Madame Treasurer

Last year in April I was elected treasurer for the St. Louis Gender Foundation. The previous treasurer resigned, and as I have an accounting background, I volunteered to accept the position (with the help of another member to handle money collection duties when I can’t attend).

Step one of assuming the treasurer duties was to pick up all the records and a thumb drive from the foundation President, a good reason to get dressed and get out. I wore a blue dress I fell in love with the first time I saw it (I’ve gotten compliments on it on three different occasions, including this time) but I don’t wear it often enough.

On my return home, I stopped by at my favorite Nordstrom as my friend Karla was working. Of course I had to try on things I hadn’t tried on before, but didn’t find any winners (but always fun looking–I miss that).

Karla also was in the process of changing jobs at Nordstrom, so we arranged dinner the following Saturday to celebrate. I had a full day until about four, and then changed and did my makeup in my car, while parked in the covered garage at the Galleria (if you want to get out, you get creative). 

I wore a top and skirt into the store, and carried my dinner dress and shoes into the store in a Nordstrom shopping bag. As it was warm that evening, I wore the dress because of the bare shoulders, as I find that is cooler. I had also managed to get a bit of tan on my shoulders to avoid the dreaded tennis tan. My legs are also pretty tan and it was too hot for hose, so I went bare legged. I previously would have never thought of going out with bare shoulders and bare legs, but then again, before 3 1/2 years ago, I was never going out at all.

Step two of becoming treasurer was to get myself (the male me, my legal identity) added as a signer on the bank account (and to also get internet access to the account). I went to my nearest branch as the guy me, but I instead needed to go to the branch where the account was opened. As that branch was in a TG friendly part of St. Louis, I decided I would go as Dee.

It was a small branch, with only one teller for walk-ups. So I had to wait for a bit, and then when it was my turn it took the teller a bit of effort to do all the changes in the computer. In the meantime, two customers were waiting to process their transactions. I told the teller I could wait while he helped them, so he did, and both customers thanked me after they had been helped.

I guess the moral to the story is I’ve become a lot more relaxed about being dressed in public. The teller didn’t care, the other customers didn’t care, and eventually I got added to the account.

I spent 30 years working as an accountant. It would have been more fun to occasionally have gone in dressed…