September 16, 2009 - Wednesday if it is wednesday it's back to the beach and georgies!

f it is wednesday it's back to the beach and georgies! 3pm i started out planning to go to the beach so i wore my yellow t shirt and white jeans skirt with white sandals and white purse. on the way i changed into my black maillot bathing suit now with the previous mentioned outfit over it.when i arrived in ocean grove, nj .... the wind was VERY strong out of the north east. i could seen beach erosion on the dunes and sand had been blown across ocean ave. obviously not a beach day aggghhh. non the less i walked down to the water wearing a hoodie. the waves wee like the 'ol pictures of the angry atlantic ocean. it is hard to believe that i have seen it as flat and calm as a lake at times! needless to say i quickly came off the beach and ate my late lunch in the car (4pm)  now i needed a place to change out of the bathing suite. so it was off to the auditrium restrooms in the center of town.
i switched to my yellow cami , white jeans skirt and white sandals along with the hoodie. now it was starting to drizzle along with the high winds even though i was 3-4 blocks from the ocean. wow!
i decided since it was still early i'd drive 4 towns south to the end of spring lake passing all the mansions and turned around when i arrived at seagert. a pleasant drive now that it is out of season as each town along the shore line is about 1 to 1-1/2 miles  long. when i got back to the grove i decided to stop by and old friend who knows me as diana. his partner passed on several years ago and now he lives year round in the grove in a verrrry cute cottage.
when i left his place it was now 8:45pm and time for dinner. so with all the wind i ended up back at clancy's restaurant. they have very good manhatten clam chowder ( i am told there potato soup is excellent too.) and a burger.
as i left clancys i couldn't stand freezing in the cool wind any longer so i quickly changed on the fly like super girl into panty hose (yuck to early in sept. for such warm clothing), my longer floral skirt, my dusty rose shirt with 3/4 sleeves, my new brown strapy wedge sandals, and my new sand and brown purse and black leather jacket.







when i arrived at georgie's the entrance is on the other side of the building out of the wind so as the place filled up i started getting a bit warm since the skirt is lined. to compound this i decided that since it was keroeky night i'd sing one number. i chose "close to you" accompanied by the carpenters recording. this was my first experience actually participating by singing on the stage. the gal who runs the keroeky is verrry helpful. but i couldn't allways hear myself singing aaand... i didn't realize for sure that she could change the pitch or key of the song so that it would have been better for my voice part. since as my male self i am a 1st baritone or second tenor i ended up switch between my guy range and my diana somewhat falsetto range. and what i finally figured out is that no one really cares what song one chooses to sing. nothing is to hip or dorky. and in the future i will ask for a lower key if need be. at any rate it was a good first experience. and another first as diana. i had hesitated at first since i knew that it is hard to project the upper range as diana and didn't know how they'd take it if i sang in a somewhat male range. now i know no one cares! it's like everything else in the trans world it is a matter of building confidence!
but remember i was a preforming arts/music teaching major. i had gotten into college initially on trumpet with a minor on voice. although i continued to be voluntarily in chorus i dropped the voice minor after the first week. so being in front of people or a class is my thing but it also means i am hard on myself too. keroeky preforming looks easy until one is up on the stage!

but after reading my friend kims' blog and how she talks about always looking for a keroeky place in her travels for work i decided i really wanted to give it a try . especially since i was dressed up a bit in my fall outfit!

by 11:30 i had to leave for home since i had a 1 hour drive north. on the way i stopped at the Chesquake bay rest area to use the restroom and get a cup of coffee.
all in all it was a nice day in spite of the weather!

hugs
Diana