Kinda sorta halfway out at work, I guess....

[Xenia]

So my wife and I recently moved from Baltimore to the scenic (and far less metropolitan) Hudson Valley in upstate New York for my new job. One night last week, we decided to head out to our new favorite Mexican restaurant for dinner, and I decided to go with a look I've been favoring recently for evenings out: regular guy mode, but with fairly dramatic eye makeup*.

No sooner had we made it to our table than I heard someone calling my name from the bar area.....sure enough, three of my new (male) coworkers were out celebrating a birthday. Of course, I couldn't be rude, so I went over and chatted with them for several minutes, introduced my wife, etc. Even though they'd all had a couple of drinks, there was no chance at all they didn't notice my slightly different look--as I said, I tend to go for a bold look, not just a little trace of "guyliner"**--but none of them mentioned it. After our exchange of pleasantries, my wife and I went back to out table and had a nice dinner***, with a little bit of nervous conversation about what kind of gossip would be flying around the next day.

As it turns out, I needn't have worried: a couple of days later, one of the guys asked if we'd like to join the group at their outing to one of the local nightclubs this weekend.....so I guess they've decided I'm pleasingly eccentric rather than some freaky weirdo. Maybe I wasn't giving these small-town folks enough credit. :)


* It's sort of a happy medium position right now, since I'm nowhere close to venturing out en femme, but I think I'm starting to get halfway decent with the makeup and it seems a shame not to let anyone else see my handiwork.

** Am I the only one who hates that stupid term?

*** The pollo azteca was delicious.

[Chickhe]

Or the lighting was poor and they just didn't notice. You didn't have all the colors of the rainbow on, did you? I bet if their wives were there one of them would have asked you...

[kayegirl]

Xenia, no you are not the only one to hate terms like "guyliner", or the one that really gets me "manbag". I hate them all.

[Tammy V]

I am just wondering what your dramatic eye look was and if you had on any other makeup or jewelry? Do you have your eyebrows or nails done or anything else that might be a give away to the outside world?

[Xenia]

I am just wondering what your dramatic eye look was and if you had on any other makeup or jewelry? Do you have your eyebrows or nails done or anything else that might be a give away to the outside world?

No, no other makeup, and no jewelry aside from normal "guy" earrings. I do have my brows done, but not too outlandishly. I'd done my eyes with a green/dark blue combo (MAC's Lucky Green and Deep Truth....sort of an experimental combo and I was surprised it came out as well as it did) with black liner and mascara. Not too over-the-top, but pretty much impossible not to notice even in lowish light. (As an aside, I really need to figure out the settings on my digital camera that'll let me get good snaps of my makeup.....the eyes in particular always end up looking very washed-out and blah.)

Then again, one of my female friends who's seen me in that mode has said it makes me look "goth" rather than girly.....so maybe these guys just drew some conclusions about my musical preferences and nothing more.....:)