My second public outing en-femme - shopping in Santa Monica! (part 1)

One of my ideas for my next trip out in public was to go to the beach. Walk along the boardwalk, and on down to the pier. Maybe sit on the beach - I have a bathing suit that I think would let me pull that off just fine (with a cover-up for the walk to and from the car).  I wasn't sure if I would feel better about blending in wearing a dress or skirt, or shorts.

But in my mind that trip might have been similar to my first, with no interaction with other people. So to add that element, I thought maybe we could stop at one of those greasy spoon order-and-pickup-from-the-counter type places, where you grab your tray and sit at one of those round cement picnic tables to eat.

But then there is this concert that we are going to in a few weeks. My girlfriend has mentioned in the past that she wants to have an edgier look. I think the concert coming up might have added some motivation for her to start to shop for that look. There is a particular brand and style of shoe that has been in the back of her mind that has been making it to the front more and more.

So I say to her, let's go check out those shoes that you've been wanting. This retailer has very few brick and mortar retail stores, but luckily one of them is in Santa Monica, about 90 minutes away in light traffic. It's in an outside shopping mall called the 3rd Street Promenade. What's great is that it's just three blocks from the beach, and you can see the Santa Monica pier off in the not to far distance with its roller coaster and I think merry-go-round. I don't know what else is on the pier these days as I haven't been there in over 15 years.

As I  mentioned in my last post, I have just started using an epilator on my legs, chest, etc. About six days prior to this trip, and my legs had never been so smooth! Really a wonderful sexy feeling! My girlfriend noticed too! So I was really hoping to wear a skirt or dress.

After we had done all our getting ready things with showers, hair and makeup, I set out all my girl clothes and we figured out what would be good to go out in for this trip. It ended up being a pink summer dress! I really loved it, but at the same time I'm worried about if there is a breeze if my privates might be too noticeable, so I'm wondering if shorts would be better. But then I think, if I get aroused, for sure things will be noticed. With a skirt or dress at least it's more or less continually flowing, so it should provide appropriate modesty :-)

The dress it is then (below is a picture of me after we got back home)!

Pink dress

Off we go on our drive to shop!

We arrive uneventfully and park in a parking structure that is close the the store we are looking for.

This is the moment of truth for me, getting out of the car and entering the public eye. It's a beautiful day, mild temperature and a perfect breeze. And yes, I'm worried about what affect the wonderful breeze might have under my dress!

We exit the structure into an alley that we have to walk down about 3/4ths of a block before we get to the mall entrance. There are a few cars that drive past us as we walk, and I'm feeling fairly confident that I'm going to pass. I have my sunglasses on which I feel help a lot with that.

Out of the blue my girlfriend reaches out and takes my hand! My heart jumps up in my chest a bit with both incredible excitement and a heavy dose of anxiety. The anxiety fades just a bit as I adjust (or more likely accept, then REALLY enjoy) this surprise. Once I do, I think I ended up with a really big happy smile on my face :-D

With that, my girlfriend totally just took us into the category of we're "at least a gay couple"! I was not expecting anything like this! I smile big and large at her and tell her I love her, and I can't believe that we are out together as girlfriends! I'm really just exploding with excitement about not only being out as a girl, but with her as her girlfriend too!

We continue walking down the alley, and a family with two or three small kids is walking towards us. I'm just trying to keep that smile on my face as if everything is totally normal, "we're good", trying to come off as if we're all casual and comfortable, as two girlfriends holding hands on their way to do a little shoping at the mall.

Well the mother just looks at us with a mean stare as we start to pass each other. Miss noticed it as it happened, but she had to remind me of this later as when it was happening I was so excited and bubbly emotionally that the ladies stare was lost to me in the moment.

We reach the end of the alley, and there are a lot of people walking all around the sidewalk as we approach the mall entrance. I make occasional eye contact with people, but everything is just fine, no one seems to notice me or even seem interested in a couple of apparently gay women walking by

Success beyond any expectations I could have had!

We decide we need to use the restroom, and look to a posted map of the mall for locations. Turns out we had to go back to the parking garage :-( I'm sure the many restaurants had them, but assumed we'd have to be a customer to use them.

So we go back to the parking structure. As we get close to the restroom I think "Cool! I can go in the ladies room!" I start to follow Miss in, and I see another lady at the sink cleaning up, and notice that there is only one stall. So rather than stand in the restroom with that lady, and wait for Miss to use the stall, I step back outside to wait.

Of course at this time a couple of groups of people walk by, and I'm just standing there pretending to read what's on the wall (which wasn't much), and in general I just stood there and tried to look pretty. It felt so uncomfortable and awkward. I felt like I was on display, and I was so stressed thinking that in close quarters they surely would read me. And they were there for almost the whole time Miss was in the restroom, 3 or 4 minutes probably. I was so relieved when she finally came out, and we then started our walk back to the mall. None of them said anything, but probably they noticed. I'll take that!

The most exciting thing happened next, by way of a quick shout out from what I'm pretty sure was one of our fellow LGBT brethren, as Miss and I walked through the mall. He looked right at me, waved large, and yelled quite loudly - "HEY GIRL!!!"

I was again caught way off guard by this, and all I could do was raise my free hand, and for whatever reason I did a little princess wave with it, and in a fairly normal volume (and hopefully female voice), managed to say "Hi!" back to him.

I couldn't have just ignored or blown that shout out with no response, who knows, he might have continued to press me to acknowledge him. And I'm still not sure if he was recognizing us as a gay couple, or me as TG, or both! But Miss and I both feel there was no malice intended, just that he was happy to connect in public with others in the LGBT community. After all, this is Santa Monica, and I'm sure there are many in our community that live there.

I also want to say that my girlfriend got a huge kick out of being in public together as who we are. She loved that people noticed us as a couple. I did too!

The entire experience of this day I just can't find enough ways to describe how incredible it was to me. I received a Make-A-Wish. I have to give so many thanks to my wonderful girlfriend. She is beyond supportive. She helps me move forward, so much faster then if I were on my own.

There is more to this day that I'll share soon.

Take care everyone!

jen