Crossdressers-Haven.com

ABSTRACT: (for those who don't want to read the whole thing & in order)

Father, union journeyman stagehand, Ph.D, scientist, technician, teacher, peace activist - member of Historians For Peace and Code Pink, researcher, writer, left-wing godless goddess, transgender activist, Union activist and organizer, dancing queen, fashionistia, Tahoe based "Black Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend" ski club, Burning Man grrl, Kinky Salon member #17, pro-reading / anti-TV, pro-bike / anti-car, guitar player, hot tubs, hippies with guns, 420 friendly, no tweekers, ex-poet.

TEKLATRONIC TALES

I grew up (or was raised, some say I never grew up) first in Illinois for about 12 years, then moved to Santa Rosa in Northern California, and went back and fourth between San Fran and Iowa where I went to school. Lived in NorCal, then to Iowa, then back to SF, back to Iowa, and then back to SF and now back to NorCal where I was raised. I keep a room in SF in North Beach and I'm there about 1/3 of the time for work. I try to spend as much time as I can up at Lake Tahoe and I ski about a month and half every year up there and do lots of rock climbing (technical and freestyle) in the summer.

I've worked in Show-Biz since I was 16. I work at a couple of famous rock clubs/theaters, and do the occasional movie, circus, and convention. I work mainly on large scale touring rock shows. (I've worked with your favorite band, I've also worked for all the bands you don't like so much too - I've helped stage Dark Side of the Moon for both Pink Floyd and Roger Waters, but I do lots of hip-hop too - and I kinda like both - sort of.) I do lighting and audio but my forte is high-rigging, which is putting all that stuff up in the sky and over your head and requires me to climb a lot and work anywhere from 30 to 55 feet in the air, so the rock climbing is just work practice for me. I also run a mean spotlight when I have to.

I try hard to stay at home and just work my three home theaters, but from time to time I get the jones to be bad and hit the road. So I did a split tour this summer, 3 weeks on, 2 off, 3 on - guess we are all getting older. I will also do a month or so up in the mountains at South Lake Tahoe (provided its still there) at the end of the summer as a working vacation.

Musically I'm into blues, jazz, classical, and techno. Most of that makes sense, classical is for overeducated people, show biz types love jazz, ex-rockers eventually find the real blues and give up the pseudo white-boy junk for the genuine article. The techno, well I love to dance and heck, there's no accounting for taste. Been into the techno/turntable stuff for a long time now, went to my first rave in 1988 almost 20 years ago. I've seen DJ Shadow, Sasha and Digweed (back when they were together and separately) Paul Oakenfold, Mixmaster Mike and most of the rest as well as the Chemical Brothers, A3, and did a tour with Crystal Method back when they were starting out in the mid 90s.

I have two kids, one just graduated from college, the other will be done in two years. Both are honor students, and are fairly normal. I was the stay at home mom for them and got a Masters and Ph.D. in my spare time. I only went back to school for some adult conversation and told myself I would stop when it got too hard. By the time I was ready to do the exams and write the dissertation I figured it was too late to turn back so I pushed on. It cost me my marriage, but that wasn't going to last forever anyway, so I guess that is a fifty-fifty deal. I was married for 25 years, which turned out to be about 5 years too long.

Over the years I also taught at a major university in the midwest for over a decade (while doing touring rock shows in the summer) and served my country by working for the Bechtel Corporation, the DoD, and DoE. Bechtel/DoD/DoE was work that I now deeply regret doing, and that regret caused a crisis in conscience about the same time that my kids grew up and my wife moved out, so I came back home and said 'screw it' might as well do what I love most of all - hard-core, blue collar, stagecraft. I also wanted to do custom research & writing. So, I went back to Cali, back into industrial rock and sound full time. Which gives me enough time to run a sideline of research and writing.

Of course I love clothes, but I love all clothes. A nice suit is as good as a nice dress, and I try to have a few of each. I've been dressing since I was a child, and in HS my GF encouraged me and I started going out and never went back. I've been a member of several support groups, but I hate meetings. I've stage managed the TGSF cotillion a few times, worked on TG rights for the City of SF, and have worked on staff training for both the SFPD as well as for the baseball park. I've run kinky salons, fetish balls, and the seven deadly sins parties in SF, as well as other off-the-wall events where wicked people do bad things in public. I don't go to drag bars or drag shows (other than Trannyshack, the anti-drag show) preferring to shop, eat in nice places, go to Giants games, and go out dancing in trendy clubs - and in SF you can go anywhere more or less, so I do. Why get stuck in some tranny ghetto if you don't need to be there?

