First Event – Boston Marriott – Peabody, Massachusetts – January 22-26, 2014
First Event has grown into one of the largest trans gatherings in the world and the only major winter conference. Join us in historic Boston for fun, friendship and facts to plan your journey. Come out of the cold for loads of entertainment, workshops and activities! More…
First Event 2013 is now over. Save the dates for next year: January 22-26, 2014!
On Friday, June 14, Glamour Boutique, 850 Southbridge Street, Auburn, MA, along with Tiffany Club of New England, will co-sponsor our first annual summer party. Due to the overwhelming success of our Spring Bling event, we are having a SUMMER SIZZLER PARTY from 8:00 pm to 1:00 am at the same fabulous Indian Meadows Country Club facility in Westborough.
To celebrate the arrival of summer, John Warrener is urging participants to wear their hottest outfits. As usual, prizes will be awarded, this time for the most sultry as judged by fellow attendees. And as usual, the indomitable Paula Howard will be on hand with dance music!
It should be a night to remember, so make your plans now to attend. E-mail John at jwarrener@aol.com to reserve and pay $10 at the door. Those without reservations will pay $15.
Tiffany Club of New England is excited to announce that they will join Glamour Boutique, 850 Southbridge Street, Auburn, MA, in sponsoring their spring party this year on the Ides of March! (That is 3/15 for those not into Shakespeare.) Glamour Boutique’s biannual parties have become a popular tradition in the transgender community and TCNE is pleased to be officially involved for the first time this year.
Glamour Boutique and TCNE are having a Spring Bling Party from 8:00 pm to 1:00 am on Friday, March 15th, at the Indian Meadows Country Club (also known as Acacia Functions). The Country Club is a very nice facility and, although on Route 9 in Westborough, it is situated way back off the main road in a very private and safe setting.
We welcome any and all CDs, Ts, MtFs, FtMs, Admirers, etc. to party and dance the night away. The incredible Paula Howard will be our DJ, providing the best dance music possible. Drinks are very reasonable at the club and we will have munchies available too!
This will be a great opportunity for you to put away your winter blah outfits and pull out your spring finery. Then add a touch of BLING to get in the spirit of the new season!
There will be a Miss Spring Bling chosen by audience vote! Each person entering the party receives a voting card. Those girls opting to participate in the contest can (but are not necessarily required to) mingle throughout the night and drum up votes for themselves. When ready, voters enter their selection’s number and place their card in the ballot box. Factors to consider: Blingiest, Sexy, Originality, Personality, and Femininity. Miss Spring Bling plus two Runners Up will be announced at midnight. Miss Spring Bling gets a tiara, $100 Cash, and posted on www.TGFashions.com, www.TG-Fashions.com, and www.TCNE.org websites as “Miss Spring Bling 2013″. Runners Up get $50 gift certificates at www.tgfashions.com. All other contestants get our sincerest thanks!
For those of you who have not been to the country club, there are three rooms in the front section. On the far left is a section usually set up for Saturday weddings. In the center is a room with tables where people can sit and talk near the bar. And on the far right is a decent sized room with a dance floor with more tables and chairs for resting or watching the dancers. For those needing a place to change into or out of their outfits, we will have areas available at the country club.
If you call or e-mail in a reservation to Glamour Boutique, you will only have to pay $10 at the door. Or pay $15 at the door without a reservation. Parking is free and is within steps of the entrance. Remember the location is isolated away from the main street and encompassed by a huge golf course so there is complete privacy for those needing that security.
To make your reservation or if you need more information, just drop John Warrener a line at jwarrener@aol.com. Or call Glamour Boutique at 508-721-7800 or 888-721-3177 toll free. Or drop by the store: Glamour Boutique, 850 Southbridge Street, Auburn, MA.
For party updates please Friend www.tgfashions.com on Facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/TG-Fashions/196975520352573
For Makeover Appointments, please contact John at jwarrener@aol.com or 508-721-7800 or 888-721-3177 and he will arrange one of Glamour Boutique’s make up artists for you.
The closest lodging is Motel 6, within a mile of the Indian Meadows Country Club on the same side of the street. They have great rates. Motel 6, 399 Turnpike Road, Westborough, 508-366-0202.
Directions: Indian Meadows is at 275 Turnpike Road in Westborough. MA. It is on the western side of Westborough. Look for the Wendy’s on the opposite side of Route 9 as a guide point. There is a Burlington Coat Factory behind the Wendy’s. (Note that there is another Wendy’s near I-495 on the other side of the I-495 junction.) The roadway to the country club is on the west bound side directly across from the Wendy’s and has a red light of its own. For those of you getting off onto Route 9 from I-495, it is 4.7 miles to the west on the right side. You will pass Westborough Toyota, then Glick Nissan, just before reaching the country club driveway on the right. The website for the Indian Meadows Country Club is www.AcaciaFunctions.com.
Please join us March 15 for a great yet safe night out!
IT IS THAT TIME OF YEAR! THE ANNUAL “TIFFANY’S CLOSET” FIRE SALES IS THIS WEEKEND!
