Sorry Frederique. Not trying to step into your long post territory.
Life has been going through one of those tough periods lately. There has been a death in my wife's close family, two of my adult children have been going through particularly tough times, and of course work had to go through one of those peaks where things don't go right. So when my wife and daughter were both traveling away this weekend, I knew there was little to no family time to be had so I planned a complete weekend for Sue.
Now to set this up, one of the things at work was that I had to get something moving. It was my responsibility to see it done, but it was someone else doing it. So all week I was going to the guy who was to do it and he is someone I get along with and have worked with for a while. I'll call him Bob Jones. I kept asking him if he could do it after getting done with what he was doing. Each time the answer was no problem and then it didn't happen. Come Thursday, I had no choice to escalate it as he just didn't show up for work. I felt bad, but it was clearly his fault at this point.
So my weekend started on Friday by babysitting two grandsons. With my daughter out of town, my son-in-law still had his commitments, so I pitched in. It was fun and I got my toenails done while the older one was in school. Then it was the usual dash to get changed and off to meet with a dear friend Mia at a local comedy club. In the mad dash, I thought I had time to do my fingernails, but they never dried right. Right when it was time to leave, I rubbed them against something and the polish balled up. I tried scrapping the bad part off and re-doing it in a panic as I didn't want to be late. That wasn't working so I tried to clean it all off. I thought I did okay until I got on the road and noticed my fingers were red. <sigh>
Somehow I managed to get there on time and we took a seat on the opposite side from the entrance and far enough back to not be a target. As we are talking, I noticed a couple behind us and she raised the menu in front of their faces and his head raised enough to look at us. It seems it is never dark enough to conceal my voice. It was then that I looked over at the entrance and there was the friend from work. I mentioned it to Mia so there was no surprises if he tried to sit in our area. Then the lights go down and the microphone booms. "Welcome to Wiseguys. Our headliner tonight is Pete Somebody and give a welcome to your emcee for the night, Bob Jones!" Huh?And sure enough he runs up to the stage. I just had to look at Mia and laugh. I am glad they blind these guys with lights. He was okay. I remembered a couple of his jokes, but I will have to think about dropping hints. So we went to dinner after at a great Japanese place I hadn't been to before and called it a night.
And back up the next morning, Mia and I met to go to the Salt Lake Farmer's Market. I hadn't been to it before and Mia loved it, so how could I not? It was a nice event. To keep the trend going, as we are walking along and I am talking, I suddenly see the guy I work real close with all day come up on Mia's side. So I got silent while he walked by and again pointed this out to Mia. Not the best trend for nerves. But we continued and never saw him again. We then ate lunch at an Italian deli. Here I learned I was contagious. I was doing fine, then when I went to the register to pay and spoke up, the guy in front of me looked over his shoulder and got away a little quick.He may have not been fast enough; may be in hose by morning!
Then Mia and I said our goodbyes and I drove to Park City to hit the outlet stores. I did score two pair of Nine West shoes for $30 total, so that made the trip itself. But what was interesting was my comfort level. One of my early trips out was to these same outlet stores. While there, I watched everyone walking past me. When in the stores, I walked around displays in a way to not be next to anyone. When I wanted to buy something, my daughter and wife took it and paid for it. This time I was chatting it up with SAs, walked around without staring at everyone, and went straight to what I wanted to look at (minus one clearance area that looked like an ER visit in the making given the positioning going on).
Since my wife's convention was in this city, I sent her a quick text and found out that she was in-between sessions, so I drove over there. As I got out of the car, I saw one guy I that I once was inadvertently outed to when he came into a restaurant I was in. So I walked up to say hi and had to take the sunglasses off and give him a minute. We starting talking and then my wife, his wife, and another friend came out and there were hugs around. After talking for a while, everyone had to break up. I sat there with my wife for quite a while longer and then had to go as her next event was starting. She wanted to kiss even though there was a group smoking near by (I think she does it longer when I am dressed and we are in public).
So down the mountain I go and I make a couple of short shopping stops and then go to the mall to see a jeweler. My wife is adopted and knows both mothers. Each has passed an engagement ring to her and she picked one she wants to wear and is going to let me wear the other. So I had to get it resized. I walked in (I realized at this point the beard stubble is probably getting a little noticeable) and started asking the first gentleman about pricing. He looked it over and sized my finger and the ring and gave me the estimate. When I agreed and he started filling out the form, I gave him my name. Not Sue, but my guy name. I figured what the heck, I am not fooling him, plus I probably would be returning in male mode and I wanted to be sure I could pull ID out and get it back without a hassle. I didn't know him anyway.... So after that, I finished with a trip to Ulta, which is always a good capper to a long day, and then home to bed.
Today was a lot less. Even though I was dressed all day, there was laundry to be done and I had to pick up my wife. But I still managed to get a movie in between those two. And of course I am light years behind on this forum (sorry).
There were two things I took away from this weekend (stress not being one of them). First, I found it interesting how much I just didn't care if someone knew I was a guy or even with the jeweler knowing my name. Just going out and having a good time and letting things happen. No way that was happening two years ago. Secondly, I have always taken the stance that I wasn't going to try to only dress in safe areas. I hear some say that they want to go 30-35 miles away to be safe. 30 miles to the north is nothing (and you can't shop there) and 35 miles to the south is work, so I would have to go another 35 miles. Sorry, too much gas. One thing I know with that rule is that I will run into workmates. It has happened a few times before and here it happened two times. But if you don't panic, they are not necessarily just going to pick up on you fast, so you can control the encounter to a point.
Oh and to see if Karren read this far. I was wearing denim all weekend.
man, i feel like a woman 
).
Originally Posted by Kathi Lake
