Day 103 - Structural Integrity in These Foolish Things

I met “the girls” at the thrift warehouse at our designated time of 3:30 yesterday (see previous entry). They were a little late, as expected, and I was a little early per usual. So I’d already started shopping.

When I say “the girls”, this cast of characters consists of the following:

And me. Going with the flow. Not sure why I've been picked for this particular mission other than the fact that I'm probably the most hetero person in L.C. and V.'s circle and I am very into this whole world of secondhand and thrifting, and L.C. knew I'd like to do this (and that's true!). I do feel a little like I'm part of this "project" as L.C. tells me that Jenna admires me, but I just don't feel it. Read on.

Anyway, as I said, I'd already started looking around and found this great t-shirt that said, "comme ci comme ca" and I was trying to use a hook to self-serve myself and get it down from a high-hanging spot.

They show up and it's an absolute FRENZY. L.C. and V. start whipping dresses and blouses off the racks and flipping them over to Jenna and it's like a cartoon free-for all! Clothes are just flying through the air. It was insane.

Of course, Jenna was immediately overwhelmed and started crying! I felt really bad for her, but I'm glad she did because it got L.C. and V. to slow down.

L.C. took Jenna away from the situation and off to a corner and talked her off the ledge, while V. and I devised a plan to have Jenna in one of two dressing rooms and we'd pick things for her that she could try on. That would give her less overstimulation and decision paralysis.

L.C. came back over and said that Jenna didn't want dresses. And she needs to have her legs COVERED, and she doesn't like the color yellow. OK. So that was helpful. We all started picking things that we thought she would like, and Jenna was stationed in a dressing room and we just brought her things.

V. ended up being the dressing room monitor, maybe because of the masc/feminine thing that Jenna might be more comfortable working with V.? I don't know! I didn't understand what was going on half the time anyway. I honestly thought that a trans woman would want to have clothes that are softer and more feminine to soften things up, right?

But what do I know? Because when I took a pair of soft, flowing linen pants over to L.C. to ask her opinion if Jenna might like them, L.C. said NO and that Jenna has to have structured pants because she doesn't tuck?!

Immediately me:



In the end, we found Jenna a bunch of things that she liked to purchase, NONE of which I thought were cute, feminine, and/or very flattering because of all the restrictions that were made, but if she found some things, I guess it was a success.

L.C. and V. bought everything for Jenna because her birthday is next week, and I thought that was sweet.

I found exactly three things for myself. We all made our purchases, I had a lot of laughs with L.C. and V., and then we went for ice cream afterwards, and that was really nice.

But the Jenna thing is super confusing to me for some reason. EVERYTHING seems like suuuuuchhh a draaaaag for her. She's never happy, even when I guess she is? She never looks me in the eye, and I can understand that's probably a neurodivergent thing which I note but don't make an issue of (except in my own mind). I find myself internally annoyed with her. I feel like maybe I'm not being a very good ally, but MAN, I don't know. I feel like she's a little pushed on me and maybe that's why I'm a little annoyed by the dragging of Jenna to events.

I had a nightmare last night (a whole other entry), and I was wide awake for some time. I started clicking around on my ipad, and I hope this doesn't mess with my algorithm, but I had to look up "tucking for trans women". Did you know that there's a whole industry out there surrounding this very issue?! It's a whole THING. I get why Jenna doesn't want to tuck.

Google at your own risk!

On with my Sunday...

xox,
GS