Frock Star

#71

Last Saturday, I traveled to Washington D.C. to attend the wedding of Cindy Jaworski, one of my best childhood friends, and - along with Mike Beazley - certainly the oldest. I bought this cream-lace scallop-neck dress at Macy's a number of years ago, and never had a perfect opportunity to wear it until now: an autumn wedding in an elegant hotel in D.C. Perfect!

For her wedding ceremony, Cindy asked me to read the famous Corinthians chapter: Love is Patient, Love is Kind. But my favorite part was this:

Now I know only in part;
then I will know fully,
even as I have been fully known.

At this I looked at Cindy in the front row and we smiled at each other. I'll always remember that.

#75

This cute lil thing is a thrift store find, barely a dress, so I usually wear it with jeans...OR opaque tights, seen here :)  I stopped by Mediterrenean Deli to get chicken kebob, steak kebob, apple curry orzo, couscous-and-raisins, artichoke salad, stuffed grape leaves, and pistachio baklava...and took it over to Locopops, where Rajeev was whiling away the last hour of his shift. While we dug into the food, we had several visitors, each of whom we "counseled" on which Locopop to choose. Rajeev and I have distinctly different tastes when it comes to Locopops; a philosophical difference, puh-haps. He likes flavors that are classic and done really well, e.g. latte, white chocolate peanut butter, pistachio; and I like flavors that are edgy, and done really well; e.g. grapefruit poppyseed, blueberry buttermilk, or strawberry balsamic. But in the end we both agreed - and recommended to anyone who came in - that pumpkin spice was the perfect flavor for a night like this.

#95

On Friday night my friends Jeremy Griffin and Callie Peck hosted a Jell-O shot party, which was very well-attended and well-enjoyed. We really outdid ourselves: there were mojitos, mimosas, lychee martinis, apple martinis, kamikazes, Bloody Marys, goldschlagers, witch's titties, and even Nyquil shots.  (Thanks Kit.) Everyone also looked gorgeous! I wore this dress, which is very pretty and sexy when not all bunched up; it's made of black gauze layered over pink gauze. I save it for vavoomy occasions.

I went to this party really intending to get drunk for the first time in my life. I like sweet candy-ish things - not beer or hard liquor in the least - so if I was ever going to drink enough to get me drunk, this was my chance. But all the shots were very light on alcohol, so that after ten shots in one hour, I was quite sober and able to drive home :)

 

#10

Lookin' all silly...I bought this dress vintage at Roulette in downtown Carrboro (where I'd also bought #84). The fabric was thin as single-ply toilet paper, so I had to buy an old-fashioned slip to put on under it. I first wore it tonight, to a UNC production of Coyote on a Fence, a play involving two Death Row inmates, their guard and a New York Times reporter. While watching it, I was intensely involved, because the script itself is so strong; but the magic faded as soon as we started walking away. Like with the movie Crash, I felt it was a rather cartoonish treatment of a complex subject. Every character has another side - exactly two, in fact. Every assumption you have is challenged - exactly in the opposite direction, and no further. I felt like I was told what to think and didn't have the freedom to come to my own conclusion.   

#68

In the summer of 2002, I was at the NASA Astrobiology Academy in Palo Alto, California. As I mentioned in a previous post, I was having a tough time of things after a breakup with my first lover. But my twenty-first birthday was coming up, and I wanted to make the best of it. So I located an Ethiopian restaurant in the area - it's my favorite kind of food! - and my RAs were kind enough to clear the schedule one night so we could all go out to eat there. I wore this dress (brand Express, back when they actually had pretty clothing that wasn't for the black Lycra business class). We all sat at a long wooden table together, talking and joking, and I felt okay for the first time in a long time. I also had my first legal drink - not a big deal, given how much (little) I drink anyway. But I was happy that it was tej, Ethiopian honey wine. I drank a lot of it while we were waiting for the food to arrive, and I remember looking hard at my friend Eric Collins's shoulder, feeling giddy, wanting to kiss it.

#11

Sorry for the long hiatus! I was sick with an abdominal virus, and not quite up to putting on dresses :)

I bought this gorgeous Anthropologie dress as a Valentine's Day present for myself this year, after a really hard few months when I'd been nursing a broken heart. I first wore it on an Artist Date, to a modern dance concert on UNC's campus. During one of the dances, a song was played - "Teardrop" by Massive Attack, I later found - whose gentle, thunderous notes somehow reached deep into my heart and opened me right up. I cried and cried there, sitting alone, with an open, happy heart. 

Later that night I went to a friend's house to watch a Tarheel basketball game. Ryan Millager had invited me, and gathered there was his whole consort of friends, who were all soon to become my friends. I remember lying on Ryan's bed, in this dress, watching Ryan, Lucius, Travis and (my soon-to-be-boyfriend) Rajeev tease each other, tell jokes, and have loud silly fun. I was so overwhelmed - at feeling accepted, feeling like I belonged - that I stayed curled up on the bed, just letting myself be with these people, watching them, enjoying them, loving them. I even closed my eyes and it was still too much. It was like the song had cracked me open like a glacier thawing, and then everything was free to rush into the new space, filling me up. I was so happy. 

#59

I first wore this dress, bought in the boutique Uniquities, about a month ago. My friends Will Guzzardi and Travis Smith were studying abroad in China and Ireland, respectively, and Will was throwing a going-away party at his parents' place, which turned out to be a magnificent lofted house in the woods.

I felt a little out of place, because everyone there was old friends, having grown up together and shared a long history. So I wandered upstairs into the kitchen, where Will's father Peter - a very successful editor, and an amazingly down-to-earth nice guy - was washing dishes. I asked him whether I could see his bookshelf, which is an odd question, bordering on inappropriate, maybe. But I told him that I just loved to check out other people's bookshelves. It's something I do at parties when I want to get away from people. So he graciously showed me to the study, where there were whole walls of books to peruse. I came back, saying, Well, you have two copies of Mating, one of my favorite books of all time! This set off a long discussion of books in general - you should read this, you should read that. So I ended up having a wonderful time.

#6

I bought this dress at H&M last summer, during the Del Close Marathon in New York City. I've never worn it, for two reasons:

1) It is so damn loud. For a dress to get away with such loudness as this, methinks, it has to be better colors (red and white!? c'mon) and and a better pattern (frog eggs!? c'mon). See #29 for "good" loudness.

2) Right after I bought it, I saw my friend Sandy Sulzer wearing the same dress in green. And she looked fantastic in it. So I was like, "Well...I might as well not try."

Time will tell if I ever do.

#18

In the summer of 2006, a new girl had recently joined my improv theater. She was a really cool person, and in addition to doing improv, was a very accomplished singer-songwriter. However, I had long felt an irrational jealousy and dislike towards her, which I thought about for a long time, and eventually recognized as frustration that I wasn't as active an artist as I wanted to be. I thought if I could confront those feelings, they would reveal themselves formless.

I went to see her perform - wearing this Victoria Secret coral tube dress - at an underground club on Franklin Street. She was incredible. I was right that those feelings of jealousy and dislike just melted away. I had a wonderful time. She sang one song a cappella, "The Willow Tree," that made me shiver; I can still remember its searing, icy melody. She moved out of North Carolina soon after that; wherever she is, I hope she's thriving.