Originally this is from an e-mail message I wrote to my good friend Nikki in Australia. I just wanted to tell her some of the news but I couldn't stop typing until the entire story was told. I hope that Nikki won't mind sharing that e-mail with the world but I can't seem to find better words to express it all.

I believe it was only about 2 weeks ago now that my wife called me from work saying she had a lot of bags to carry and I should meet her near the office. Soon as I got there she started nagging at me wildly - she was having one of her days again - I was sooo pissed. Then she went to a shoe store that had installed a new bargain department.
Having to carry all her stuff I followed her down the stairs and remained standing at the size 41 section while she was trying on some shoes in her size.
Right in front of me there stood this gorgeous pair of heels. Blue sequins all over, heels 8cm high and the label said 150 Austrian Schillings. I would have died to try them on. couldn't think of anything else for the next 2 days.

Remember you told me lately that if I wanna have things I just need to go to a store and buy them? I was still just so embarrassed.
Anyway, that friday I left the office for lunchbreak and went to that store. I didn't dare to try them on and I usually wear a men's 43. Anyway, they cost almost no money so I just bought them.
Back at the office when everybody left I tried them on. They were just a bit small but I could easily wear them. I logged on to Donna's and chatted with the girls for 2 hours, wearing my new heels all the way through. *WOW*

On Tuesday I went to that store again and got me the same model with red sequins, a pair of white and another pair of black heels just the same size. I was sooo proud.
The next day I came across a shopping window with a gorgeous wig in it. It was a breathtaking red wig with bangs and one-length straight hair of about 30 inches. Once again I couldn't stop dreaming of this piece.
The next morning I made up a story like "I'm gonna buy it for my wife" and went straight into that store to ask for the price of that wig. I said "I'm interested in the long red wig from the shopping window". The girl didn't know anything and called another girl over.
She first pointed at me then at the wig and said to her "that long red wig over there..." and the other girl looked at me and asked "of course, you wanna try it on?" - I was stunned. This was a very pretty young girl and she said these words so natural. In fact I was thrilled so much that I just started to repeat my stupid story that it was for my wife and I only wanted to ask the price. Well it was 3900 Shillings, wich is way more than I could spend on a secret gift for Judy.
When I left I was real mad about myself for not telling her it was for myself. I could have easily fallen in love with that girl for being so nice and natural - who knows what this might have turned out.

I came to the office in a very sad mood. I really wanted to have this wig but it was sooo expensive. I took out the phone book and looked up the address of the only wigs wholesaler I could find. That afternoon I went straight to their store and found another nice wig. It's shorter than the other one but it only cost half the money. So I bought it.
The following Saturday I bought myself all kind of makeup stuff, a black patent dress and loads of bangles :)
Monday my wife and son went to see a concert in the evening so I had at least 2 hours to make myself up and take a couple of pics with the self timer. *WOW AGAIN* now I can show pics of myself at my site and don't have to use Scarlett anymore to enter Donna's...

Tuesday I scanned the pics at the office and uploaded them to my directory. Donna's was down so I went to the glamourline. I was so proud of my pics I posted all of them to the girls over there :)
Suzie even told me I was photogenic. Hey, wow, this was the first time someone called me photogenic. Normally I'm just an ugly guy and I hate every pic that's ever been taken of me. It's a real thrill. It reminds me of the fairy tale of the ugly little duckling who turned out to be a swan ;)

Doing all this I stayed at work late, so my wife already went home by car. So I had to take the tram home (which I normally don't do). So I'm sitting in that car looking out the window when suddenly I face a shopping window full of beautiful evening gowns, very much like the ones I've got on my fashion pages.
The next morning I went to that store but it was not open yet. They had a long blue sequin gown that immediately caught my eye. But it was very expensive. 3600 Schillings - I might as well have bought the wig of my dreams for that money. There was another blue sequin dress, about knee length with spaghetti straps and a big bustier. It had no price tag so I figured that might be cheaper.
At the office I looked up the phone number of that store. I thought it may be sound to call there first to check if a man or a woman was answering. I really wanted to have one of those dresses, but they were expensive so I knew there was no buying them without trying them on first. But I would have been too embarrased if the shop assistant was a man. So I called there and a woman answered.
I asked for the short dress and she told me it's 2800 Schillings and she's got it in various sizes. Hmmm.. still a lot of money, but that afternoon I put my blue sequin heels and my wig into a bag and drove to that store.

When I got there the woman was in the shop, but there was a man - probably the owner - as well. So I just looked at all the beautiful dresses they had in the store and got depressed. It's funny, I wouldn't have had a problem to come out to a woman but I just couldn't do that in front of a man.
I left again and took one last look at that gorgeous gown in the shopping window. Dreaming of that gown I thought to myself "Hell, they gotta be used to that. their only clientel probably are hookers and girls like me." So I turned around and walked back in telling that woman I was the one who called asking for the blue dress.
In a second the man came up to me too and asked me "So, what is the lady's size?" - so I said "It's not for a lady, I want it for myself". He said there's no problem with that and I could try on whatever I wanted.
He gave me both dresses and said something nice about my heels which matched the dresses perfectly. He even asked my where I bought them cause most of his female customers wear black heels to these dresses just because they couldn't find matching shoes. He came again to help me close the zipper and left me all the time I needed to watch that beautiful girl in the mirror.
Boy, I felt so sexy. Money didn't matter anymore once I saw myself in the mirror. I would have loved to buy them both but in the end I chose the long one.

The next evening I had another hour for myself to take pics of me wearing the new gown. Well, an hour for makeup, dressing, taking pics, getting back to boy mode and remove all the evidence - that's not very long :) So I was less lucky with the self timer that evening. My face got cut off from all the photos, but who cares - it's the dress that matters :)

months later... this way to the story of my first day out in the real world