Halloween Logistics, Part 4 of ?

The weather forecast for Saturday: partly cloudy, high of 62. I'm glad the rally isn't today. Early this Wednesday morning, it's already over 70 but raining heavily.

I don't expect a good prediction more than a day in advance, but the weatherbug expects it to be 46 when I leave the house, and only 52 at the start of the rally.

This is a bit cooler than I'd like. I'm leaning towards tights instead of hose, and thinking about the second place suit (the light blue) because it's a bit heavier. The purple is even heavier, but I think the blues look more senatorial.

As I've said, Meg's a fair-weather friend. Cold and rain and snow keep Meg home. If I go shopping in the cooler months I brave the walk from the car to the shops and walk around the mall unencumbered by a coat.

But I'll be out for five or six hours (or more) and maybe a coat is in order.

My Tuesday schedule was:
work at the office
see a customer to return a computer
eat dinner
go to a seminar about college costs.

I'd rather not spend a lot of money on a coat or jacket. I'd like something I can grab quickly, wear once, and give to the clothing swap. Coats take up too much room in the closet!

Hmmm.... I wonder.... If I put enough stuff in the closet, maybe there won't be room for me in there. ;)

So, magically, yesterday morning, the thrift shop called. Their computer is broken and they want me to drop by. So now my shcedule changed: sneak that in before/instead of dinner. And reluctantly look at coats. And I'll see if they received any new shoes in my size. I mean, what the heck. I'm there already!

Follow-up: my pre-thrift shop customer was late, so I switched them. That meant no time to shop. And, as it turned out, no time for dinner (and I skipped lunch). I guess this will help maintain my girlish figure.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Wednesday (that's today) is interview, manicure with buff, not polish, brow wax (that's spelled "brOW Wax"), and anything else I think I'll need as long as I'm in the mall again. Maybe I'll look around the department stores while the red fades from my brows.

I'm going to try to work at home on Friday, so I can take breaks and do a clothing dry run, and wear my new shoes for a few hours. And I want to practice my lines. I won't know what people will say to me, but I want to be ready with what I say to them!

Oh.... I've been trying to figure out if I should tell my friend P about the costume before the rally. He's coming down with J, who knows what I'll be wearing. She'll tell. I know J.

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She Knows (Thrift Shop)

I wasn't sure whether to label this Unspoken Agreement or Three More Items OUT or Meanwhile, Back at the Thrift Shop....

But I know she knows.

Halle mentioned "fate" lending a hand to keep her from getting caught without having to resort to telling stories. I often feel someone is watching out for me.

A few years ago, I was shopping for MegClothes at KMart (hey, it was on my way). I had some undies and socks in a cart and I had parked it so I could take a look at shoes. Walking towards the shoes I saw a freind of mine and my wife's, walking towards me with her two youngest children. We exchanged pleasantries and I continued on towards... something not feminine. I abandonded the cart.

Another time I was heading towards Marshalls and saw a woman I used to work with, and her sister. We chatted a bit and I veered right towards a conveniently-located computer store. They had just come out of Marshall's. A few minutes earlier and I might have been sprung.

I made a special trip to the thrift shop last Friday.

Driving there, I was in the right lane of the highway when I saw a van ahead of me. It was in the same lane and BACKING UP. I was able to get into the adjacent lane without hitting anything. A half-mile later, the exit I had to take was all backed up. An SUV with its front end destroyed was blocking traffic and cars had to gingerly go around it. Then at the end of the exit there was a disabled car just off the road. The roads here are one big construction area (the Virginia state tree is the traffic cone) so shoulders are generally non-existent. Someone decided to help the disabled car by sitting in the only traffic lane next to it as an eighteen wheeler tried to go around him!

I started to wonder if the gods were trying to tell me "this is a Bad Idea".

Or maybe they were just trying to tell me I'm too early, and CC is having a late lunch. :)

That's the problem with fate ~ you never know what it's trying to tell you.

A quick consult of the cards told me that the gods were not trying to prevent me from going. I did get to the shop, and I asked for CC. Someone said she was "downstairs" and went to get her. I looked around and waited. A few minutes later she came in and greeted me warmly. I showed her my business cards (which now have a line in purple about a discount for her customers) and told her I'd bring more if she needed them. She mentioned the computer was a bit slow, which is unsurprising. That also gives me a reason to follow up.

