October 11, 2019 – Okay, this is going to me a long one, I think. First off, outfit two of ten outstanding outfits in nine days of October. Secondly, allow me to explain something. When I am posting about an experience with a celebrity, generally a local one, I never will use their name here. I simply do not wish to have me or this blog pop up in a Google search on this person.
I am always looking for new and different experiences. On this day, I bought a ticket for a wonderful forum entitled “Coming Out and Coming Back: Building Respect and Acceptance in the Workplace”. Here is a link explaining the forum: https://www.cityclub.org/forums/2019/10/11/coming-out-and-coming-back-building-respect-and-acceptance-in-the-workplace .
This is NOT the General Manager of the Oakland A’s (Moneyball). This IS a world class human being.
So let’s set the stage. I was really looking forward to this on so many levels. A new experience. The event itself. Dressing as a business woman. The type of people I would have the opportunity to meet (business people, employed business people). My outfit. It surpassed all of my expectations and the speaker was unbelievable. I would encourage anyone interested to Google this talk and watch it. You’ll be touched by it as I was. The speaker was the first professional athlete to come out as gay. Oh yeah, the speech was on National Coming Out Day. He was only one of two players to have four consecutive hits in his first four major league at bats. He is also only one of two major baseball players to come out as gay, out of approximately 20,000 major leaguers in history. He was emotional, he was inspiring, he was awesome.
As had happened the evening before, I saw people I knew from other venues, events, circumstances. I met new people. I enjoyed my lunch. An older gentleman sat next to me and again, my attire was a nonissue. We chatted throughout lunch. To my left, I sat next to The Plain Dealer reporter as she wrote her coverage of the event. This article was written right next to me: https://www.cleveland.com/business/2019/10/ex-mlb-player-billy-bean-shares-his-struggle-with-discrimination-in-the-workplace-on-national-coming-out-day.html .
The event was truly awesome. He got choked up when he recanted the death of his partner, while he was still playing and closeted and the fact that he had a game that day so he did not attend the funeral. I heard baseball names from my youth. I heard familiar feelings I have had about myself. Touching doesn’t even come close to describing this. It was like he was speaking directly to me.
Afterward, I had an opportunity meet the speaker and take a photo. During his talk, he mentioned how he is always known as “the gay baseball player”, labeled as soon as he walks into a room. So when I met him, I told him how I could relate to being immediately labeled in any room I am in. What a wonderful human being (oh yeah, I already said that)! So as we took this picture, he told me how great I looked! That might be the single best complement I have ever received. He certainly did not have to say that.
Thank you Billy (not THAT Billy)!
Okay, so let’s talk about the outfit. This outfit was the focus of my initial excitement for the day, but was soon forgotten as I was swept up in the event and my day. That said, here we go. I was able to put together this skirt suit (separate pieces purchased years apart) and wanted a venue where I could wear this and fit in perfectly. I indeed did on this day. Conservative, stylish, a board room outfit. I rode on elevators with construction workers, business men, other women. I chatted and/or had doors held open for me. Not a problem.
Here is your girl, getting ready for the day.
Remarkable, remarkable, quite remarkable. I mentioned yesterday that this may have been my favorite outing to date. It had so many things I love: sports, memories from my youth, a killer outfit, plenty of complements, seeing people I know (without thinking I would know anyone there when I booked it), meeting new people, a new experience, a fascinating talk, hearing someone else describe feelings that I had (not exactly the same, but very similar), meeting a world class human being, complete and utter acceptance and so much more! On a scale of 1 to 10, this was a 20!
from Kandi's Land https://kandis328772669.wordpress.com/2019/10/23/the-city-club-of-cleveland/
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