the thursday lunch run to Popik's Place - thur. sept 15th, 2016

me at the local hot dog stand last thur sept 15th called "Popiks Place" on Terrill rd. in  Scotch Plains NJ
Steve Popik sells only the best quality Sebrits he can get. so most thursdays when my aunt has come for lunch i usually go at her request around the corner to Steve's stand to pick up lunch.
Steve has had this stand for over 16 years. and he has managed to support his family of 5 this business

the interesting thing though this particular thur is that the guy ahead of me who was a new customer to the stand kept trying to "check me out" out of the corner of his eye.
now this was not the kind of look that said "i know your a cd and it's obvious" but rather the "checkin' me out" kind of look when guys are trying not to be to obvious. *giggle* needless to say since it was a bright sunny day and we were out in the harsh sun so i was kind of flattered.

although my aunt has seen me dressed as diana usually on our lunch day  i usually dress as my male self but this particular day for some reason i was compelled to dress as diana. maybe it was because i had gone back to the ocean Grove beach the day before as diana. so i was on one of those multi day rolls in which i get to dress for 3-4 days straight. i have learned not to fight it but rather to go along with it if i can that day. it is sort of like getting caught in a "run" in the ocean it becomes easier to swim with the run that across or against it.

Ocean Grove beach and dinner day - wed. sept 14th, 2016

i decided that while the weather was still nice and after the heat wave somewhat cooled down it was time to head to the Ocean Grove beach.

although the prediction was for and afternoon storm it turned out to be very nice with winds from the south until about 5:30 whe all a sudden the wind shifted out of the north blowing sand at me. (due to this i have had to use a previous year photo but it is the same bathing suit and beach scene) so i decided i had had enough and when and changed out of my one piece maillot bathing suit because i was getting chilled. and although i had a wind barrier with my i felt it was to late in the day to put it up. besides i had finished most of the goodies in the lunch bag by now. so off i went first driving to the north end of town and then walking on up to the north end of Asbury park hoping to find an open restaurant now that it was out of season and the middle of the week.

i ended up at Mcloon's which is in the former Howard Johnson's restaurant building.
i decided that the burgers there were better than a local irish pub / sports bar called Clancy's over at the gates of Ocean Grove. but that Clancy's has a broader plain food like soups and sandwiches than McLoon's.
while there i noticed a couple 2 tables away (we were out on the boardwalk dining area) .
she had on a gorgeous white dress with a verrry low cut back. but it had the most beautiful daisys stitched to the cross straps on the back. upon mentioning it to the waitress she too had the same thought's about how pretty it was.  the girl later as she was leaving thanked me for my complement and said she had only taken her jacket off to somewhat tease the guy who was doing a small clown act on the boardwalk near the resturant. :-) lucky us or we would have never seen how lovely the dress was. :-)
the evening turned out somewhat cool but lovely with only literally 2-3 drops of rain and nothing more.

all to soon the evening ended as i needed to get on the road to make the 50 mile drive back up north.
i so miss having a house to stay in in Ocean Grove as my famialy rented the top floor of our friends lovely queen ann victorian house with it's tower room view of the ocean. *sigh* when my mom got sick she could no longer make the stairs and in more recent times our friend the owners mom passed and the daughter renovated so at this point in my life that is no longer an option *sigh* after spending about 30 summers there on long weekends it was my home away from home. but i was lucky and blessed to have the use of it for all that time. maybe some day if the economy ever improves it would be nice to have a verrry small cottage that i personally could maintain....

all in all it was a lovely day!

Movie night and Dairy Queen Friday July 15th, 2016

me at the Plainfield NJ Dairy Queen on So. Ave. Plfd. after attending the Scotch Plains NJ movie night on the village green this evening (Friday night). I  had to go to the movie as it was "Cars" :-) i even got to wear my new coral colored shawl like cami cover up. what more could i have asked for even brought my dinner and ate under the stars during the movie!
still it was a new step for me because the mayor runs the movies and although his wife knows that i am a transgender cd and saw me 2 weeks before at a previous event i hadn't stayed long. but he doesn't know of diana . this time i arrived verry early as he was setting up and set my lawn chair right in the middle of the green he does know my male self  Dave verrry well since i am the historical society  president in town and on a town committee for a project he has us doing. the historic building is next to town hall and owned by the township in which we docent the tours and maintain the artifacts.

