Out and about again...

I recently had occasion to visit the phone store, regarding some issues with my cell phone.   Both the man and woman on duty addressed me (in my typical androgynous stirrup pants/tunic outfit) as Ma'am.   I was Ma'am for the whole time...

And at the post office, none of the customers seemed to indicate that they saw me as anything but what I appeared to be...a somewhat outdated-looking older woman taking care of her business.   That's the way it should be...

Next day, I stopped at the grocery store, and passed a number of folks (both genders) who didn't so much as glance at me.  Capris and flats did help, but still, there was no sign of any double-takes or second guesses.   At check out, the clerk had no hesitation...I was a female.  And the person in line behind me had no issue with that.

While in the vicinity of the local mall, I decided to visit Claire's (for those not familiar with them, a cheap earring and other accoutrements shop).  I don't visit often, but in a stirrup-pants-turtleneck tunic-and-flats outfit, I got the urge to drop in.  Once again, they had a small clip-on earring display.  I looked it over, and found an interesting dangly pair...which called my name...and said "buy me!"  That's a call I find hard to resist.  So I took out my wallet and sprung for them.

Now, I had one follow-up stop to make - the phone store again.  I wasn't wearing makeup or lipstick, just a girl on a casual day out. So I left my new earrings on, and went in.  The same staff was there as during my previous visit, they remembered me by my "now female" given name, and addressed me as "Ma'am" the entire time.  A wonderful visit.

The feeling of long, dangly earrings moving around as I go about my business is intoxicating.  Now I can't wait to find a time to go somewhere in a skirt, wearing these new accoutrements!  But that will have to wait for later in the new year...photo above.

So, how would they look with this outfit?  It's an old dress, and very comfortable.  I've been wearing the outfit around the house.  Is this something I might want to try on my next train trip?  The dress is long enough to be modest, but super easy to wear...and if it's during warm weather, a short sleeve blouse would work well.

And then yesterday, with me in androgynous mode at the nursing home as usual, one of the staff members (whom I thought knew I was a guy) carried on a conversation with me, using female forms of address.   Needless to say, I didn't object...nor did I correct her.   When we parted, she said "Have a good day, Ma'am."

She knew how to "make my day...and week!"

More later...

Mandy

Quiet season...and autonomous vehicles.

Not much happening here...Mandy's into her annual quiet season.   With the holidays, the end of December traditionally was very quiet.  Likewise the month of January and February will be.   There may not be a lot of posting activity -  wife and I may be doing some traveling together.  So any posting will unfortunately be mostly more local androgynous stuff.

I hope my followers (and readers who don't necessarily follow me yet) will bear with me.   Hopefully once the worst of winter is past us, things will make their usual seasonal improvement and Mandy will be able to get "back in the saddle again."   And hopefully you - and we - have a Happy New Year in the process....

One thing caught my eye on the internet recently, and it has nothing to do with gender or presentation.  Maryland's Republican administration recently announced that Interstate 95 and other major arteries around the Baltimore region could become a testing ground for driverless cars starting in 2018, under a proposal announced in the last couple of weeks.

"The state has applied for a U.S. Department of Transportation program that aims to work out the kinks in autonomous vehicle technology, speed its arrival on roadways across the country and help grow companies that are developing it."   Nice idea, folks.  I'm just not sure the area is ready for it...    If it were April 1,  I'd be very suspicious of an April Fool's joke.  But April 1 is still almost 3 months away, so it apparently isn't a joke.

Unfortunately, IMHO the idea is "kink-infested" from the get-go.   Can you imagine the difficulty of citing such a car for causing an accident?  How do you sue a driverless car?  Do they haul the car into the courtroom, and if so, how does it take the oath and testify?  If found guilty, how can the car be punished?  Disconnect its battery or drain its gas tank?  Put a "boot" on its front tire?  It's not alive...so punishments like that won't do any good.  Maybe reformat its computer or install an upgrade?

More hypothetical questions:  how will the autonomous vehicle respond to an officer controlling traffic at an accident scene or intersection with malfunctioning lights, or deal with a police vehicle trying to pull it over for a violation?   (These and  numerous other scenarios require instant judgment calls - and are not well-suited to AI - Artificial Intelligence.)

To inject a bit of humor into a serious topic, are the makers of those driverless vehicles planning to install a "prosthetic arm with it's hand's middle finger extended" in each dashboard and rear package shelf?  The purpose of this would be to automatically "pop up" in the appropriate window, each time the autonomous car cuts someone off, or a conventional vehicle's driver honks his horn.  Big city driving would not be complete without that feature...   And conventional drivers wouldn't know how to react if they didn't have something "flip them the bird" as they use the horn to warn the autonomous car about running the red light, blowing through the stop sign or making an improper lane change or turn. 

Sorry for the rant.  But perhaps this whole "autonomous" thing is best relegated to the scrap heap,  before it starts to kill or maim people.  (Hopefully they won't spend much time over here on the Delmarva...quite yet.)

I'll leave you with a picture of this holiday decoration, seen while driving through a small town on the Delmarva.  And I gotta admit, this is a first for this type of decoration:

Cute, isn't it?

Happy New Year...

Mandy



 

Happy New Year...

to all my followers and readers!  Enjoy your holiday!

Mandy

New Nails...

It was time for a trip to the nail salon, to have a fill done on my nails.  Several of them had some damage and/or the acrylic was separating.   My tech inspected them, removed the bad ones, and gave me a complete nail make-over.   That included a new color..."It's time you got a new color - and today's your day.  It's still a neutral color, so it will go with anything.  But I think you'll be much happier with nails that are more feminine, and very noticeable.  Girls will love it, and you'll find yourself getting compliments on your nails."

