Saturday, May 22, 2010
The two weeks I've been out this month have been the best two weeks of my life because I don't have to spend hours editing pictures and preparing them for this web site. People have been bugging me about the missing pictures and, in many cases, it's just out of my hands because I don't have them. I don't get any enjoyment editing pictures for people who don't put anything into the system. Plus, $5,000 cameras don't grow on trees. I don't charge a $10 or $12 cover charge to attend my party so I would love it if more people donated money to my party or subscribed to KalinaIsato.com. Think about it. You pay $24 per month to go to two of someone else's parties. You pay $18 per month to be a member of KalinaIsato.com and you get to see pictures from four or five of my parties. You would think that a lot of people would join, but when people are given the option not to pay, they just don't pay and then they expect to see superior quality pictures for free. In the future, the "cover charge" might just be joining KalinaIsato.com to see the pictures.

Thursday, October 15, 2009
From all of the feedback, it looks like Ultra-Glam is fast becoming everyone's favorite theme night. A lot of you have been aching for an excuse, any excuse, to wear an evening gown or cocktail dress, so this night is for you! Future Ultra-Glam nights will be held every April and October. I'd like to see more guys show up in tuxes, or at least suits, because a tux is frickin' cheap compared to what some gowns cost!

Friday, September 18, 2009
My second son was born on August 21 and he looks just like me, so he'll probably turn out to be a cute kid. I've been battling a terrible illness since September 3. What was at first misdiagnosed as the flu turned out to be Cytomegalovirus and then pneumonia. I have not been myself lately, as my body has been severely weakened, but I hold my head up high every day and try to report to work because I don't like when tasks pile up. I've missed three days total out of the last twelve work days, which is very uncharacteristic of me. I missed two MNT parties due to illness, again, very uncharacteristic of me. My voice is basically shot right now from coughing up a lot of mucus and blood. During my entire illness, I could only see, but not touch, my infant son and it was killing me. Only yesterday was I allowed to hold him in my arms again. "How long has it been since you last held him?" my wife asked. I didn't want to think about it. Tears started welling up in my eyes. "Too long," I said and I burst out crying. He had already gained a pound of weight during the past two weeks and I missed it all because I was sick. I took my other son to his new Kindergarten class from Tuesday to today. The first two days I was still weak and my wife and baby had to accompany me. I was still a little slow yesterday, but today I was fine. Pneumonia really knocks you down. On a good note, the past couple of weeks my eyes have completely healed from my LASIK surgery and my hair has reached shoulder-length. I've lost a lot of weight from pneumonia, but losing weight from illness is never a good weight loss. Sorry for the overall somber note. I predict happier blog entries in the future!

Monday, August 17, 2009
I've been a chic geek wearing my glasses for a couple of weeks in preparation for my LASIK surgery last Wednesday, which was a success. During the next few weeks, I have to let my eyes heal and not wear eye makeup because it might cause eye infections. The amount of eye makeup I usually wear is pretty minimal anyway, so most people probably won't notice a difference. I might miss a few Monday night parties as my wife and I are expecting our second son. If I can't make a party, I will be there in spirit and this web site will be updated as usual.

Thursday, July 16, 2009
Some people love to criticize my forward-thinking vision and that's probably because I'm a public figure. One such criticism revolved around my party. A tgirl I met this week basically said that the only people who come to my party are closeted crossdressers. I've heard such criticism before and it's always interesting to see that these same people eventually return to my party. By making blanket statements like that, this tgirl basically insulted every transsexual who has ever come to the party, including me. We have many transsexuals who come to this party and they are in all stages of transition. Inside many closeted crossdressers is a transsexual in embryonic stage and these girls need a party like Monday Night Tgirls to go to. I fail to see who is the more closeted crossdresser, the girl who doesn't mind having her pictures posted on this web site or the girl who doesn't want to be on this web site perhaps because she believes she's in stealth? I am not on Tavern on Camac's payroll and yet I advertise and promote this party every week through my efforts here and other parties I go to, so when I hear someone poo poo what I do, it really irritates me. If any tgirl thinks that this is not the right place for her to be, then don't come. Why not go to Dorney Park in the middle of the day like I did, surrounded by lots of kids and military vets during military appreciation week. I'll bet that'd be an eye-opening experience for a lot of you girls "in stealth."

