The Breakfast Club

By Paula Gaikowski

My dziewczyna Paula has been getting out a lot lately and she is dying to tell you all about it!

I had two road trips in the recent month and of course had time to get out as Paula

The first trip was to suburban Philadelphia.

When I am on the road, I tend to wake up very early, like 4:00-4:30. So I decided to organize my clothes and started trying on different outfits. Well I decided to get all dressed up with makeup and all – just as I would if I were going to be able to spend the day as a business woman. So there I am all dolled-up, and its 6:30 AM and the dining room is open, so off I went purse, laptop, looking very businesslike.

The waitress brought me coffee and addressed me as “Ma’am.” In one respect, it was remarkably mundane, however, the fact that I am out in the world doing everyday things as a woman is marvelously wonderful.

I truly want this every day.

I went back to the room and Cinderella morphed back into Cinderfella. I was so sad.

I must have missed some makeup because later that day one of my co-workers asked, “Hey, what’s on your eye?”

Thinking quickly I replied, “Oh, car trouble must be grease.”

A lady I’ve known many years quipped, “Yeah right!!”

I blushed and moved the conversation back to business.

I had nice weather in Long Beach, California the next week and decided to wear one of my skirt suits that I love so much. I loved my new glasses and had so much fun using my new makeup mirror that you can see to the right in the photo. Having a magnifying mirror made makeup application so easy.

I can’t stress enough what a help a mirror like this is! Please listen girls, the detail you get from the light and magnification is so helpful. It also solves the problem of putting on eye makeup without glasses. For once I could see in detail how I was putting on shadow and eyeliner! It’s lightweight and travels well; I use my hip pads to protect it in my luggage, at Walmart.

I had fun going to M·A·C and having an edgy young makeup artist teach me how to put on eyeliner the correct way. When it was all said and done, I was into it for $50, but oh so much fun and well worth the advice and experience of just being out there in Girl Land.

I bought a bottle of water at the front desk and had a conversation with the clerk, then went to the California Fish Grill and had dinner. While waiting to order, I could see out of the corner of my eye a guy about 45 looking me over, his gaze focused on my backside, then my legs.

“My gosh,” I thought, “He’s checking me out!” Whether or not I’m to his liking didn’t matter; just the fact that he is appraising me as a woman as a “possibility” is all it took for something to stir inside, something long hidden and forbidden coming to the surface.

I grabbed my dinner and walked out and felt my face blush.

Wearing Bebe.

Jack Clarke (right) of the Royal Canadian Air Force competed for the title of Miss Toronto, 1941. He was encouraged to enter the female beauty pageant by his squadron mates, who helped transform him into a viable competitor. (Source: One of the Boys by Paul Jackson)