April 18, 2008 The Red Dress

I found a beautiful red dress in the Talbots catalog. Every time I looked at the catalog, I was drawn to this dress. If only I could have this dress. But, alas, the dresses only come in Misses sizes, and I'm a 20W. But then, I found I could fit into some 18W stuff, and 18W pretty much equals 20 Misses. So I ordered the dress. Maybe it would fit, maybe not. And maybe I could wear it for vacation this summer.

Well, the red dress arrived today. I immediately stopped what I was doing and went to put it on. And guess what? It's um, a little bit too....big! I mean, if I wasn't in a losing phase, I'd probably say it was OK, but, it's a bit loose, and since I AM losing, no way was it gonna work. But I thought it looked very nice on me anyway, albeit a good bit too long. So I figured, I'll send it back and get an 18. But, wait, that would fit me now, what if even THAT is too big come July? So then I thought, to heck with the 20% off, I'll send it back, and wait to the end of June, and then get whatever size I am at that time. Who knows, maybe I'll be able to get away with a 16 by then, and I could get a 16 petite, which would eliminate the too long issue. OK, all set, problem solved.

Or so I thought. When we got home tonite, I told Laura I needed her to take my picture in the dress so I could post it. So, I put on the dress, admired it in the mirror, smiled as she told me how pretty I looked. And she took the picture. Actually 3 of them. Each one worse than the one before it. It looks HORRIBLE! I look like a big, fat red blob! Why, when this dress fits me like it does, and I thought it looked so nice in the mirror, and I was so pleased, does the photo show a different story? I look NOTHING like the picture in the catalog.

OK, I know what you're thinking--umm, Wendy, you're not a size 4, so of course you look different. But in the mirror, I saw a larger woman who still looked very nice in the dress, and the dress still resembled the one in the catalog, just a bigger version. But photos don't lie, and if that is how the dress really looks on me, it can just go back where it came from and stay there, thank you very much.

So, I've thought about this. Was it just the photo? Nope, took a picture of me yesterday in another dress and I look great. So, maybe it's the dress. Maybe it just isn't the right dress for me. And hey, the whole thing with the dress was, "could I possibly fit into this size 20 Misses dress?" And I got my answer--YES!!! I CAN!!! So, that's the saga of the red dress.

Meantime, it was a GORGEOUS day today--well into the 80s. I went into my closet to shop for a short sleeved shirt to go with the denim capris I found yesterday. Hmmmm, we seem to have a problem. In my entire closet and drawers, I could find only ONE short sleeved shirt that fits. Lots of sleeveless. Lots of long sleeved. But only ONE short sleeved. Well, this will just not do. So tonite while the kids were at cooking school, I headed to Kohls to remedy the situation. And, after opening a Kohls charge (which makes sense now since that's where 80% of Laura's clothing comes from these days) and saving 20%, I ended up with 10 new shirts for only $97.00!!! NOT TOO SHABBY!!! Most of them were $8.99, but there were 2 that were over $20 each before the discount. Anyway, I coordinated shirts to my print capris that needed them, and then got some stripes and solids to go with my denim and khaki capris and pants. So i am set for the next several months. Oh, and the shirts were almost all size 1X. Not bad, since the last time I shopped I had to get all 3X.

Who needs that red dress anyway??????