MY 1ST CROSSDRESSER MEETING

Writing an earlier post PRE INTERNET CROSSDRESSING I touched on discovering my first crossdresser support group PPOC. Not to be confused with a crossdresser club like CHIC which would be a closed social group with membership requirements. PPOC or Powder Puff of Orange County was an open to all support group in the strictest sense. You just stepped through the door gave them a name for your name tag and $10.00 for pizza and soda and you were in. The meetings were held in the meeting room of a Best Western Motel conveniently located at the intersections of the 605 and 91 Freeways which border Los Angeles and Orange Counties.

Needless to say once I had discovered PPOC I desperately wanted to attend and for the first time in my life actually meet other crossdressers. It was the mid to late 1980’s and although my wife was generally supportive it was based on her understanding of what my crossdressing entailed. The paradigm had shifted when I discovered people like me were getting crossdressed together once a month and socializing. Nancy the wig lady had told me that sometimes there were as many as 75 people at these meetings which really added to my desire to attend. When I approached my wife with the idea of attending I got the phrase every married crossdresser dreads. IT’S ESCALATING AGAIN! It’s true I never told her about this before because I did not know about it myself but, now that I do I want to go. I think it took a year of discussion before she finally reluctantly supported the plan with the provision that I get a hotel room and not drive while dressed.

Now with the green light from home I set about the plan to attend my first PPOC meeting fully crossdressed makeup and all for the first time. It made sense to stay at the same hotel as the PPOC meeting was being held and getting a room as close to the meeting room as I could get would be a plus. This may sound paranoid by today’s standards but it was the 1980’s so I did a recon mission on the motel to check out the layout. Then made an appointment with the manager to get a tour for the family reunion I was planning with relatives coming from out of town for a weekend. I earned a Pinocchio award for sure but needed the layout to plan for my big night out. I made a mental note of the room numbers on the ground floor located just steps from the door of the only meeting room that they had. My plan was to escape my room when the time came and scamper quickly to the meeting room and get inside before anyone saw me.

I checked to make sure there was a meeting then reserved a room for the meeting night and checked in at 3 PM but was disappointed to find my room was 3 doors down from the meeting room. I later found out it was because PPOC had a standing reservation for those rooms that were set aside so people could change and get ready there. Again it was the 1980’s and there were many reasons for not getting caught dressed in women’s clothes on a Saturday night so leaving from home could be risky. I parked as close as possible to the room and backed in to unload easier but I think I brought too much stuff for one night.

I unpacked, laid everything out on the bed and started on what I knew was going to be the most difficult part because I had never actually done it. Fortunately I had gone to a makeup artist in Hollywood a few years prior so I had some idea along with watching my wife. That said, its one thing to casually observe and quite another to know that in a few hours your will be presenting to the world as Micki the Magnificent or Bozo the Clown. All great works of art start with a well laid foundation and in our case beard cover is the main thrust of that project. How much or how little you do determines the success of your presentation so it pays to take some time and get it right. Even if you have to take it all off and start over from scratch.

I actually used Max Factor Pan Stick for both my beard cover and foundation just spreading it thinner in the non bearded areas then setting everything with powder. I didn’t start out that way being a more is more person instead of a less is more person I ended up scraping excess foundation off because it wouldn’t dry and rubbed off on everything. Eventually I mastered the application of foundation through a great deal of practice brought on by my more is more eye shadow process.

The eye shadow process is also based on the more is more philosophy which is to load the brush up with as much shadow powder as possible which you will know when it starts falling off on your clothes and everything around you. Hey remember this is my first time doing this! So before too much falls off I applied it to my eyes in the style I like which came out great if I do say so myself. Watching my wife get ready all those times paid off. So now with foundation done along with the eyes I can move on to the false lashes and I am ahead of schedule. That’s when I notice the problem with my flawless foundation.

My more is more eye shadow has fallen like snow and is resting on my upper cheek bones and lower eyelids. To make matters worse when I rested my hand on part of my cheeks to apply the eye shadow it rubbed off the foundation. So now I go into repair mode and try to dab off the dark brown eye shadow with a cotton ball. That results in wider brown spots like a squirrel fur so finally I remove all the foundation and patch it. My face looks pretty good except it looks like I patched it so I take all of my foundation off and start all over again. That happened more than once before I figured out I should do my eyes first and clean the mess before applying my foundation.

But there is more of the more is more story. Remember the eyelashes that women have complained about being so hard to get right for so many years? I tackled those my first time out also and of coarse applied the never once successful more is more technique there also. The more glue you use the stronger something should hold so I loaded it it on. If Julius Caesar did the same he would still be waiting for it to dry today. I loaded it on the lash and put the lash on my eye and the outer corner popped off so I put it back then the inner corner popped off so I put it back. Then the whole lash fell off and stuck to my cheek and when I peeled it off it left some glue on my cheek. I dabbed the glue with a Q Tip and my foundation came off with the glue on the Q Tip. Knowing that patches don’t work I removed the foundation and started over again.

Now you know why I do my eyes before my foundation so I can get where I am going on time.

The hours of this first outing are clicking by and I am late but finished with my makeup and am dressed. I am now learning exactly how little I know about wig styling but fortunately there are only so many options available to a rookie. You push it this way then back and finally give up. The meeting started about an hour ago so I check my purse to make sure I have my room key and take one last look in the mirror. All looks good so I reach for the door and turn the handle when I hear a mans voice outside and freeze. He fades off into the distance so a grab the handle again and turn it to open the door when I hear another voice and jump back into the room. After a while I peek through a crack in the curtains at the parking lot and listen for any sounds. All is quiet so I check my purse again for the 53rd time to make sure my key is there. After about a half hour of this extreme paranoia it occurs to me that eventually the voices that I hear will be from the ladies at the PPOC meeting saying good night and see you next month.

I had two choices, go to the meeting or go to bed so I grabbed my purse, opened the door and walked into the meeting. The ladies at the hosting table could not have been more gracious welcoming me and introducing me to a couple of the regulars to get me started. The majority of the people I met that first night were from the local Orange County area, very friendly and open with their stories. Much of what I and I am sure others heard was familiar because it related to our own experiences. My first crossdresser meeting was a great success and I could not wait to repeat the experience the following month and each month thereafter if possible.

Some of the great things about the PPOC meetings were that they were centrally located, open and friendly to everyone, held monthly, had hotel access, and brought in occasional speakers on crossdresser topics. The downside was that many people did not attend regularly so you could miss people you connected with at a prior meeting. With no way of coordinating schedules they attend May and you June etc. It was hard to form lasting friendships that way so it was like you constantly met people for the first time. It’s hard to look forward to a meeting when you might know a couple of people or none. In some cases the people were a little out there and you did not want to know them so the night was kind of a waste.

When all is said and done though I am thankful that PPOC existed and appreciative of those who kept it going. I am saddened that they are no longer around and there is nothing I am aware of that has replaced them. They were a first step in my journey and an early confidence builder that helped me get where I am now.