But nonetheless I got up at 6 a.m. to start getting ready. (Note to organizers of trans conferences: starting at 9 a.m. is a wee bit early for us poor crossdressers, who take longer to get ready.) I was already running behind, when my landscaper contractor dropped by to look at a bit of the yard where I want some work done. Then just as he was leaving, the gardeners came a half-hour early. :eek: Grrr.... I'm at a point where I don't necessarily care if people find out about my crossdressing, but I just wasn't ready to deal with coming out on a Saturday morning, so I had to lay low inside the house for a half hour.
Unfortunately that mean I missed the first session of the day, which was about choosing and caring for your wig. I caught a little bit of the Q&A, which made me even more irritated since it seemed it had some good info. But my mood got better when I found out about a last-minute addition of a session on how to take good photos, put on by Eve Rios (from Adam to Eve) and photographer Randal Smith. The two also were offering a mini-shoot in the vendor area -- a great deal at the price. Looking forward to some of the shots Randal took.
In the afternoon Denae Doyle put on a great session about "Sensual Moves." (Doyle is a "femininity coach" who works with both beauty pageant contestants as well as transwoman and crossdressers.) Apparently Doyle has wanted to do this topic for awhile -- although it apparently freaks out gender therapists because it involves learning how to move and dance "sexy." Doyle did point out there's a time and place for it. To paraphrase "Spiderman": with great power comes great responsibility.
The interesting thing to me was that she was teaching people how to dance with the sort "talking with your hands" hand movements that I've always had to rein in while dancing en homme.At the end of the session, Doyle mentioned that she could do a private session -- and since I'd been wanting to meet with her for ages, I leapt at the chance. Doyle does teach what's been called "beauty pageant femininity," i.e. it's a bit on the stereotypical femmy side (Doyle herself was raised in "Texas high femme" where women get done up to go to the store), but being a little exaggerated makes easier to learn and one can always dial it back. Doyle had some good suggestions on how to move differently -- unfortunately I really need a bit more flexibility to do it. So I've got a bit of stretching to do. She also helped me with my voice. It turns out I'd been approaching things backwards (trying to still the lower vocal cords when I should be trying to use only them). I was actually able to get a much more realistic voice, albeit only for short sentences, but that was enough to give me incentive to practice more.
So when all was said and done, it turned out to be very enjoyable day.
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