One of the biggest changes over my last 39 years has been my style. In high school and college, I dressed to blend in. I wore clothing from the Gap and usually pretty boring t-shirts.

Sometime in my early 30’s, I started wanting to stand out. Life can get sorta boring and the people that dressed differently really made life more interesting. So I doubled down on dressing to impress. Or, if not impressive, I at least want to turn heads.

First off, I almost always have a flower in my hair. My hair has gotten long and curly, so a flower sorta balances it out. It also draws a lot of compliments, especially if I can color coordinate it with something else I’m wearing.

I also don’t wait for Halloween anymore. Here I am dressed as a light up, inflatable chicken at the bar across the street from my house in NOLA. There wasn’t a special occasion, it was just a Saturday night.

Sometimes it’s just unexpected. For the record, I definitely don’t pee in pools. But wearing the above t-shirt around, people go out of their way to either fist bump me or tell me I’m not invited to their pool. It’s awesome to see a wide variety of reactions.

More often than not, though, I dress for the occasion. This was my face paint for a concert on a recent Saturday night – “LSD Clownsystem”, a clown-based LCD Soundsystem cover band. How can you go to a clown show without clown face?!?!

That said, I wouldn’t have done it 20 years ago.