Sunday, May 21, 2006

Because it is Sunday

Today my father in law is wearing a woman's hat. It's not sort of a woman's hat or something that could possibly pass as a trendy male hat; it is undoubtedly, unquestionably, a woman's hat.

It's white and has a large turquoise flower broach pinned on it. Why he is wearing this hat I have no idea. He looks a lot like an 80's rocker minus the make-up.

After church we were walking through the mall and just about every single person we passed would do a double take. You could almost see them asking themselves...

"Is that a man in a woman's hat?"

After about thirty minutes I could not ignore it for a moment longer. I had to say,

"What is the story behind this hat? It has a very transgendered look."

Luckily he was amused and not at all insulted. He got a big long laugh out of it. That's what I love about Conrad; I can just get to the point without the fear of hurting his feelings. I don't know many other people who would get a kick out of me telling them that they look like a cross dresser. I think he finds my boldness hilarious or maybe refreshing, either way I am able to honestly ask him things that with most people I could never get away with. The only explanatation we received about the hat was:

"it was on sale and I just couldn't pass it by".

Aaron's question, which had me cracking up was:

"Did it come with the broach or is that part of your man jewlery collection?".

The answer was, it came with the broach attached. Hmmmmm! I have a feeling the hat will be around for a long, long, time. My father in law is a strange bird. Apparently so am I. People are always shocked to learn that, no he is not my father, but in fact Aaron's dad. I am always getting the

"I thought for sure he was your dad!"

In actuality my dad is pretty tame, very tame, and mostly wears Ralph Lauren. The most off the wall thing he has ever worn would probably be those European man sandals or perhaps something orange. He doesn't even do bold colors and mostly sticks to blue's and forest greens. He is, however, part of a Native American flute circle which is mostly absurd for an Irish guy. He plays a mean flute though! I think that Conrad comes across as my dad due to the hippie factor. For the life of me I can't shake that hippie label. Every since I was in grade school people have labeled me as the hippie. Everytime I go in for a hair cut I tell the beautician
"don't give me hippie hair!"

They always give me hippie hair. It's unavoidable. Conrad has long unruly hair and he lives in OB so he has that whole image down. I think Conrad and I are a like in a lot of ways. As much as I poke fun at and grumble about him, I do genuinely love him, lady's hat and all!

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