Does it matter what you wear when you no longer look like a teenager?

There's something truly pathetic about shopping for a new dress to impress folks you haven't seen in 20 years. As though they'll care if you're wearing something you've worn before -- how will they know? But still, a shopping I went.

Luckily for me, the store was filled with sympathetic salesladies...gee, their sympathy was real wasn't it? Anyway, they found me piles of dresses and told me how none of them had made the effort to go to their own reunions, and how even so they understood my wanting something comfortable yet dressy yet still young yet not too young and...well, and most importantly, something I can wear for several hours in a typical Oregon summer heat wave and not melt in.

I tried on dresses with dangles, long dresses, short dresses, pink dresses, green dresses, little black dresses, and some of those overly-goey frothy numbers that made me look like a 1950's horror movie participant. Things were too short, too loose, too tight, too long, too expensive, and sometimes just too damn silly looking.

When it got frustrating, I thought about going with the low-cut skin-tight red dress, the one already hanging in my closet. Bruce likes it (I bought it for him so he'd better) but even when I'm feeling my most Diva-ish I don't think I have the guts to wear something like that in Salem Oregon. California, yes -- but in a town where they roll up the sidewalks at 5pm, that type of dress would probably get me arrested for soliciting.

Many hours later and several hundred dollars poorer, I now have two dresses, several new "intimates" (Bloomingdales doesn't call garments what I calls 'em, that's for sure), and sore feet.

Will I impress the old gang? Who the heck cares -- I just spent a fortune at Bloomingdales and had a great time trying on all sorts of really over priced fashion disasters. Other women wanted to know what I was getting dressed up for, and everyone told Bruce how nice I looked. All in all, a wonderful day, one any Diva could be proud of.

written 7/3/99

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