GNO less than ideal

[Alexandra Collins]

Sorry this story is so long, but you'll see why when you hear about all the details I need to convey to explain how traumatic the evening was. (exaggerating of course)

I got out dressed on Saturday night with my partner Lisa to have dinner at a very nice restaurant with a small group of CD/TG/GG friends. It was fun to meet with everyone, good conversation, but.......

I guess it finally had to happen, and in my case 14 was my unlucky number (it was my 14th time out dressed since I started going out in July last year). It started going bad when parking was tight and we had to park quite a ways from the restaurant in underground parking at the Galleria (a large upscale shopping mall in Houston). It got really bad when I soon realized during the long walk that my new 4.5 inch heels were the most uncomfortable heels I've ever worn, and I've worn some taller heels out before, trust me. Then it got even worse when we came up to ground level and we couldn't find the restaurant, so more walking among a lot of people, with my feet killing me. After a phone call to the GNO organizer (https://www.crossdressers.com/forums...317-Aunt-Kelly), who is already at the restaurant, to ask where the restaurant is, we discover it's on the second level, and we are to take the elevator that brings you up to where there's a Starbucks, and the restaurant is right across from the Starbucks. So we find the elevator, but a security person standing in front of it tells us it is out of commission, so use the nearest escalator that she points to around a corner, so we cannot see it from where we're currently standing. At this point my mind set was that this night was cursed, and this was some trick Kelly was playing on me. So we walk another few hundred feet but manage to find the escalator, and go up, and the restaurant is finally in sight, we make it, greet the others, and sit down.

My feet are screaming in pain, but I'm trying not to show it. After quite a bit of conversation, and drinks, we order our food, and now I need to pee (badly), and now is my chance to go. I ask others at the table where the bathroom is, but on my way there I'm told by staff that both their bathrooms are out of commission because of renovations! I ask what my options are and the person says something I don't fully catch about a bathroom and the Starbucks in the mall beside the restaurant, or a bathroom on the 4th level above the restaurant in the hotel which this restaurant is a part of (Westin Hotel), and there's an elevator I can take (but is this the one that we just discovered was out of commission I'm thinking to myself). So, with my feet screaming I walked to the Starbucks across from the restaurant to use their bathroom, only to discover after walking all around it, they don't have a bathroom. So I walk back to the restaurant and ask what gives, and they tell me I have to go around the Starbucks to get to the public bathroom in the mall, and one of the restaurant workers walks with me to get me going in the right direction and so she can point to it once the sign comes into view.

So I'm left to walk a few hundred feet to the ladies bathroom in the mall, my feet screaming. I've been in ladies rooms before, so I thought the worst was over finally. But I was wrong. Inside the bathroom was a mess, and there are a ton of mothers with young daughters in there, talking loudly, and seemingly viewing the bathroom as a place to hang out, socialize and play. This is the first time I've been in a ladies room with children, and it's a bit scary, thinking one of them is going to say out loud: it's a man! Thankfully that didn't happen, so I look for a stall, and naturally in the closest one the toilet is plugged up with %$#@. So I try the next one, and it's OK, except the latch doesn't work so I cannot secure the door. But I'm desperate and use it, and took my time pulling all the layers of clothing up and down as required, since I'm not in rush, but hoping the mothers and children will leave before I'm done if I take my time. But no, they don't leave. So I come out, wash my hands, trying to avoid eye contact with everyone, and there is one paper towel dispenser (empty) and two air blowers (neither work). So I have to leave with wet hands because I didn't want to prolong my time in there going to a stall to find toilet paper.

Now it's just the long walk back to the restaurant through the mall and I can finally relax. As I re-enter the restaurant, a woman who seems like the manager asks me something like "So is everything OK now?". I snapped, and explained how the public toilet was a mess, that they should know the condition of a bathroom before they send their patrons there, and why didn't they renovate their bathrooms one at a time, so they would always have one working in the restaurant. In the middle of giving her an earful, I remember how I'm dressed, and I only have one voice, a man's voice, so there's no doubt who I am. But to her credit and the nearby employees who were in ear shot, none of them said a bad word to me in return, but just apologized. So then I got back to our table, and no one there saw or heard any of this, so they innocently asked me if I found a bathroom OK, and I'm sure I sounded like a jerk/baby explaining how annoyed and in pain I was.

That's about it, I took my shoes off while we ate, and we were able to get back to our car in a more direct route with the help of someone in our group, and my feet made it OK this time, after the rest during the meal.

Funny thing is I think I looked pretty good, I did my own makeup, and I wore a LBD that Lisa bought for me from Banana Republic about 6 months ago, but I've never worn it out before. Oh, and the heels looked awesome, that is when they were on my feet, as opposed to under my seat during the meal giving my toes a chance to stop throbbing.

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Photo taken at home just before leaving for the restaurant.

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Photo taken at home just after returning from the restaurant.