metro-pink

i spent last week in prague with a group of guys-guys making fun of me that i need to get more in touch with my male side. well, they didn’t say that, what they did say was that metro-sexual is code for bi-sexual. being asked if you are bi-sexual in an open forum by guys you work with, or who work for you, is not exactly the conversation i would have expected when i was younger… but today...

i was sitting among a group, talking about what we wanted to do outside of work over the week. i told them i was looking for a set of bags to travel in. i wanted them to NOT be standard samsonite black. i am so sick of standing in front of luggage carousels waiting for bags and watching 40% of the people grab for the same bag because they have one just like the one going by.

i was discussing this with the group who would never wear “girl” colors. they do not know the difference between benetton and gap lines, or that gap and banana republic are owned by same parent company orthat you can use your gap card in banana republic to get discounts. they don’t know this because they don't shop for themselves, i asked, their wives buy their clothes. as we talked, i was wearing a pink shirt and had on a pair of dress shoes i bought in a little boutique shoe store in belgium. the fact that i would even go into a boutique anything was proof enough for them that something was off with me.

yes, i have a strange haircut. yes i vacation in provincetown (god to i miss walking down commercial street, hand in hand with my father in-law). yes, i am flexible and open. no, i am almost never embarrassed and i am more than happy saying things (like the father-inlaw statement above) that i expect to shock someone with a tighter world view.

i have close friends who are gay or bi… i am not shocked by it, why would i care. i have a friend who i have not seen in many years who dates transvestites…. he started an internet-porn company marketing to the transvestite community; which was the way the lifestyle came out after years of knowing him. we had all met his “girlfriend” before it was public and none of us had not figured it out. (i know, wow, she was pretty hot). this guy is a great developer, a good father and can really tell a joke, who cares if he is hot girlfriend is a guy.

anyway, all of this adds up to questions for others. but…. i have evidence i am straight.

as i type this i am sitting in a café wearing a pink t-shirt. the shirt has the logo, “fat is the new skinny” it is a shirt that was recently sent to me from santa monica by a friend who was soon to move to san francisco (he is moving for work, not lifestyle). he knew i loved this hamburger place on the promenade and sent me the shirt to make me smile. which i did, i did every time i put it on, including today.

the difference is today the shirt is pink, until yesterday it was white. this shirt and all the other whites that came out of the washing machine last night are now pink. i am wearing pink underwear, not by design but yes by choice. later i will wear pink, and in this case i mean BRIGHT pink, ankle socks while i run. i tell this and i am not worried about how i will be viewed; well with one exception. i need to wear the socks with an orange t-shirt; clearly a fashion faux-pas.

the fact that i would wear pink is not a surprise to anyone. i wear hand-tied bow tiesover a pink shirt with a three button blazer and loafers (tassels are sometimes on the loafers, but not here as the only pair i have is in the US). i tell stories about running in europe in a bright yellow lycra shirt and black tights, the eastern-europeans used to stare but recently they don’t seem to, i think this is due to broader acceptance of running in former soviet countries; my friends think it has something to do with coming to accept alternative life styles.

i am clearly comfortable with myself, and i am not worried about my sexuality or what anyone else assumes about me. i just looked around the café. 12 guys, 5 woman, one guy is good looking the rest are just standard ugly guys. although the one guy is good looking, he is not that good looking. of the women, 3 hold no interest, the young photographer down the way is very pretty and actually her mom isn't bad either. the last woman here, i know is both smart and beautiful, we have talked a few times and she gave me her number, but i haven’t called her… i am busy not gay. but, 0.5/12 vs 2.5/5 is a strong indication of where my interests lie.

so you are reading this wondering how it’s possible that i am considering all of this proof. i did not dye my whites pink on purpose; it is the result of a poor choice of sorting during laundry prep. yes, i know better than to put three brand new red t-shirts in the washer with a bunch of whites. no, i do not know to sort them out specifically while i am getting my laundry ready.

so here is the thing, i grew up in a socially flexible community, with an uber-preppy fashion sense. i am single, neat and have a sense of fashion… “not that there is anything wrong with that”. i wear crocs. i shop on business trips for clothes, luggage and regional items which fit into an eclectic world-traveller esthetic. i complain that it’s hard to find a good art gallery here, and i go to see salvador dali exhibits rather than do pub crawls around prague.

but…. ONLY a straight man would be dumb enough to not know how to do laundry without turning everything pink. then again… ONLY a metro-sexual would try to make this work for him.

by the way, the new luggage rocks. three matching pieces that look like nothing else on the carousel. different is good.