Wednesday’s Real Life Experience

It was so cold on Wednesday! The temperature never reached 20 and the wind chill made it worse. (The wind chill on Mt. Washington was 
-85 degrees. Can you imagine?)

I dressed for the weather. I wore my purple knee-length, long-sleeved sweater dress, diamond-patterned tights, booties and white fake fur jacket.

I arrived at West Farms Mall shortly after it opened and went straight to Macy's to look for the "perfect dress" that I saw there a couple of weeks ago. I quickly found it in my size and took it to the fitting room along with two other dresses that looked lovely.

The perfect dress fit, but did not look perfect. The other two dresses were even less so. I decided to abandon Macy's and walked to JCPenney at the other end of the mall.

I found four dresses in the JCPenney racks that I took to the fitting room. One dress looked fabulous on me, but I could not zip it up all the way and sadly it was not available in a larger size.

Two of the other dresses were so small that I could not get them on at all. The fourth dress fit and I kind of liked the way it looked on me. But after considering it, I decided not to settle; I could do better. So I exited JCPenney and walked back to the Macy's end of the mall where my car awaited me.

Although I was dressed for the weather outdoors, I was way overdressed for the "weather" inside Macy's and JCPenney. It was uncomfortably warm in the stores. Shedding my fake fur jacket helped a little, but not enough and I was anxious to get out into the fresh air again. And as it was, time was of the essence --- it was time to meet my editor for lunch.

But before I get into that, you may wonder about my real life experience in the mall. I am so used to being out en femme that I don't even think about it, but the e-mails I receive indicate that some of you wonder about it.

Even though the mall had just opened, it was busy --- not Christmas season busy, but there was a lot of foot traffic, all adults because school was in session.

I usually avoid eye contact with males --- don't want to encourage them --- but I did eye catch a half dozen or so checking me out as I walked through the mall.

On the other hand, I watch females more closely to see how they react. Three or four smiled and said "Hello" as we passed each other in the mall. I noticed a few other females looking me over --- trying to figure me out I suppose.

No one, male or female, acted negatively to my presence. No one was outraged and no one laughed. I think most people just perceived me as another middle-aged woman in the mall, which works for me.

(To be continued)