Due to the nature of my wife's job, I agreed with her not to go out dressed around our little burg, only out of town like Atlanta (which is 90 minutes away).
Well I have been going stir crazy being stuck at home. The past few days I have been getting dressed to go "out", hoping to go to the Barnes and Noble on the north side of town, buy me a Grande regular coffee at the Starbucks inside and park my padded tush down at a table and see what happened. Since there is no way I can pass upon close inspection, I had the hope someone would come and talk to me, whether it be insulting or just curious, so I could talk about who/what I am, why I do it, and hope to pass on a little more understanding and tolerence for all of us. But things just weren't coming together, and wifey reminded me of my promise to honor her and not get her fired.
I guess I had dropped enough hints that I needed to "get out!!" that she offered to take me with her to Michael's, an arts and crafts store, that she was going to this evening to find posts for her earings. I had to be dropped off at a remote location from the store then walk, so I wouldn't be seen with her, which worked for me. I had changed into the 3 peice that I'm wearing in my current profile pic, including the high boots with the 3 inch heels, making me 6'-2" tall. We have an SUV, I figured she would want to pull it into the garage before I got in to hide me from the neighbors, but she left it in the driveway, figuring it was night time who would see and I got to walk out into the neighborhood all dressed up for the 1st time, to get into the vehicle.
She found a dark spot by a dead Gateway store to drop me off and away she went. The path to the Michaels was replete with very "live" stores so I opted to go that way, and no one paid me the slightest bit of attention. One guy came out of one store, yakking on a cell, looked at me for about 3 seconds then continued on his way. I finally reached the Michaels and strode inside like I belonged there, spotted my wife and moved on. Once inside, I went about my business, even though I noticed I towered over most of the people there. Columbus, GA is home to Ft Benning, an Infantry training center and US Army Ranger Regiments. There was one soldier boy looking at items on an aisle near me, he passed within 3 feet of me, I was still taller then him, he glanced briefly and moved on. I think if I had watched him for a reaction he would have noticed and looked harder, but I didn't, nor did he.
After the pre-agreed time I moved out of the store, again no one seemd to pay me any attention. At the exit I ran into a Mom with her daughter and a shopping cart full of goodies struggling to get out. I so wanted to help, but didn't want want to frighten her since she had a little daughter with her. I held the doors anyway, there was NO WAY!! she couldn't tell, but she didn't say a thing, didn't even react weird. I made my way back to the dark spot by the dead Gateway store, lit a smoke and waited for my wife. The funny thing was cars passing by would stop nearby me. I figured the boots made me look like a hooker, but I turned my back on them and the moved on.
Wasn't my idea of great outing, but I'll take what I can get......
Maria Andres