Today was Saturday, the first day of the week-end and like all week-ends I go about my life 100% as woman. Since it was also the first bright, sunny day we've had in a couple of weeks, my wife and I decided to do a little shopping in the center of Strasbourg so that we could have lunch outside on a terrace before going to a mall outside of the city to do our weekly shopping.
We arrived in the city center late morning, went to a couple of shops and then starting thinking about lunch, finally settling for an Thai/Laotian place, which didn't have a terrace but which did have what looked like a good menu.
I went in just in front of my wife and was greeted as Madame and for most of the meal we were both adressed to as "Mesdames = Ladies"; However, at the very end of an excellent lunch, one of the two waiters who had looked after us started calling me Monsieur, something that hadn't happened in a very long time and which left me a bit mystified. Anyway, I pretended not to notice and am not too bothered one way or another as I guess it's bound to happen occasionally.
We wandered around a little more after lunch and then headed out to the mall for the chore side of the weekend shopping. On the way my wife asked if I didn't think there was more risk of running into people I knew from work at a rather busier hour than when we usually go which is during lunchtime. I said maybe but that we didn't have too much choice so we kept going.
As it happens we crossed two people I knew from work while going through the aisles. Neither work closely with me I'm not sure if the first person recognized me but am certain that the second did as I looked around a little while afterwards and saw that he was still looking in my direction. It's not a huge big deal as I am already out to everyone that counts and am just waiting for my civil identity change to come through for the whole thing to be officialized. However, I would still prefer things happened in the planned order, simply not to creat a problem for an employer who has been very supportive so far.
Also, while I was clearly dressed as a woman with my hair loose and held with a band like in my avatar photo, my outfit was very discreet, close to androgynous; loose fitting light pullover over an open necked blouse, lose fitting pants and ankle boots, so not too much for anyone to get their teeth into one way or another. It might even explain why the waiter switched from Madame to Monsieur during the meal, that or my voice.
The last incident in the most incident filled day I can remember since I started my transition was running into another couple with an MtF who was even taller than me along with a woman about the size of my wife. The MtF was dressed in Goth type dress, white loose sleeved blouse, black corset and long black skirt. She also had long black hair but a pretty masculine face. She was also getting looked at by pretty well everyone in the supermarket as between her height and attire, she was very hard to miss.
We ran across them a couple of times as we finished our shopping and right at the end, when we went to checkout, they arrived right behind us in the queue. My wife and I looked at each other and just started to giggle. The coincidence of two all female couples, with two such tall ladies,(both over 6') along with two average sized ladies arriving at the check out counter in a shopping mall around here must be close to zero but there we were...
We got through our stuff fairly quickly and headed off, honesly somewhat relieved as I generally get around without attracting any particular attention and would very much like to keep it that way. As it happens, nothing in the attitude of the other couple made me believe that they had clocked me but maybe they were just very discreet. Actually, I think they were so self concious that they weren't picking up on too much else.
There were still a couple of lessons for me in the days events. For starters, I still don't pass 100% but maybe that's too much to hope for. Secondly, I need to insure that in spite of my impatience to finally have all this behind me, I need to be careful not to mess things up in the home stretch by putting my employer in an awkward position.
The last lesson was more a confirmation of what I have always believed. If you want to pass like any other woman, dressing and behaving like just any other woman in your age group is the right way to go. I may have been clocked by the waiter in the restaurant but by and large, nobody pays any attention to me. Against that, while it may have been intentional in which case what I'm saying counts for little, I couldn't help but notice how very atypical dress focused even more attention on my fellow traveller.
Interesting day...
Hugs
Donna
