Enjoying my weekend with Arnold

It's been a whirlwind 24 hours here in Portland so far!

First to redneck_queer's house, to greet his family of critters. Note the holiday ornaments on the deer antlers ;-)

He tends to combine mountain hunting lodge style with grandma's attic style, having inherited many of the late dear woman's ornamental plates and doilies, as well as her decorating tastes.

    

Next there was a group outing to take his neighbor's expert-horse-riding tomboy 15yo out to prepare for her upcoming formal dance. Gown, shoes, makeup counter experience, the works. Generally I'm not a fan of makeovers - I've got my own annoyed memories of such from way back when - but her mother was determined, and having a wisecracking fairy godfather along for the ride can make the whole shebang a bit more palatable. And Arnold would so much love to have a daughter of his own, and can't because of the HIV, so she gets to be his surrogate teenager to gussy up.

She had her gown picked out already (black), but we made a second pass through the ballgown store to give her some notions about what colors might look good on her for future garb. I've got experience at finding clothes that complement a redhead's coloring ;-) so I could peg the right hues quickly - rich browns and rusts, chartreuse, dark reds, deep midnight blues. Some of those colors she'd never thought of as having the potential to look good on her, but she definitely saw what I meant once they were in front of her.

My own role was to keep Arnold from veering too far into the hyperfemme with her. I told him firmly that there was to be NO eyebrow-plucking, and that she was not going to be wearing high heels that she could barely balance on. "What shoes do you think would go good with her gown?" he asked me. "Combat boots," I said, which earned me a glare from him and a grin from her. We settled on sassy Mary Janes with a low heel.

Then there was the makeup counter, where I prevailed on him and her mother to go with the most subtle of colorings, since the teenager really is not into makeup. They listened to me, and it ended up looking good - nothing too garish, just the sort of makeup that almost doesn't look like you're wearing makeup - and it brought her beauty out noticeably. But she didn't feel like this new version fit who she was inside, and I told her that she didn't need to wear it if she didn't want to (earning me another annoyed look from Arnold, but it's her face and she needs to be able to feel like her inner and outer selves match). The expression on the left about sums up the kid's feelings about the whole endeavor...

    

Speaking of events involving makeup... Later we met up with a bunch of Arnold's friends for a pre-birthday drag revue at Darcelle XV. We were greeted by Darcelle herself, who sang a gracious happy birthday to Arnold. She's been performing for 47 years - wow!



( A few more pics... )

It was a lot of fun, but by the end of the show I was very socialed-out (my inner introvert was looking desperately for an escape hatch) and so when the party moved to the gay bar next door I decided that I'd had my fill of lights and sounds and people and I caught a cab back to Arnold's place.

I was proud of this bit of self-care... I didn't really want to stay at the bar but I didn't want to call an early end to his fun by asking that we end the evening... so I was glad that this third option, of just going back myself, occurred to me. For both our sakes... I got blessed quiet with just the cats, and he got to stay out another 3 hours, having a blast dancing at the bar and whooping it up with his other friends. He's finally awake now, so off I go, to help him prep for his lower-key birthday party at his place today.