Perception

I'm again 800 miles from home, helping my ex who just had knee surgery. Being warmer than from where I live, I brought almost exclusively shorts to wear. When we raced out yesterday morning for the surgery, I discovered that I had lost weight and did not have a belt. I was working hard all day not to let my shorts drop.

This morning I put on a different pair of shorts. These happen to be androgynous women's exercise shorts, and have a tie string at the waist. Despite this, with all the stuff in my pockets, it felt weighted down. Fortunately I brought some of my women's stuff with me, including a fanny pack. I was able to put some items in there to lessen the weight on the shorts.

I stopped into Goodwill this morning to pick up a belt. I also browsed around and found a jeans miniskirt. I have a couple at home, but they all need belts because of my weight loss. I brought it up to the cashier. She looked at the belt, then the skirt, laid it straight on the table, folded it in half and said 'Okay, a belt and a pair of shorts."  In my mind, I'm thinking, "Oooookay, she thinks they're shorts." In her mind, there would be no reason for a man to buy a women's jeans skirt, so it must be shorts. There was no need for me to correct her. But it was interesting to see how the skirt became shorts in her mind's eye, and how her perception altered reality.

A funny side note. With the shorts I am wearing, I have a skort in the same material and exact same color (from the same company) at home. With the skort folded in half, it is very easy to mistake the skort with the shorts. I did end up packing up the skort to exercise, then noticing what I grabbed when I went to change, put it back in my bag and just wore my jeans that day to exercise class. After doing this a couple of times, I moved the skorts to a different shelf so I wouldn't confuse the shorts from the skort.