One baby step at a time

I must say lots of thanks and hugs and stuff to my friend K who I met up with for lunch today - you're fab! She's probably not reading this but I felt like saying it anyway.

We met up in Burnley of all places and I'd umm'ed and ahhh'ed about going as me all week and had wondered if it was such a good idea and whether it would be a problem for K or if I'd just be so freaked out by the whole experience that it would set me back, etc, etc. In the end I did go dressed up in jeans, a top (as can be seen in the pic above, it's from Dorothy Perkins if anyone is interested), and ankle boots (I had to wear boots of some description, they give me a little bit of confidence and a significant bit more height though that isn't always good).

First the bad bits:

• My skin is terrible at the moment, party due to the punishment it gets when I cycle to/from work and partly because of hayfever and me rubbing my eyes.
• My hair was all over the place because it was windy and kept revealing my real hair underneath that is a bit lighter
  
• The foundation seems a little dark so it's noticeable to some degree and made worse because my upper lip and chin are a mess with too much shaving to try and almost dig the hairs out.
• My ears hurt by the time I got back as I was wearing clip-on earrings.
• I passed some kids and heard one say "it's a man" but I ignored that and carried on.

The lack of long hair, mess of my skin (including because of the shaving) are all things I'm going to sort out, my hair will grow (it's going to take 6months to a year before it's anywhere near long enough for me to be happy), and I'm planning IPL to sort out my facial hair. Also as I get more confident (and have these obvious annoying things sorted out) I'll be able to get the correct shades for make-up and hopefully not have to use as much so I get a more natural affect. Also I'm thinking of getting my ears pierced at some point so that will solve the earring problem - and mean I can actually choose from the almost infinite selection of styles available that can't be matched by the pitiful number of clip-on types.

As you can tell I'm feeling generally positive (though have dropped a little in enthusiasm now that I'm back home and looking critically at the photos of me) and that's because it went rather well in the end.

Me and K had a really good chat and catch up, nice lunch (though I didn't have as much to drink as I should - I was trying to avoid the need to go to the toilet as I'll tackle that little step another time), and there were no adverse reactions that I noticed (apart from the one I mentioned above and the odd stare).

I even filled up the car with diesel from Asda and then popped into Tesco to get some bits and pieces for tea. Basically lots of normal things that I did as "me" which I felt good about achieving. I even bought some moisturiser from Boots as well as a hair-dryer (only a cheap travel one) as I feel that I'm going to need that sooner or later. The girl who served me was very nice and pleasant and that always makes me feel a bit better.

So, overall, a good day and hopefully the first of many more - I really enjoyed being me today and it's certainly given me lots of (nice) things to think about.

Now, time for tea followed by the Eurovision!


P.S. Another point I discussed with another friend D was about my hair colour - I actually quite like the darker hair and she thought it did suit me better. So I'm now thinking about getting my hair dyed once it's reached a good length and wondering what colour to go for - there will be some red in there at some point I think :D