And for the most part, it did. Simon did a great job of introducing me to his coworkers and mentioning my background, so I had some great conversations with them.

But a handful of people didn’t react so well. There seemed to be a kind of automatic blind spot for their coworker’s dates. They’d brought their dates with them, but after the initial introductions, I was ignored — presumably so we women could chat amongst ourselves. The most egregious situation, though, was one in which a guy I was introduced to had heard of another company I’d worked for and had a ton of questions about it, which he eagerly asked — to Simon. And every time Simon said “You should ask Kaylee — I mean, she’s the one that worked there” and I would speak up, the guy would ignore me and keep asking Simon the questions.

After we walked away from this conversation, Simon and I had a good laugh over what we found to be a classic case of sexism.

But then later, while we were seated with some interns, my former boss came over to say hi. I was a little flustered, since I hadn’t really seen this guy since I’d left his company, so we traded niceties, talked about my new job, he took my picture to send to some friends at his office, and then he got up and left.

As he left and I was congratulating myself on not being THAT flustered, Simon said something like “Wow, he just did not want to talk to me.” I asked what he meant. “Well,” he said, “I kept trying to jump in to the conversation, but he just ignored me and talked to you.” I immediately started kicking myself for not having had the presence of mind to introduce him — as he’d so consistently done for me at the rest of the party — but then he said, “Man. It really sucks to feel like an arm charm.”

Simon is an excellent feminist in his own right so I’ve never felt like he really needed a “told you so!” moment. But generally speaking, I feel like moments like this are really important for our guy friends to have. We can rant and rave all we want, and the good friends will listen, but actually experiencing a crappy feeling from being ignored in a reverse gender dynamic situation is a much more powerful thing. I feel bad that my cluelessness in the situation put Simon in this awkward spot; but in a way, I’m a little glad that he really gets how, even when we can step back and laugh at it, it really does indeed suck to feel like an arm charm.

Today’s find: ESD straps designed specifically for high heels.

An example of a toe grounder fitted on to a pair of heels

There’s really nothing worse than the disapproving look on someone’s face when you pick up a circuit board and — just as your fingers grasp it — there’s a little static shock. Did you break the board? Fry something important? Why weren’t you wearing your ESD grounding straps?

If your excuse was “because I’m wearing heels and they don’t make them for me,” excuse yourself no more! They make modified straps called “toe grounders” that fit around the toe of a shoe instead of the heel, so that even if your stilettos may not be steel-toed, at least they’re ESD safe.

Check it out:

• 2-layer toe grounder
• toe grounders