Tiffany Closet’s famed Fire Sale is happening this Saturday, March 2nd, from noon to 11 pm…
We have LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of items – all sizes – casual to formal – dresses, suits, skirts, tops, pants…shoes, wigs, accessories, lingerie, ladies and men’s items, everything you can think of. Loads of sexy high heels too – sizes 9-15!!!
Most items are $15 for a plastic grocery bag full of whatever you can put in it. A few items are priced individually – gowns and a few designer items. Come down and see what we have. We’ll bring the bags – you stuff them.
If you think you saw everything at First Event – think again. We had donations coming in right up until we closed. As a matter of fact, when we packed up to bring everything back, we found additional donations.
So come down to Tiffany Club, this Saturday – March 2nd, from 12 noon to late evening and find yourself a new wardrobe – at a BARGAIN price!!!
First Event 2013 ended yesterday and was by all reports a great success. Preliminary attendance figures show this year’s event continued to grow, as it has in past years. Our hosts, the Boston Marriott in Peabody, sold out virtually all rooms Thursday through Saturday nights for the first time ever.
Given some other conferences have been struggling recently, we are are very pleased that First Event continues to play an important role for the transgender community. In times where it is easy to stay closeted behind the Internet or be stealth in an increasingly tolerant society, First Event and other gatherings like it continue to help more of us meet in person and learn about ourselves and our peers.
For now, we are leaving the information on various pages of this site referring to First Event 2013, with added notes at the top on pages that are history. Starting later in 2013, we will begin updating the site with next year’s First Event 2014 information as it becomes available. Remember to save the date for next year: January 22-26, 2014!
We hope to keep this www.FirstEvent.us website active in in coming months. If you have an interesting story, lesson, or conclusion about First Event 2013 please email us at info@firstevent.us for possible publication here. Submissions are subject to editing for length, content and style, but we will ask your approval on any significant changes beforehand.
Do you have a practice?
For many years I heard this question but could not say yes to it. After I left my long term marriage in 2001, I found that I needed to start each day with some type of spiritual reading. I found many great resources that would get me through each day.
As you have already read about much of my journey, I would like to share with you a reading from the book that has helped me through the decision to transition and the transition itself. It is Mark Nepo’s The Book of Awakening; Having the Life You want by Being Present to the Life You Have. (Conari Press, 2000)
As we know the biggest day of First Event 2013 is Saturday, and this year it will be January 26, 2013. The reading for January 26 is appropriate for all of us, and I am sharing it below. (I have nothing to add after you read this – I hope that you will enjoy it and think about your practice).
Grace Anne Stevens
Co-Chair, First Event 2013
January 26
Being Kind – 1
You often say, “I would give, but only to the deserving.” The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pastures. They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish.
- Kahil Gibran
The great and fierce mystic, William Blake said, There is no greater act than putting another before you. This speaks to a selfless giving that seems to be at the base of meaningful love. Yet having struggled for a lifetime with letting the needs of others define me, I’ve come to understand that without the healthiest form of self-love – without honoring the essence of life that this thing called “self” carries, the way a pod carries a seed – putting another before you can result in damaging self-sacrifice and endless co-dependence.
I have in many ways over many years suppressed my own needs and insights in an effort not to disappoint others, even when no one asked me to. This is not unique in me. Somehow, in the course of learning to be good, we have all been asked to wrestle with a false dilemma: being kind to ourselves or being kind to others. In truth, though, being kind to ourselves is a requisite to being kind to others. Honoring ourselves is, in fact, the only lasting way to release a truly selfless kindness to others.
It is, I believe, as Mencius, the grandson of Confucius, says, that just as water unobstructed will flow downhill, we, given the chance to be what we are, will extend ourselves in kindness. So, real and lasting practice for each of us is to remove what obstructs us so that we can be who we are, holding nothing back. If we can work toward this kind of authenticity, then the living kindness – the water of compassion – will naturally flow. We do not need discipline to be kind, just an open heart.
From Mark Nepo’s, The Book of Awakening
We understand there may be some people providing services at the hotel without becoming First Event Vendors, and thus not supporting First Event. This is very disturbing and we totally discourage this practice, although there may be nothing we can legally do about it. Our official vendors are listed here on our web site. We hope you will use only the vendors who believe in and fully support our conference and who do not take advantage of the conference and attendees. Thank you for your support.
The First Event 2013 Committee
First Event 2013 happens this week, Thursday to Sunday, with the Tiffany’s Closet Consignment Shop also open Wednesday, January 23. Please join us!
If you have not pre-registered, you can register at the Peabody Marriott beginning Thursday, January 24 at 9:00 AM.
There is nightly dancing until 1:00. So if you will need the sleep, rooms are still available at a special conference rate when you call the hotel at 1-978-977-9700 and mention “First Event”.
January 18 was the last time you could register for First Event 2013 before you get to the conference. Online registration closed Friday, January 18, at midnight. Also, please do not mail any registrations now, as they may not reach us before the event. You can register in person starting Thursday, January 24, at the Boston Marriott Peabody. Thank you and see at First Event 2013!