Busy day, and stepped further outside my comfort zone

So, I've had quite the day out dressed. Disappointingly, I haven't been going to any Capital City Pride events, and I had such high hopes to use them as an excuse to leave the house en femme. So, this morning, I decided I was going to dress up and go watch the pet parade. I put on a little makeup, some pink polish on my toenails, my wig, a white flowy top, and my favorite shorts. I'm not sure what you call this style of shorts, they are really short, but a little baggy on the sides. (Sandy, it was basically the same outfit I wore on that one walk.)

It rained a bit on the way to Des Moines, but stopped when I got downtown, which was lucky for me, because I didn't have an umbrella. I walked to Principal Park for the event, apparently the rain must have scared a lot of spectators away, as there were not many people in the stands to watch. I stood and watched a bit (the seats were all wet from the rain) then walked up to the balcony area and watched a bit. When there were only a few more people with their dogs or cats to go, I decided to leave.

So far, I had avoided contact with people, other than an event organizer saying hi when I walked in. I was just about to the stairs to exit, when a woman said to me, "I like your shorts." I said a soft thank you and kept going. Only when I got out to the parking lot, did I realize how much I was smiling from this little interaction.  First of all, I love these shorts myself, they are my favorite! But, the acknowledgement and casual acceptance from someone else felt great. And I think it was that little comment from her that pushed me to continue my dressing adventure.

The Farmers Market was just a couple blocks away. I thought, maybe I can walk over that way and see how it looks. So, I did. Much to my surprise, the Farmers Market was very busy, tons of people. But, I walked in and started down the street past some booths. I did see a few people with little pride flags or wild hair, whom I guessed came there after the pride event like I did. But, it was mostly just regular people of all ages. While the sheer number of people was scary to walk in to, I think the crowd actually helped in a way. Yes, a few people glanced at me as I passed. But, there were probably thousands of other people there to look at as well, and everyone was there for their own purposes. So, really, no one even paid much attention to me. (Central Iowa girls, I can recommend the DSM Farmers Market as someplace to go out to dressed, and I'm definitely going to do it again myself.)

I mostly walked and looked around, but had to at least buy something as Birel. There was one stand that had baked goods, including these delicious looking strawberry cream cheese croissants. (Pastries are my weakness.) I didn't think eating there would help my lady like look, so I got one for later. I ended up spending about an hour at the Farmers Market before I decided to go, and maybe go through a drive through to get some lunch.

As I walked down the street to where I parked, I saw the parking meter enforcement, ticketing people. So, I jogged to my car to get there before she did. 🙂 I did plug the meter, but it was long expired, I hadn't intended to spend so much time there. So, I drove through Wendy's for a spicy chicken, and the woman at the window called me hon twice. 🙂

I was going to go home, change, wash off my makeup, and then go back to town for groceries and supplies. But, that just didn't make sense, to waste all that time, when Birel could do the shopping. When I got to Ames, I went to Goodwill while dressed, tried on clothes at Torrid and Ragstock in the mall while dressed, and the big one, I went to Walmart while en femme. These were all firsts for me to go while dressed. Since I couldn't hide behind my dark sunglasses while shopping indoors, I did wear a mask, which is actually getting to be pretty unusual around here.

Walmart was scary for sure. And then when I was going through self checkout, the employee in that area had to help me a couple times. I got NyQuil, and they have to put in that you are an adult. Well, she accidentally clicked that I was not of age. So, then I had to finish that purchase and get the NyQuil on a separate purchase. So, I ended up having to talk to her a couple times through all this. Anyway, I may be just as scared going in to Walmart dressed next time as well, but I survived.

So, it was kind of an exciting day of going out and pushing my limits today. The highlight was definitely when that woman complimented me on my shorts though. 🙂

Birel

P.S. The croissant was heavenly!