Fact: The gender binary pays no attention to the laws of the road

Today I jaywalked to get to the grocery store on the other side of the road to buy Valentine's chocolates. It was a busy street at a busy hour, but I figured that walking the 200 metres to the traffic light would be a waste of time. So why not risk my life and save some minutes. That's always been my motto.

When I got to the other side of the street, an SUV turning into the grocery store parking lot slowed down almost to a stop (halting traffic behind him) just to yell at me the following words : "Hey! You're gonna get run over, man!"

It was the best thing anyone had said to me all day. And no, not because it was a very acute observation (yes, I think it's pretty much common sense that jaywalking DOES in fact risk getting run over). It was the fact that he called me "man."

I had carefully picked out my clothes this morning - as in, more so than I normally do, and all I could think was YES, THE DISGUISE WORKED.

It wasn't as good as getting called sir by an elderly lady that one time on Commercial and Broadway, when I was dressed à la Marlene Dietrich in Morocco. And no, it wasn't as entertaining as the one time in the ninth grade when I walked into the school washroom and a couple of girls at the sinks screamed because they thought I was a boy.

But regardless, I really appreciated that guy's statement. The cars behind him were probably not very happy, but I was glad he took the time to slow down traffic, look straight at me, and call me a man.

Don't get me wrong, I identify as female and always will, but there's something really cool about being mistaken for the opposite gender. It makes me feel like a seahorse!

Beatlemania just bended.