one more visit to the pool August 31,2012

here i am for one last time this season back at the seidler ave pool in the nest town of plainfield nj.
i thought i might get here again the next day or labor day but both days we had rain.

i had the good fortune to meet a new friend and her husband who was kind enough to use my camera and take my picture. this year the town couldn't get enough guards so they had to close this pool on tue. and thur. every week! the town has 3 pools  but this is the closest one to me.

this pool has the cutest twirly sliding board and it was fun to watch the kids twirl their way down the board into the pool.
it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the temp and humidity had cooled down enough to be outside during the afternoon. ironicly the pool water was still warmer than the stand shower at the edge of the pool.

since it had been my birthday the previous week i had decided to allow myself 2 one day beach trips (as a gift to myself and went as my  other self) one a day when my aunt stops by so that she would be here to keep an eye on my dad.
at the end of the day on  thur the 23 i walked to the north end of Ocean  Grove ( the border of asbury Park). the next photo photo show as it looks today.

as a child i remember this as being a verrrry busy area. the building straight ahead had had a roller derby to the right of it which was torn down a couple of  years ago. the current building in the middle had a verrrry ornate fascia on each end in copper. as each year passed more was removed until it is now sort of like a airplane hanger look . to the left is the old power station now abandoned and boarded up. and farther left just out of the picture is one of the 3 carousel houses remaining. ll that is left is the copper sweral patterns of the windows and the beautiful lit crown of its roof design. the carousel was sold awhile back and now a small theater group uses the building. the empty boardwalk in the foreground previously had a portrait artist which every local has sat for a charcoal rendition of themselves. also a bridge went over head connection the former hotel that had been on the left (called the north end hotel) to the store's upstairs on the right.
there had also been swan paddle boats in the lake in front of the towered power station on the left.
all that remains of the hotel after it had a fire is the salt water pool which hasn't been used since the late 1970's. only a hint of  it's former glory.

i remember using the former carousel house nearest the pool which also housed a small movie theater (ohhh ahhhh it had air conditioning , LOL) a closed shooting gallery and a closed bowling ally  for our community concert band rehearsals in the late 1970's. my how things have changed with all this time  and yet even as new businesses have moved into this area yet the restaurant that overlooks the ocean has remained closed this season. it's hard to believe that this section continues to deteriorate  while the rest of ocean grove is vibrant..

anyway i cannot believe it is already labor day weekend! i hope everyone had a great day.

hugs to all
Diana

if it's july it's back to the pool! july 17, 2012

with the scorching heat wave we are still having in nj. i decided it's time to go back to the neighboring towns' public swimming pool.
i know these photos are from the past yet since most times i am by my self i don't always have someone  to take photos of me. and setting the timer sometimes brings on unwanted attention. but at least everyone gets to see some of the suits i am describing.
this year we had about 4-5 weeks of drizzle in june and now we have had about 2-3 weeks of 95  degrees with very high humidity. in fact the one day the air was so moist it felt like very fine mist in the steamy heat. but other days it feelt as if one needed to sort of cut their way through the air just to get from the house to the car..
now in nj we are used to hot humid days in july and aug. every so often for a day or so. but this year it has been about 10 degrees above normal for a longer period of time! also in the last 2 years we have had at least one or 2 days above 100 degrees which is verrrry strange for nj.
even though i am only about 10 miles from the bay over in linden and elizabeth and we see sea gulls from time to time. yet i am not close enough to get any of the cooling advantage from it. although i do believe in that in the winter it has helped us avoid some of the winter storms that have affected other places.

i remember from the past that as a young adult when my family stayed in ocean grove nj (which is about 50 miles from me) for long weekends that since the house we stayed at was in the first block near the ocean we would get the wind shift in the afternoon and  that would made it feel like air conditioned air. in fact it would get soooo cool at night in july that i would need to wear pants and a jacket if i walked out on the board walk. yet if i walked in land 1-1/2 blocks i felt as if i had walked into a oven and if i took just one step back i was back in the cooling breeze. in fact one day i stopped so that i could have one foot in the warm and one in the cool!

but i have digressed.
after i came out of the pool i decided to run some errends like the food store for an item or 2 , a shoe store to return the sneakers that were a bit to tight and  a local Italian restaurant to get take out.
after my one piece bathing suit dried a bit i switched suit cover ups to my new shirt-dress cover up. in gray and white stripe and recieved several complements.

