Emily on Target — A Keystone shopping experience
Dear Editor,
Hello! I just finished reading Sophie Lynne’s story about the Keystone Conference and I would like to share my experiences while attending my first Keystone Conference and my very first experiences going out in public fully dressed as a woman with full makeup!
Everything that happened was not planned and I had no money to do this as I am behind in everything and pay my bills in order of color! In order to have money I decided to let go some of my personal items I have collected over my past 60 years of my life, which I celebrated this past January.
Now having dollars and very few clothes — basically some underthings, a wig and a nice top with sweatpants and my drab clothes — I headed off to Harrisburg on Wednesday without having registered or reserving a room.
After arriving I met a wonderful person by the name of Wendy who took FABULOUS care of me through all of the conference, as I kept losing my tickets.
Wednesday I attended the dinner in drab and still had a wonderful time!
Thursday I went to the casino wearing the top and sweatpants and when I got off the bus my pants dropped to my knees my and my ass was out to the world. I laughed my ass off! Now you have to know that this is a major turning point for me because I have not dressed since I purged about a year [ago] after two major life altering events took place 5 days apart from each other that being on Monday April 26th 2004. The company I worked for, for 25 years, decided they could make more money by moving production to China! Then on Friday April 30th, 2004 My wife of 20 years dropped dead in our living room. A year after that I panicked and thought if something happened to me and my family had to come to clean out my home what they would think? So I denied myself until this past January when I turned 60 and was about to kill myself. I decided to get professional help and then I joined the Renaissance Support Group and they were a BIG help!
After losing my pants I had to go back onto the bus to fix myself and then I was totally alone going into the casino which didn’t bother me in the least. As I was walking in I decided I was just going to go on my own and not stay with the other girls and as I was walking past the cashiers cage there were two men that came around the corner from the left and as soon as they saw me the one pointed to me and laughed, “HaHa! There another one of them” and it didn’t bother me. I should have been devastated but instead I was laughing inside thinking ASSHOLE!
Friday I decided I wanted to go to the dinner fully dressed with makeup and originally made an appointment with Adita but I canceled that due to shopping and I didn’t want to miss my appointment and have her lose money or for me to have to pay her for the time.
I wanted to shop at Lane Bryant and the girl there was absolutely FANTASTIC! I was dressed in drab mode and I asked her if she could help me with buying some dresses and lingerie and I told her that everything was for me and she said no problem and she opened a fitting room and helped me pick out a few things that she hung in the fitting room and said when I was ready to call her and she would tell me how it looked! I spent $300.00 there and Ashley was AMAZING! Now I needed shoes but none of the other stores there carried my size so I had to go to Payless and bought a pair of low heeled shoes. So now onto makeup! I went into JC Penny to see if the girl could show me how to do my makeup but they were too busy so I went to Target.
This is where I had the most AMAZING experience of my week, other than just being at the Conference!
I went into the store and asked the first girl I saw to tell me where their makeup counter was and she asked what I was looking for so I told her I wanted someone to show me how to put makeup on to which she replied really? She didn’t look at me strange or give me any negative vibes. She just said she was sorry that they didn’t have that service, just a cosmetics section as if you went to a drug store. I went, “Oh darn” and she asked if I was really serious. I took out my conference ID and replied “Really See Emily!” I said “Oh well, I can’t leave the store without spending some money there” as I spent money in just about every store in the shopping center across form the hotel where the conference was held.
“I know!” I said to her. “I need a handbag,” so she showed me the bags and I picked one out and went to the checkout to pay and leave but after paying I heard someone call me “SIR! SIR!” and looking over to where the voices were coming from I saw the three Target employees that I had talked with and a fourth wearing a winter coat.
I asked if I was their 1,000,000th customer and were they going to give me all kinds of prizes to which they replied “Kinda. WE WANT TO DO YOUR MAKEUP!” they said.
“How? You said you don’t do that here.” Margret, the lady in the winter coat, was a Target employee that came in to shop on her day off and the other three, Dianne, Courtney, and I am sorry to say I can’t recall the other girl’s name, said we want to do your makeup and we will do it in Starbucks if it is okay with you. I thought I was being “punked” and asked if they were pulling my leg. They said the were serious. Margret was a new employee and had her own salon before going to work at Target and the others told her about me when they saw her in the store and she volunteered to do my makeup! I felt like I had died and gone to heaven!
Absolutely I would like that very much!
“Okay” they said. “And all the makeup IS ON TARGET! OMG! I was just about to cry I was so happy.
Margret and I started to pick out the cosmetics but I told her I am new to this and how about I go back to my room and get the photos of a makeover Amanda did for me, to which she replied that she had to leave to pick up her grandchildren BUT she could come back at 4:30. OMG can this get any better! Great I said I will go back get a shower and change into the clothes I will be wearing to dinner, put my wig on and be back at 4:30.
When I walked into the store Dianne was near the doors and she looked at me but no reaction so I asked, “Don’t you recognize me?” She said “OMG, and you don’t have any makeup on!”
From this point on it was like I was a Queen, no pun intended, as Margret started doing my makeup telling Dianne (a floor manager) that she needed this and that and “Oh look she has no jewelry she needs jewelry” so now I have a manager of Target as my own concierge and I asked Margret if she (Dianne) would get in trouble doing this while she was supposed to be working and she replied “Oh she was off the clock an hour ago.” She is staying to see how you turn out!” OMG! SOMEONE PINCH ME I can’t believe this is happening!
Well they gave me two bracelets, a necklace and clip on earrings. a ring — and my makeup turned out FANTASTIC! Everyone at dinner said I looked great and I had a wonderful time!
When I went back to Target they told me that they would give me all of the cosmetics FREE but I had the option to keep the jewelry and pay or return them at no charge, so I did return the jewelry but what they gave me was AMAZING as I have been told by all that have seen what I received have said they gave me over $100.00 worth of cosmetics!
I asked Courtney how they could do something like this and she said that Target is a VERY Friendly place to work and that they like helping people when they can and have some authority to do this type of thing when a situation presents itself.
This was the nicest thing that has ever happened to me other than having found and married a loving and wonderful person to be my wife for 20 years!
I must say that I will be a Target fan and shopper forever and will tell everyone what a great store they are!!
Overall I had an ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC time at the Keystone Conference and look forward to next year!
Sincerely
Emily Dianne Miles
Category: Letters To The Editor, Transgender Body & Soul
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Hello Emily, remember me from the convention? 🙂 I am glad to see that you decided to write about your experience here for others to read.
Your story is incredible, and a real inspiration! You were able to do things during that weekend that literally took me YEARS to be able to get up the courage to do! To add to that, the fact you also happened upon a few GGs who were not only willing to help you as part of their job, but wanted to help you dress and do it on their own time and their dime is just amazing. I am glad you had such a positive experience, and hope to see you at Keystone next year!