I Blend

You may recall that three weeks ago, I had a free dinner date courtesy of Prudential Financial. Stanley was invited and she attended dressed appropriately for a woman her age.

At the banquet hall, each attendee was assigned to a specific table and each table had a Prudential representative seated with the guests. The rep introduced himself and was available to field questions, if any. It was all very laid-back and there was no high pressure sales.

A week later, I received a call on my iPhone. I did not recognize the number, so I did not answer it. I received a second call from the same number a week later and another on Friday.

Over the weekend, I finally noticed that there were two voicemails left after the last two calls. I listened to the voicemails and they were from the Prudential rep seated at our table offering his financial services if I was interested.

He did mention in passing that either I was a no-show at the dinner or I ended up sitting at the wrong table!

There were three couples and two solos (me and a guy) seated at our table. Perhaps the rep thought I was with the wife or girlfriend of the solo guy even though we were not seated together. I also assume he was looking for a male Stanley at his table, not the lady Stanley, who was present.

I guess I blend in better than I thought.

Wearing Derek Lam 10 Crosby sweater, Rejina Pyo skirt, Tibi boots and Yuzefi bag (Source: Intermix)

John Crawford femulating in the 1961 British film The Impersonator.

No Surprise

Above Average

Commenting on my Thursday post, Meg wrote, "I wonder when you'll stop being surprised that you're treated as the woman you are."

Julie and Tina left concurring comments. I can imagine Cher saying, "Get over it" as she slaps me in the face.

For most of my life, I did not present as a woman among civilians. When I began stepping out as a woman, I questioned any attention I received — usually assuming the worst, that is, a civilian figured out that I was not what I appeared to be.

There is probably some truth in that assumption because early on, my presentation may have been lacking. But as I fine-tuned my presentation, I received feedback in my encounters with civilians that indicated that I was fooling some of the people some of the time.

Thirty years later, I think my presentation is better than average and when I am out, I assume that everyone accepts me as a woman. So I am no longer surprised when I am treated as a woman.

However, when I write about my days and nights out as a woman, I often mention the positive treatment I receive in order to encourage my readers that they too can go out and be accepted as the women they truly are.

And so it goes.

I'd wear this outfit (Source: Pinterest)

El Brendel femulates in the 1935 film Okay Jose.

I'm So Tired

Sorry, there were no Sunday Funnies yesterday! The past five days have been very hectic and the blog suffered as a result.

Wednesday evening, I went out for my free dinner and when I returned home, I chronicled the evening for the blog before I went to bed because Thursday was Day One of my daughter's move.

Thursday, we rented a box truck from U-Haul, brought it home and loaded it with my daughter's belongings. I never drove anything bigger than a passenger van before, so I was a little nervous getting behind the wheel of the truck, but I got used to it very quickly. The truck had a rear view camera to facilitate backing up and that was a godsend.

Friday morning, Day Two of the move, we drove the truck to my daughter's apartment in Hartford. The building (formerly a factory) had a loading dock and a freight elevator, so we were able to move everything up to her fourth floor apartment by loading the freight elevator twice. Our cousin showed up to help us move and we managed to get everything into the apartment in two hours. Then, we assembled her bed and quit for the day. My daughter rewarded us with dinner at Outback Steakhouse.

We returned to her apartment Saturday to assemble some other furniture and unpack the essentials. We quit after four hours, went home, ate dinner and crashed.

I spent Sunday morning removing the ice covered snow from the driveway and sidewalks. The snow overnight turned to rain this morning, which froze on contact making power outages a possibility. I am crossing my fingers that that does not happen. So far, so good, but I am trying to finish and post this as soon as possible, just in case.

And I'm so tired!

Wearing Veronica Beard (Source: Veronica Beard)

Oslo Grace, model

There is such a thing as a free lunch: the rest of the story

Wednesday evening, I had a free dinner date courtesy of the Prudential Financial. The event was held at the Aqua Turf Club, the finest banquet facility in the area, so I dressed appropriately for a nice night out.

I wore a "parker green" belted bell-sleeve sheath sweater dress from New York and Company with "Tomalah Ombre Pumps" from Nine West. I accessorized with earrings, necklace and watch from Avon and a black satchel handbag from Jessica Simpson. I also wore a new hairdo: Noriko Reese in a shade of red called "Cherrywood."

Aqua Turf is only 20 minutes from my home, so I left at 5:30 PM to arrive at 5:50 PM for a 6 PM start. As I drove into the parking lot, I was surprised by the number of people walking into the banquet hall. For a second, I hesitated and thought about not mingling with hundreds of civilians (turned out that there were about 400 people in attendance), but I gathered up my handbag, exited the Subaru and joined the throng heading indoors.

There was a line of civilians checking in along with a lot of Prudential suits milling about and it seems that they all looked up when the tall redhead got in line. One of the suits came over to me, asked my name and directed me to the correct line for my last name (there were three separate lines for three divisions of the alphabet).

I exchanged banter with another tall woman joking about which line to get into because the lines were not clearly defined. She was in my line and I was in hers, so we swapped spots.

The suits checking me in did not blink when it came to my male name that I was registered under. I think they were too busy to care.

After I checked in, another suit escorted me to my table, which was occupied by a 50-something couple. Soon we were joined by two other 50-something couples and one gent who was solo. I was seated between two women and we chit-chatted throughout the evening... some girl talk and some talk about retirement planning.

The speaker, Tom Hegna, was excellent. He was entertaining and informative, has written five books on retirement planning and convinced me that the annuity I owned was a good thing after all.

The food was good, too. I have eaten at Aqua Turf in the past and the food was always over the top, but I assumed that a free dinner might be cut-rate. I was wrong; dinner was excellent.

I also assumed there would be some high pressure salesmanship at the event, but there was none. However, I expect I will receive a call from a Prudential suit in the near future.

The event broke up at 9 PM and I arrived home shortly thereafter.

The evening went very well. No one gave me an odd, knowing look. Rather, everyone treated me as a woman and I had a wonderful time.

Wearing Diane von Furstenberg (Source: DVF)

Wearing New York and Company dress, Nine West shoes and Avon jewelry 

There is such a thing as a free lunch

I just arrived home from my free dinner. It's too late to write much about it, but I will say that it went well. Standby for a full report as soon as possible.

Wearing Escada (Source: Rue La La)

Yours truly dining out Wednesday evening