Halloween 2017: The Rest of the Story

Thursday’s post described the beginning of my day out en femme on Halloween 2017. The post was a big hit, so this post will tell the rest of the story.

Rite Aid

My next stop was my pharmacy two doors up the road from my bank.

I never get red eye in boy mode, but in girl mode, it occurs often enough that I always carry a bottle of eye drops in my purse to relieve the unsightly problem. I attribute my girl mode red eye to eye makeup — either from the irritation that may occur when I apply the makeup or from makeup crumbs that may get in my eye. Anyway, I misplaced my bottle of eyedrops when I was out Saturday night, so I went to Rite Aid to buy a new bottle.

I seldom see the same people working in Rite Aid. Either there is a big turnover or they have a big staff all working less than 40-hour weeks. So it did not surprise me that I did not recognize any of the staff during my visit on Tuesday.

I found the eye drops and checked out without the cashier blinking an eye even though I greeted her with “Happy Halloween!”

Agway

We have cats (and dogs). We buy our cat litter at Agway because they carry a brand that we like and no one else sells that brand locally (as far as we have been able to determine). The Agway that sells our favorite litter is located a half hour away. That was convenient when I was working because it was only a few miles away from my workplace, but now that I am retired...

Since I originally planned to visit my former workplace, I figured I would be in the neighborhood, so I planned to stock up on litter. Carrying 40 pound bags of litter while wearing high heels and long nails would be challenging, but I was up for it.

I entered the store and the woman who runs the place was at the counter. I approached her and when she asked if she could help me, I said I was the “litter guy,” the self-named moniker I used whenever I phoned the store to see if they had the litter in stock.

“Who are you?”

Like the woman at the bank, I think she heard me, but could not believe her eyes, so I repeated my nickname and then I saw her expression change to one of recognition.

“Oh, sorry, but we are all out. The next shipment is next Tuesday.”

“OK, see you next week,” and I exited the premises without a word about my appearance or a “Happy Halloween.”

Not sure how she expects me to appear next week.

My last three stops on Tuesday were Roz & Ali (née Dress Barn), Macy's and Burger King. I will describe them in reverse order.

Burger King

My wife asked me to pick up some fast food from Burger King on the way home, so I stopped at the King closest to my home. Although it was in between lunch and dinner, this King is always busy because it is easy access from Interstate I-84.

I walked in, placed my order, waited five minutes for the special no-ketchup Whopper, received my order and exited the premises without incident. I was an invisible older women. Although a couple of guys did check me out briefly, they were younger and probably not interested when they saw I was old enough to be their mother or grandmother!

Macy’s

This was a “I'm feeling so great that I don’t want to return to boy mode stop” just to extend my day out. The store was not very busy — just a few older women like me perusing the racks. A couple of sales reps greeted me, but that was the extent of my interaction with any living beings.

I did find a beautiful Calvin Klein dress that was marked down considerably and I thought about trying it on, but I did not for reasons you will read below.

Roz & Ali (née Dress Barn)

I visited my favorite Dress Barn — the one near my former employer where they know me in boy and girl mode — also where I filled out a job application.

I know the manager and sales rep who were on duty by name and they know me by name. I had conversations with both of them about the store’s name change and I also asked the manager about my job application. She said they weren’t hiring right now because they had closed three other local Dress Barns during the summer.

Perusing the racks, nothing knocked me out, but I found two dresses in Misses size 14 that had potential and the sales rep opened a changing room for me. First I tried on a floral print. It fit perfectly and I was surprised how much better it looked on me than on the rack! It was a keeper.

The second dress was a sexy black number — something I could see Sophia Loren wearing. The top of the dress was too small and I could not zip it up. The sales rep found one in Woman's size 14W, which I was able to zip up easily, but it was too roomy in the waist, so I rejected it and went home with just one new dress to add to my wardrobe.

By the way, the reason I did not try on the Calvin Klein dress in Macy’s was because changing out and back into a skirt suit was so time-consuming at Dress Barn that I did not want to repeat it at Macy’s. Removing the jacket, skirt and blouse was easy enough, but putting everything back on was harder because the blouse had a lot of finicky buttons, so I did not think it was worth it especially since I had just bought a new dress at Dress Barn.

Hair Salon Redux

Ten days later, I had an appointment for a haircut at the salon I visited on Halloween. My hairdresser was off on Halloween, so after she seated me at her station, she said, “I’m sorry I missed you on Tuesday. The girls said you were beautiful.”

So I immediately retrieved my iPhone and showed her my photo taken in the salon on Halloween.

She took my iPhone, examined the photo closely and remarked, “You look like a businesswoman.”

“That’s what I intended.”

“You do look beautiful!”

“Thank-you.”

Bank Redux

The next time I visited my bank, the teller was the same teller who I saw on Halloween. The other two women staffing the bank were not working on Halloween. One is the teller I often deal with at the drive-through window. The other is the branch manager, who refinanced my mortgage. So they both know me well as a regular customer.

My teller handled my withdrawal and then she brought up the topic of Halloween. She said my “costume” was the best she had ever seen. Then she asked me if I had a photo on my iPhone so she could show the other women.

Of course, I did and she called the other teller over to see my photo. Needless to say, she was floored. Then she asked the bank manager if she had seen my Halloween costume photo.

She replied, “No, but I heard about it.”

Evidently, my costume was the talk of the bank staff.

I showed her my photo and she said I looked amazing!

“Amazing” was the word for Halloween 2017 and I will never forget it.

Wearing StyleWe

Kyle De'Volle