In mid-September I had the combination of free time and the urge to get out, so I ventured out three times in five days.
Wednesday morning I headed to Nordstrom, where my friend Karla was working. I was wearing a blue floral summer dress I bought earlier this summer at Nordstrom, along with the Columbia blue cardigan I bought in February in Australia. Karla and I chatted for a while at the store and then went to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory (when I’m dressed, I am always happy to go to the Cheesecake Factory, because I have always been treated kindly–although their meals are not kind to my waistline). It was fun catching up.
The following Saturday I had the afternoon free and was deciding where to go, but I knew all along where I should go. On Wednesday Karla had told me that Hannah, a SA I had met previously, had given her two weeks notice and her last day was that Saturday. I wore another summer dress I bought at Nordstrom, and the other cardigan I bought in Australia. I had another SA chase down Hannah and she filled me in on her plans; going back to school and getting an MBA, perhaps at the University of Colorado at Boulder. We talked for about a half hour, and I wished her well in her future endeavors, and she happily posed for the selfie (Karla on the left, Hannah in the center).
That night we had a dinner meeting for the St. Louis Gender Foundation. The meeting was actually a two-parter; dinner at a local restaurant, and the meeting at a nearby LGBT support group location. Given the current circumstances, I chose not to attend the dinner but I did attend the meeting. I wore my new jumpsuit to the meeting, having brought it to Nordstrom and changing in the change rooms there. After the meeting, I didn’t want the night to end, so I visited a local casino for about an hour, playing a video blackjack machine and losing a few dollars (I am not a big gambler, but casinos are a good venue to go to dressed).
On Sunday I had a late afternoon tennis match in west St. Louis County, so I decided to visit an outdoor outlet mall beforehand (and then clean up and change into my tennis clothes for the match). I noticed on Saturday that Hannah was wearing a black dress with boots and black pantyhose (she said she likes wearing pantyhose!), so in a homage to her I wore my Princess Highway black dress, black pantyhose, and my black boots.
Unfortunately, it was too warm for pantyhose, so I had to take them off after about a half-hour (while I was trying on some clothes in a change room). Then I figured out that wearing the boots without the pantyhose was going to kill my feet with blisters, so I had to abort my girl time earlier than planned–but not before a SA at the Calvin Klein outlet said she liked my dress (me too; another item in my wardrobe I don’t get to wear often enough).
Lost my match, and had to buy bandaids to put on my blisters, but it was still three fun days to get out.
