A little belated but finally the compleat documented Stacy Wilderness
goes to Pride story.  A quick backdrop 2 years I was totally closeted,
I didn't dress up, I didn't know any gay people, I'd never even seen
a cross dresser in real life nothing -and I knew I had to try and transition
and I knew that it was completely impossible -but I put together a plan to
at least go back to school to increase my employment options and lose
some weight (ultimately I lost 50#) and hope that somehow I could figure
out some way to transition - OK it's a real crappy plan but I was overweight
and exhausted and depressed and miserable and I just couldn't do it
anymore so in July 2010 I left my job, went off to Airventure for a week, and
when I  returned started my tech school training in HVAC-Residential for a year.
(OK I said it was an idiotic plan, but it was all I had) 
Last year I was coming out about being gay and would not actually wear a dress
and go out in public in a dress until October of 2011, so I went to Pride for the
first time last year and seriously I was walking around  at Pride afraid that I'd
bump into someone I knew and they'd think I was gay or something -seriously.


So this year I went a little overboard -but if you know the background story,
you'll understand why I wanted to go for maximum effort.


Anyways - Saturday (Pride Day #1) I just walked around a bit in Loring Park
and then I was exhibiting my artwork in the Dirty Queer show at the Intermedia
Arts Building -the top two images are two of the Photoshop works I exhibited.
here is a link to the other pieces:


http://whosthenewgirl.blogspot.com/2012/05/im-going-to-submit-12-pieces-for-dirty.html


and of course this is me at my table with my prints:

if you really want to read more about it, I posted it on an earlier blog:
http://whosthenewgirl.blogspot.com/2012/06/so-that-is-me-and-my-table-at-dirty.html


so that was Saturday, on to the main event Sunday (Pride day #2) and after going to
service I played (in a dress!) with my band "Blues Afternoon"  and so that is me
on stage at Pride in a dress playing with my band -which of course took an amazing
amount of effort on my part to pull off - I was playing in a coffee shop with a friend
when the lady who runs the stage mentioned she could get me the gig -I tried to
form an all drag band and got minimal response then tried to form a gay band and
still got no real response and finally I listened to all my friends who were telling me
to come out to the band I was in - so I told them I could get them a gig at Pride
(of course I didn't tell them I was gay or trans) the I decided to come out to them
them that I was trans, then obviously I started joking around that I wanted to do
Pride in drag, then I had to show up at Pride in a dress, at that point I just had
to play a half hour set in front of a live audience!  I worked really hard to pull
this off that's why I keep saying this really was monumental -I made $0.00 on the
whole thing but I really worked hard for this so OK this is me, on stage in a dress:

and if you want to hear a couple audio clips of what we sound like, it's posted here:
http://whosthenewgirl.blogspot.com/2012/06/more-pictures-and-couple-audio.html


but I can't resist posting the KFAI interview me and the lead singer did right after our gig:

so after the interview I lugged my amp and my mic and my harps back to the truck
and watched the parade for a few minutes, and it was nice to kick off my heels and
stand around in my stockings and watch the parade, then I got a call from a friend and
so I was headed back to Loring Park looking for my friend and a mutual friend who
was "dressed like a peacock" -which I took to mean colorfully dressed and so
with a general idea where they where I headed back.  This mutual friend is a
beautiful woman who lives in Minnesota now but is from South America and
she had made a gorgeous outfit and I was about 20 feet away  when I looked and
saw this outfit from the back and instantly knew who it was -I mean who else
could it be that would be described as dressed like a peacock:

(I'm still waiting for a picture taken by a friend with me and Abby but this picture
was in the StarTribune ) so I got to walk around with Abby and a friend of hers and
basically clear the way when the crowd got too thick, but I took a few pictures of
people who'd run up and pose with her, and literally I don't think she ever walked
as far as 10 feet with out posing for a picture or being congratulated or complimented
at it was really fun for her - but for me with my self-conciousness about dressing up 
it was perfect because I'm walking around in a black dress and heels and literally
nobody even notices me when the peacock lady is coming through - so I'm totally
able to relax and just watch people and be myself and nobody even notices me-
I'm just another typical person in a Pride day crowd - just another boring everyday
hohum nothing unusual about me type person -which was really nice - of course
Abby was having a blast with all the attention she was getting as the peacock lady,
but I was having a really good time just being another girl at Pride -it was fun 
here's an interview she did on KFAI  when we walked past the table :

so after the interview we walked around some more then we went across the street
and got a snack and then I walked back to my truck -alone (sigh) but I was by
that time really exhausted -I'd been walking in heels all day and my feet hurt,
I was starting to burn, I was dehydrated - I was really tired and it was really
nice to just lay down in bed - I was drained - but it was a blast


So that's a way better story than last years' story.