Ashleah's Quarter Century
Birthday Present: A Visit to Wildside


(Ed. Note: Wildside is a transformation boutique in Toronto)

It took some major courage to walk in there, as Ashleah has never been seen outside her home. She needs to loose about 50 pounds to just be "acceptable" in my book. But my 25th birthday is right around the corner, and I decided to give her a gift too. After all, she has been just as big a part of my life as my male ego has. What better time to let her see the light of day than our quarter century b-day?

Once inside, and they had my MasterCard safety lodged in the verificationmachine, I was led into the back room for my makeover. Patty (the owner)has obviously been doing this for quite some time, and moved quickly andvery professionally. She asked to interview me during my makeover, as sheis writing a book about us gals. My story was different than the othergals, as I am not very attracted to the clothing. The feel of silk & satinCURRENTLY does nothing for me.

I prefer the harder cloths such as denim, asit hides my weight. You can't hide behind a thin layer of silk! As I looseweight, my subconscious may allow me to enjoy the feminine clothing more.What I am alluding to, is I prefer makeup. I always was attracted to theheavily made up, "sleazy" looking girls. I guess I know why now!

Patty asked me what look I wanted. Business woman, typical girl, nightclub look, sexy... SEXY?!?! You can do that?!?! "Of course..." With me??!?!? Yes, I take it that's what your looking for, 'eh? If possible, that would be great!!! Well, she got right to it, and by the way, she allowed me to release one of her trade secrets. If you have large pours in your face, use (and I may mis-spell this) Milk of Magnasia on you skin before you apply any makeup. It will fill in your pours, and give your skin a smooth appearance.

Enough of this. Time for a quick plug for what I believe to be aexcellent service. Her shop will give you a complete makeover for $120,plus taxes (Canada has ALOT of them). This includes rental of theclothing. If you have your own clothing, you can just go for the makeoverfor around $55 or so. (I don't have any, so I went for the full shot). After she's done, you can buy film for $25, (and the other gals canphotograph you) or for an additional $25 plus tax, she will do it, and allow you totry on a variety of wigs and take shots with the different wigs as well.

Since this was Ashleah'sfirst day out, I went for the gusto, paid the extra 40, took the pictures,and tried on all her wigs. Her long blonde wig looked INCREDIBLE, but therewas just too much hair for the inexperienced (me) to handle all day long.So, I opted for a shoulder length brunette wig that make my face lookthinner. (also, I believe I overdid it on the boobs. Choose a smallerstyle, it looks more passable.)

After my brief photo session, I was taken upstairs to the lounge area, whereI could read a variety of material, and view a ton of video's on CD's, TS's,& TV's. At this point in time, I was all alone. (I guess the Molson Indyhad cut into her business that day.) I sat down, and attempted to cross mylegs lady like, and set to reading a article about CD's that I had spotted.

A few minutes later, a tall, slender, leather clad gal walked in, saw me,and reacted nervously. I could tell that she was a CD (as each of her boobspointed in a different direction :) and that she had hoped to settle in, inprivacy. I don't think she counted on another gal here. My natural salesinstincts kicked in, and had overridden my incredible shyness, so I smiledwarmly, and said "Hi! You look very pretty! I'm Ashleah." (I know acompliment goes along way with all girls.)

She responded in a very heavyFrench accent (actually, broken English would be a better description)"Hello, I am GiGi. Thank you. You are very pretty also." She smiled anddisarmed when she realized that I wasn't going to criticize her. She satdown next to me, and we started chatting like old girl friends.

It was alittle rough going, as her English was less passable than she was :) but itwas nice hearing the same reservations from another gal, and she wasreassured as well. I classify myself as a CrossDresser. I love women. Ilike TS's as well, as in my mind, they are women who just need a operationto make everything right.

GiGi, as it turns out, never had any thoughts ofanyone except born females, she just wanted to dress. However, once she wasall clad in leather, feelings began to stir in her. She carefully alludedto me that now that she is dressed as a woman, that she "would like to betreated like a woman by a man".

The funny part is, from spending so muchtime on the gender nets, I have acquired the knowledge to lend some bits ofadvise. We briefly went through what her desires are, and what she wouldlike to do. She admitted that now that she has dressed as a woman, that shewould like to have SRS so she could be a "real" woman. I asked her if shewas in therapy, and she said no. I cautioned her, as she was looking in theback of the magazines for a cheep-o place to buy hormones, that the logicalorder, (from what I understand of the progress), is to go in therapy. Liveas a TV for a while, start electrolysis, when electrolysis is done, re-evaluate your desires, if still positive, start living full time as a woman.Then with your therapist's ok, start hormones. After a year more or so, (bynow you have been living full time as a woman for at least 2 years) you getre evaluated again. If your really ready, then SRS.

She had thought shecould go check in next week and get SRS. She began talking more of makinglove to men, and just as the conversation was getting uncomfortable for me,In walked a true bombshell! She was introduced to us as "Trixie". Justthen it dawned on me, that Trixie, was a CD. Her voice was the onlygiveaway.

Now, like I said, I like women. But this gal could change my mind. Ipurposely didn't ask her, her sexual orientation out of fear. If she saidshe was interested in me, I think we would have ended up alot, um, shall wesay, closer. :)

She sat down next to me, on the other side, and we startedchatting as well. She was a college student, 23 years old, and had beendressing for years. She related a experience to me when she was young, ofgetting dressed, and simply walking around the block. (something I stillwouldn't be able to do!) She turned out to be (at least at our littlegroup) a shy little girl. A year or two younger than myself, and alsorather new to the WildSide. (She had visited once before to get the makeupdone, but this is the first full makeover with clothing. And Wow, hot laceyclothing indeed!)

