The Hero Change

The good old days, when my main focus was my outfit and the lovely California weather let me wear dresses in January. I got a wonderful flashback to my past this Saturday. The challenge: Dress for a conservative play, followed by drinks with a long-lost college buddy, followed by a dress-to-impress bash at a bar. God, I love a challenge.

Back in college, I played dress-up everyday under the pretense that I didn't know where I would end up that night. A crowning achievement was one day of class sign-ups. My tiny art school was old fashioned, having everyone sign up at a table with the teacher for a class. No easy feat, but better to me than the dreaded online sign up, and a great opportunity to look fabulous. Over dressing, as usual, I worn a great little belted cream knit dress and some stiletto mary janes. If I wore the same outfit out today in Jackson, girls would wonder if I was part of the Eastern European prostitution ring. Yet, in Los Angeles I wore it to sign up for classes. After completing the dirty work, my friend Itamar invited me on an impromptu trip up to San Fran to spend the weekend with his mother. This is an opportunity I still never pass up. I popped my overdressed butt into his Audi, stopped by home for a few essentials, and rode in style, from my head to my leather seat. Pulling into town, Itamar got a call from his mother saying she could get us into a private benefit with the Israeli orchestra. She wondered if we were dressed to just show up? Was I ever. And the Israeli elite loved my outfit. This is why I still prefer to dress for what I hope will happen, not what I have planned.

Moving to Wyoming presented new challenges. The toughest was a sleigh ride, followed by a corporate dinner at a beautiful restaurant, followed by hot tubbing. Great night, great layering. This weekend, when I wore a little cotton red dress as a shirt with a blazer over, and got to have a superman outfit change in the bathroom, I felt like a hero. Enters, slightly geeky, theater lover and exits, red hot mystery party girl. It doesn't happen as often as it used to, but it feels even better now when it does.