I had my first Oregonian celebrity sighting last week.
And as with the time that I saw George Stephanopoulous walking down 28th Street in Georgetown, D.C., and the afternoon I ran into Thurston Moore on the main drag in State College, PA, the fact that this was a lesser celebrity — no motorcade, no paps, no Kevin Costner falling in love — didn’t prevent my sweet release of having witnessed, if only for a moment, what famous people do when they don’t know they are being watched.
And what a setting! Yes, folks, I saw Silverton Mayor Stu Rassmussen, the nation’s first transgendered mayor, shopping for shoes at DSW in Eugene.
This is where my friend Rachel would interject and say: “See! Even Stu has to go somewhere else to find good shoes!”
Well, yes, that’s why I was there too. But my mission quickly morphed from picking up a nice pair of pregnancy-friendly flats for a my sister’s wedding to flat-out stalking Stu as he perused the aisles of DSW.
I really wanted to say something. The journalist in me came up with all kinds of normal-sounding intros that would have brought me into conversation with The Mayor. The best I could come up with was: “I love your little town so much I’m giving birth there!”
Alas, my superpower, empathy, won out. I don’t like to be bothered while I’m shopping, and I couldn’t fathom doing it to him just to feed my interest.
So instead, I just followed him around like a spy, watching him shop for — ta da! — six-inch stilletto-heeled brown boots. Also, he was wearing four-inch heals while shopping.
It would seem that Stu makes a far greater woman than I. After I had my fill, I sighed and left, shuffling to my car, through the rain, my five year-old, moldering posture shoes squeezing a little tight against my toes.
No shoes that day. But still… Stu sighting!
Did you catch the recent RadioLab episode that featured Stu? Go to their website http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/ and listen to New Normal?
No, but I will check it out! Thanks for passing along the link.
When did Stu get boobs?! That’s what I want to know!
Oddly enough a couple of years ago, he was set up at a booth right next to me at the Salem Antiques show that happens once a month. At the time, we were still new to the area, and didn’t know who he was, but he surely didn’t have boobs then either! Oy!
I can’t attest to having ever worn a heel at all, so he gets kudos in my book for having man feet and still strutting his stuff in those things.
I have no idea what the status of Stu’s stack is… As for wearing heels — I thought I escaped that social pressure by moving to Oregon!
I met Stu at his house. My buddy and I bought a Checker cab from him. We spent an hour or more sloshing through the rain and muck to get the car onto a trailer. The miracle was he didn’t break a nail. You get to know people pretty quick when there’s hard work to be done. Stu is cool and if I lived in Silverton I’d work for his re-election. (I would have said her, but I don’t know her name)
I am also confused as whether to call Stu him or her. If I see him, er, her, again, I’ll just ask.