As many of you who follow my blog know, I'm retired and drive school bus (about 20 hours a week) to combat the boredom of retirement. I'm sure that I've also mentioned that when I drive the bus I dress very butch. My usual fair is androgynous tennis shoes, dark grey jeans, polo shirt and an equally androgynous vest issued by the company with the company name on it. The jeans, BTW, aren't skinny jeans. The only thing feminine about my appearance would be the way I wear my hair; pulled back at the sides and held with a small barrette that is nearly the same color as my hair. I've always thought that anyone who talked to me would twig to the idea that I was male bodied regardless of how I was dressed.

However, I may need to rethink that. Twice in the last 30 days someone has said something that makes me think that they perceived me otherwise. The first was about three weeks ago. It's company policy to rinse the grime off the buses after each run. We have two areas where we can do that. Usually I use the one near the fuel island, but that day, I was using the one in the front of the building near the highway. I had my back to the road rinsing the back of the bus when a car drove onto the lot behind me. I thought nothing of it because we have three vans that we use as well as the buses and I thought it was one of them.

The car stopped behind me and I heard an older gentleman say, "Excuse me young lady." There was no one else around he had to be talking to me. I turned to him; his car was about 8 feet away and he had the passenger window down. He asked if I knew of a feed store near by on the highway. I told him it was about a half a mile on down the road at the next intersection. I thought that hearing my voice he would simply go on toward the feed store, but he continued to make conversation in a pleasant manner. It was almost as if he was flirting. I counted that as a one off.

But yesterday something similar happened. One of the young teen girls who's new riding my bus this year had gone out of her way a couple of weeks ago to introduce herself, telling me her name and asking mine. She has said, "Good afternoon, Pat," a couple of times when she got on the bus since then. Yesterday she was first on the bus when I picked up the kids to take them home. She started a conversation and we talked about school bus driving and such. When other kids started coming, she got up to go back to where she normally sits, but asked if my name was Patty or Pat.