sorry about the infrequent posting as many times i post these days on facebook. but since i often go to places by my self i don't usually have anyone to take  a photo of me. and if i am out and about as diana then i don't usually have the energy to post  stuff to the computer * sigh*

the nose piercing and previous ear lobe stories - July 14th, 2016

fri may 29th , 2016 I decided to pierce my nose. see if you can see the sparkly adornment. :-)

about 10 years ago on the first set of ear piercings at clairs store in the mall i  ended up with an ear lobe infection courtesy of their "cleaning" solution (my ear Dr had suggested the mall was cheaper than he very large medical group he works for... accept it cost me a second visit for some cipro drops to heal it...)
 so i decided to do the second set my self so that i can have danglers in the first set and studs in the second set. i used the 14kt gold starter earings to "drill" the holes. i cleaned them real well in 70% Ethel alcohol and proceeded to "drill" them slowly through. then each day i cleaned them with Alcohol until healed. even though i knew enough about using the alcohol on the first set i figured clairs must know what they are talking about   since they do the piercings and supply the cleaning solution... later i found out that they rarely keep their young help more than 3 months LOL
that was about 2 years ago and usually wear the pink sapphire studs in the upper holes. this works better since the backs don't usually get caught on shop aprons like they did in the lower original holes.
the interesting thing is that the left ear i had to redo the second hole at week 4 when i realized it was a bit low LOL really anoying when looking in the merrior but somehow missed that on the original 2nd piercing!

so with that experience in mind and a bit concerned about the cleanliness of any local piercing shops i decided to once again use the 14kt gold starter earring for the nose piercing and after the alcohol cleaning proceeded to slowly "drill" it through. i'll admit i do have a somewhat high tolerance for pain as i don't usually use nova-cane for fillings jn my teeth but then again i have a rather skilled verrry gentile dentist.
after i drilled it through i realized i had a new delema since i hadn't bought a dose stud to insert and the earing has a pointy back so i couldn't sleep with it.  so a quick drive to Hot topic store in the mall in Bridgewater NJ 15 miles away before they closed and bought a pack of nose studs and the ocean salt spray to clean it with. upon returning home i cleaned the surgical steel nose stud and did the quick swap *whew* it went in.
one thing i figured out on the 2nd ear lobe piercing was that the use of a cotton ball as Clairs suggested was a no no. as the pieces of cotton "hair" get caught on the prongs and post of the stud and remain to collect bacteria. i now believe that is why the first piercing 10 years ago got infected.  ever since i can't have a earring back from a post stud touch the back of that ear lobe. i had the 14kt pink sapphire posts extended so the backs don't touch the ear lobe. ironicly the cheep fishhooks don't seem to bother it. go figure...

so back to the subsequent piercings the second set on the ears i changed out to the longer posts about the 2nd to 3rd day after piercing and removed to inspect  and clean in alcohol every day. (i know it goes against everything they tell you! but I didn't have a problem this time)

now we come to the nose piercing a bit trickier to clean and with just a ball on the other end it tried to "soda straw" itself out for the first week. lucky there were more in the pack since i lost it as i was up on a ladder cleaning the gutters. finally after about 4-6 weeks it decided to sort of "lock in"
unfortunately i decided to remove it to attend a cousin's (a nun) social event  for about 5 hours. egads it was a challenge getting it back in . i had to use the starter earring to sort of "gauge " the opening to reinsert the nose stud.

NOTE it is now  July 14th  it has now been about 11 weeks since the initial piercing. and it seems to have for the most part "settled in".  to me it looks better along with the earrings than by itself so even as my male self i have been wearing the studs and the nose piercing combined.

and on a second NOTE from Dave the male self: it seems as though the Diana soul has taken another step forward and  claimed another piece from the David  soul's male self 50/50 agreement. she keeps threatening to take over, but that was not the 50/50 agreement we had to SHARE the one human body. *sigh*
but as far as Diana is concerned she feels  it completes one more phase in her take over by insisting on  having these 5 piercings! she keeps forgetting that if she does a complete take over she will "kill off" the male souls' self. the problem is that the Dave soul likes both selves and can live with that but the Diana soul is getting greedy wanting more and more time and body as time goes on.

Happy New Year! tue jan 1 2016

first i want to wish everyone a Happy New Year!

here i am cooking my family's traditional New Years Day meal baked pork chops on a bed of sour craut. one starts by browning the pork chops then putting them on a bed of rinsed sour craut (removes some of the salt) add another layer of sour craut then sprinkel some brown sugar over add 2 cups of water to cover chops , cover and bake for 2 hours at 350.

and vola there you have it baked pork cops yum yum!

Happy New Year!

hugs
Diana