I didn't say anything about looking around. It didn't come up.

So I just started to look around.

CC came over after a minute or so and said "is there anything you'd like me to pull?" I said "I'm not sure what I'm looking for yet." She reassured me that there is no problem with me looking around and if I needed help to just ask. She then disappeared into her office and although I looked for her I didn't see her again that visit.

She knows.

I spent quite a bit of time looking around. They didn't have much in the way of casual dresses; they did have some party dresses, a couple of gowns, and a few wedding dresses. Remember, I'm focusing on Clothes I Can Wear Out, not pretty things I can wear around the house.

Shoes went up to size 10-1/2. Prices were more than reasonable.

I found some nice tops, but none in my size.

They had a lot of sweaters, which isn't what I was looking for that day.

They had a lot of jeans, but I prefer to get jeans new so it'll take longer to wear them out.

They had some outerwear (which I may need for Halloween) and racks of skirts.

I picked out two skirts. One was patterned, medium, with an elastic waistband and high slits on either side. The other was solid brown; it zipped up the side and looked like a really nice officewear skirt. I couldn't find a size, but it looked about the same waist size as the other skirt. I also looked at the larger shoes. There was one pair I liked.

I took those three items. The total cost was $7. I'm sure if CC knows, the cashiers know. I'm OK with that.

When I got home, the house was empty. Good: some try-on time! The patterned skirt came to just above my knees and the slits weren't as high as I'd feared. It fit well.

The brown skirt would NOT zip up. The zipper worked fine. My tummy did not. That will go into the swap bag for some lucky skinny woman.

The shoes are a bit snug, but not bad. I'd need to try them for an hour or more and see how they feel.

So two things have to go into the swap bag. It's a good thing I didn't sort through those camisoles yet!

Follow up: last Sunday, I had a chance to wear those new-to-me shoes for a while. They're a bit tight, but not bad. They're definitely possible for the rally. I will be going to Payless (at least) before then!

The rally will be mostly on the lawn. My favoured heels are definitely out. It's fat heels or flats.

These are the three items I bought. Click to enlarge. Or not. It's up to you. :)

More Than All the Facts

Life got in the way Thursday. I did have time to go shopping for some Christine O'Donnell accessories (more later) but I did not have time to go to the thrift shop.

Today, barring interruptions from life, will be the day.

I have been e-mailing my wise and beautiful friend Amanda. She helps me think clearly (that is, "not make an idiot of myself").

I see a few ways this can play out.

First, one of two things can happen:
* I bring in cards and talk to CC briefly about where to leave them, ask her to call me if she needs more or has questions, etc.
* I bring in cards and CC isn't there. I'll talk to an assistant, let her know why I'm dropping them off, and ask her to tell CC to call if she has questions. Tell her I may follow up with CC just to see if they're being taken and such.

I hadn't considered CC not being there before.

Either scenario is OK, but they make the next step different.

If CC isn't there, I'll probably just go and look at clothes and maybe buy some things, without comment. I may say "I'm going to see what you have here" just as a way of saying "I'm done talking now".

Amanda thinks cover stories are a bad idea.

I said she is wise. You'll have to take my word on beautiful.

She is so right. The comments were leaning towards "at least tell her it's for Halloween", but I now see that that is not the right way to go.

We (us gurls) do that too often and I vow to stop now. I mean, google lost bet crossdress and you'll get ten thousand hits (literally) from guys who wanna be gurls who are basically begging someone to tell them what they should wear. The sad part is, they think they're fooling someone other than themselves with the "bet" story.

No more stories. If anyone catches me telling cover stories, remind me that I'm falling into bad habits and I should stop.

Stories are for fictionmania.

No more stories.

I hadn't considered CC not being there until I was writing to Amanda. It's easier if she's off, I suppose. But that would make it harder for me to go back in the future to look around, because I don't know when CC will be there, and it might be awkward. I could say "I bought some clothing last time I was here, and I wanted to see what's new today." I could then let the conversation go where it may (keep reading).

Amanda wrote: "What is your reason to go? Just take cards to her? Buy dresses? Or have her 'know' that you cd?"

