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Shoes, Shoes, Nothing But Shoes

with Diane Kaye and Anne Marie


One day as Anne and I were talking on the phone, she asked me if I wanted to go shopping this coming Friday. The weather had been cold and rainy the past few weeks, so I was not sure I wanted to go out on a bad day. We left it at, "if the weather is nice". As the day approached I watched the predictions closely, after all this girl needed to do some shopping. As luck would have it, it was going to be a warm day. I got up that morning and collected my things (definition things: "All the clothes, jewelry, cosmetics, wigs, and padding a girl needs to pass in public during the day") and hopped in the car. Anne greeted me at the door with this face mask of gel. I unloaded my things and started to get ready. It was early spring and the temperature was only in the 60's, I dressed accordingly. I chose a black jumper, with a red turtle neck shirt, black tights, and loafers. My wig was my short gray one which I teased and combed in some bangs. Simple earrings, necklace, and a watch finished the ensemble. Other than foundation and lip stick, I wore a thin line of blue eye shadow. Nails were done with a crystal pink that is nearly clear in appearance. I decided to wear a black slip since it was still cool out and I didn't want to wear a coat if possible. Anne got herself together with a lovely floral skirt and light sweater. Shoes were sensible flats. Heels are not for the mall unless it is a special occasion. I've shopped in three inch heels and by the end of the day my feet were ready to fall off. A final check of our make up and we left to shop. Our motto is "never come home from a shopping spree without an arm full of stuff". (Incidently, stuff transforms into things once they reach home.)

While we were driving to the shoe store, we talked about how fortunate we were to be able to mingle in public en femme. All to often we encounter a sister who focuses on their rights, or political issues in the gender community. While these are certainly worthy causes and I would never want to be judgemental of others, what we see is that many transgendered people miss the simple pleasure of experiencing their feminine side in a public environment. After all, many of us only want to be accepted by the public as female. What greater level of acceptance can you have than to interact with the public and be called, Miss, Mam, or Lady. To me, this is the ultimate in acceptance. When I hear those words, I know that all of my efforts to look and act feminine have been rewarded. I just wish more of my sisters could also experience this thrill.

We reached our first destination, the shoe store. I really wanted a pair of black open toe heeled sandles. Perfect for those occasional special evenings out in the summer. After about an hour of looking, I gave up looking for the sandles and focused on finding a pair of flats. Less of a need but still a need. All I came up with were the wrong color, the wrong size or the wrong price. Anne had found a nice pair of brown flats. It was a warm day and the building heated up. With the heat and my frustrations, Anne suggested we leave for lunch to a really neat sandwich restaurant we both knew about. Roy's Place has reputation of having about 200 different types of sandwiches to choose from. This girl knows what is good; the brisket.

After lunch we set out for the mall. I still had shoes on the mind, so I zeroed in on the shoe stores. I first went to Penney's shoe section and got a nice man to wait on me. I decided to try for the flats in black. After about 8 different pairs, I finally found a pair that felt good. My size is 11 medium and they are usually in stock. While they felt good on the carpet in the store, when I tried them on outside, they were too tight. RETURN!!!!! I was having NO luck at all, so I decided to look for a dress and anything else I could find. I wasn't about to go home empty handed. We went to the Frederick's of Hollywood store to see what was good to buy. As we entered one of the sales ladies greeted us, then laughed and went into the back room. Were we read, or what happened? (Subsequent analysis indicated that two older ladies are not typical customers of this type store, or that we entered at the end of a joke. Don't forget, I look like someone's middle aged grandma.) We left anyway since nothing struck our fancy. After a couple more shoe store stops with no further success at finding the sandles I wanted, we headed home. But wait, we passed a dress store on our way in, so we needed to check it out. I found a cute red dress that had been marked down because of a few dirt marks. Dry cleaning can take care of that easily, so I bought it. At least I got something! On this hunting expedition, Anne bagged two pair of shoes, and Diane bagged one dress, and missed one pair of shoes. (That's safari lingo.) We got back to Anne's with no incidents. I naturally had to try on the new dress. My size 14 dress fit perfectly, thanks to my Classic Curves Veronica 2. Time for some pictures to document the outing. First in the jumper and then in the red dress. Well despite the black hose, I put on a pair of white heels just for contrast. Interesting attire; red dress, black legs and white heels. Since the camera had about a half roll of film left, we shot a bunch of pictures of each other. Even a grandma likes to show a little leg now and then.

Anne and I are very fortunate to have so much in common. Not only do we enjoy our feminine selves immensely, but we think the same, philosophically. We recently discovered that we make a half decent Rogers and Hammerstein. I am a prolific music writer but lousy at lyrics. Anne is a great lyricist, but can't write music. We plan to spend a few days together composing some songs. Wouldn't it be great, a transgendered music team. And no, our music is not about transgenderism. Until next time, this is Anne and Diane saying "shop until you get your bag limit". (That's safari talk again!)


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