1975, the second single off The Dream Weaver album by Gary Wright. A much more rocking tune than its predecessor and the album title track. This song really hasn’t aged poorly (Dream Weaver definitely has). It sums up this day, an absolute blessing of a day! The love we’ll talk about here is one of a sisterly love, bonds between human beings and bonds I cannot properly articulate.
Well, I think it’s time to get ready
To realize just what I have found
I have lived only half of what I am
It’s all clear to me now
July 31, 2026 rolled around and I could not wait! Let me reset the cast of characters. Me and all that goes with that. Magda, my beloved friend and the widow of my amazing late friend Jim. I wish I had more time with Jim as he only came into my life for a few years before his passing. A greater human being never existed. We ran every Saturday morning, mostly in torturously freezing temperatures for double digit miles. I never qualify for Boston without him and I miss him every single day. Magda is the equal in the human being category. Then I met Mo, a dear friend of Magda. They met at grief counseling as Mo also lost her husband. We met at a dedication of a pickleball facility in Jim’s honor. We immediately bonded and I love these ladies for their grace, good humor and the fact that they include me as one of them, a true blessing. Mo set up an early dinner for us three ladies! Here we are (photo at left) on literally one of the greatest days of my life that did not involve family, but we are family. That picture is the event at which I inadvertently came out to Jim and met Magda (one of the single greatest things to happen to me as Kandi) and below, an amazing afternoon of sisterhood hosted by Mo for all the ladies in her life that helped her through her grief and I was honored to have been invited.
If you have any friends like this, God has blessed you tremendously.
The afternoon could not have been any better. We got caught up and they had many questions about how I evolved as Kandi. There really had not previously been the opportunity to have these conversations. For me, it was particularly amazing because both have gay children and Magda works in the diversity space. I believe my feelings are what I would consider a “conservative” view (the dictionary definition, not the political one) and it was nice to hear that they supported my views. I can only best sum those views up in a phrase I use frequently, “societal change is slow cooked, it cannot be microwaved”. I pointed out to them that in the restaurant, no one paid me any attention. I also told them that an elderly gentleman who was seated at the table behind us, greeted me with a “hello young lady” when he walked in.
Something they were unaware of; I was tearing up throughout the afternoon from the amazing experience and the literal love we shared. Love and great laughs. Those tears basically ruined my contacts, rendering me almost sightless for about half the afternoon. I had trouble seeing as well as hearing as the place filled up with people. The millisecond I got back in my car, out they came!
Thank you, ladies, your love and acceptance mean the world to me!
Prior to our meeting, I headed to a marina on Lake Erie and shot some great pictures. There I had a cocktail to kill about half an hour, and one bartender gushed over my outfit and told me my nails were “fire”, then another came over and welcomed me back, noticing that I had been there a few times before. 😊 I sat there on my stool between men chatting on either side of me, never once drawing any unwelcomed attention. Frankly, I was unnoticed, never a bad thing for a gal like me.
We’re back on YouTube in a big way! All the videos you now see here and on Facebook are posted on my YouTube page along with some golden oldies. We’ll keep speaking to you directly, both in written form and directly from my yap. I have gotten tremendous feedback on my Facebook page that my videos mean something to someone, so we’ll keep trying to both help and expand our platform.
Click the logo below as well as the one on the right side of the main page or any post any time you want to check it out.
No one online goes out as often, as publicly, being as visible to advance our acceptance by the general public. Kandi’s Land is the most real blog in our community.
How do you survive a pandemic? Go on a selfie photo binge!
This is how you find joy in times of struggle. The little things. A cute dress, the great outdoors, focusing on what you do have, not what you don’t.
Cliche time here: Count your blessings. This is when I started looking less like crap.
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Originally posted on Julie’s Facebook page July 17, 2026.
“Crossdressing out in public is kind of a trip, especially the next morning after a long night out. Sometimes it feels like my brain needs a little extra time to catch up with my presentation. Not entirely different from the first day back from a long vacation or an overseas trip – it feels a bit weird to be back to the regular schedule.”