Dam good question. It is not my goal to come out to her. But that might be a side effect. But it's also avoidable, without resorting to stories.

And there are good reasons to avoid it. For starters, I’d be completely out to someone I barely know. I try to control this part of my life. If I tell someone, I'm fairly certain they'll keep it close. Or it's to someone who doesn't know anyone I know so no harm can really come of it.

That's not quite true. I've posted pictures. There's that whole six degrees of separation thing. If any of you started sending my picture out with "this is a guy. Does anyone recognise him? Here's what I know...." I'll probably be out.

I don't lose sleep over that possibility. Another tg blogger was always careful with details of her life. In one post, she gave enough details that with only five minutes of research I found her full name and address. I wrote that she might have given out TMI and she said "I don't care". (I paraphrase.)

Maybe at some point I'll out myself. I don't care ~ except there are kids who don't know. So I mostly don't care. Ninety-five percent don't care.

With CC, I don’t know if she’ll tell everyone in the shop and when someone picks up a card say “he shops here. He buys dresses for himself.” Or she might be the model of discretion, and consider the fact that the store is getting money for her charity the overriding issue.

If she outs me, I probably won't be back. If she's careful, I might send gurlfriends.

I don't have to come out to her to look around her store. I can do the same "I'm just going to look around while I'm here".

Maybe she'll assume I'm looking at books or furniture or men's clothing and ignore me. I'm fairly ignorable.

Maybe she'll go back to my comment from my last visit and ask "do you want to see some dresses for yourself?"

I am ready to say "yes. Twelves usually work. And how are your shoes organised?"

Maybe she'll just say "we have a lot of things here. Feel free to look around". Maybe she'll offer a discount or credit, since I did that computer work gratis.

Maybe she'll ask who I'm shopping for. Here, I'm not sure what I'll say. I may 'fess up. I may say "the holidays are coming up" ~ she'll assume I answered her question, but even that's a bit more dishonest than I like. I have been known to do that though, and not just with tg issues. An answer like that will almost always be met with a "let me know if you need any help" from a sales assistant in a shop. But a "who are you shopping for?" leads to outright lies (against my philosophy: see my earliest posts).

No more stories.

A Preview, Not A Review

Since the time I wrote the chicken post and the time I left the office, things changed.

I received a call from a new customer with an emergency. I set a time that would allow me maybe 30 minutes to look around the thrift shop. That's not a lot of time, but it's better than nothing. Besides, I still wasn't sure what I was going to do there: just drop off cards or look around as well.

Then I received a call from a woman I know from a couple of (non-tg) e-mail lists. I don't really know her, but I do admire her. She asked if I could do a favour for a friend of hers who's having some problems (the computer problem is minor; his other problems are life-threatening). The computer problem has to be resolved by tomorrow. The only time we could meet would be right before my first customer, pushing her back a bit.

So the thrift shop visit would be reduced to just dropping off cards.

I want my options open. So I skipped the thrift shop for another day.

I had several comments (go for it, mostly) and a couple of e-mails (mixed) on how to handle the thrift shop. I know I don't think clearly when I'm too close to an issue. If anyone has any ideas, please comment or drop me an e-mail.

I may go there today or tomorrow. I don't want to wait much longer; she'll probably forget what I said by next week. Note to readers: if I walk in and she says "so have you decided to try on dresses today?" it won't matter what I decided. I'm in. :)

So the comments right now are split between:
* yes
* yes, it's for Halloween

The second yes is still the chicken's way out.

The big problem is, she knows who I am. Mostly, I shop anonymously. I hand over a credit card, but that's just a name. My cards have my name, phone number, e-mail, website....

I left cards and brochures at some of the clothing swaps, but I was still anonymous. I didn't stand there, dressed in my finest, handing out cards. The cards sat on a table. There was nothing to connect the woman looking through the clothes with the name on the card. Besides, my name is somewhat androgynous.

So I've offered all the facts. Your opinions are welcome.

---

Over the next few days, I'll have some pictures of suits "Christine" might wear to the rally. I'll also need to talk to my wife about my Halloween plans. I will report.

