Dude Looks Like a Lady

We get a lot of looks.

Everybody stares at the water meter installers in the neighborhood.  Some come up to ask what we're doing, but they all do a huge double-take when they realize we are women.

If we go into any kind of store we get lots of attention in these crazy getups.

I think it's just a little unexpected to see girls in any sort of stereotypical male job.  It's been a very interesting social experiment actually.  And of course it only makes me feel super tough and strong.  I like to do things like swing my pick ax or throw heavy things when people are watching.

Another thing I like to do when kids are getting on or off the school bus is to say, "Stay in school kids!" with a shrug of my shoulders, even though I KNOW they are thinking what a cool job I have.  And it is cool.  Really cool.  Part of what we have to do is collect a bunch of the metal pit lids from in front of people's homes and deliver them to have holes drilled in them.  Then we bring them back with the holes.  I think we would be drilling the holes except I broke two drill bits on one hole.  (The holes hold the radios that we install and program.)  Anyway, for this part of our job, one of us drives and the other one of us rides in the back of the SUV with the hatch open.  Our code word is "hop pop" when we're ready for the driver to drive to the next one.  I use my pick ax to pry the lids up and this part of our job looks really cool, trust me.  I always tell the kiddies that the holes are for putting quarters in.  (I'm hoping I can get a secondary source of income.)  Today I got a little girl to dig an entire hole for me.  It took forever but hey, I needed the break.

I digress.  The point of this post is to discuss gender disparity amongst manual labor workers.

Not really.  Anyway, I've discussed before how I always feel like a dude because I look like this at work:

And we work.  We work ten to twelve hours a day.  I never wear makeup and I never get dressed up.  When I get home I shower and put on my new pajama sweater dress I bought at Old Navy for $5.97 and fall asleep in a chair in front of reruns of 30 Rock at 8:45pm:

And Summer takes photos.

Today we decided we needed to do a "Treat Yo-self 2011!"... 

...and got Pedicures next door to the FedEx office we frequent for paperwork shipments back to Minnesota.  All the ladies at the shop stared and double-taked just as much as the neighbors when we're elbow-deep in their water meter pits.

We're pariahs.  We don't fit in the man's world of basic plumbing and we don't fit in the woman's world of Asian pedicure shops.  

Oh Well and Oh Man it felt good to look feel like a woman for 45 minutes.

Treat Yo'self!