Sunday, May 30, 2009
We've had three great celebrations in recent weeks, including Tammy and Kristin's birthdays as well as Ronnie's two-year celebration of being out and about. It takes courage to be able to walk out of your house to show the world who you want to be and we laud Ronnie for her milestone achievements! Tavern on Camac made some lovely hors d'oeurve and meat platters for Tammy and Kristin. I'm very impressed by their efforts. Last week, I gave Jane from Vancouver some makeup instruction at the club. She didn't want to go all out with her look just yet since she's new to the scene, so my goal was to show her how to do a glama-natural look. She was very impressed with my eyebrow shaping to give her boy self a more feminine appearance.

Thursday, April 30, 2009
Tavern on Camac has updated their web site to include pictures from our party. Tavern has been first at a lot of things in this town and now they are the first to represent the transgender community by showing us, not drag queens, on their web site. I see this as being good for business as no other bar in Philadelphia has embraced the T in LGBT so adamantly.

Monday, April 20, 2009
Sexy Secretaries is a theme almost everyone can get into. Who wouldn't want to be the office cutie that everyone loves? Sophie signed up for a makeover tonight. I met her just two nights earlier at Angela's Laptop Lounge party and thought she was quite cool. Tammy and I worked on Sophie's hair and makeup. "Thanks for a wonderful time and a great makeup job! I posted the pics on my flickr site as well as myspace," Sophie said the next day.

Monday, February 9, 2009
I have to say a million thank you's to everyone who made my birthday celebration at Monday Night Tgirls a smashing success. It's so awesome to be surrounded by people who appreciate your efforts in creating the first and only successful weekly tgirl party in Philadelphia. Thanks to all of the guys and girls who drove far and wide to be at the party. Thanks to Stephen and Joe of Tavern on Camac for the hot hors d'oeuvres, including the delicious little puff pastries filled with beef, potato, cheese, and baby weiners. The little shishkabobs were awesome! Thanks to (she asked me to keep her name anonymous) for her awesome platters filled with jumbo shrimp and assorted fruits and veggies, including kiwi, figs, macadamia nuts, and candied walnuts. The shrimp was out of this world! Thanks to Tammy and Bob for helping Veronica transport the trays of food from her car to the club. Thanks to Kristin for her generous gift card and birthday card and many thanks for her kindness in getting me to the party on time each week. Thanks to Sonny for the earrings and antique gift box. "The box belonged to my mother," he said. Awww, that's so nice! Thanks to Misty for her birthday card and message. Thanks to George, Vince, and Dave for buying me drinks. Thanks to the guys and girls who wanted to buy me drinks, but couldn't because I wanted to stay within my three-drink limit last night because of my doctor's appointment the next morning at 9am. Everyone knew the way to my heart: food, photography, and jewelry. Karma to everyone who was there. I wish all of you much happiness in the coming year.

Monday, September 8, 2008
Our Leather, Lace, and Fishnets theme night had the makings of a wild goth party! The last time my makeup was so dramatic was in the mid 90s. I mentioned to our new girl, JJ, "My goal was to look a bit more cartoony tonight." JJ is a lovely tgirl from DC who enjoyed her time here in Philly and is hoping to return to our party again. Kristin and I transformed a mild-mannered guy named Jeff into the wicked goth queen Veronica. Veronica lent me her props, a riding crop, a whip, and a cat o'nine tails, for my photoshoot as others watched on. George enjoyed his celebrity status by telling me, "One of my friends said to me the other day, 'Oh my god! You're on that girl's web site!' and I was like, 'Which girl?' and she was like 'The girl who hosts the Monday night parties!' and I was like, 'Well, yeah, I'm the bartender there.' and she was amazed." After the party, Frank, Sandy, Misty, and I enjoyed breakfast at the all-night diner. I had a plate of eggs, scrapple, and french toast.

Monday, September 1, 2008
Kristin reminded me of the fun we had at last year's Schoolgirls night, so we decided to have that as our Labor Day theme. Last year, I was a gothic schoolgirl, and this year, I'm a gothic cheerleader. It'll be a recurring theme and we agreed to make it a seasonal monthly theme. I believe there are enough girls in our community who like this sort of thing to warrant having this theme more than once a year. We met a new girl named Kira who was really cool. She agreed to be in this week's video as a co-hostess. George from August 11, 2008 was back and this time he was calling himself Jack. He was nice to me and Misty, bought us drinks, and said that the reason he returned was because of me. He was drinking Grey Goose on the rocks, a very potent drink. Because of my outfit, Ms. Tammy placed me on detention for the next two weeks! So you may have noticed that the party pictures from August onward have gotten a little bigger. 240x360! Yay! Remember that you can get all the full-size 510x768 pictures by joining KalinaIsato.com.

