Lorileah
11-07-2012, 02:24 PM
Last month was a whirlwind of activity. Between all the official “club” stuff and being Lori, I was home maybe 5-6 evenings the whole month.
A few highlights.
My niece, niece-in-law (nephew’s wife) and their best friend plan two shopping weekends a year. I have been invited along the last two years but usually I have conflicting plans. This year worked out. I got an Email from her about two weeks before and I replied I would love to go as long as she didn’t mind her crazy TG “aunt” tagging along. She has always been accepting of me and I knew it wasn’t a problem for the three of them, but I wasn’t sure how they would feel out in public. The answer was “as long as you feel comfortable, we are cool with it. However from your photos we will be under dressed”.
That gave me two weeks to waffle and change my mind and I did several times. Me out alone is one thing. I can take any stares or mumbled comments. Involving three women, I worried a bit. Knowing that they all marched to a different drummer helped a lot. The Sunday came and I spent the morning getting ready. Since it was shopping, I decided that jeans and a top were in order. But I still wore heels. We were to meet for lunch in an area of town that has recently become “gentrified”. They were in the restaurant when I walked in. No one paid any attention to me. The person at the counter filled the order, we found a table and started talking.
Fast food isn’t something I normally do when dressed. Usually, it would involve shoving it in my face, but I didn’t think that would be appropriate for how I was presenting. My GF always used to pick her meal apart and even use a fork for a burger, now I understood why. I didn’t want to look like a slob, so I did the same. Silly, I know. We laughed and joked and talked while eating. Several people came in and out and no one paid the least attention to the 6 foot tall “girl” out with the other girls. Even the kids who with the parents acted like it was just another day. Gotta love the younger generation.
When I finished, I took out my lipstick case which doubles a s a mirror and I fixed my lips. One of the women I was with started giggling. I looked at her quizzically.
“I am SO not a girl.” She told me. I realized that of the four of us I was the only one with make up on. The others were natural. I had fallen into my pattern of being “Glam”. They all laughed. After we left the restaurant, we went to local HUGE mall. They wanted to look at shoes. The next hour we spent looking at every pair of shoes in Off Broadway. No, not to buy, but to critique. It was fun joking about the crazy, ugly and just plain BAD shoes. Here is where I thought things would be uncomfortable, but again no one even paid attention to us. Often we would find a shoe that we had to ask “what were they thinking?” Bright day glo orange 6” heels. Patterns that looked like a painter closed their eyes and threw colors at the shoe. Really things none of us would wear (most even a respectable DQ would not touch). The same question kept coming up “What would you wear with this?” The answer was usually, “I have no idea.”
But we soon found out.
After the shoes we went to an upper end clothing store. There we found the clothes that would go with the shoes, and again wondered who would wear that. Nothing in my taste at all and I was closer to buying than they were. It was sad, four women, out looking at clothing and shoes, and no one bought one thing. But it was fun. The only sideways looks I noticed were a couple teen boys.
They had planned dinner with their spouses (my nephew and brother-in-law) and asked me along. It was clear across town (literally). But I went. A salad buffet. Again, no one paid any attention to us as we found a table. I even got up several times to get food, I was treated like anyone else by the customers. Some smiled, some said “hi”. I made small talk with a few. After we ate, it was time to catch up (my nephew lives in SLC…so I don’t see him often). For the next hour we sat and talked.
That is when I got the “look”. Nine hours of not being noticed that I know of and then it happened. A three year old boy was leaving with his parents when he stopped, turned back around and stared. He didn’t say anything but you could tell his mind was going “who would wear THAT?” I have to admit, probably only me.
I will add more later, there were a couple of other extraordinary things that happened in the month.
A few highlights.
My niece, niece-in-law (nephew’s wife) and their best friend plan two shopping weekends a year. I have been invited along the last two years but usually I have conflicting plans. This year worked out. I got an Email from her about two weeks before and I replied I would love to go as long as she didn’t mind her crazy TG “aunt” tagging along. She has always been accepting of me and I knew it wasn’t a problem for the three of them, but I wasn’t sure how they would feel out in public. The answer was “as long as you feel comfortable, we are cool with it. However from your photos we will be under dressed”.
That gave me two weeks to waffle and change my mind and I did several times. Me out alone is one thing. I can take any stares or mumbled comments. Involving three women, I worried a bit. Knowing that they all marched to a different drummer helped a lot. The Sunday came and I spent the morning getting ready. Since it was shopping, I decided that jeans and a top were in order. But I still wore heels. We were to meet for lunch in an area of town that has recently become “gentrified”. They were in the restaurant when I walked in. No one paid any attention to me. The person at the counter filled the order, we found a table and started talking.
Fast food isn’t something I normally do when dressed. Usually, it would involve shoving it in my face, but I didn’t think that would be appropriate for how I was presenting. My GF always used to pick her meal apart and even use a fork for a burger, now I understood why. I didn’t want to look like a slob, so I did the same. Silly, I know. We laughed and joked and talked while eating. Several people came in and out and no one paid the least attention to the 6 foot tall “girl” out with the other girls. Even the kids who with the parents acted like it was just another day. Gotta love the younger generation.
When I finished, I took out my lipstick case which doubles a s a mirror and I fixed my lips. One of the women I was with started giggling. I looked at her quizzically.
“I am SO not a girl.” She told me. I realized that of the four of us I was the only one with make up on. The others were natural. I had fallen into my pattern of being “Glam”. They all laughed. After we left the restaurant, we went to local HUGE mall. They wanted to look at shoes. The next hour we spent looking at every pair of shoes in Off Broadway. No, not to buy, but to critique. It was fun joking about the crazy, ugly and just plain BAD shoes. Here is where I thought things would be uncomfortable, but again no one even paid attention to us. Often we would find a shoe that we had to ask “what were they thinking?” Bright day glo orange 6” heels. Patterns that looked like a painter closed their eyes and threw colors at the shoe. Really things none of us would wear (most even a respectable DQ would not touch). The same question kept coming up “What would you wear with this?” The answer was usually, “I have no idea.”
But we soon found out.
After the shoes we went to an upper end clothing store. There we found the clothes that would go with the shoes, and again wondered who would wear that. Nothing in my taste at all and I was closer to buying than they were. It was sad, four women, out looking at clothing and shoes, and no one bought one thing. But it was fun. The only sideways looks I noticed were a couple teen boys.
They had planned dinner with their spouses (my nephew and brother-in-law) and asked me along. It was clear across town (literally). But I went. A salad buffet. Again, no one paid any attention to us as we found a table. I even got up several times to get food, I was treated like anyone else by the customers. Some smiled, some said “hi”. I made small talk with a few. After we ate, it was time to catch up (my nephew lives in SLC…so I don’t see him often). For the next hour we sat and talked.
That is when I got the “look”. Nine hours of not being noticed that I know of and then it happened. A three year old boy was leaving with his parents when he stopped, turned back around and stared. He didn’t say anything but you could tell his mind was going “who would wear THAT?” I have to admit, probably only me.
I will add more later, there were a couple of other extraordinary things that happened in the month.