouragement that I have started attending Innvestments functions. As one fellow member of Innvestments pointed out, those of us who have understanding wives are truly blessed.
Then there was the time that I was working downstairs on my computer, dressed again, when my stepson and his wife bounced in from Boston, much to his and my astonishment. His mother apologized for not letting me know that they were arriving, but their reaction was marvelous--they said I looked great! And, while canvassing family attitudes, I should mention an outing with step-son Chris and a couple of his gay friends at a local gay bar in LA, with me in one of my dressier (but still conservative) dresses. And this was REALLY unusual because one of the customers took a shine to me. Not only unusual, but also strange. I don't know whether he took a shine to me as a woman or as a perceived male. Considering the environment, probably the latter. At any rate, he insisted on giving me a kiss before we left. As a cross-dressing heterosexual, this was not exactly my cup of tea, but I have to admit it was novel.
I leave
the worst 'til last. Again, in my finery, I was working at the
computer downstairs. Now, our downstairs, really a grade-level,
finished basement, is quite isolated from the rest of the house,
and my unannounced visitor, not being able to get a response from
the front doorbell, came around to the back to knock on the window,
behind which, in cross-dressing glory, sat I. Now, I really admire
the 'go-to-hell, I-am-what-I-am' attitude that the more flamboyant
CD's are able to carry off, who really don't give a damn about
what other people think. When you stop to consider, there is really
nothing particularly abnormal about a man wearing women's clothing
(is there?) but I don't happen to be the flamboyant type, and
perhaps I have not really come to terms with what I am. At any
rate, I had not advertised my proclivities, so, needless to say,
my friendly visitor was, and shall we say, surprised? You may
judge his quality by his response-It' s OK. What you do in your
own home is your own business." As far as I know, he never
breathed a word, and he is still a friend.
Top of Page
This will be the first in a series of articles in which we will explore the reasons why many of us have this urge to crossdress. I met a woman one day who had a theory on why I do it. First let me describe this woman.
She was wearing one of those matching sweat shirt and pants sets used for jogging in bright pink, huge white ankle high sneakers, and a black bag that was large enough to carry a small dog in (or her lunch). She must have weighed close to three hundred pounds and, oh yes, she had these tightly wound curlers in her head. Let's call her Wanda.
So here I was on a quiet weekday evening exiting a stall at the ladies room of the local mall when guess who I ran right into. She was at the sinks applying this awful pinkish rose lipstick when I stopped to wash my hands. I naturally tried to keep quietly to myself but she insisted on starting a conversation. "Do you like this lipstick?", she asked. "Well, it kind of goes with your outfit.", I answered. But then she quickly changed the subject.
"Hey, are you a MAN?", Wanda asked. Horrors, she had read me! I hate it when that happens! I tried to quickly finish my hands but she was on a roll.
"You are a PERVERT!", she yelled. She was getting louder and it was defiantly time to leave. But before I could get across the room she vocalized her theory.
"You got dressed up as a woman so you could sneak into the ladies room and get a peak at me and the other women in here!" Now wait a minute! I was pretty sure that was NOT the reason I took up crossdressing. I paused long enough to rebut her theory. "No, Mam, that is NOT the reason that I am here." But my rebuttal only seemed to give her energy. She was in a tirade now, "I'm going to call the mall police!" Oh no, I thought, something like this could get put on my permanent record, whatever that is.
I hurried out the door and down the main corridor of the mall. My hands were dripping wet. I could still hear her voice as I ducked into a nice quiet dress shop a few doors down. I made a mental note to continue my search for the true reason's why I crossdress. More on this later.
Do you know the feminist joke about "I'd Like a Wife"? You know, where they add up the value of doing the shopping, cooking, cleaning, the laundry and you-know-what (wink, wink) to show that the value of all the "services" a wife provides her husband would command a six-figure income if they were paid for individually? And don't you love that question "do you work outside the home?" meaning do you have a REAL job in addition to your $100,000 one? <g> Sure it's true that wives do all these things for room and board and perhaps the occasional luxury that their household budget permits with hopefully a little love and affection thrown in. But what more does any of us get out of life? And as anyone who has gone through a divorce can testify the termination package and "early retirement" benefits for being a wife can be significant! <g>
Well, I was talking the other day to one of my step-daughters about her boyfriend who is unwilling to make a commitment. She's ready for marriage and family, but he isn't. Naturally I passed along all of the wisdom I have gained from reading the advice columns in women's magazines. She loves him, and she was saying how if there was a drip in the sink, problems with her car, or the yard needed work he'd do those things himself or arrange to get them done. I said, "gee, I could use somebody like that! Do you suppose he'd like to live with ME?" Just think how handy it would be to have somebody around who would take care of all those things or anything else which is too "hard" to do yourself! Think what you'd have to pay to have all of those things done individually, not to mention the trouble of arranging for it each time? And in addition to getting all of these "services" if you were REALLY lucky you might find someone who earned enough that you could just stay home and play house!
Well, as it happens I don't mind doing the shopping, cooking, cleaning and laundry, and I have about as much interest in you-know-what as my 1950's movie actress role-models. (Maybe after we're married! <g>) And I really could use somebody to help out in those other aspects of life. So if you (or someone you know) would be interested in helping me with things like household maintenance (painting, carpentry or yard work, etc. - and some people don't think my cleaning is up to THEIR standards) let me know! And if my love, affection and you-know-what aren't sufficient, they can be supplemented with monetary compensation. Seriously, we are subject to so much discrimination for being transgendered that I would like to practice a little "affirmative action" if possible. I live in South Yarmouth and can be contacted at NoelleRose@aol.com.
By the way, I was one of the guests on the October 17 radio show "On Being Gay". If you are interested you can listen to it online at http://brian-mcnaught.com/.