"Beauty and the Beast"

So I get a call from Molly while she's at the airport waiting to check in for her flight. She's entitled to vacation time, she drives a lot more than I do and I get a vacation just about every month. I just don't fly anywhere. Mostly because I've got nowhere to fly to and partly because I'm too cheap to fly. 

So, anyway, while she was on vacation she colored her hair. When I say colored her hair what I really mean is it looks like a Dayglo highlighter assortment and she got into a tussle and it was a draw. She wears it well though. She has that ability to look fashionable in anything. Unlike me. I can buy the highest fashion and look like I live under a bridge. 

She looks quite proper despite being a truck driver. I could look like a homeless person even in a tux. We compliment each other that way. Well, mostly I give her compliments and people look at her like "why are you talking to this troll." I'm ok with that. It's like "Beauty and the Beast" only I don't think she's very beastly. 

Picture someone with an angel's smile, dressed in all brand name stuff, very petite, well mannered and polite waiting to check in for her flight. She doesn't like drawing attention to herself so she's a lot more unobtrusive than, say, someone like me. 

The guy tells her this line is for first class passengers. She just waits patiently. People cut in front of her. It's almost as though she doesn't exist. Until she hands them her First Class tickets. Then the atmosphere changes. The gate guy is all friendly and shit, looking at her like "I didn't figure you for First Class, you're too quiet and shy."  

And that's the rub, folks. We love to judge based on appearance. (Although I would've figured her for looking like a First Class passenger; she's a First Class truck driver). The colors in her hair got her dismissed right away. Which is quite ironic. She's clean cut and "proper" but she got looked over based on appearance. Whereas me, I've got no coloring in my hair and all but one of my tattoos is normally hidden. However, I've got enough piercings to consider me a "freak". They just aren't visible. I'm loud, boisterous and have zero problem drawing attention with my attitude. But I wouldn't fly First Class. The comfy seats and never ending wine bottle sounds nice but I'm a bit too Spartan. 

She deserves it; she earns it. Months at a time on the road, she certainly works harder than I do. Why not relax in style once or twice a year. 

We all do it though. We all look and judge on sight. "Oh, he looks professional", "she's dressed for success", sometimes I even get "you don't look like a truck driver". Once, a day after Molly dropped her truck off at a shop, I took mine to the same shop. It was fun listening to the guys talk about the "atypical looking female trucker". It was even funnier when I told them we were dating. They gave me this look like "her? You? Nah. No way." I ended up having to take a lie detector test after they administered Sodium Pentothal. Who knew they even kept those things around the shop?! Kinda scares me what they must get up to after hours.