A bit of a story from Arisia
Jan. 19th, 2016 08:51 pmA little background: as some of you know, over the past five months or so, Lis and I have been trying to eat a lot better, and, as an effect of this, I've lost a lot of weight. This is deliberate weight loss, so it's not a symptom of being sick, if you see me and are startled -- I'm not dealing with a new chronic illness or anything. But I DO appreciate that I mostly know people who don't immediately jump to the conclusion that "weight loss is always good" -- in MY case, it is a sign of healthy change, but in other cases, it's a sign of UNHEALTHY change, so y'know, it's a good idea to be careful so you don't accidentally compliment someone on their pancreatic cancer or something.
The relevant point here is that I can now wear some things that I had never expected to ever wear again, but which were too nice to get rid of. Including a corset-waistcoat -- it's a black waistcoat with subtle dark purple paisley pattern, and corset boning underneath; it has corset lacing in back. It must be ten years since I outgrew it, so I was happy to be able to wear it again, because it's one of the nicest-looking pieces of clothing I own.
Saturday, I wore a black shirt and trousers, with that vest and a purple necktie, with a matching purple handkerchief, and my usual hat.
Anyway, for lunch, I went to the Jimmy John's sandwich shop across the street, as did a number of other Arisia members, most of whom bought their food and took it away to eat at the convention, but I was eating at the counter.
A young woman was sitting next to me -- I estimate her age to be I'd definitely card her but she'd probably pass. She was wearing the uniform of the parking lot across the street, and was on her lunch break. She asked me what the event going on was, and I explained a little bit about Arisa, and what a science fiction convention was. She thought it sounded like a reasonably fun thing, and she asked about the costumes that she'd seen people wearing, and I talked a little about how they could be from books, movies, comics, or their own imaginations, or anything. Then she asked me what my costume was, and I said that I wasn't in a costume; I just liked how the outfit looked.
"Oh," she said. "I thought maybe you were dressed as Cecil Baldwin."
This has been your reminder that, in large part, mundanes aren't.
Also, that, yeah, in my mind, Cecil Baldwin would probably wear a black shirt and pants with a black waistcoat with a purple necktie and a subtle purple paisley pattern on it.
The relevant point here is that I can now wear some things that I had never expected to ever wear again, but which were too nice to get rid of. Including a corset-waistcoat -- it's a black waistcoat with subtle dark purple paisley pattern, and corset boning underneath; it has corset lacing in back. It must be ten years since I outgrew it, so I was happy to be able to wear it again, because it's one of the nicest-looking pieces of clothing I own.
Saturday, I wore a black shirt and trousers, with that vest and a purple necktie, with a matching purple handkerchief, and my usual hat.
Anyway, for lunch, I went to the Jimmy John's sandwich shop across the street, as did a number of other Arisia members, most of whom bought their food and took it away to eat at the convention, but I was eating at the counter.
A young woman was sitting next to me -- I estimate her age to be I'd definitely card her but she'd probably pass. She was wearing the uniform of the parking lot across the street, and was on her lunch break. She asked me what the event going on was, and I explained a little bit about Arisa, and what a science fiction convention was. She thought it sounded like a reasonably fun thing, and she asked about the costumes that she'd seen people wearing, and I talked a little about how they could be from books, movies, comics, or their own imaginations, or anything. Then she asked me what my costume was, and I said that I wasn't in a costume; I just liked how the outfit looked.
"Oh," she said. "I thought maybe you were dressed as Cecil Baldwin."
This has been your reminder that, in large part, mundanes aren't.
Also, that, yeah, in my mind, Cecil Baldwin would probably wear a black shirt and pants with a black waistcoat with a purple necktie and a subtle purple paisley pattern on it.