Originally posted April 23, 2007:
Saturday afternoon, my parents decided they wanted to hang out in Midtown and invited me to come along. I had stopped off at their house for reasons that are too complicated to get into and I was wearing my "I was a gay cowboy before it was cool" shirt. My mom suggested I maybe change my attire because we were heading into one of the more progressive areas in the city of Memphis and, this being the South, our family tries to be extra conscientious about not offending people who aren't white Southern Baptists. Not that either of us could come up with a rational scenario in which someone would be offended by my shirt but...the South is weird. So off it went.
I had exactly one short-sleeved t-shirt in my closet at my parents' house and it had a picture of Kermit the Frog on roller skates on it, along with the words "Roller Derby." I bought the shirt back when I was a senior in college and used to wear it all the time. My friend Kara was an RA that year and she informed me that a group of her residents wanted to give me a makeover. They wanted to straighten my hair, stop me from wearing blue eye-shadow, and one of them had said, "I mean, she was wearing a shirt with Kermit on it today, for God's sake!" Kara relayed all of this to me over dinner at the Rat one night and I was not amused. I don't think anyone likes to hear that a group of sophomores thinks you look like crap and maybe the correct thing to do would have been to say, "fuck them," but I opted to just stop wearing the Kermit shirt. The eye-shadow stayed.
So I hadn't worn the shirt since. I graduated, stuck it in my closet, and moved on with life. But I pulled it on Saturday and I headed out the door with my parents. We ended up sitting outside at Celtic Crossing for dinner when, I kid you not, half of the girls from Kara's floor came and sat down at the table next to us. At least six or eight of them. Who even knew any of these people were still in Memphis?! The ONE TIME I wear that shirt and I see the lot of them for the first time in over three years.
They ignored me and I ignored them and I'm sure not a one of them would remember insulting my shirt. But I remembered. Oh, I remembered.
And seriously, what are the chances.
Isn't it wonderful that when I already feel self conscious about the way I look, I inevitably run into someone I know, but when I feel great about how I look, no one is around to see!
ReplyDeleteAnd Kara's hall was full of a bunch of self-righteous sorority girls...who cares what they think!
Ha! You're so right, Meg! :) And I would hope that if that same situation played out today, I have grown enough that I wouldn't have been quite so horrified. But at the time I was totally freaking out. :( And yes...it's only when you're already feeling self-conscious that these things happen!!! I remember it was the days at work when I wore my worst clothes that the hot sales guys would drop by. They never, ever seemed to have anything to sell the days I was feeling good about my "business casual"... :-/
ReplyDeletehahahaha! only you B! hahahahah! I can't imagine what they had to say about that!
ReplyDelete(this is coming from someone who's been wearing the same Piggly Wiggly t-shirts for over ten years....)
now you know why I was so keen to get my Jake Watch jungle t-shirts. still wearin' them....
^^^ HAHA! Gold star for the name you used! (Even though I know *exactly* who you are. :D)
ReplyDeleteYou are so awesome to still be wearing the jungle Jake shirts. I still wear my gay cowboy shirt to pretty much all first viewings of Jake movies, so between the two of us, at least the JW brand is still being loyally represented somewhere! :)
Yeah, I still can't believe I ran into those girls! I found this on my MySpace blog a few weeks ago and was laughing out loud at how ridiculous that was! You're so right...ONLY ME... :D
it never fails, that when i look like a hobo, i run into someone i know.
ReplyDeletetwo weeks ago i was literally dressed like i was homeless (i blame my british boyfriend and my lack of clean laundry) and i ran into one of my exes. and his new wife. and their new twins. they all looked perfect and i looked, well, homeless.
so i can completely sympathize. but a serious jumping in the air type high five for having a shirt with kermit on it. in roller skates, no less!
Finding this story makes me want to dig out that shirt again. And go out in public in it. Maybe it'll give me the closure I need to never again be influenced by sorority girls...
ReplyDeleteOuch on running into the ex! Although I do feel a sense of solidarity now since running into people in these situations is clearly a universal. Thank you, Universe, for making sure we're all periodically taken down a notch... (As if we were in need of that!)
Totally relate to this post plus I have to admit I love Kermit & in roller skates, even better. I actually still roller skate myself, heh.
ReplyDeleteDammit, I really need to get with the program & find some cash somewhere so I can get me one of those JW t-shirts. I would totally wear it to the next Jake movie. What's that? Source Code is coming out soon, you say? OK, I am gonna put my money where my mouth is, & I will totally do this, I promise. I just wish I had even more cash so I could go to the SXSW film fest in Austin on March 11th & wear it right in front of JG when he is in his Q&A with Duncan. Can you picture that?
I bet you can. >;-D
HAHA! I CAN picture that! And that would be awesome... :D My friend Megan lives very near Austin but she's going to be out of town that day, so it looks like there will be no JW or JW-related (or ISJ-related) representation at SXSW. :( Poor Jake. He really has no idea what he's missing when we don't show up to these things...
ReplyDeleteLOL! I remember reading this and thinking it's so typical. WHY does these things always happen?! Go out without makeup and you meet an ex, put on your ugly-clothes and you'll meet a former crush or a possible employer... Unfair! Every time I go to the doctor (or worse - the gynocologist) I pray that it won't be someone I know, cause that could totally happen *shudder*(OK, so I don't exactly pray , but you know...)
ReplyDelete