Then what?

So you've managed to start HRT! Congratulations! But where do you go from here?

Being part of society, we are under jurisdictions, rules and laws. Correcting your legal paperwork is a MUST do for us girls to protect ourselves, specially when it comes to employment. Even though a lot of companies say they are "EQUAL OPPORTUNITY", I don't believe its always right as they can give many excuses!

Here is what I personally did to change my legal Papers...


STEP 1: Court Order for a Name Change

• I live in the state of VA and in here, all we have to do is fill in an application for a name change. It was quite easy and fast actually. I filled in a petition for a name change, got it notarized through my bank (free), and attached a letter from my doctor/therapist stating that I am a transgendered woman and that the name change is not for fraudulent purposes. I sent all them to the courts and a month later, the judged approved it! I didn't even need to appear in court.
• Note that a court order for a gender change is different and must be filed separately. This usually involves a letter from your surgeon saying that you have went through the SRS.
• DURATION: ~1 month 
• COST: ~$65
• For more info: http://www.tsroadmap.com/reality/name-change.html

STEP 2: Passport

• Passport was pretty easy to do but also is the most expensive. What i did is filled in a passport application (you must include a new updated photo), and i attached my court order for a name change, letter from my therapist stating that the correct gender marker should be placed, and along with it is a $165 fee. One month later, passport issued with correct Gender Marker!
• DURATION: ~ 1 month
• COST: ~$165
• For more info: http://www.tsroadmap.com/reality/passport.html

STEP 3: Social Security

• I went to a local social security office near my residence and I brought with me my court order for a name change, my doctor and therapist letters and my passport. I went in and told the clerk that I was there to change my name and that I have the court order for it. In addition I also mentioned that I wanted to get my gender marker changed. She gave me some paperwork to fill out, and couple minutes later i was met by one of their staff. She looked through the court order and doctor/therapist letters. She had no problem changing the name, but she was a bit confused with the gender change. She asked the manager about it, and they both came to me and said that the letters werent enough to change the gender marker. They asked for a letter from a surgeon specifically stating that I have gone through SRS (which i havent). With defeated spirit, I left the office and consulted an attorney in dc that supports LGBT issues. I was told to try a different office as some may go by the book, some dont. So i tried a different office and surprisingly, they changed my name and my gender with no opposition.
• DURATION: 1 day
• COST: FREE

STEP 4: Driver's License

• By far the most annoying and cumbersome to change. I went through DMV 4-6 times to get my gender marker changed. Just like going in SS, I went in with all the same paperwork. I was denied the gender change 5 times before finally succeeding. They gave me the same excuse as the SS office did. They require a letter from a surgeon saying that I went through SRS. Finally, after being in their office 5 times, they contacted their district manager and i was told to fill in a medical form saying i have gender identity disorder. I believe that these people did not know how to process such change and they were just making things up as they go. And with that they changed both my name and gender in my driver's license. A week later, I was contacted by their office requesting my appearance. I came in and was met by 2 federal investigators. Apparently my change of name, gender and photograph triggered them to investigate my case lol which is pretty understandable. Aside from that, they didnt really give me any trouble, they just had to hear the story of why my documents have changed.
• If I could have done it differently, I would of came to an office to change the name and photograph in my drivers license... and after receiving my new DL, I would go back to the office and complain that the gender marker is wrong. That would have worked more smoothly!
• DURATION: 4 months for me
• COST: $10 DL renewal fee
• For more info: http://www.tsroadmap.com/reality/drivers-license.html

STEP 5? Birth Certificate

• I am not born in the USA so my Birth Certificate is issued by another country. Unfortunately, my country does not change the gender no matter if you went through SRS. I think? ATM, I see no purpose of changing my Birth Certificate at this time as I am not even close to Marriage. I will change it though, one day. 
• For more information: http://www.tsroadmap.com/reality/birth-certificate.html

HOPE THIS HELPS AND GOOD LUCK!

Trans_formed! INSIDE AND OUT!

My friend Domicyl recently broke up with her 5-6 years bf. She was, as expected, heart broken and her spirit is down. This reminded me of my 6 yr  relationship. I know how it feels like. To cheer her up and bring her spirit back up, we decided to do a make over for her!

So today started with me and my friend Domicyl's trip to the salon to fix the hair disaster i caused yesterday lol. She had an appointment at 1:30 pm but we were prolly 10 mins late as there was a car accident that happened right in front of my house and we couldn't get out. Anyways, we got to the salon and the long agonizing Color correction treatment begun.


