missdiane | Age, gender and all that goes along with it

In my flurry of Sunday morning errands, one stop was at Petco to pick up a bag of kitty litter. I got there right when they opened and evidently they were still getting stuff squared away as I had to wait a few minutes up at the checkout for someone to arrive. Another guy with a full cart of dog stuff rolled up and then a worker finally arrived.

I'll admit, the look of the worker was confusing. I honestly couldn't tell you whether it was a nineteen year old girl with a pixie cut or a twelve year old guy (or something in between or undefined). I was bemused but less so by the hard-to-identify gender of said person as the thought that if it were the latter guess, was he really old enough to be employed.

I can get the age thing, though, but my experience was the complete opposite. When I was sixteen, an age guesser thought I was thirty-two and didn't believe me until I dug out my ID (and not even a drivers license at that point). When I was eighteen and working my first non-paper-route "job" doing cold calls for a low-budget Olan MIlls sort of place, I decided to get a picture done with my BFF since we got a free one. I walked in and the photographer commented "Oh! A mother-daughter portrait!" My BFF was two months older than I was. I've never been carded unless it was a situation where everyone gets carded. I have been lucky enough to have finally visually caught up to my age as I actually get guessed as younger than I am now.

Not sure how long it'll take for the Petco employee to not be seen as a kid and I idly wonder if the androgynous look is intentional in relation to the age thing. But whatever it is, hey, you do you, Ray. You do you.