I Feel Pretty and Witty and Gay

Feeling pretty full of myself today, looking at my pics from Saturday's Transgiving meeting. Just plain feeling pretty, too. My external efforts at transforming myself for an evening are bearing fruit. What you see here is very close to the way I have seen myself in my head, a standard that I have been approaching steadily for some time.

Did I mention that I felt pretty?

Frankly, I don't know how I could function living every day as Leslie. It took me two weeks to figure out this outfit. Some parts were still being changed just before I left the house. If this were a daily thing, I suppose that the perfectionist in me wouldn't be so strong. When it's only once a month, a fashion misjudgement lingers for a long time.

The outfit: The boots are new from Payless, $50 list price, bought for $23. The black skirt was bought last Christmas from the clearance racks at Macy's for $7 and change, finally getting a public wearing. The top (Kentucky blue!) was borrowed at the last second from my wife's drawer. The pendant likewise.

The dinner was a smashing success. We had 27 in attendance, possibly the largest group we've ever had. The one hangup was a Kentucky football game. The stadium is about a mile from our meeting site, and our street is a major post-game exit artery. About a half hour before meeting time, the game ended, and the street became one-way. I am accustomed to arriving early, and it was doubly good to be early Saturday. At meeting time, we still had only about eight people present, and we began delaying the start time. People began trickling in, telling tales of being two blocks away and then detoured, spending 45 to 60 minutes in game traffic. Yikes!

So, the meal got a late start, but the bird was terrific, and the company was better. There were a bunch of first-timers, and I have to think that most left with a very good impression. Sylvia and Cassie did a great job organizing the event.

I was brimming with confidence. I knew that I looked good, and the confidence followed. There was no hurry to shut down the dinner, so I got to stay later than usual, and though she called me toward the end, my wife did not seem upset by my delay.

Here's a question: if one feels compelled to analyze one's feelings of joy, does it diminish the joy itself? Does the effort to quantify feelings necessarily lessen their impact? I sense instinctively that joy should be an absolute, a simple yes or no prospect. But I am ill-equipped emotionally to just let it happen. Even in the midst of a great evening, I was reflecting and almost observing myself to gauge my emotions. Bottom line, I know that I was quite happy celebrating Transgiving, and approximating my internal vision of my ideal Leslie.