I was the most talkative gal there, I had related myexperiences of computer BBS nets, (Thanks goes to ThrobNet, KinkNet, and thefido net of Gender...) so much so, that when Carol walked in and introducedherself (a veteran CD) Trixie said that she was from my home town! (Guess Ido talk too much, line 115, and only 3 hours into my story... Sorry!)

Carol was going to a local gay bar, and asked us if we wanted to go. Well,it was still bright daylight out, so we all decided that this would not be agood time for us to leave. So, she said good-bye, and off she went. A bitlater, Nichole came in. She was older than us, placed somewhere in herearly 40's. (Of three of us, Trixie, GiGi & myself, I was the oldest.)

Shewas very passable, as she didn't try to over do it. She wore simple flats,a skirt & blouse, and modest makeup. We sat around, watched video's, talkedabout our problems, gave our advise to the potential TS of our group, andgenerally made girl talk. The next one in our group was MaryAnne. MaryAnnewas a Asian gal, she had apparently seen some of us earlier, and wore what Iwould describe as a party dress. The part that nailed me though, was shehad breasts! Cleavage! I was blunt. "Are you on hormones?" Nope, justtaped up. I had heard about it, but never had the details. There is somekind of tape you use on bunions on your feet. It's a wide cloth tape. Youcut a V out where the cleavage should be, pull your flesh together, thenwear a push up bra. If your heavy, it will work better. (I guess I shouldbe a DDD then, right? Have to find out someday! :)

Well, MaryAnne wanted to go out to the club, and we all resisted. Trixie,seeing that we probably would be swayed to go out once it's dark, decided toleave. Luckily the pizza arrived at that time, and we got her to stay andeat. During dinner, (I was still fasting, no food for me... ) MaryAnneconvinced Trixie to go out with us. (I thought I was the closet one, shehad already appeared out in public once! I think she just wanted theattention, and dressed as she was, I had no problem giving it to her!)

NNext problem. The car. I was the only one with the car close by, everyoneelse who arrived later, had to park a couple blocks away. My car, on theother hand was only about 150 feet away. But, I was parked right next to alarge gathering of guys, sitting around and drinking. Drunks. Oh joy. Wewaited for a while until most of them had dispersed, and we all treked offto my car. Well, walking in heals across the lawn was not a goodexperience. But, we made it to the car, without any events.

Driving withheals was different, but we made it w/out any accidents. In the club, wefound Carol, and we all had a round of drinks (diet pepsi for the fat girlwho drove...) and the bar owner put on the jukebox that song (forgot thename) "Take a trip on the wildside!" When the part got to the "Plucked hiseyebrows on the train, shaved her legs, then he was a she" we all looked ateach other and giggled. After about a hour at the club, we decided to leaveand go back to the club, (my corset was breaking my ribs, and my shoes brokemost of my toes by now. (just joking, but that's how it felt)

Before we left, MaryAnne told me the next project I had to do is to go tothe ladies room. I giggled and said that I would just wait. She replied,"Ashleah, have you ever seen girls go to the bathroom before?" I said, "Uh,yes, why?" MaryAnne: "and how do they do it?" Me: "In groups.... Ahh,you need a partner, right?" MaryAnne: "I think she's got it!" Ok. SoCarol joined us, and the three of us clicked over to the ladies room. As wewere in there, chatting with each other, and I was being congratulated on myfirst trip to the ladies room, we heard a noise coming from another stall.A WOMAN! Oh boy. (er, girl I mean...)

We decided to make a quick exitbefore we embarrassed ourselves. Now, I was rather flustered. We went toexit, and found our back door locked. The owner said he closed up thatdoor, and to please leave out the other exit. (Great, the other side of thebuilding. Walking down a well lit street.)

The Exit. We walked out, and upon leaving, we spotted about 6 guys (kidsreally, around 20 or so...) walking towards us with cases of beer on eachshoulder. As we walked closer, I one looked me in the eye (my makeup was abit old, and my eyebrows looked masculine again) and started to laugh.Loud...

The guy told the others about us "Drag Queens" and turned to me andsaid "is this a fetish, or are you commercial?" Well, I had been walked ina pattern that separated the others from the guys (I can mop up the floorswith the average guy w/out martial arts training) and as this happened, Iimmediately got ready to pound the guy, balled up my fists, and realized, Iwas in women's clothing, in high heals, and in another country. Not a goodscenerio. Although if I took off my shoes, I would probably win againstabout 3 of the little twerps, if they all jumped in, I would have probablybeen crushed. After the police got there, that would have not been a goodthing to explain. (a CD from another country, in a fight with a kid, orrather a group of kids.)

Well, that realization hit me, and I just pickedup my pace, unlocked my car, ushered in the girls, got in, locked the doors,and was off. When we got back, we recapped our evening, decided that wewould all return some time, Ashleah said good-bye, and went downstairs tothe back room to be restored to my male ego. As Patty was finishing up,Trixie came down to do the same, and I said hello. I don't think she couldbelieve her eyes. She smiled, shook my hand and I exited. I went backupstairs to wash my face with soap, (the cold cream or whatever alwaysleaves a slick residue I don't like) and as I went to the washroom, Idecided to let the gals see me as a guy. They were all sufficientlyshocked, and pleased that I trusted them enough to introduce them to my maleego. I do trust them all completely, as we all have about the same tolose.

Well, if you are a novice CD/TV/TS/TG, whatever, and don't know where tostart, take a trip to the WildSide Hotel. It is WELL worth the investment,and you will find Patty to be both skilful and sensitive to our needs at 161 Gerard ST, off Jarvis, from the QEW.Her phone is (416) 921-6112.


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