And to me TG is as much about the domestic side of me as the fashion side. Dressing in the same clothes as Martha Stewart is not enough, I want to act like Martha Stewart. Cooking, cleaning and I love laundry (really I do, its a sickness) and having people over for dinner. Being domestic is as important to me as being dressed, if not more.

I do photography, recently having shifted from film to digital, and have won a few awards at amateur shows and the Sonoma Country Fair. I've even sold a few (not for much, but money is money) so I don't know if that makes me an accomplished amateur or a bottom-rung, low-rent pro. The last few years I have been working hard at doing flowers, as I live in a verdant sylvan swath where almost everything grows - which is why Luther Burbank set up shop here.

I play a little guitar and get together with friends to see what songs we can torture together - AC/DC, old Dead stuff, Dylan, Buzzcocks stuff.

I am in a LTR with a girl I met on another TG forum. Our first date was to Trannyshack in SF, so the CD was out in the open from the start.

I do a lot of work with my union, political stuff and union organizing. I'm still very active in local democratic politics (really the only kind in SF and Sonoma) and rally with Historians for Peace and Code Pink for major peace actions where all the ladies are very loving and accepting of me. Besides, I don't get a chance to wear pink all that often.

I might write long posts from time to time, but I never use emoticons - ever.


Motto: Tell me what you need, and I'll tell you how to get along without it.

Best quality - ruthlessly polite
Special talent - lurking
Sign: Slippery when wet
Favorite game - Wack-a-Mole
Favorite color - teal blue
Favorite tool - Makita 18V Cordless LXT Lithium-Ion 1/2" Driver-Drill
Second favorite tool - Milwaukee 5346-21 Rotary Hammer
Favorite smell - fresh high-grade light machine oil
Favorite food - my GFs enchalias made from her mom's recipe
Favorite place in the USA - Lake Tahoe and Death Valley (both in California)
Favorite place in a foreign country - State of Campeche, Mexico
Favorite dress - Madras plaid sun-dress
Favorite male outfit - Black tie, tux (girls love it)
Favorite stripe in the US flag - 7
Greatest accomplishment - raising two boys into honorable manhood
Greatest disappointment - Martha Stewart has done more federal time then I have


Reviews:
"The most evolved person I've ever met."
"Did you study to be such a self-centered, egotistical P****?" -
"I thought I was a big pervert till I met you and found out I wasn't even playing in the same league."
"If I could only have two people on my crew, I would take Tekla, and someone else who might tell me what's going on."
"Do you ever get tired of being right all the time?"
"You will be amazing when you decide what you want to do when you grow up."


Semi-Famous Quotes by Tekla:
"The only thing you know about my job is that you can't do it."
"If you can't bring talent, bring production."
"How many more tickets will those lights sell?"
(on a famous drummer) "He sounds like three tennis shoes in a dryer."
"You're merely famous, we're a legend."
"We have a coffee maker in our office that makes more cups then you sold tickets."
"That's nice, so what's your second choice?"
"They are already making the VHS 'What Ever Happened To' about them."

Wow!!

A woman for all seasons! I can see your dilemma, Iowa and San Francisco. Been fighting that all your life - huh? (sorry I just remembered no Emoticons)

I do like your choice of tools

as for adages:
"I'm not easy but I can be bought - you, on the other hand, can be sold!"
"Never give-up; never give-up; never give-up."
"Wisdom is the principle thing therefore get wisdom, BUT with all thy getting, get UNDERSTANDING!"
"We all have our crosses to bear - may I help you with yours?"
"If you ain't livin' on the edge, you're taking up too much room!"

Virginia opportunity: "Go forth Woman and BE!!"

Yes, Tekla honey, you are going to be quite an interesting addition to this mix. Shaken, not stirred, and we will produce something extraordinary!

Love,
Virginia

Now that's an intro (and I did read the whole thing Tekla). Nice legs (I presume they're yours)

Welcome along honey.

The only adage is my motto, the other comments were either made to me or by me.

Not my legs, its a girl who sometimes plays with us, photo by a friend of mine. I like the skirt, but am not fond of the axe. But an avatar is an image of the self, not a photo of the self. I looked it up.