Hi, Grace! I don't invite anybody to my house because it's such an embarrassment to me. No need to go into the details. Suffice it to say that the landlord, who lives in the bottom half of the house, does nothing to maintain the property.
However, I quite often meet up with girlfriends in a café and I'm a member of an all-woman book club, and it's always a very nice experience. Being one of the girls is fabulous.
I was recently recalling two incidents that beautifully illustrate the difference between being in the closet and being out.
(1) Many years ago (long before I was out) I was in a town I didn't know at all and was looking for a public building. Not totally sure which way to go, I approached the nearest person, who happened to be a youngish woman, to ask for directions. As soon as I said, "Excuse me!", she tensed up. Fortunately she quickly saw that I was one of "the good ones" and just an out-of-towner looking for directions. At that point she relaxed, became perfectly friendly and got me where I wanted to go.
(2) A few months ago I went to a nearby town for the afternoon. In the evening, as I was waiting for the train back home, a woman came into the station, went to the ticket office and found the door locked. She wanted to ask somebody about that, so she had a look around. There were three of us waiting for the train--me and two young lads. So she approached me. She simply needed a timetable and was wondering when the office would be open. Being from out of town, I couldn't tell her, but I did have a timetable with me. (I always do when I'm travelling.) So I simply gave her mine, telling her that I could get another one later. At which point we got into a bit of chat. She needed a timetable because she was going to have to make several trips over the next couple of weeks, etc. Then she went on her way.
So the difference between being in and out: when you're in, a woman is nervous when you approach her. When you're out, a woman is perfectly comfortable approaching you. Who wants to be in?
