" wearing a woman's suit jacket "

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so tonight i had a shoot at this exhibition hall somewhere. a baking-a-cake competition thing. it was nice. but that's not the funny part.

not at all.

so, the closing big extravaganza part of this contest, is that one of the princesses of Thailand came to view the winning cakes, and pass out awards to various hi-so people, which is the style of the royal family.

i had to shoot DV footage of my boss receiving one such award. to be able to get close to the princess, any princess, one has to wear very formal clothing and go through a variety of security checks and stuff, to insure that you are respectable to the royal family.

i had my pumas on and only dress pants, a long-sleeve button down shirt, and a tie. to be ok-ed by the security team, i had to find a suit jacket and some formal dress shoes. the jacket which was supplied to me was a so-too-small woman's blazer. so that was fun.

the shoes came from one of the other photogs, and he told me it was a practice to always bring extra pairs of everything just in case. i was sorry to not also have had the experience to match his level of preparedness. so i wore these funny black leather buckle-shoes, which were also hilarious on me.

so imagine this: i'm shooting footage of one of the princesses, standing next to all of these well-dressed fellow photogs and DV footage shooters, wearing a comical near-charlie chaplin but tighter woman's blazer and daffy shoes. i was weird looking to say the least.

and what a way to present yourself as a valid and respectable person. and to a royal no less. i mean, i'm sure if she actually saw me, she could've potentially burst out laughing, or sent me to prison or something equally and culturally embarrassing...on my part/fault of course.

who's to know these small details? i again proved myself foreign to a certain very specific situation, but came out okay. it seems that everyday is filled to the brim with all of these minute details; having to prove myself worthy to people who so already expect a higher level of cultural awareness.

i am always eager to be more than i am. and it's fun to learn this way, although i would've rather not have had to put on a woman's black blazer which was way to small to do so. yay for embarrassing situations. may they now be fewer and farther between.

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