Right now, things are up in the air. I don't know if my family will be in town. I don't know if out-of-town friends will be dropping by (maybe to stay with us!). I don't know if local friends expect me to ride in with them. I'll keep y'all posted.

None of these are showstoppers. They're just things I don't know.

Oh.... and I'll have probably One More Post on the thrift shop.

Yes, I'm A Chicken

I had a call yesterday. A woman wanted help with her computer.

That's not unusual. I had three other calls from women I don't know who wanted help with their computers. It's what I do, when I'm not sitting at a desk or... you know.

(Actually, one wanted help with her phone; I told her what to do. Another was from outside my area. The third I helped over the phone.)

This woman (CC) said she ran a non-profit in the area. From her description, I knew the exactly what organisation she meant. They have a thrift shop that I often go past on my way home. I've seen it many times; I stopped by once to look around (alas, they were closed). Kim, who runs the local clothing swap has brought the leftovers there. I mentioned these things to CC who was pleasantly surprised that I knew about her group.

She said she had "lots of viruses". I was skeptical.

I had one after-work customer. The thrift shop, oddly enough, was directly on my way home from that customer so I told her I'd stop by and gave her a time.

I walked in and was surprised at both the number of customers and the amount of goods. I thought it was like most of the other private thrift shops I'd wandered into ~ small, crowded, eclectic, bare of customers, organised but only because the shopkeepers had little else to do.

Clothes on the left, furniture on the floor, books on the right-hand wall, tchotchkes everywhere. I'm sure they had things I didn't notice. Mostly I was noticing the clothes.

The racks of clothes were organised like the Goodwill stores I'd been in: by colour rather than size. The closest rack was tops or suits (I couldn't tell which from where I was standing), with whites, creams, browns, reds, trailing off on a long long rack. The rack was double-sided and another rack was behind it. All seemed to have tops or suits on them. I later noticed that there were more pairs of double-racks behind them holding skirts and pants. Smaller multi-level tables had shoes on them. Probably not a lot of 11s, but a lot of pretty nice, and nice pretty, shoes.

CC was tall, blonde, slim, in her late 20s I'd say. She led me into her little office near the front of the store. The room had a large one-way mirror just to the left of the computer so while I was working I could spy on the customers.

It was mostly one bit of scareware but I had to yank it manually since it broke most of the tools I use. I was done, including starting some scans, in about an hour.

I found CC and told her everything seemed to be good, but sometimes they reappear and please let me know if that happens. She asked what the charge was, and I told her to consider it a donation to the shop.

What I really wanted to say was "let me go home and get some stuff. Point me to the changing room, lock me in tonight and tomorrow morning we'll call it even."

What I did say was "you have a lot of stuff here. Maybe I'll look at some dresses before I go."
CC said "Wednesday we collect furniture so we'll have a better selection then. If you want to come back then you can probably find what you want."

I think I wrote about those points where you can take two paths and have to decide. This was one. Smart move: say thanks and walk out. My move: "OK, but I said 'dresses' not 'dressers'."

She didn't miss a beat. She laughed and said "sure. They're in the back."

Another decision moment. Here's where the chicken Meg took hold and wouldn't let go. There were at least a dozen women in the shop, both workers and customers. Brave Meg would have said "thanks. I'll see what I can find." Mildly-brave Meg would have said "I'm thinking of going to a Halloween party as Christine O'Donnell ~ maybe I can find something inexpensive here."

Chicken Meg smiled and said "I can never find my size at places like this." She just said "I'm sure you can. What size are you?"

I need to be more ready for people like her. I really do. I'm not.

I said "I don't know. I'd have to try it on." She said "Eight? Nine? Look around."

Chicken Meg: "I'm just joking." She said "you wouldn't be the first."

She had asked if I wanted to leave some business cards or flyers for her customers. I only had one card with me, but I said I might come back to drop off cards, and maybe offer a discount to her customers. I really shouldn't ~ this is not the clientele I'm targeting. People who shop in thrift shops often can't afford my rates for repair.

But later today I'll be at that same customer picking up a computer. I'll stop by the thrift shop again on my way home, cards in hand.

The question is, will I say something like "remember when I was joking about getting a dress for me? I was joking about joking. How's your selection of 12s?"

Or I may just cluck a couple of times and lay another egg.