tl;dr: Went to the opera dressed, wore heels out for the first time; was very accepted.
A few weeks ago, I bought a ticket to see "The Marriage of Figaro" by the NC Opera in Raleigh. I decided that I should go dressed. It turned out to be a great evening.
My shape is not really good for dresses, so I wore one of my fanciest skirts with a dressy grey sweater (jumper for British friends). The skirt is chocolate brown with turquoise designs. I added large silver hoop earrings and a silver necklace with a turquoise stone. For the first time, I wore heels outside. They were just 2" heels in brown suede, but it was a big step for me. I had a nice brown overcoat for the cool weather. The venue suggested small purses, so I carried a small Sherpani bag that's about 6x6, and was brown with khaki canvas accents. I felt like it matched my outfit pretty well. I did my usual minimalist makeup, but spent a little extra time to make sure it was presentable and my eyebrows looked OK.
The theatre is about 30 minutes away, so I left in plenty of time, knowing that parking can fill up. On the way, I had to stop and buy gas, and realized I was missing one earring. It was too late to go back home. I took the other one off, but was a little stressed, because I always feel like cute earrings really help me look feminine. I couldn't fix it, though, so at some point I just didn't worry about it. Lesson learned: always have some spare earrings in the purse.
I got to the venue, got parked, and entered the building after a pretty good walk all the way across the parking lot and across the plaza in front of the theatre. The first thing was the metal detector, and I was prepared to have to show the contents of my bag, but I just got waved through. I brought up my ticket on my phone and the ticket person scanned it. Nobody treated me any different than anyone else.
I asked an usher, a GG about my age (late 60s) where to go for my seat. She told me, and I thanked her, and she said "Yes ma'am". Then I asked if there was a restroom on the way, and she said "When you get to the mezzanine, there's a ladies' room on the right". Of course I was on cloud nine with this acceptance.
I got upstairs and headed to the ladies', went in and did my business. I fixed my hair and reapplied a little lipstick. I think one person came in the restroom while I was there.
There was a bar in the upstairs lobby, so I ordered a gin & tonic, which turned out to be a poor decision for two reasons. The first reason was that it was $20! The second is that about halfway through the first half of the show, I needed to use the facilities again.
Since you could take drinks to your seat, I found an usher, who sent me to another usher on "my" side of the theatre, who showed me to my seat. Both ushers were gracious gentlemen. I was pretty early, maybe 30 minutes before the show started. As the theatre filled up, there were still 4 empty seats on either side of me. Finally, 5 minutes before the show started, two groups of people arrived. I ended up with a GG on either side of me. The one on my left was very chatty before the show and at intermission. The one on my right was a little more reserved, but we had a short chat about how good the show was.
About 30 minutes before intermission, I realized that I had to use the restroom. Somehow I was able to wait, but it was pretty uncomfortable. On top of that, my feet were cramping just a bit from the heels. As soon as it was intermission, I got up and headed for the restroom. Once I started walking, my feet felt fine.
I got to the ladies' room, and of course there were already thirty or more women in line. I took my place, and noone said anything, or even gave me a side eye. I did see a couple of people looking my way, but not in an uncomfortable way. I'm sure that I was an unusual sight. I chatted briefly with the GG next to me, who was taller than me, even with my heels. She was lovely, and must have been 6' tall. I didn't notice whether she was wearing heels. I was trying to blend in and not draw attention to myself. It took about ten minutes to get inside the restroom proper, through two sets of doors, and then there were still six or more women waiting. I eventually got to a stall and took care of things, thankfully.
After that, I was relaxed the rest of the evening. When I got back to my seat, the chatty lady said she had been in line at the same ladies' room, but an usher had told her about another restroom on the same level, but less prominent, and with a shorter line. I really felt like we were just two ladies chatting.
After the show, I left the building and realized I'd like to have a picture of me dressed up. There was a 30-ish GG sitting on the edge of a decorative wall, so I asked her to take my picture. She was super friendly and glad to do it. We ended up having a ten or fifteen minute chat; she had driven up to Raleigh from about 2 hours away, and was driving back that night. As we said goodbye, she said maybe we'd bump into each other at the next opera.
Because I took extra time to get ready, and wanted to leave home early, I hadn't eaten dinner. My first thought was to walk or drive up to downtown Raleigh and see what was open at 11:30 PM, but there was a taco restaurant on the far side of the parking lot, so I had a near-midnight supper.
The drive home was uneventful. When I got home, I told my wife I sympathize with all the times she's had to wait in a long restroom line at a theatre. I also felt some kinship with women who gratefully take their heels off after an evening out. :-)
All in all, I had a wonderful evening, and felt like just another lady at the opera.
, Sounds like you had a wonderful time,
Wife keeps aaaaa xtra pair of Earrings in the car Glove box, >Orchid***O
O**
