The Working Girl Blog #7: Back from my trip to Minnesota, or Went on a business trip, met a girl, and now I think I'm in love

Well, I'm back. Dog-tired from the trip, but back...

It was just a fly-in-fly-out kind of thing. Didn't even have time to play tourist, even a little bit. Wait for the arrival of the shuttle at nine thirty. Leave Reagan at twelve (delayed), arrive at Minneapolis at two (St. Paul time), get the rental (no time for lunch), drive to Richfield (we got lost, but that was expected), get to the client's main office by three-thirty. go blah-blah with the customer, squeeze in as many interviews as you can with the sales, warehouse, marketing and IT guys, and then check in at the nearby motel by eight, grab some dinner while discussing the project, and got to bed by one (I think) dog-tired. Wake up at six, check out and get to the client's by eight. Xerox some papers, copy some files, more interviews, leave for the airport by ten, fly back by one, nap on the plane, and back by five. Nap some more in the shuttle and home by six.

Total elapsed time, thirty-plus hours. I'm dog-tired. Woof...

At least we got everything we needed (I think), and if we need some more info, we'll get it from one of their DC or Virginia stores. The good thing about it is that our consensus was that the project seems to be a simple one, and we could probably do it in less than three months. I told my guys not to tell anyone that, though, and leave us some breathing space just in case.

The people at the client's seem to be a good bunch. Their company was hit by the recession, like all others - they had to do some downsizing as well as close some of their branches. But business was coming back (at least for them).

One of the people we met was one of their senior people for distribution - a beautiful, five-eleven girl from Texas. When we met yesterday, I was almost struck dumb - she's that pretty. She was actually good-looking enough to be a Victoria's Secret model. I was wondering what a beauty like this would be doing in a company like that, and doing, of all things, managing warehousemen, drivers and stockroom people, until we saw her in action.

A minor crisis seemed to have developed (there was a delayed loading of one of their trucks.) while we were closeted in the IT manager's office, and the girl was paged on her walkie-talkie. We asked to tag along, and we saw how adept the lady was in managing the crisis. She dressed down the man at fault for the delay, but in a Texas-girl kind of way (sort of kill-with-kindness-and-an-accent). Seems someone decided to use a too-small truck to load the shipment, but the boxes to load were too big so they had to load it by hand instead of in pallets using the forklifts. Anyway, it was a pretty complicated problem and it meant that the shipping will be delayed.

As they were getting the last of the boxes loaded, the girl rolled up her shirt sleeves, climbed up the back of the truck and helped with the loading. All the men there seemed to respect her, and was eager to do what she asked, and I guess it stems mostly from the fact that the girl was competent, and wasn't afraid of getting her hands dirty to do the work.

I re-evaluated my impression of her. Instead of a supermodel, I think she would better fit the image of an Amazon warrior, or Wonder Woman or something. That is, if Wonder Woman was a blonde. And that made her all the more attractive to me.

I think my infatuation with the girl was obvious to everyone, including her. After she freshened up and we continued with our meeting, the girl was in a playful mood, and was horsing around with me, in a friendly girlfriend kind of way, and she kept commenting on my blushing.

After the meeting, during dinner, I tried to see if my reputation with my guys was affected. I think it wasn't, though they teased me about it a little bit, and they were chattier. I think it sort of broke the ice with my guys, and they were less distant. Which was a good thing, especially with "Mr. Personality." Awkwardly, one of the girls tried to ask if I like girls. I sidestepped the issue by saying something like "Yes, I do. And guys, too. Did you see the tall one wearing the jeans?" (I was referring to a tall, good-looking guy who had the room next to the IT director, and was wearing this really tight pair of jeans) The girls went, "Oooh, yeah!" What ensued after that was another kind of discussion altogether. And that was that.

My sexual orientation has always been one of the bigger questions I've been trying to get a handle on, especially after my transition. I guess it hasn't really been settled. My wanting to be a regular girl used to mean to me that I had to be a regular girl in all things, and I truly tried. After transition, I even tried dating men a couple of times, as well as going all the way, but I guess the best way to say it is I just didn't feel it. Does this mean I'm a lesbian, or maybe I'm just not a real girl? Ponder ponder... All I know is that I guess I'm gonna have a lot to tell my therapist about this Saturday.

Anyway, today, I wore heels, a short skirt and a nice lemon-yellow blouse with short flutter sleeves. One of my girls teased me for dressing up for her. I smiled and said I didn't know what she was talking about, and we all giggled about it. Mr. Personality just sighed mock-exasperatedly, and said "women..." Which earned him a good-natured raspberry, and we all laughed. I think I had a good group with me. Remains to be seen if I can retain their respect in the long run. I hope I will.

Anyway, we finished up our morning with them by copying some reference documents and sample files onto a thumbdrive that they gave us, and I spent the morning with the girl at her office, and getting screenshots of many of the applications that they use for tracking inventory and recording orders. She casually put her arm around my shoulder as I sat in front of her terminal, and we chatted while we worked. I wanted to do the same, but I have to be professional, and besides, what if she doesn't like it.

Anyway, enough of this touchy-feely stuff. Suffice it to say, I guess I got a crush on the girl. I'm still not that good at feeling out people, girls, especially. Deep down, I had naively thought that such instant understanding came with the gender. Maybe it doesn't. Or maybe, only born-girls have that instinct. So I don't really know if she's just being friendly, or if I actually have a chance. Oh, well.

Before we left, I gave my card to the VP who set up our meeting, as well as to those that we interviewed, which included the girl. She said that she often went around to their branch stores, and said that she would ring me if she was visiting some of their stores back home. Hopefully, she will.

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