She was right.  I love them!

And I'd better...because they stand out whenever I use my hands...there is no practical way to keep them hidden.   Anything I do involving my hands puts them on display.  The girls at the beauty salon had good things to say - as did one of the grocery store clerks.  My wife has been fairly quiet about them...though I did hear a comment that "your nails are a lot prettier than X's."  (She's a hostess at one of the home shopping channels.)   And I'll take that as a compliment!

I recently bought a new camera...the first one (brand X we'll say, it shall remain nameless) didn't take nearly as good pictures as the one I was replacing.   I checked by taking a picture of a subject with the old one (when it decided to work right) and then taking the same picture with the new one.   It's disappointing when a new purchase doesn't work as well as the one it's replacing.

So I headed back to the big box store where I bought it, and went to the customer service desk.   I was in my usual androgynous presentation...see below.  (This was taken just before a lunchtime meet-up with a business acquaintance, and is about as masculine as I can appear. But he knows what I look like...no issues.)

(Taken before a lunchtime meet-up with a business acquaintance,.  It's about as masculine as I can appear. But he knows what I look like...no issues.)

"May I help you, Ma'am?"  I explained that I wanted to return the camera - I added that it works, but doesn't take as good pictures as the old one.  He asked if I wanted to exchange it for the same model camera, or a different one.    I handed him a picture of a different brand and model from their website.

He called the camera department, said that there was a lady who wants to get a "insert brand and model here" camera and asked if they had one.  They did, and he said "Just a moment, Ma'am, I'll go get it."  When he returned, he made the adjustment to my credit card, handed me the package and receipts, and said, "Have a happy holiday, Ma'am." I wished the same for him, and was done.

Quick and painless...the new one takes better pictures than the old one...    And the "checker" at the door, said:  Have a wonderful holiday, Ma'am."

The business acquaintance (from the lunch meeting mentioned above) knows of my sartorial style.  And he has never said a word about it..."it is what it is."  The server got a bit confused and just addressed him as "Sir."  No gender specific forms of address for me!

And that's fine...better "none" than "Sir."

More later...

Mandy

To all my readers and followers:

Wherever you live, this brings my best wishes for you to have a joyous Holiday Season, and a very Happy New Year! 

Mandy

Quickie: I thought I'd seen everything. Until...

...I saw an older Toyota Prius on the interstate on the western shore (Baltimore side of the bay), all decked out as an imitation Low Rider.  It was very low to the ground,  with huge chrome wheels and thin tires.  Wish I could have gotten a picture!

Unfortunately I was the only one in my car, and the camera was in my purse on the back seat!  :-(

The Prius first appeared in the Japanese market in 1997.  Thus it's only perhaps 19 years old.   Wonder if it will show up one day at a local, or maybe an "open," car show?   Most traditional car shows are age-restricted to 25 years old or older...so it will be a while yet before it's eligible for some of them - if the modifications don't disqualify it.   Some shows don't have "classes" for modified cars.

I was checking out some settings on a new camera recently, and found myself (what a coincidence) in one of the pictures....   This is one of my old house dresses, with a long sleeve tunic underneath.  It's warm, very comfortable, and I wear this type of outfit around the house every day.   I've been out in the yard in them, with little issue from my wife.

Now I'm thinking about finding a way to wear one of them out and about.  It won't happen immediately, but one of these days, you'll hopefully find pictures of me wearing one of these dresses at the store...or better yet, on the train or sightseeing in another town.

Keep your fingers crossed for me...

More later,

Mandy

You can't keep girls from shopping...

...even if some of it was mail order.

My new flats arrived by UPS, and they fit fine.  They are a croco-finish, with snip toes, and they're comfortable.  Even my wife likes them...on me, of course.  They're too big for her.   And it's nice that she occasionally tells me when she wants me to wear them...

That's a new skirt in the picture, but flash made the color too bright and red. It looks like "lipstick red" but in reality, it's not.  More about it in the following section.

It had been a while since I visited a thrift store...so I stopped in for a few minutes.  Needless to say, a little voice spoke to me as I looked through the rack of skirts:  "Buy me, buy me!   Take me home with you!"  And this skirt jumped out of the rack, right into my arms.  I tried it on, and it fit!

It's a polyester skirt, so it won't wrinkle, and it's lined so it's not see-through.  It could almost be a sister to the paisley skirt I like so much.  And it will work well for cornfield changes.   Looks like I should get a lot of use out of this one, too!   This, its paisley sister, and a denim shorter skirt, with about 5 blouses, should be enough for a week on the road.

Color is not like the photo above...in that one, the red is too brilliant.  No, it's red like in the pix below.  Almost a wine color...  And I love it!

Later, I was paying my bill at the beauty salon...and one of the stylists noticed my nails, commenting how pretty they are but asking about why they're shorter than usual.  (The nail tech had made them all the same length as one which had issues and had to be shortened.)  She thought I should grow them out again, and my stylist agreed, though she put her hand next to mine and hers were even shorter.   "It's tough for a stylist to have long nails.  But you deal so well with them, you should keep them long."  And we all got a chuckle.

If you recall, earlier this year I discovered that a guy working in an auto parts store here on the Delmarva was working in a skirt and flats.   Then he disappeared for a while.   Needing some oil for the old car, I dropped in the other day.   And, SURPRISE, the guy in a skirt is back.  I saw him from afar.  Now I just have to be there when he is, so I can ask him for some help finding something....

More later,

Mandy