Car Washes and Guys In Heels

I haven't written a post in awhile because I've gotten caught up in summer laziness. It's a huge break after keeping so busy during the school year, but I do need to get back on track so what better to start with than my blog?

I'm not going to bother filling you in on what you've missed, which there has been a bit, but I have time for that later. Right now, I'm going to focus on one day that just passed not too long ago.

On Saturday, I participated in a car wash. Unlike the other ones that I have arranged, I didn't know these people, I had no idea if anyone would come, or even if anything would get done.
You see, the group that I had arranged it for was a group that I was relatively new to. I hadn't done much of anything with them yet except share a few things online. A few people responded to my messages and contacted me to let me know that they would be there, but I've always believed that saying, "Invite twenty, expect four". Since less than twenty people had contacted me, I only expected maybe two or three people.
Luckily, I was dead wrong.

The day started like any day where I had plans. I set two alarms because I knew that I wouldn't want to get up, showered, checked my email, dragged my mom out of bed, and then began to get dressed. Mom was also skeptical of how many people would show up so she told me that she was going to go with me and help. We loaded the car with the pre-made signs and headed to Auto Zone.
Immediately when I got there, two cars pulled in right next to us. I didn't bother to pay them attention as I went inside to get the supplies and let the manager know that we were there.
I had called three times about the car wash. The first time I called, the event man wasn't there but they put it on the calendar and told me that they would call back the next day. They didn't. I decided to wait a day longer before calling again to confirm that we were on the schedule. This time he was in and he confirmed it. A week later, I called once again to check the times for my grandma who planned to pick me up after it.

Once I let him know that we were there, he asked what GLBT meant. I told him that it means "Gay, Lesbian, Bi, and Transgendered." After I clarified the name for him, he informed me that we were not on the schedule, someone else was. Apparently a few days ago, a local baseball team had taken the spot. He told me that we had to leave. As politely as I could, I told him that we were expecting people and that if I had to, I would call his manager and make sure that I got the spot he told me that I had. After my threat, he said that we could have it but if the baseball team showed up, we had to leave.

I made my way outside and saw several ladies standing by their cars. I asked them if they happened to be here for the car wash and they said yes. I was shocked. Not only was that already more people than I expected, but they were early as well! We made our way to the back and began to set up, as we did, more people arrived. A lady that had agreed to pick up one of my friends was just on time, and shortly after, but still on time, came the leader of the group. My mom left to find food and we began to set up.

What I had expected to be two or three people standing around all day quickly changed to a very well planned car wash. The leader of the group, James, had brought a table with an umbrella, chairs, fliers, cards, pins, and a cooler with Gatorade. Two other women brought more drinks, snacks, a money box, and even a first aid kit.

I hate to say it, but I was impressed. Leave it to a gay person to be fabulous and prepared at the same time. ; )

The person who ran events at Auto Zone fought us tooth and nail when we needed supplies. I had to beg another employee for the soap that we need and when I asked for towels, he gave us the worst ones in the store so we ended up having to buy some. When I had done car washes with him before for other groups, we would give us not only as much supplies as we needed, but let us pick the brands that we wanted. This time, apparently my mom even almost lost her temper when asking him for soap.

Two girls walked down the street with signs to get us cars and we started. As soon as we were ready, people began to pull in. We were busy for almost an hour before traffic almost came to a full stop for us. Another lady and I took over the signs and screamed at cars to turn in for over an hour, but apparently everyone had clean cars or didn't want a clean car. Once we returned, we decided that the next best method would be to take to the phones, Twitters, and Facebooks. We posted it everywhere and waited awhile. Another friend of mine showed up to help and we took back to the street. A few minutes after holding signs, two other people showed up to help. These guys were in heels (And they pulled them off better than I ever could. XD) but they still came to help and hold signs. As soon as they took to the street, cars began to pour into the parking lot.

We didn't even need to hold signs after. People had seen the rainbow sign, the posts everywhere, or heard from word of mouth and they were ready to help make a change! We had a point where we had people waiting as we washed three or more cars at a time and it was fantastic.

After the wash, we had a chance to break again. The breaks were fascinating because there was a lady there that had originally been a man. I don't recall if she had fully changed, but by looking at her, she was just as woman as I am if not more. I was shocked because despite knowing Dakota, I had never seen someone so far into a change as that and it never crossed my mind that she could have been born anything different. For a male, she was beautiful. She was also very sweet and more than happy to answer the endless questions that came to mind. How long did it take, what did the hormone treatments do, what was it like, why did you do it?
She was accepting of the fact that not everyone knew about it and even people who didn't mind were ignorant.
My mother and I absolutely adored her and learning about it.

Finally, we began to break the car wash down. My mother and I were the first to leave and I'm sure that everyone else got home fine.

We had a fantastic day  and we look forward to helping this group again in the future. Never in my life had I been around so many unique strangers that I instantly felt friendly with and if this is the kind of group that has so much biasness against it, well...I'm terribly sorry for the people who haven't had such an experience. I don't believe that one person there would want to hurt someone or even change their sexuality, they simply want to be accepted and with personalities like they have, I don't understand why they're not.
Just a bit of a rant there. <3


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