Fall 2017: 6 Outings in 3 Weeks (1)

Back in the fall of 2017, I had quite a series of adventures.  At that point, it was only 6 months since my first time out and I had only been out maybe a half dozen times. So, in this short stint, I probably doubled my flying time. [Editorial comment: She now has frequent flyer miles!] Enjoy the ride…

Outing 1: The first outing was Rori’s Tgirl party at Big Shot piano bar in Arlington Heights (bigshotpianolounge.com).

Before the pandemic, Rori would host these parties the 3rd Tuesday of every month (transformationsbyrori.com). It’s a great monthly event, especially for those new to being in public. The attendees (about 25 in total) are super welcoming, especially to newbies, and the wait staff loves us – I guess we’re great tippers. We, my BFF Jes and I, had attended in August and September, so by this 3rd time in October, we felt like regulars. The woman on the left is Rori. I’ve had that brown dress for many years, but that night I realized how timeless it is and committed to wearing it again. 

Outing 2: A week and half later, I went to the Halloween Party hosted by CGS (chicagogender.com). This crowd is pretty similar to the Rori’s crowd, but this is much larger affair – probably about 100 in a hotel ballroom. As usual, I shared a hotel room with Jes. She was a zombie bride and IMHO was robbed of the first place prize in the costume contest. Of course, I had had many a Halloween where my costume was ‘a girl’, but this was the first time Julie just had a regular costume appropriate for her gender – a huge milestone for me. The tail on that kitty cat costume was hilarious. As I walked, it would bounce from calf to calf, never letting me forget it was there. As with the Rori parties, this was a great place to make new friends. Come to think of it, that was the night we first met Claudia. She’s my other bestie, so you’ll hear much more about her in future posts. 

Outing 3: The next day I flew to Minneapolis, which was easier said than done, given that the after-party ended about 3am. After 4 days of boy mode business activities, it was finally time for Julie to make her Minneapolis debut. Started with a Thursday night visit to a drag club called LUSH (here’s the website, but it looks like it has succumb to the pandemic: lushmpls.com). It was amateur night, but I wouldn’t know, because the girls were totally awesome. The best part was the crowd – mostly folks from the LGBT community and filled with so much love – not a single bachelorette party in the place. Was so great to be a small part of such a community. After the show, I hung out with a group of queens – they were so much fun and were totally cracking me up. The only problem was that they were making me feel old, cuz not a one was older than 30.

More next week!