Out and About -- In the World at Large

[crfriend]

Well, lads, I think it's time to restart this one again -- what did you wear in your interactions with the world at large today?

Wearing skirts in public is now very much a non-event for me; however, last night brought an interesting conversation with another chap a few years my junior.

I was wearing a pink dress shirt, my dark blue waistcoat, and my burgundy ankle-length skirt. This is unremarkable enough, but the colours went well and the rig is quite comfortable.

Upon departing our local "watering hole" Sapphire and I passed a couple of lads, and by virtue of Sapphire needing to use the hand-rail, had to engage them for a bit. One took a good look at me, and I'll admit that I had that sinking feeling of, "Oh, Hell, here we go", and asked, "Where'd you get your skirt?" I cheerfully replied, "J.C. Penney", to which he came back with, "I wish I had the audacity to be able to dress like that!". To that, I politely informed him that, "Do! There's no-one stopping you, and skirts are very comfortable." A brief conversation followed, after which we took our leave and headed home.

I take this as a good sign, and I hope the lad winds his courage up and gives skirt-wearing a go!

[tooslowprius]

The one thing that I have noticed when I have been out as that most of the younger guy's seam to cool with people being who they are. Just the other day I was leaving a mall down here around my base that I'm at right now. As I was leaving I looked over and there was a guy with a bunch of his buddy's and he was wearing what looked like a kilt or a skirt! This guy was in his early 20's and was with a bunch of his buddy's most of them guy's. So as you can see the younger gen is not as uptight about wearing skirts and kilts as us not so young group!

[Kilted_John]

Both today and yesterday, was kilted. Pretty much the whole week (since that's what I wear @ college). I did swap the kilt out for a denim skirt this afternoon, so I could use the coin-op car wash and wash the grime and gunk off my car, but, I haven't trousered publicly the whole week.

-J

[ChrisM]

Flew BWI->MSY yesterday. Blue below-the-knee kilt skirt, dress shirt, sport coat. No comments, which is actually the norm in First Class.

While strolling through airports I get a lot of looks, but as reported so often here, "the women dig it."

Upon arriving home in New Orleans it was far too hot for the kilt. I went through several rigs for going out to dinner. Finally I ended up in trousers (!), but the good side of this was this allowed me to wear my kitten-heeled sandals.

Chris

[JRMILLER]

Chris,
"Kitten-heeled" sandals? I am drawing a serious blank on this, are the made from real kittens?

[RichardA]

kitten-heeled sandals<shakes head>

[JRMILLER]

Thanks Richard, I was really hoping for "real kittens". Imagine my disappointment when I discovered Girl Scout Cookies were NOT made out of real Girl Scouts!

[ChrisM]

Well, they weren't originally kitten-heeled, they were higher than that. But I really liked the uppers, so went ahead and bought them and repaired to the machine shop for half an hour to modify the heel. The heel isn't as "spiky" as one in the picture (nor, indeed, are the sandals as "strappy" as those pictured) so it actually made it easy to shorten the heel about 1-inch.

[crfriend]

[...]and repaired to the machine shop for half an hour to modify the heel.

Dang. Where do I get me one of them things? The "machine shop" that is. What a handy resource to have at one's beck and call!

Personally, if I was going to go for heels, I'd do a really chunky 2" (maybe 2.5) heel rather than the much more subdued "kitten heel". Anything more than that I suspect I'd have a hard time walking in.

However, I offer kudos to ChrisM for ingenuity.

[Since1982]

Carl, when you find out where to go pick up a free Machine Shop, please let me know, I need one also. Make sure it has a good press and metal lathe. Might stamp out a few imitation casino tokens...hehehehe (just for phun tho, I'd "NEVER" even THINK about illegally using them..) Was watching a "Masterminds" show the other night where some guy from New Jersey got caught after buying a machine shop and turning out several million fake tokens and turning them in for cash at the Taj Mahal Casino. He DID get away with it for 2 years, but got greedy. IF he'd just stayed at the Taj...instead of flying all over the world with his tokens.

