She turns herself ’round
And she smiles and she says
“This is it, that’s the end of the joke”
And loses herself in her
Dreaming and sleep, and her
Lovers walk through in their coats
Yeah, I know…an ’80’s song, but a great one by the Psychedelic Furs. Great beat, danceable, fun. Good stuff!
October 28, 2026 I had training at the Cleveland Museum of Art. I will be involved in their Art Lens exhibit regularly going forward. Wish I could spin a grand tale, but I reported for training, went through a background check (I passed!) and did a photo shoot, as you will see here. I nursed a cocktail to stretch the outing and headed home. Day one of a three-day Kandi stretch, followed by a week on ice…
I am well aware my face looks awful in full sunlight.
Pretty in pink, isn’t she?
Pretty in pink, isn’t she?
Facebook I: About a month ago, I was stopped by Messenger from responding to or sending messages with no explanation. Not a real issue for me except that all communication regarding the fashion show was through Messenger. And frankly, if one could turn off that feature, I would have. I was required to provide ID, which I was not willing to do for a few reasons. My driver’s license is not the person on Facebook. It would not have worked. Also, I am unwilling to give ANYONE a copy of my driver’s license these days, especially since it was not required to open the account to begin with.
I reported the problem day after day since the Facebook Support Assistant (AI, of course), identified this as a technical issue as my account is and was in good standing. A few years back when my account was hacked and I could not log in, I learned you simply have to ask and ask and ask, over and over again and eventually you will get back to where you were.
That wasn’t working then it dawned on me. So I went on Canva and created an employee identification card. A friend created an employee identification card last time and that was the solution to that problem. The card I created included exactly what was required, a photo and my birthday. The card I created was technically legitimate. It was “issued” by my actual company (I have been an LLC since 2004), contained Kandi’s name, birthday and the exact photo on my profile page. While it doesn’t matter, Kandi has earned revenues for the company from time to time. I submitted the card and it was immediately AI processed and rejected. But later, not too much later, the restrictions were removed and I can now respond to and send messages. I need Facebook simply because it is my main point of contact for so many people, community friends, acting and modeling friends and of course, friends from our corner of the world. One day I will shut it all down, including this place, but today is not that day.
Facebook 2: Before I get into this next story, please don’t tell me this is why you are not on Facebook or that I should get off of it. I am on there precisely because of the haters and to show class and a way forward. As I always do, what you see here in a daily post was also posted on Facebook (video and pictures), Flickr (both again) and YouTube (video only). I get an occasional a-hole making a comment. Not many, maybe 5 or 6 a week. I get hundreds of positive responses to every negative one. Trans people online get much worse than me. I simply block and delete. Sometimes not a single negative word, that happens quite often. When I posted this video and these pictures, holy shit! I easily got more crap on YouTube than I have combined there with over 50 videos posted. On Facebook it was an avalanche of hate. I started with the block and delete strategy but finally had to delete the post and repost it. After that, nothing. I believe some worthless piece of shit shared the post with some type of hate group.
Why this video or these pictures more so than any others? No clue. But as I preach, we must be visible. Not visible where we are in harm’s way, but I stayed visible and worked around it. Maybe someday, as stated above, I go radio silent, but this is not the time right now. I am frequently reminded that my presence, either in the real world or virtual one, does matter. Not that I am special in any way, just that I am visible.
Just Amazing!
An amazing morning, followed by an amazing afternoon and evening!
People never cease to amaze me and frankly, I am always amazed at how quickly I make friends. On August 11, 2022 I began my day with a trip to Common Threads, a fabulous thrift store in Brookpark, Ohio. I went there for one specific reason. I was there two weeks prior in male mode, on my way home from work. Every Thursday all clothing is 50% off. There was a stunning wedding dress in the window, just beautiful and my size! But I didn’t want to buy it without trying it on and I wasn’t dressed for that. Renee, who is now a dear friend, said she would help me try it on if I came back. She told be she was on vacation the following week, so I put it on my calendar and headed back. The dress was only $45 and I would have purchased it for half of that!
Well, the dress was sold (☹) so I began on one single dress rack grabbing dress after dress to try on. Renee was going to be give me the thumbs up or down as I tried on one after another. I walked out in this size 8 purple Lauren dress and started playing the model. Renee, one of her co-workers and about five ladies who were shopping all gave their approval. Over the span of about an hour, I tried on and purchased about seven dresses, walked around the store for all to see, got to know each of the ladies and collected quite a few hugs. I joked with a few ladies near the dressing room. I apologized for monopolizing one dressing room, but told them they’d been able to do this all their lives and that I came to this late in the game. All laughed! I was helping a girl in the adjacent dressing room judge different outfits she was trying on, along with her Mom and Aunt. One outfit Mom said looked a little hippy, to which I said I wish I had her hips, mine were sitting in a box back home!
Things like this have happened to me many times before, they always fill me with such joy. A few of the ladies hugged me multiple times and we told each other we loved each other. Loved, in the way human beings should love all and if they did, we’d have none of the foolishness going on in our world. There was definitely love in that store and I am proud to say, I was the catalyst for it. All those ladies went home feeling good and all had a story to tell about this woman they met that day. Every one knew who and what I am and everyone treated me like a woman and always called me she.
Time to head to “work” at the art museum. No real story to spin here, but as always, it is a treat to be out, to meet the general public and to be treated as the woman I am.
Then I drove from Cleveland to just north of Akron to get together again with my BFF Sherry (you remember her, she used to post here). We sat and chatted, laughed, drank and ate and as always, I love her company!
Finally, I reported for my second volunteer shift for the day, at Weathervane Theater. Again, I was tending bar, but mainly I was talking with patrons, actually more valuable in the big picture. One lovely woman walked straight up to the bar and told me I was beautiful. No, I know what you are thinking, she hadn’t yet had a drink. She remembered me from my pre-pandemic work there. She even remembered an outfit I wore (no, I cannot remember what I had for breakfast, I don’t remember the outfit), You guessed it, hugs ensued! Her son-in-law is now her daughter-in-law, so we connected on that level. I had an extended conversation with another woman about her mother who has dementia. I apologized to my “boss” for yakking (she knew what I was doing is important). I explained to her that people just feel very comfortable talking to me about almost anything.
It’s amazing the stuff I get away with. No one should be as lucky as I am, it’s not fair. It’s all about clean living, cute outfits, a suspect memory and my smile. That smile is gold Jerry, gold!
