’22 In Review

Happy New Year!

This Sun-Dee I get the honor of welcoming Kandi’s Land visitors to 2023, by recapping my highlights of 2022.

First, updates on my “bucket list” items. Back in 2021 I wrote about the things I had done, and things I would like to do in the future. I had thirteen items, and I’ve knocked off about half of them, including four (well, three and a half) in 2022. Here is the roll call.

1. Attending church on Easter Sunday (this is the “half”)

I’m not religious, but for some reason getting dressed up and going to church on Easter Sunday appeals to me. I have the perfect dress for the occasion; a rose colored dress that my GG friend Michelle gave me. In 2022 Michelle wasn’t available to join me on Easter (I wouldn’t attend on my own), so that will have to wait at least another year.

However, earlier this year Michelle asked if I would go to a 5 PM mass with her, and I said yes. We went to a 100+ year old cathedral in my home town, after a day out shopping. I will confess both of us almost fell asleep, but Dee has now been to church (but not on Easter).

I did host another GG friend Karla for Easter dinner at my house, but she wasn’t interested in going to church.

Maybe in 2023.

2. Publishing a story

There are multiple public source story sites, and a while ago I set a goal to get a story published on one of the larger ones. With my boy activity of doing (shorter) triathlons, I spend lots of time running and biking, killing time by mentally dictating stories to myself. I have found dreaming up the stories is relatively easy; committing them to print is a lot harder. 

The first one, “Secrets“, serialized in these here pages, took about five years to finish–but I finally put it to bed, with favorable ratings and comments. Since then, I’ve published two more, each about three months apart. The second, “The Box“, is a homage to my GG friend Renee, a friend with benefits from the 1980’s who helped me dress for the first time (Renee often leaves very nice comments here, as we text on a regular basis). The third, “Hypnotized“, is the most recent. Collectively, my three stories have over 34,000 page views, which I’m happy with..

The irony is although I’m proud of my writing, I can tell very few people I’m an author, because of the subject matter (much like I can’t tell people I have regular blog posts). I haven’t figured out exactly why I write the stories, but I hope to keep cranking them out. If you want to read them (hint, hint, please do!), you can search on the title, or my author name, Sagelllini (with three lower case “L”s in the middle).

3. Fly “Pretty”

One frequent goal of crossdressers is to fly dressed, termed “Fly Pretty” by Kimberly Huddle in her blog “Traveling Transgender”. I managed to do so back in May. My older son was getting his Ph.D. in (from) Georgia, so I figured it was my time. I did it business professional–a dress and heels–and had no issues (the friendly TSA agent even gave me a more suitable femme name after checking my male ID). I hope the circumstances will allow me to do it again.

4. Hit the beach

In 2020 I had the pleasure of doing a swimsuit photoshoot with Michelle at the pool at her (then) residence, wearing a number of her one piece suits and bikinis. It was a dream come true, and a lot of fun. That inspired the goal for Dee to hit the beach. I found a cute one-piece in 2021 (thanks Hannah McKnight) and hit the hotel pool once. But I still wanted to hit the beach.

Regular readers know I spend part of the year in Australia, usually from January to March, the Aussie summer. Our apartment down under is near a beach, so I knew I would have some opportunities. I had a couple of days out in my one piece (and I managed to sunburn my white cheeks that usually don’t get exposed).

But I wanted to hit the beach in a bikini. I found a very cute Princess Highway bikini at my favourite Dangerfield store in downtown Melbourne, and sheepishly tried it on and walked out into the store so all could see. I knew I had to have it–and got a scarf with the same print to boot.

A couple of weeks later I visited a neighboring beach and walked the surf in the bikini, and then after building up my courage, wore it to our local beach. In November, I was able to get some more beach time in Hawaii, twice wearing the bikini, and once the one-piece.

I am planning more beach time once I return down under.

My other highlights of 2022:

**I went out over sixty times during the year, most locally, but also multiple days in Melbourne 

**Because of a travel delay, I had a day out in Los Angeles, along with a mini train trip to Chicago

**Saw my second play, Hairspray, with my friend Karla (and a third in Chicago later in the year)

**Attended my third concert in rock girl mode, The National

**For the first time, I told a friend about Dee. The friend is the parent of a Transgender child. I decided the friend might benefit from knowing that I was also under the Transgender umbrella. The friend told me they felt honored that I shared my secret with them, and appreciated that I trusted my secret with them. Thank you, friend–I’m “Dee-lighted” I shared my secret with you (said friend enjoys word play and often texts me with variations of words incorporating “Dee” into them, although Kandi is the originator of the “Sun-Dee” moniker).

Boy me also completed nine short to intermediate triathlons (generally up to a three hour maximum time), a handful of 5K races, a 10K race (set a personal best), and a half-marathon. Currently, I’m ranked in the top 200 guys–out of approximately 500–in my age group who completed at least three triathlons during 2022, which I’m proud of. By year end I will have run more than 500 miles and biked almost 2,500 miles–both of which help my legs look fabulous when I’m wearing heels.

In all, 2022 was a fun year for both sides of me. Tomorrow my wife and I depart for Australia, which means a bonus two more months of summer. It also means packing two sets of clothes, one for boy me, and one for Dee. Fortunately, Dee has learned to love summer clothes, and is looking forward to trying some more adventurous summer looks (and blurring my tennis tan lines).

Wishing you a Happy New Year!

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