Macho Man

I promise the story of David and his costume, so here it goes.

First of all, I will explain the whole costume thing. In fact, this will also explain the Mexia State School story - two for the price of one! We were the Lunch Pit Crew. That meant that we were in charge of the "pit stop" where lunch was served. It's an ideal Crew to be on, because while many of the Riders skipped some of the pit stops, hardly anyone skipped the lunch pit. (The few that did, usually stopped at restaurants or burger joints along the way.)

For every day of the Ride, our Crew had a theme, and the attendant costumes. Now, there was one day that was Red Dress Day for the entire Ride. Yes, some people referred to it as Dress Red Day, but in reality, almost everyone wore red dresses. In fact, at our Crew meeting the night before the Ride, Victor lamented that he could not find a red dress that could accommodate his broad shoulders - so I loaned him my sleeveless red sheath dress, and went home to fetch my lacy red Stevie-Nicks-style dress for myself. There was a meaning behind Red Dress Day, actually. It had begun on an earlier Ride, with the goal of creating a human red ribbon. Eventually, though, it evolved into just being a lot of fun. I myself was a little ashamed at how much better some of these guys looked in their dresses, than I did, but oh well.

So. Red Dress Day was a given. That left us three days to pick themes for. One day we had a Hawaiian theme, and as you would expect, there were many grass skirts and coconut bras involved (even though the males outnumbered females by about 3 to 1 on this Crew). Our last day, the theme was 60's/hippie, and we all had our tie-dyed T-shirts that we "customized," and our temporary peace sign tattoos and the like. But the day in question, we made our theme Halloween. It was mid-October anyway, and the idea was that one day of free-for-all meant that anyone whose theme suggestion had been rejected, could still use the costume they'd had in mind for it.

Let's start with me and the French Maid costume. I had bought it for a previous Halloween and it had gone over fairly well. Me, I don't like to spend money on something to then wear it only once (I managed to find 3 occasions on which to wear my $400 black-suede-and-leather bustier dress, but that too is a story for another day). So it was my costume for our Halloween theme day. Yep, short skirt, ruffled apron, choker necklace, and high, high heels. As usual, the pit was set off a little ways from the road; this was purely for traffic control purposes, to keep the road from getting overly crowded as people sat down to eat. I'm not sure whose bright idea it was, to make me the person who had to stand out at the road, holding the "Lunch Pit" sign. Nevertheless, that's what I did. At the side of a fairly narrow, yet surprisingly well-traveled, dirt road. Across the street from the State School (for those of you not familiar with Texas' MHMR system, the state schools are where people with severe mental retardation live). Funny, I got a LOT of horns honked at me that day.

Now, on to David. Like many men on the Ride, David was gay. Much to my chagrin. He was undeniably hot. And on this particular day, he chose to wear what I called his Village People costume. Construction worker. Complete with short-shorts, plaid flannel shirt hanging open, work boots, and yellow hardhat. Every time he bent over to pick anything up (and as we were putting up and tearing down canopies, that was quite a bit) I would whimper and say, "It's just not fair!!!" A time or two, I even stopped him mid-lift and said, "David... are you SURE you're gay? Are you sure you're not maybe just even a little bit bi?" Sadly, he was not. *sigh*

So there ya go. Two stories in one, and I think I'll save the story of Danny's and my "arrangement" for another day. It's just about time for me to head on out of here, and get myself to the doctor's office. And that, my friends, is also a story for another day. Hopefully with a happy ending! LOL