then i headed home with dinner with my dad. which although i removed the wig i stayed dressed as diana in the one piece swim wuit and shirt dress cover up.

after dinner i commented to my dad about some of my other bathing suits for diana and offered to model for  him some of them. they included my gold lamy .bikini that i have only worn once to a daisy dukes party at a
locale transgendered group. a 2 piece black suit, a 2 piece floral suit,


a black one piece suit with a fine mesh at the neck line and
another black one piece with a gold stripe at the neck line. as well as the black one piece with rainbow stripes on the top i had just worn to the pool.
so tonight over dinner (dressed as my male self dave) my dad says sow who is our tenant doing?
i said huh? who are you talking about? and he says you know the gal who showed me her bathing suit collection last night. then i realized what he was joking about . LOL

my dad has been verrrry good about my being transgendered!
i have been verrrry lucky to have a loving dad as i don't know of to many dads who would put up with their only child , a son appearing at the dinner table crossed dressed. or even cross dressed with a wig and full makeup and play along as if my dave self were out for the evening!
i told him he deserved to have dinner with someone prettier than dave once in a while. LOL
he tells me what a wonderfull son i am and i jokingly comment "even if i do dress like a girl LOL"
i fully understand what my mom saw in my dad when they married!

hugs
Diana

diana at the hardware store july 13 2012

in the last couple of days, since i am self employed i have managed to get up , eat breakfast in my night gown (actually due to the heat wave it has been in my teddy  and satin robe) and get dressed as diana.
today:  in a pink cami along with a white jeans skirt and brown strappy sandals (after mid june i dispense with the panty hose). i chose the pink cami for 2 reasons one because it is still to hot in the mid 90's here in nj to wear a T or tank top. and also i had just bought a multi set of  fish hook earings and needed something that would go with the lavender set i wanted to wear.
anyway as i stopped on my errends a tthe local lowes store i was once again amused to note that upon asking 2 guys where an item was that both of them escorted me to the item on the shelf.
and valently looked for the item that they aperently didn't stock.
i couldn't help think and wonder ... if i was in the store as my male self ... would they give me the same individual attention...LOL
ether way it's certainly fun to be the recipient of such attention!
hugs
Diana

shoe shopping and explaining about being transgendered july 9th 2012

i have got to share someting that happened yesterday as i was shopping for new sneakers in DSW.
it was near closing as i went to pay for a pair of mens slip-on sneakers.
now remember i was dressed in fem. wearing a summery blue and white stripe tank top, a white  above the knee jeans skirt and bass sandels with a heal strap.
i had brought white socks to try on sneakers which didn't seem to phase any one. in fact a  lady  was trying to convince her teen daughter to do likewise.
at any rate when i went to pay with my credit card (  shocked that i was actually paying more than my ol' kmart price of $10.00 LOL) which has my male name on it the cashier to her credit actually asked for some ID! at which point i said in a softer voice "that actually is me as i am transgendered but not transitioning" the lady with out batting an eye said " oh ok" and almost looked a bit embarrassed!
i did show her my photo id drivers license and after i paid i noticed out of the corner i my eye as i left that she was commenting something to her fellow woman cashier.

all i can say is wow i must be more passable than i thought!

the intersting thing is that 2 times in the last month the credit card co. actually blocked  my purchases not because of lack of payment but ,again to their credit, to be sure it was me doing the purchase. in both cases it was as my male self. but while i had the special customer service person on the phone i did mention that i use the card as diana. even that rep did not "bat an eye" about my fem name.
unfortunately these days in nj one can not get a card with out a social security number like in the old days when one could get the card issued using just ones' first initial. and remember the stories in the old days of people getting offers for credit cards in their pets' name.
these days even over the phone they have asked if " my husband " could please come on the phone to ok the use of "his" card.
i guess since 9/11 we who are transgendered but not transitioning are lucky to be as accepted as we are ( at least living in this part of the world) and in many cases due to the work of the GLBT Gay lobby efforts .
hopefully we will continue to be accepted in the years to come. but it worries me since 9/11 that to "protect" the many, that our rights of being "who we are", especially if one is not transitioning, could become eroded.

