The Janus Syndrome

Janus was the two-faced Roman god of portals, who looked both forward and backward. He gave his name to our month of January, hence he is a fitting entity to take note of this posting of my achievements (or failures) in 2011 and goals for 2012.



2011 achievements:

without corset / with corset

1. In May, I bought a corset, something I had been considering for many months. The difference it makes in my look is obvious from these pics of the same outfit without the corset and with it.

all digital eye makeup

all real eye makeup, including mascara

real eye makeup, mascara digital


2. Over the summer, I began doing all my makeup for real, rather than digitally applying it. By late fall, however, I decided to go back to digital mascara...because the real stuff simply didn't photograph as well as I'd like.

3. Made some new on-line friends--Hi Meg, Paula!; maintained some other friendships--Hi Karen, Linda, Gwen!; established some acquaintances I hope will develop into friendships--Hi Stana, Janet!

2011 failures:

1. I've stopped trying to achieve hypnotic trance. I think I was fooling myself that it was working with the Virtual Hypnotist program, and when a computer crash wiped the program and associated files from my system, I decided to stop the attempt.

2. I have yet to acquire a real 1950s style petticoat to wear under some of my skirts that could really benefit from it. Yes, I could order on line, but the dangers of home delivery are still a problem. I keep searching for a brick-and-mortar source nearby.

3. I never went out in public in female attire this year--not even one of my "adventures" in semi-drag (a blouse and jeans and kitten heels, for instance). Part of that was that younger son was living home and cutting into dressing time for most of the year...part of it was just fear, after a couple of bad experiences in 2010.

2012 goals:

1. Find that petticoat!

2. Get out at least five or six times for a semi-drag "adventure". I need to build my confidence.

3. Find an excuse to shave my mustache (hoping a theater role will require it this spring), so I can stop digitally removing it in photos.

4. Experience hypnotic trance. I've concluded this will require a real person as the hypnotist, at least on the phone, as virtual programs and recordings do not seem to work for me.

5. Meet one of my on-line friends in person.

I'll keep you up-to-date on whether I achieve any of those goals.