Next month I turn 36 years old. 36!!! You may remember I had a hard enough time last year facing 35. I believe I devoted at least three blog posts to the subject in a selfish attempt to physiologically work out my feelings on the topic. Now that I have finally gotten to the point where I don't uncontrollably stutter while revealing my age I'm going to have to train myself to say thirty ssssmind your own business, will ya?!
A good friend of mine who is close in age also has a birthday swiftly approaching. Her and I have been able to commiserate on several occasions regarding our mutual situation. Surprisingly, her life is extremely similar to mine since she too is one of the few, but proud, remaining women in her thirties who remains unmarried and childless in South Dakota. Wait, "The Few, The Proud..." isn't that a Marines slogan? Furthermore, aren't Marines extremely highly regarded in American culture? If, "single," women in their thirties are fighting their own kind of war and able to share a slogan with the likes of some of the world's most recognized heroes, should we too not get a little respect from society? Did I just compare, "old maids," to Marines? Yeah, I went there.
My point here is it can be hard for a woman to remain confident in things like social standing, accomplishments, and especially appearance when all that seems to change in life is the number of her age. However, a few weeks ago my confidence received a much needed boost when I was introduced to a male stranger. Lets take a moment here to emphasize the word strange...r. At the time I was certain he said his name was Doug. Of course, later in the conversation I was told his name was something extremely non Doug-like sounding. This was after I had called him Doug to his face about five times. What can I say, the man looked like a Doug to me. Amazingly, the fact that I could not for the life of me remember this person's name seemed to have absolutely no effect on, "Doug's," reaction to me. During the course of our twenty minute conversation, "Doug," outright stared me down and proceeded to tell me what a beautiful woman I was. He then asked me what my hobbies where, if I ever thought about being a rock star, (because he thought I would look good with a guitar in hand), and if I would like to go on a drive to look at the stars with him. Keep in mind it was about three in the afternoon at the time. While I was shocked at this dude's total lack of a social filter, I was equally delighted by the fact that this, soon to be 36 year old lady, could still get the attention of a stranger. Especially, since I was wearing the outfit pictured above and felt like it was a tad too young for me...but what the heck, right?!
I would like to close this post with a dedication to all my female friends in their thirties and beyond. It's hard getting older. We must cope with the transformation of our appearance in any way we can. I recommend going shopping for new exciting clothes, starting a style blog, or paying attention to the crazed ramblings of one inebriated, "Doug." Oh, did I not mention that, "Doug," was holding what I assumed to be around his ninth beer while he was talking to me? Well, that just takes some of the magic away from the story, doesn't it?
-r.
Jacket: Vintage (Betty Rose)
Dress: Thrifted
Jeans: Liverpool
Boots: Victorian Trading Co. http://www.victoriantradingco.com/
Purse: Ivanka Trump
Bracelet: Vintage https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/boylerpf
You actually turned down a chance with Doug (or whatever his name was)! That was probably a good decision. Very funny.
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