There's a common recurring dream, in which you find yourself out in public and
suddenly realize you have no clothes on. Lots of people have variations of this
dream; few actually have it happen in reality. Well, no, I didn't really go out
naked. But this morning after rowing, I noticed my gas light was on. Normally, I
fill my gas tank well before the Empty light comes on, but in the new Honda, that
happens when there's still a quarter tank left. On the other hand, I haven't had
the car long enough to get over the "Oh no, I'm entirely out of gas" panic. (It
drives me nuts when Rudder waits until he's into his past gallon to refuel his
truck.) Given my long commute and the location of the nearest gas station, the
obvious thing to do was to fill up right away, on the way to the gym where I
shower after rowing. I pulled up, got out of the car, entered my debit card and
PIN, stepped on the clutch and moved the car six inches after realizing the hose
wouldn't reach, and began fueling. And then I looked down and realized I was still
in my rowing clothes, which now that it's gotten warmer consist of only a Lycra
tank and shorts. Oops. I hope the guys at the other pumps enjoyed themselves at
least. It could have been worse though -- another few degrees warmer and it
wouldn't have been a tank but a sports bra, with my pasty abs on view in all their
flabby glory.
Of course, I'd have sucked it in as soon as I
realized!
I'm dressed now though; for some reason the place where I
get my hair cut has a rack of Bali dresses (long loose sundresses with batik
prints) for sale, and I picked one up for a mere song (no really, they gave it to
me to stop me singing
but has a tie in back just below the shoulders so it doesn't look like a muumuu,
and has a funky beige-on-black fish-skeleton print. (Though that looked better
before I got almost all the blonde tips in my hair cut off.) It's a little narrow
for its ankle length, so if I take long steps, I stretch the skirt to its limit
and it makes a cool whooshing sound as I walk that makes it sound like I'm moving
very fast. This is the grownup-up version of running around with a cape on, like
little kids playing superhero. Come to think of it, the Lycra costume from earlier
goes well with that image, too.