I got to see Return of the King on Wednesday; the movie itself was way cool, but even better was seeing the 350 friends and one degree of separation friends. There were people I hadn't seen for years, people I knew but hadn't actually met, and zillions of people I recognized but didn't know who they were. What was bizarre was my sensation of being in drag; even though I was wearing terribly normal clothing, people seemed to not recognize me at first (or second, or third). Admittedly, the last time I'd seen a bunch of these people I looked rather different (shorter hair, different color, etc) but even the people I knew fairly well seemed to react slightly differently than usual.
As I was driving home I thought about it some more, and I realized that at many of the previous occasions when I'd seen those people, I was wearing dresses; the fabric's better, the styles are more fun, and I look a lot snazzier in them than in the kinda dull men's clothing I have. It's not that I was wearing them as drag or to 'pass'; I wanted to stay very recognizably myself. I've felt trepidation at doing so ("is this socially acceptable? do I look bad? does this make me look fat?") but never had the feeling of being in drag - which was why wearing fairly normal attire was such a strange time for those feelings to happen.
On the other hand, I seem to have the amazing ability to be not seen. I was at Koinonea with
And speaking of uncomfortable, I'd be quite happy for the Xmas carols to stop being played, thanks.