Nif-Dee Fif-Dee

My GG BFF Michelle turned half a century in December (no, she doesn’t look it) and at the time I promised her a nice birth-Dee dinner. A few weeks ago I was able to make good on my promise.

Understand, I like making sure my friends have a nice time, but I am being completely selfish because I buy cute clothes (I think they’re cute) and I want someplace appropriate to wear them. The dress I wanted to wear for her birthday dinner was one I found when I was in New York City last September. I cyber stalked it for a while. When it went on sale for 30% off, I pounced, ordered it online, and it arrived in October. Since then it’s been hanging in my closet, screaming “wear me” (along with lots of my other dresses, to be honest).

In Bruce Springsteen’s “Blinded By the Light” he has the lyrics:

Mama always told me not to look into the sights of the sun
Woah, but mama, that’s where the fun is

For me, part of the fun is wearing what a person my age (not to mention my gender) is NOT supposed to wear. In short, I like shopping in the junior’s department at Macy’s, or at Windsor, or Akira, or even Plato’s Closet, which leans young (and if you haven’t guessed, I’m not young). This was a junior’s dress, meant for proms and homecoming dances and the like. I don’t go to proms and homecoming dances, but I still like the dresses and the idea of me wearing the dresses.

They are generally short (I like showing off my legs–and wearing heels that show off my legs) and sassy and a whole lot of fun. My GG friends–I send pictures to them when I try them on, so I get the “girlfriend experience” as if they were shopping with me. When they say “buy it”, who am I not to listen to my friends?

I believe–and have written before about–“Wear What You Want to Wear“–and while I wouldn’t wear that dress to the local grocery store, it was certainly appropriate for a night out with Michelle. I learned long ago a night out with Michelle means I’m going to get noticed, and if I’m going to get noticed, I want it to be in a fun dress with heels that makes it all work. My go to phrase is that “people might know it’s a man in a dress, but they don’t know it’s me in the dress, and I want to make sure it’s a good looking dress”.

Michelle chose a restaurant she wanted to go to (turns out, I later saw it was the 2nd best rated–out of 100–in a listing in the local paper) so I made reservations. My adult son was home (he lives with us, my wife is still in Australia, so free time for me), so I took all my stuff to Michelle’s house and changed there. We talk and catch up and I get dressed and she puts on her finishing touches. Before we head out, pictures are mandatory (the same GG friends who tell me to buy the dress want to see me once I’m actually wearing the dress). 

In addition to the black sparkly dress, I wore my black hat with the purple band, bought recently at a thrift store down under. My GG friend Ms. Dee-ism likes (loves) when I wear a hat, so wearing it was in her honor (she is also the supplier of my red lipsticks, for which I love to wear and am grateful for her looking out to buy them for me). I hadn’t worn the black pumps in a while–nor really high heels that much–but I thought the simple black pumps went well with the dress. If I suffered, I suffered, but I would be mostly sitting and not walking, so they hopefully wouldn’t be an issue (and they weren’t).

We arrived a bit early and ordered drinks in the bar area and took some pictures. We asked one of the staff to take our picture (which, with my permission, Michelle posted on her FaceBook page). After being seated, we ordered what essentially was the sampler menu for the both of us. Michelle took the food porn pictures, and I just focused on eating, trying my best to eat lady like. As always, the servers treated me with respect (“welcome ladies”) even though I don’t change my voice and pay with my guy credit card. One of the male servers said he really liked my dress (always good to get compliments).

After our yummy dinner and dessert we went to the nearby Chase Club, where we have been before on multiple occasions. A band was playing and many of the bar patrons were from a wedding party. We didn’t see the bride and groom, but it is always fun to see the wedding attire for the women attending the wedding. For a change of pace, I had the alcoholic drink and Michelle the non alcoholic drink.  I’m pretty much a lightweight–and the combination of drinking AND walking in heels is a big ask for me, but I was ok. We listened to the music, talked, and left after the band finished its last set.

But before leaving we did our normal tradition of heading to the ladies loo for pictures in the full length mirror, and some photos with the orchids in the main lobby.

Here’s hoping for another happy Fif-Dee years for my BFF Michelle.

Postscript: Michelle and I went out a couple of weeks later. After our night out, back at her house, she wanted to try on a fun dress I found at a thrift store in New York City. It’s a style of dress unlike any I had previously owned, part of the reason I bought it. We often trade trying on clothes, as we are similar sizes (similar although I am chunkier). She’s worn a number of my clothes out, both with me and on her own. 

In exchange, I wanted to try on the dress she wore to dinner. The dress was bought by an ex-boyfriend, and after wearing it to our dinner, she was planning to donate it to a thrift store benefitting a local women’s shelter. Michelle pulled it out of the donation pile, and I tried it on.

It’s mine now. I now have another fun dress in my closet screaming “wear me.”