This is weird.  And when I say weird, I mean this one is a little way out of left field, even for me.

Almost every weekday I get to Rosslyn, park my car and walk to the Metro station to take downtown.  This normally happens around the same time every day.  We all know that I have a penchant for dressing for work. I love suits. I love ties. I love the uniform associated with dealing in a business environment.

This past Friday I came to work wearing blue jeans from Buckle, black shoes and a black belt (matched with my black briefcase, yo!), and a white t-shirt under a v-neck, baby blue sweater from Banana Republic.  I was nice and casual because I was leaving early for a few non-work related appointments.  This is the somewhat freaky part. You know how you walk a certain route on a daily basis and you notice things but you don’t really notice them? You take them for granted? Well, as I walked past a ‘New World’ bus, I noticed a few of the people inside staring at me and smiling. One old man gave me a thumbs up. This is a commuter bus, so I see many of these people waiting either at the stop or sitting in the bus. There was a woman in the seat behind him talking to him, pointing at me also smiling.

WTF?

I just smiled and waved and immersed myself in the music coming from my iPhone. As I continued walking, I passed the last window at the restaurant/cafe called Tivoli. I regularly see this older black man sitting with two old white women, enjoying their morning before they head to work. The gentleman is always wears a large brimmed hat, glasses and a blazer. I’ve made eye contact a few times in the past, gave the knowing ‘guy nod’ and even smiled. That was the extent of our relationship. Other times I just walked by, oblivious to them. However, Friday was a little different.

As I walked past the window, I noticed out of the side of my sun glasses that all six set of eyes were fixated on me. I tried to pay no attention to it and kept going. Suddenly, the door to Tivoli opened and it was the old man.  He asked if I was ok.

“Am I ok?!” I repeated back to him.

“Yes. My lady friends and I watch you walk to the Metro almost every day and we like to talk about what you’re wearing. We were afraid that you may have decided to quit your job and that you wouldn’t walk by anymore. We talk about you for about 10 to 15 minutes after you go by and sometimes Delores gives the people on the commuter bus an update.”

“…”

I thanked him and reassured him everything was fine. I told him that I had errands to run today and that I decided to be very comfortable and casual rather than get fully dressed for work for no reason. I still don’t know his name; he still doesn’t know mine. Which is fine. I’ll walk by and still give them a smile or a wave now. I just found it very odd.

Now I’m trying to figure out when a good day would be to walk by topless wearing only leather chaps…