Valerie Merinda's photostream  

6/28/09
WOW, I've been posting on flickr for a year now, it really went fast ,I had viewed for a year before I had the courage to take the plunge and post my first pic. I've met a lot of nice people and made some good friends.
But some things have changed in the past year so here is my new profile.
Business first. I don't add to many contacts anymore,in fact this month I cut my contact list by more than half. But I will add like minded people as contacts when I find them.
People I will add:
CD, TG ,TS, people who dress fully, have pics of themselves,INCLUDING there face.
Also you must have a PROFILE and buddy icon.
People I will NOTadd:
MEN, and I know that there are some very nice and respectful gentlemen, but I don't have the time to try to sort out the nice guys from the peverts and tranny chasers. I'm sorry, but that's just the way I roll.
People that only show Partial pics. Ive seen enough pantyhose and shoe shots to last me the rest of my life.
Nudity, although I find breast pics acceptable, I don't want to see your twig and berries, it doesn't do anything for me.
No profile, = No add.
I guess I said enough about that subject, besides most of those people that I wouldn't add don't read my profile anyway.lol
Please don't be upset with me if I don't add you, the only reason I decided to keep my contact list small was so I can more easily keep in touch with those who I actually have as contacts.
I will still try to leave return comments and emails when I have time even if I don't add you as a contact at first. Who knows, we may end up becoming freinds that way. I like my list at about the size it is now, so if I add you, the chances are, I've just deleted someone else. lol.

I've only been fully dressing for less than 3 years. I've always repressed my feelings as much as possible , when the feelings became to strong I would put on a pair of panties,pantyhose or bra to get my "fix" but I always craved more. I thought that if the feelings became more than I could handle all I had to do was find the right doctor and get cured. It was late in 2006 when I felt it was time to get help with this problem. I went online to try to find a doctor to cure me,and that's when I found out the truth. There is no cure. At this point in time I had never even talked to another CD or transgenderd person in my life. I went 48 years without talking to anyone about my feminine side.
Thank god for the internet,I found a TG group in my area and joined in AUG. 07. They really helped me a lot. I always drove to the meetings dressed.
When I joined flickr in 6/08 I was still only going to the meetings dressed and to afraid to go anywhere else.
In Sept 08 I joined the Erie sisters in Erie PA. I had never been to Erie before and it was 75 miles away. I drove down en femme,got there a few hours before the meeting started , so I went to a chinese buffet for dinner[by myself] and nobody really gave me a second look, I even used the ladies room before I left, an older woman walked in while I was in there but she didn't give me a second look either.
That was such a confidence boost I drove over to a walmart and went shopping enfemme there and nobody gave me a second look there either,I was so happy.
I have the confidence to go places en femme now. I think my height helps me out a lot to, as Iam barely 5 foot 7inches tall. That's my coming out story.
Iam still in a sense a "closet crossdresser", as nobody outside th TG community knows about me.
To the rest of the world, I'm "joe average american" and my friends,coworkers and family don't know about the fem side of me. I wish they all new and accepted me with open arms, but that is not the way the real world works.
I have found a pretty good balance between dressing and work,yet I know that someone is bound to find out my secrete someday. That thought used to terrify me, but now I only hope that it's not my parents who find me out. because I don't think that they could come to terms with who I am before they pass on.
I don't like the terms "gurl" and "tansvestite"'. and I will not join any groups that have those words in there name.
Although gurl sounds like girl,and I know there are a lot of TGs and CDs that like that term, I feel it's derogatory to who Iam, inside Iam a girl, so I'm a Tgirl and I can live with that.
Transvestite was a term coined by a man named Magnus Hirschfield in 1910.TRANS-meaning across, and VESTITE from the latin verb VESTIRE, meaning to dress. It all started out as an empathetic term but the "deviant" label has been stuck to it for to long. I feel it is an outdated term,and I don't like the way it sounds either lol.
Well, thats my story, My early childhood story of crossdressing is on one of my July 08 pics I believe.

In addition, I grew up in the country and I love nature, both plant and animal. I now live in the country again and love it. I don't have hi speed internet yet and I havn't been able to view the wonderful vidieos that my sisters have been posting lately but I'm sure that I will be able to view and even post them someday.

Hugs Valerie