Curiouser and Curiouser! Wonderland and Fairy-tales!

voltee ♦ September 26, 2010 ♦ 5 Comments

Item: Dress Color/Fabric: Midnight Blue, polyester/spandex Designer: Forever 21 Years Owned 4

Meet Trixie! She is my new model, and has been through a plethora of name changes in the short time she’s been in my employ. But Trixie has stuck. And I love her already. She makes the clothes look so much nicer, doesn’t she? I think she will help you form your opinions.

This dress I have only worn a single time, but it was a joyous event; Friday, October 26th, 2007. It was my Library and Novel Completion Celebration. I had set the date months in advance to give myself a target to actually finish the novel. Deadlines and pressure and procrastination always did me proud in school days, so I thought I would try to apply them to my writing once more. Plus, I thought the addition of a public proclamation would also add another layer of accountability to finish my project. All of it was great in theory, but, alas, did not work. By the time of the party, neither my novel nor the library that Nate was building for me was actually completed. It didn’t actually matter- the mere contemplation of the completions were certainly enough to warrant a celebration!

I had a “Dress Like Your Favorite Literary Character” theme. So of course I picked Alice in Wonderland. I wore this dress, with a white eyelet lace blouse underneath, frilly white ankle socks, and red flats. And, for some reason, this hat:

I do so love this hat, and feel that it looks much more flattering on me than on Trixie, mostly due to the fact that Trixie is lacking an actual head. I think I was trying to represent Alice at the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. But really I just wanted an excuse to wear the hat.
Nate, mostly for lack of actual costume, was dressed as Mr. Darcy for a brief spell. That is, until our friend Richard arrived in what appeared to be Colin Firth’s actual costume from the Pride and Prejudice movie. He is a genius with a costume, that Richard. I think then I had to demote Nate’s costume to generic peasant boy in a Dicken’s tale. My other favorite costumes from that night had to be The White Rabbit and the Mad Hatter, by way of our friends Herman and Andy. There were fake giant teeth and everything. We made a festive trio.

I will never forget the moment that I read a few pages of my novel to our guests. We all sat in the library, and it was the first time we actually sat and enjoyed it. I know that it was very late by the time I actually began the reading, and some of the guests had left already. But there were still many friends remaining, and I was so nervous to read my book. It was like the time when we jumped off of in cliff in Vancouver; I wanted to do it, but was so terrified at the same time that it took me about 20 minutes and a dozen false starts before I actually took the plunge. But once I did, it was so freeing and exhilarating that I thought my heart might just burst from my chest with joy. In both circumstances I felt fantastic, and proud of myself, yet I’ve never felt the need to do either ever again.

And here it is, almost three years later, and I still haven’t finished my book. Just as Nate still hasn’t finished my library. Both are so close; everything is in place, and to the distant observer they would both appear to be complete. But I know where the little holes are, the subtle missing details that are lacking. For some reason those little things are the hardest to accomplish.

Anyway, I do like the dress, but I’m not sure that I love it. It’s just a cheap dress that looks good from far away, but up close you can tell the quality just isn’t there. The loops for the ribbon belt, for example, are ridiculously large. If I felt like it, I could slide my hand through one and wear the whole dress as a bracelet. But it is a pretty dress… I just can’t decide.

**I said goodbye, via eBay.  Wishing this dress well.  I’m sad.