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STEP 1
Stripping out our failed hair color

They started by stripping off the dye pigment we deposited on her hair yesterday which took about 30 mins. Then they had to bleach her whole entire hair which took another 30 mins. They looked at it and saw that the her hair now became very light at the ends while the roots stayed the same color lol. Her hair is so weird. So they reapplied the bleach on her roots and let 30 mins pass by again. Finally, her hair got light enough and they begun dying her entire hair a light brown color. That took another 30 mins. After that, she got her hair cut and made it a layered cut. Overall, it turned out really pretty! Im so jealous :P


OVERALL COST: $170 + $30 tip = $200

STEP 2 Speed Bleaching Her Hair

Right before STEP 3
Bleeched out hair ready
to be dyed again!
The correct way lol

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So whats a new hair cut without a trip to a beauty store! She never or rarely applied make up on herself so she was a make-up virgin. But dont worry, thats what im here for :D So unfortunately we were running out of time and there was no sephora or mac near us so we went to another Beauty store called Ulta. They offer pretty much the same as sephora.

We were browsing the store and trying make up that best suit her. We did her face and applied foundation, concealer, eye shadow, eye liner, bronzer, blush and mascara. Sounds alot right? but it isnt. Its very light and natural, look for yourself :D




These is what we bought:

Lorac N6 liquid foundation
Lorac C5 Concealer
Stilla Bronzer shade 02
Cargo Warm Eye Shadow set

OVERALL COST: $120 

She couldnt stop looking at the mirror and saying "OMG, I look and feel pretty!". Her confidence level went up 10 folds which is good. Who said make up isn't empowering! lol We were immediately noticing people looking at her more and treating her extra nice. What does this say about our society? lol sad truth but society can be very shallow sometimes.


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After our trip to Ulta, we went to eat at Panera... I got Brocolli Cheddar soup (Good for cold, rainy, gloomy weather like todays) and a hot panini chipotle chicken. OMG delish! COST: $10

Later on after we finished grubbing on some food, we went to play volleyball to burn those fats we gained. We arrive at the facility and our friends continuously praised her and complimented her! This is very reassuring specially for her being recently single! She shouldn't settle for butthole guys. Shes pretty and shes nice and shes awesome, there are plenty of fishes in the sea. Theres someone out there better deserving of her. :) Sometimes, breakup is a good thing. It gives us a chance to reevaluate our own lives, no bfs to plan the future with. A fresh start is good :)

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From a broken hearted stressed out girl to a sexy hot momma!!! It was definitely a good day! I love making people feel better about themselves, its very rewarding :D

BEFORE   &    AFTER

END RESULT? A MORE CONFIDENT WOMAN

IN TOTAL:
 $200 (haircut, color, and tip)
$120 (foundation, concealer, bronzer, & eye shadow palette)
$10 dinner
=
$330


CONFIDENCE (and a full stomach) = PRICELESS

My job here is done :D

Innocent Lives Losts... So sad :'(

This is sad and unfortunate...

I can only imagine how its like there... before... during... and after the earthquake and tsunami.

I imagine the panic, the horror, the sadness, the helplessness one would feel.

I imagine how its like to be a child in that school, naive of what was going on around them. Scared of the inevitable and unimaginable. The lives those 77 children would of led if the tsunami didn't wash away all their future and their dreams.

I definitely cried.

This is why i have to be strong. My situation may be bad but its definitely not as worst as what these families may be experiencing. I am thankful for what i have and everyday i cherish and live my life to the fullest! Lets be grateful :)

Please pray for the people affected by this unfortunate disaster! 

Visit this site to see how you can help

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/21/how-to-help-japan-earthquake-relief_n_834484.html

I already donated $10! It might not be big but will definitely make a difference :)
So could you :)

A Hair Dye Disaster!

So me and my friend Domicyl have been planning on coloring our hair light brown to prepare for summer. Today, was the day! So me and her got to her car and begun our trip to Sally's Beauty Supply! We spent about an hour there just trying to choose a good hair color for us.



We ended up buying :

2 tubes of  L Oreal 8N Light Neutral Blonde for her (it turns reddish brown in black hair, ive dyed my hair this color before) 
2 tubes of Wella Light Ash Blonde 8N for myself (turns light brown on black hair, but half my hair has alrdy been dyed before so it wont take in color very well)
30 L Oreal Developer
Wella bleaching powder x2 (as she wanted highlights as well)
A plastic cup and brush for application
A highlighting cap







Anyways, we were so excited but at the same time very nervous.... Light Blonde on our hair... yes very scary lol.
We planned on taking before and after pictures and these are hers.

