Tonight chere Holly at Nothing But Bonfires has invited the lot of us over to celebrate her 30th year on this mysterious planet. And she has one request: dress to kill. The funny thing about this request is, when she made it, I had to clarify.
Me: So you want the guys to wear…suits? Or did you just mean that they should dress up in a general sort of way?
She laughed and said in her most polite British way, “I was thinking suits, if they don’t mind.”
Ohhhhhh. That’s when my thoughts immediately went to this:
Baby Alison bought this dress in France. Picture it. 1997. I am a small-town Southern girl who’s gone off to college and discovered–loophole of loopholes!–you can complete your French minor by studying abroad. Realizing my parents would sign off on this because, you know, it’s still school, I quickly sold them on the idea and was off on my first great travel adventure.
(Wait, no. The first time I went abroad was in high school for basically the same reason. Language study. But at the time, I had been studying Spanish. They combined the Spanish and French classes into one big trip and took us on a two-week whirlwind tour of the two countries. Entre nous, I had no great affection for Spain, the country we explored first, but the moment my toes touched French soil I knew I was home. I would never take Spanish again.)
That summer is one of my fondest memories. I was so completely charmed by Paris and so utterly overwhelmed by the glamor of it all. And for the last two weeks, we went to live in Lyon because our French prof was from there and she missed home. I had no idea there was somewhere on the planet even better than Paris, but there is and it’s name is Lyon. And, miracle of miracles!, instead of getting stuck with yet another French family I got…wait for it….wait for it…assigned to live with a twenty-five-year-old girl named Emmanuelle. Manue, as she was called, looked like my cool French older sister and her boyfriend, who was in a band, secretly lived with her. His name was Julien.
I spent the rest of my time following Manue around, admiration for her written all over my face, and she tolerated me in a completely endearing French sort of way. And one afternoon we went shopping together and stumbled upon this dress in a boutique. It was the Soldes–the once in a year sales–and it was on sale but still an unfathomable amount of money to me at the time. We both tried it on and we both got one. (This made it better somehow. She wanted one too! It was cool!)
I’ve worn it a few times and I always get compliments, but thanks to its FLOOR LENGTH hemline, there are not a lot of uses for it in my life. In fact, I haven’t worn it since grad school in 2001 so NATHAN HAS NEVER EVEN SEEN IT ON MY BODY. In fact, I’m not entirely sure he knew it has been crouching in our closet for all these years. But voila!
Anyway tonight it’s making its grand debut and, as I told Holly, I MIGHT even wear lipstick to celebrate the occasion.
(Record skips at the party.)
Um, yeah. That’s correct. I don’t, uh, ever wear lipstick. I also don’t change my earrings. Oh, I haven’t mentioned that yet? Well, basically every morning I get ready in 20 minutes. 10 minutes in the shower and 10 minutes out of the shower. Now, true, I am a busy lady but that’s not exactly why I do this. The truth is I get bored and just think, Well, this will have to suffice.
You see, the entire world falls into two simple categories for me: Things That Seem Worth It and Things That Don’t. I believe many people know and love these two categories but they also have one entitled Things I Don’t Love But Do Anyway Because You Should.
That’s kind of where I fall apart. Should I put a little more effort into my appearance every day? Probably! But it doesn’t seem worth and thus I don’t. Now this isn’t to say I waste time because the good lord knows I do. But I waste it on Things That Seem Worth It. For instance, I can lose an entire day to cooking. I can’t explain it, but I just enjoy it.
However, there are a number of very normal things that people do that I simply skip.
Things That Don’t Seem Worth It:
Going to the Gym
Changing My Earrings
Shopping in Person (I only shop online)
Sending Christmas Cards
Eating Something Different Every Day (I eat the same thing all week)
Taking a Lunch Break
Doing Stuff to My Hair
Flossing
99.9% of All Hobbies (basically everything but cooking and writing)
Wearing High Heels
Hanging Out with Acquaintances
You get the basic idea. This personality quirk makes me a little odd, but it also helps me be uber-efficient so I guess it balances out somewhere down the line. And I come by it naturally. My whole family is this way, though their lists differ from mine quite a bit.
So tonight, I’m going to spend probably a whopping 30 minutes getting ready and I’m going to wear a dress that looks like curtains and put on lipstick and have the time of my life. Happy birthday, Holly!
