At long last...the first kilt experience

**Alan H** · 28th January 05, 11:34 AM

Riverkilt, I come from a long line of navy brats. I wanted into ROTC or Annapolis when I was in high school, but the docs wouldn't let me go on account of too much protein in my urine. They figured my kidneys were going to fail at any moment and the government would be stuck with the bill. It's thirty years later and they're still working fine...Ah, well.

ANY-way, yesterday was Alans Kilt Day at work.

I got a fair number of surreptitious sideways looks and heard "it's a kilt" whispered or explained to a couple of onlookers from friends as I walked in from the parking lot, and then back out again in the late afternoon. There are amny, many asian students at Stanford, and a kilt is probably outside most of their experiences.

My coworkers mostly said "what's the big occasion?" And Greg C. our main system admin wanted to know what great Scottish victory was being celebrated that day. I told folks that the special occasion was just that my kilt arrived in the mail so I had to wear it.

I got a couple of joking "nice skirt" comments from folks, all in good fun. My gay Indian co-worker referred to me as the "random crossdressing dude", which is just him pulling my leg...no worries there. Hell, even my boss noticed, with a typically say-nothing comment. He literally siad this...

"A kilt, today." and paid no more attention.

The group leader for the Residentail Computing group that I worked with saw the kilt and launched into a ten minute discourse on his fammily geneology back to Robert the Bruce, and I told him he oughtta get a kilt. The Department Chairman said she really liked my buckle and wanted to know if my band (Tathaigh...Irish Gaelic for "to weld, or to unite"...we're a jazz-celt crossover group) was performing tonight. That was cool. One guy fromt he Uni Libraries and I had a nice chat about his family tartan...Cameron. Martha in the programming group dragged me over to her PC to show me the interactive tartan builder that we talked about here.

I got a couple of long looks from some pretty lasses driving by or out running, which was kind of fun. The undergraduate guys I supervise were all cool about it..."Nice kilt" from several of them.

last night I wore the kilt up to UC Berkeley to see The Assad guitar duo playing with Paquito D'Rivera. He's a Cuban clarinetist and saxophonist. If you haven't checked out Paquito, DO IT. He won the 2004 Downbeat poll as jazz clarinetist of the year, and he's absolutely fabulous. We ate dinner at "I House", the International Students hangout at Cal and got some smiles and a nice comment. I got smiles in the theatre too including a big, glowing one from a very pretty red-haired lassie who was almost certainly a co-ed at Cal, and young enough to be my daughter!

All in all, an excellent first day with the kilt....there will be many more to come.

**macwilkin** · 28th January 05, 12:25 PM

That was cool. One guy from the Uni Libraries and I had a nice chat about his family tartan...Cameron.

Always guid to hear of a fellow librarian who knows his tartan! :mrgreen:

Cheers,

Todd

**Rigged** · 28th January 05, 12:35 PM

Wow! What a great outting story! I'm down in Sunnyvale. We should meet up sometime. I haven't been on a boat in years, but I took sailing lessons (Cal Sailing Club) and did some sailing in the Bay, including crewing in a regatta race.

I'll tell you all about the shakedown run we did through Raccoon Straits on a homebuilt trimaran. It'll cost you a Guiness though.