Doing it for the portfolio...

So Steph and Trish hounded me all day asking why I wanted to be a girl. I told thme I didn't want to be a girl (My mantra for the next week and a half I suppose) but I wanted to get a story nobody else could ever possibly mirror. Okay maybe I won't be dazzling too many people at parties with my tales from behind the ovaries, but a chance like this doesn't come around very often. Why do I keep having to defend myself? Why does this feel so wrong?

Maybe because Trish looked at me and said "I'll bet you'll be like, so hot."

So they start asking me if I want to borrow some clothes or something, and I tell thme I don't even know what size I'll be. They tell me not to sweat it. I've never really thought about borrowing another person's clothes before.

"Hey Bill, sweet jersey. Can I borrow it sometime?" uh... no.

I don't want this whole experience to be about the fashion, but right now that's all I can think about (since I haven't got the equipment set up yet.) So I relented and decided to let them be my style managers for the week.

I felt awkward with all the whispers in the newsroom as I walked past. They all know, and they all think it's because I'm weird. So Mary gets up in front of everyone and delivers a speech.

"You may know by now that (Alex) has undertaken a strange assignment. It's not something he asked for or was very excited about doing, but the fact that he's going along with it shows he has a willingness to go the distance and I'm commending him for that. So I don't want anybody getting weird around Alex whatever happens in the next week or so. He'll still be the same Alex. And no matter what happens, the resultiung story will look great in his portfolio."

Ah... yeah. Red with embarrassment, I sat down to arrange a few interviews. Just because I'm vacationing from my gender doesn't mean I get to vacation from being a journalist.

-Alex