Monday, August 25, 2008
Here's me from Monday night's party... smokin' hot... but I accidentally had the !@#$% wrong filter on my camera lens! I thought I had a clear 1A filter on it, but it turned out to be a diffusion filter, great for face portraits but softens full-length body shots too much. I'm going to have to wear this outfit again soon. We met a really cool girl named Vicki from Louisiana who sent me an email saying "I had fun at the party, its a bunch of great girls. They show a lot of love. The girls are so classy and respecting." Yay!!!

Monday, August 18, 2008
A preliminary count of our donations from tonight's Dancing 4 Dollars March of Dimes fundraiser is around $250. We're waiting on a few more promised donations this week before we send our checks along with a signed card to March of Dimes next week. I praised Alana for her bold hairstyle this week and last. She said it felt so good to be wearing her own hair. "I know, isn't it great?" I said. "Now you can honestly say, This is me and not somebody else's hair that two thousand other people are wearing." Alana praised my party as being the most consistently fun. "I don't go to other parties anymore because of Monday Night Tgirls," she said. That's the highest compliment!

Monday, August 11, 2008
I walked into Tavern on Camac at the usual 9pm and every seat at George's bar was filled with guys and tgirls. Bubbly barcutie and blast from the past, Kelly, was bartending upstairs in place of Annie. Two guys in business suits added an upscale look to our crowd. George, a buyer at [a major department store], bought me a drink, but it wasn't without insult when he said, "Who's the dyke running the bar?" I looked at him, shocked. "That wasn't very nice!" I uttered vehemently. He shrugged it off, told me I was beautiful, and said someone was coming up the stairs behind him. I looked and he gave me a quick peck on my cheek. He then mentioned something about his bald spot, which made me turn and look and he gave me a quick peck on my other cheek. "Rogue! He tricked me twice! Damn, he's good," I said to myself. But no matter how nice a rogue is, if he's not nice to the people I like, he's not going to get on my good side. I could tell that Sofia, a tgirl that he was talking to for a little while, was not comfortable with George and soon moved away from his side of the bar. She cited that George wasn't politically correct. The fact that he referred to many of our tgirl partygoers as "he" rather than "she" proved it. I was shellshocked by George's behavior. Jack, a lawyer from Ohio who has been to our party several times in the past, is a fine example of a perfect gentleman. Jack waited for his opportunity to say hi to me, got it, and didn't let go. He found himself marvelling over how smooth my back and arms were. "Best feeling in the world, isn't it?" I remarked. He nodded. Jack bought me and my friends drinks and walked me to a cab at the end of the night. I like the fact that he interacted with everyone at the party and not just me. • Whoa, baby! Did everyone check out Alana's supercute hair?

Monday, August 4, 2008
There is something truly elegant and sexy about a boygirl theme at a tgirl party. Think about it. All tgirls are genetic males underneath the hair, makeup, and clothes, but to latch onto certain boy features and successfully integrate them into your girl look is the ultimate challenge any transsexual could partake. Misty and Kristin showed their boygirl sides by dressing in elegant tops and slacks. Tammy showed an everyday look that was simple and practical. Sandy, a genetic female, dressed as an androgynous hiker. I wore a blazer-skirt combo that many agreed was not masculine at all, even though the blazer had shoulder pads, so what was my challenge? My hair. My personal dare was to see if I could pull off a pixie cropped bob where my hair is slicked back as close to my head as possible. Think of Selma Blair or Elisha Cuthbert's recent short hair styles. Unless you have the face shape for it, it's extremely difficult for a tgirl or even a genetic girl to look good with this hair style. I did a dramatic MAC makeup look with blue eyeshadow and deep red lips that garnered many compliments. The tranny admirer and friends tally was at an all-time high. I counted eight admirers and friends that I've met before and there were at least a couple more who were hanging out and enjoying the scenery. Add that to my count of twelve tgirls and two genetic girls and you've got a decent size party. I like the guys who hung around me, but to give everyone an equal slice of my time was a challenge. Bob got me some takeout sushi with salmon, hamachi, and sea urchin early in the night. Yum! Michael, the amateur golfer from Texas, said, "Going out to breakfast with you in May was one of the best times in my life!" Sounds like Michael is Kalinafied... hee hee. Will, the hunky miltary dude who armwrestled me last week, wanted to have his picture taken with me again. Frank and I got some pictures together, too. My personal prize for best smile goes to Will and my personal prize for best complement in pictures with me goes to Frank. Kristin gave me her personal prize for best overall look. Thanks, Kristin! • Some of you might think it's a blessing to have a lot of hair, but I will admit that my hair sometimes bugs me and I have to wear a headband to keep it out of my face.