Funny story follows!
Mimi and I were visiting my daughter at her college quite a distance from our home. Nobody there knows my male self, so I was Eryn for the day, dressed casually in denim Capris, sandals and a cute pink striped top.
We took my daughter to a nearby art supply store to replenish her paints. As we went in, a person at the entrance asked if we wanted to sign up for their raffle for a $25 gift card. Mimi and my daughter started to fill in the slips and Mimi asked if I wanted her to fill out one for me. I said "sure!" so my name went into the bowl too. Later on, we found out that to win we had to be present and it would be a half-hour until the drawing occurred.
We had another quick errand to run, so we went off to do it. In the process, Mimi mentioned that she thought that the raffle winners would be notified by mail so she had put my male name on the slip. As George Takai would say: "Oh My!"
On the way back to the store I reasoned that (1) I probably wouldn't get drawn, (2) it was twice as likely that my wife or daughter would be drawn, (3) I'm a long way from home if my name is drawn. and (4) If my name is drawn, it's a artist's store and they'd probably be OK with a TG person.
We wander back into the store and there are about a dozen people standing around waiting for the drawing. Oh darn, I forgot that there would be an audience. Oh well... The hour arrives and I expect my anxiety will be quickly dispelled. The first name is drawn and called. Nobody responds. They go through the "going once, going twice..." routine and the name is tossed. The call the second name. We hear crickets. Once more they do the "once, twice..." thing. The name is tossed. They draw a third name.
Yes, it was my male name. Decision time. Put my tail between my legs and slink away from that princely gift card or pull up my panties and step forward proudly? Remarkably, I chose the latter. the woman running the raffle looks at me and says with some surprise "That's you?" I said "Yes it is!" With no fanfare she hands me the gift card and that was that! A dozen people have an interesting occurrence to talk about and my daughter has an extra $25 to spend!
In some ways I see this as a growing experience. When I first started going out an experience like this would have been mortifying. In this case it was stressful, but not impossible. Everyone was polite and pleasant and my wife and daughter saw the incident as funny, not embarrassing.
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Originally Posted by Leslie Langford
