St. Louis Area TG Experiences - Part 10

I hadn't realized it, but I haven't posted one of these posts in nearly six months.  Part of the reason is that we are really "creatures of habit" and tend to visit the same retailers, restaurants, etc., but the reality is that the bigger reason is that anymore I really don't give much thought to how I'm treated when I'm out and about.  I simply "expect" to be treated well and the reality is that I almost always am.  I can't recall the last time I had a poor experience.  I'm not saying I haven't gotten referred to as "he"/"sir"/etc., I have a couple of times, but in each instance I/we had ran out at the last minute and I had went "as-is" without wig/makeup/etc, and in each occurrence it happened after I opened my mouth and spoke in a male voice (not intentionally, I just didn't think).  But even with all of that being said I have had a few (positive) experiences I thought I'd write about while they were still at least semi-fresh in my mind.  

UPDATE:  Since the "prior" posts links were getting a bit long, there is now a page with links to all of the posts:  My Transgender Experiences.

Restaurants:

• Longhorn Steakhouse (O'Fallon, Missouri) - I've been here a few times over the last few months, once with M, once with J, and once for lunch with both of them.  All three times the experience has been top notch.  Two of the three times I've been "done up", but even the one time I went in "as-is" I was treated wonderfully.  I'm not a steak person per se, so I tend to have a burger, but the food has been very good each time and the service top notch.  We don't go out for lunch all that often due to our schedules, but when we do, this Longhorn would be at the top of the list.
• Texas Roadhouse (O'Fallon, Missouri) - The last time I had been here was before my transition, so it had been a while.  No particular reason as the food/service had always been good, it just hadn't happened.  J and I hit there for an early dinner recently and the food/service was just how I remembered it and as with Longhorn, I could not have been treated better.  

Retailers:

• Sam's Club (Wentzville, Missouri) - M and I have had a Sam's Club membership since 1996.  However, I never, ever go, M always does.  Well lately there have been a couple of times where it would have been convenient for me to go by myself or with J and my card was my original one from 1996 with my old name and *really* old photo on it.  As it was both J and M were off one Tuesday evening so we decided to run over to Sam's and get this rectified.  I had hoped to be able to change my name in advance online, but while Sam's allows for secondary cards to be updated online they do not allow for the primary card to be done - at least I couldn't find a way to do it.  Not being sure what I might need, I grabbed my court order, my passport (since it had my old name/photo that matched my Sam's card), and my current license and we headed over.  Frankly I was shocked at how easy the process turned out to be.  Now there was a touch of confusion on the young lady's part who was helping me as she thought I was updating M's card - so once I clarified that no - I was in fact updating *my* card, all was good.  I think the whole process took maybe 5 minutes, if that, and a good portion of that was actually getting my photo done and the card printed.  All in all, it was a very painless experience - just how I'd like to think it should be.  And so I have a thumbnail for this post, here's a photo of J and I before we left the house.  Not one of my finer photos - it looks like I have a "pregnant pooch", but if that's the worst thing going on for me I guess that's alright. :)

• Costco (St. Peters, Missouri) - The same evening that J, M and I visited Sam's Club (as I discussed above), we decided to go to Costco and get a membership there.  Long term I doubt we need both a Sam's Club and a Costco membership, but we figured it wouldn't hurt to try it for a year and see which one works out better for us.  Since we were a "new" signup at Costco it took a bit longer than at Sam's, but the process went just as smooth.  The woman who helped us was polite and professional and a real pleasure to deal with.  The same could be said for our interactions with everyone else there as well.  I'm not sure how often we will shop there since it's a bit further from us than Sam's is, but I was definitely comfortable being there.

Well it's Monday morning and it's getting to be about time to start work, so I'll stop here.  As always thanks for reading.

- M