awhile ago a asked at the motor vehicle agency about an additional non drivers license photo id for my fem self as some other states have  and was told " the only way i could get a fem id photo was to change the photo on the existing drivers license but  i would not be able to get 2 photo id's in nj and that if a person has a non driver photo id that means they don't have a drivers license" she also said " basicly if i were to get a non driver photo id i could only do it by surrendering a drivers license"
this kind of places those of us that are cd's in a further kind of "purgatory" in this world in that those who are transitioning have only their new name and image to need a photo proof of who they are but... as a non transitioning cd we only have our male id photo.
at any rate it does open up some new challenges for the law makers within the photo id of the cd...
aggghhh this just creates way to much thinking for this blonds' brain.
i think i'll stick with thinking about that next outfit i want to look for....
thank goodness there was a GLBT to work on the laws of anti discrimination as some of us would have only met with law makers if they came to the thrift stores and malls. LOL  

when i look at how far i have come sometimes i can't believe it. 10 years ago it took everything i had to share being transgendered with my girlfriend at the time. now i openly discuss it with almost anyone i come in contact with.
hugs
Diana

my n scale train layout may 25 2012

i thought everyone might like to see what has been side tracking me from being diana lately.

i started this n scale train layout one year ago on april 1st and basicly "finished" it this month. (one never really "finishes " a train layout. in any size!)
it may not look like much but this is about 700 plus hours to build. about 3-5 hours a day for about 5 days a week.
it's 3'7" x 2' in a custom built stage equipment case. built on pink ( is there any other color a girl would choose? LOL) siding foam. it has 2 train lines in it.

hugs
Diana

the fancy hat party april 16th 2012

a friend of mine held a party at her store. i had been looking for a place to wear this hat since i had bought it about a year or two ago. it's in a somewhat 1940's style with a wide brim with black spangles with a black bow on the brim in the back of the hat. it also has a elastic one puts to the back of the head to help center the hat.

ironically this is almost the same skirt and blouse i wore to the last party she had at her store several years ago  ( accept for the addition of the hat).
the setting this time though with the flower vase was soooo pretty i couldn't resist a photo in front of it.
the hats were verrrry stylish. another gg came in a red hat verrry similar to my black one.

we had such a good time in a girls day out setting and after the party ended she locked the door and a few of us sat around for "girl talk"! then we sent out for pizza and chatted some more. it was sooo good to be accepted as one of the girls!

hugs
Diana

the new coat march 28th 2012

i know it seems strange to do a march entry in the blog and here it is june 2 but... the date with the photo of the coat makes more sense!
i have been looking since last year for a new knee length all weather coat. the week before this i had gone shopping as my other self with my aunt to help her pick out a down quilted all weather coat. having seen a few things i liked i need to go back to those stores as diana.
after spending several days trudging from berlington coat and macy's in so. plainfield nj (which are smaller than the flemington store i went to with my aunt) and back to bridgewater mall macys, i ended up in sears in watchung. you seen i am quite specific when i go shopping for costlier items. my requirements were thus: quilted down, knee length ( not 2" above) zipper and snaps with a removable hood.preferably under 100.00 on sale!and something i could wear with leggins to keep my thigh's warm.

this second photo is me at walmart during the hunt for the coat. although they sort of had what i wanted for 40.00 it didn't have snaps or a removable hood.


anyway back at sears i found basicly what i wanted (see the photo above) but it was $98.00 on sale ( i really wanted to get it for 50.00-60.00 on sale!) meanwhile i had also ordered 2 sizes of a similar coat from carol wright gifts catalogue. unfortunately i was between sizes of the 2 mail order coats agghhh which were 40.00 ea so i returned them. 
in keeping the sears coat i waited the 14 day price adjustment period and low and behold on day 12 i saw a up coming sale with a price club discount. in returning to the store on the sale day i found that it had gone down in price so that with the price club discount the total price came to about 43.00!
i found that the coat was dressy enough to wear with dressier clothes as well.
while i was there i drooped over some kardassian dress boots in fur trimmed swede. but that is another story. 
the first photo is taken at the local coffee shop i stopped at to pick up take out dinner. this is a great little breakfast and lunch place (rise and shine on terrall rd in scotch plains with good dinner specials as well. dinner comes with soup AND salad and usually 2 side dishes as well depending on the dinner.

hugs to all
Diana