[crfriend]

Just back from a half-day at work (mainly because I carried the "duty pager" and didn't sleep much the past week) and lunch (and a nap) "out and about" in a black dress shirt and my black tiered skirt. It makes for a fine-looking ensemble, if a bit warm in today's hot sun. I was strongly tempted to wear it to work.

At the moment, I'm wearing the white T-shirt dress that Sapphire made which is vastly more temperature appropriate.

Carl, when you find out where to go pick up a free Machine Shop, please let me know, I need one also. Make sure it has a good press and metal lathe. Might stamp out a few imitation casino tokens...hehehehe

Why is it that any time one mentions a decent toolkit somebody else immediately intuits that it'll be used for illicit purposes? Personally, I'd really like to be able to make interesting things from metal; it'd aid my hobby and provide a measure of independence. And no, I'm not interested in counterfeiting; would folks say the same if I wanted a decent printing setup?

[One perpetrator] DID get away with it for 2 years, but got greedy. IF he'd just stayed at the Taj...instead of flying all over the world with his tokens.

Greed is why most amateur crooks fall. I am tempted to recommend Harry Harrison's The Stainless Steel Rat series as a reasonable primer. To paraphrase: "The temptation to run one more scam is very compelling. It's also the best way to get acquainted with the police." But, of course, that goes without saying.

[ChrisM]

Hot today, so the emphasis was on ventilation: Gold silk sarong-style wrap skirt, Bass flat sandals, red toenail polish, white tropical gentleman's shirt.

Just strolling around New Orleans, some minor shopping plus a little tourism.

And the machine shop? Yes, well, that is one of the great benefits of being a professor in an engineering school. And it's "our" machine shop...there are no technicians, there are no forms to fill out, just open the door with the key in my pockets and have it. It's like a great State-funded hobby shop.

Chris

[sapphire]

Life at the Town Offices

I volunteer at our town's senior center which is colated with the town offices. I lead the Wii bowling team for the Seniors.

I was having some trouble getting the Wii setup correct and asked Carl to give me a hand on a day that he had off. So off we went to the town offices, Carl in one of his usual skirted outfits.

I had a bit of business with the Administrator's Assistant, so we stopped there first, then proceeded to the Senior Center and got the Wii going.

In discussions with everyone later on I asked what they thought of Carl's outfit. The Assistant, who is a woman about my age, commented that Carl looked really good in the skirt and admired him for following his internal direction as to how he wanted to dress. It turns out that that was the general consensus. It just happened that the group was all ladies and all of the ladies, ages 60 through 80 something, were favorably impressed and very supportive of Carl's look. They thought it was great that he had the wherewithal to follow his own fashion sense, do it well and not be a slave to "tradition"!!

Skirt on guys, skirt on!!!

[AMM]

Since it was warm, I wore my Utilikilt into town to pick up my mail. Ran into the mother of one of my son's classmates at the gourmet food store in town and we spent some time chatting about how our kids were doing.

BTW, I don't remember if I wrote about taking the train to a Contradance in New Jersey and back in early March. It involved taking the train into NYC, the subway to Penn Station, and another train out to NJ. I wore my long denim skirt for part of the trip and my red over-the-knee skirt for the rest. Aside from some funny looks from a few twenty-somethings when I went to get off the train in NJ, and one positive comment on the subway platform, no one batted an eye.

[Since1982]

As it's become nasty hot here, all my black, dark blue, navy blue, royal blue and grape skirts have been neatly folded and drawered until Fall. Out came the white tiered I'm wearing, khaki A-line, pale blue straight knee length, light blue A-line stone washed denim, light patterned mixed skirts and T-shirts to match. All but one underskirts get put away until fall too. Too warm. White, cream or beige opaque tights replace the black, dark blue and chocolate brown ones. I only have 2 pairs of shoes though. Both brown leather loafers. One pair of Birkenstock sandals.