Color she wants

So the hair dying begins! 4 oz of the developer + 2 tubes of the 8N dye in a cup and mix it well. I applied it to her hair from midsection to bottom, waited a few minutes and hit the roots (this way, the roots wont turn lighter as it lifts color faster because its close to the scalp and the heat speeds it up) The application prolly took10 -15 mins and we left it off in her hair for 15-20. So we were so excited revealing her newwww hottttt hair color! She jumped on the tub like its a life saver and immediately washed her hair!

And walah....

ehh... umm.... yeahhhh... not so much what we were expecting.... lol

I mean its not that bad... maybe...

The hair color was uneven, it was lighter on the roots dark brown by the ends. Her left side is also lighter than the right side... OOOOPPPSS! my fault. I felt really bad but i swear I did everything by the book though, and we sat for hours trying to figure out why it turned out that way and how to fix it.

Courtesy of ChicagoNow.com

We didnt want to mess it up any further! so we decided to just find a salon to color correct her hair! So we went around the area looking for a good salon with a good price! We got mix comments on it and mix price! One salon said it would cost $200 to match her darker ends with her lighter roots (She want how her light reddish brown roots turned out) and it would take at least 4 hrs!!! 2 of the salon said they can not make the ends lighter like the roots and gave us a price of $50-70. One salon though offered to even out her hair with the color she wants and a hair cut for $170! BINGO! So we immediately scheduled an appointment for tomorrow! And now its 8:30 pm and we started at 3 :) Whew what a long day!

Thankfully enough though, we didnt have time to do my hair today! And i can only imagine the horror it woulda been! My hair was previously dyed too so its a bit more complex to color than an untouched hair. Additionally, i chose a color lighter than what she did! I dodged a bullet there :P Im waiting a few more weeks till i get enough money to get mine professionally done lol.

A plan to dye my hur

So i was viewing jennifer lopez new music video "on the floor", and im digging her hair color! So i played around with my hair in photoshop to see if a similar hair color would work for me :D Whatchu think?

RIP Elizabeth Taylor

I just learned that the iconic Elizabeth Tayloy has died at the age of 79 from some kind of congestive heart failure. May you rest in peace and you will definitely be remembered.

"Taylor, who’s appeared in more than 50 films, won Oscars for her performances in “Butterfield 8″ (1960) and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” (1966).

But she’s been just as famous for her marriages (8 in all, including 2 to Richard Burton). Once she was also linked to a Maltese."

-BlackmediaScoop

Se Sens Serene Fashion Show

Se Sens Serene Fashion was held in Baltimore MD!
Booked this fashion show through model mayhem :D

The event Flyer

Got to the event location at about 3pm. Was pain in the butt to get there but luckily enough found a parking spot directly in front of it. Anyway, the event location was at this very nice bar/lounge called Red Maple lounge. Its very high end, wooden floors, awesome modern furniture and just had a modern feel in its interior design.

So anyways, there were about 12 models chosen including me. I was the only asian one though so yay me! lol. The designer is Se Sens Serene. The title of the show was Music In COLOR Crescendo. She had a variety of design, from elegant cultural pieces with pretty patterns to very rigid yet feminine gladiator-like design.

The fashion show was definitely a success! There were people everywhere and the media was also there, even the governor of Baltimore city! how cool is that!?

The white sauri group! me on the left!

The runway was a bit tricky as it was wooden and highly polished, but thankfully i planned ahead and bough myself one of those anti-slip things that u put in the sole of the high heels. :D There was also about a 4 stage stairs that we had to go up and down to, which was a pain but thankfully we could at least hold the railings.

The show was divided into two parts.

Gladiator dress. Very hot!

First was the cultural elegant sauri (is that what they call em. im not sure.) And there were sets of 3 colors for each category. There were 3 white sauris, 3 black sauris, 3 gold sauris and 2 silver sauri (1 model was no show :( ). It was awesome, my piece was a white one designed with bronzy sequence and pearls. It was fabulous, wish i could have kept it! Anyways after the presentation of that, There was a belly dancing intermission/performance. And when the was done, the second part of the fashion show commenced. It included very gladiator-like pieces and very colorful and flowy dresses! Simply amazing.

White sauri on me!

Gladiator group! me and my entourage lol

The fashion show lasted about an hour and a half, and there was an after party. I stayed for a wittle bit but i was very tired and had to go early. Not to mention, drive one hour away to home. My friend justin was there to support me so thank you Justin!


AND DONT FORGET TO CHECK OUT THE VIDEO OF THIS FASHION SHOW!:

CLICK HERE IF YOU WANT TO SEE THE OTHER CLOTHES DESIGNED BY SE SENS SERENE!