Frock Star

#40

I wore this Anthropologie dress for the first time today, to my father's farm, Melleray. It's a "trapeze dress," a very chic style this summer, meaning it balloons out below the bust. (The beautiful print is what sold me on it, though.)

Shortly after I arrived, my brother Donny gave me a baseball mitt - my old black one that I haven't seen for years - and grabbed his own ancient brown mitt. We played catch while Dad made omelettes for Donny's birthday dinner. The mere motion of throwing a ball brought back so many memories, of practicing every night in the backyard with Dad, as soon as it got warm enough, sometime in March usually. The snap of a caught ball feels so good! It made me want to take the mound again...though I guess I'll have to wait till spring :)

#54

I first wore this J. Crew dress (crinkly cotton, pale pink) on Monday night. I was enticed into Skylight Exchange, a grungy used-bookstore-and-cafe tucked into the underside of Chapel Hill's main drag - a sign read "All Books Half Off." While I browsed, Trivia Night geared up, and triggered my old Quiz Bowl instincts (I was captain of my high school and grad school teams!). I thought I knew the answer to one question - "At which university were two students shot during a late-night brawl this week?" - and saw a nearby team struggling, so I sat down and asked if I could play with them. They agreed.

They were all guys, UNC students, seniors...pretty young on many levels. They were nice to me, but clearly didn't know what to do with me. They talked past me, to each other, about rehearsing; I gathered they were in a band together.  The third round of trivia was a spelling round, and I was cocky indeed about my spelling abilities, but ended up getting only eight out of ten right. Who the hell knew "aneurysm" was spelled with a "y"? Anyway, as soon as the final tally was announced, the four boys vacated the table unceremoniously, leaving me there. I just finished my drink, pleased with the night's adventure.

#2

I got this dress on sale at Urban Outfitters. Another perfect frock for Melleray, where I am in this picture; it's summery and flowy. This past spring, every Sunday morning, I would go to Whole Foods to do my weekly shopping. I had a very routine grocery list, and it went like this: five cans of Indian food for my lunches; a big bag of seasonal fruit; pretzels to put in my fridge. And...seven or eight fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies to take to Melleray. (It's my job to bring the desserts.)

#19

This beautiful BCBG gown was a consolation purchase from many years ago. In the summer of 2002, I was nursing a bad broken heart; my first lover Brian had broken up with me very suddenly from across the country, and I was never going to see him again. Meanwhile, I was stuck in an intensive summer program, the NASA Astrobiology Academy. It was disastrous. I should have been having the time of my life, but instead I just wandered around in the sad haze of my inner landscape.

We took a weekend trip to Los Angeles, where my compatriots split up to do various fun things - see a taping of Leno, or go to a theme park. I instead opted to wander off by myself, walking around a shopping district near the hotel. I found a BCBG boutique and bought this gorgeous red beaded gown (a good $200, if I remember, but I wasn't thinking straight) and brought it back to my hotel room, where I wore it all day and wrote in my diary. It's actually one of my most pleasant memories of that summer!

#44

This is a perfect dress, the J. Crew embossed beach dress, their perennial best seller. I own it in six colors: orange, fucshia, espresso, grass, Tarheel blue and navy blue.

I wore this on the Fourth of July this past summer. Rajeev and I went to Durham to help his sister Manju move some things around in preparation for her sweetie Rishi's moving in. I fell in love with her house: it was warm and bright, old and open; each room was painted a different tropical color - a tangerine kitchen, a pistachio entry room. I wanted a house like this someday.

It was a steamy hot afternoon, and after getting done moving, we lounged on big comfortable couches in Manju's living room, which was painted bright pool blue. We made grand plans: we'd watch a movie! we'd go out to eat! we'd go to the Duke Gardens to watch the fireworks! But the summer heat wooed us, and we each fell asleep on our own couch...still sound asleep after three hours. It was one of the nicest July Fourths I can ever remember.

#7

Egh, I have drying-hair-head here. And I'm posing like a too-available therapist, ha.

I wore this H&M linen dress to a performance of the play Closer. The play is basically four people being shitty to each other, repeatedly cheating, lying, and switching partners. It was magnificently performed, and also it proved a pretty raw experience for me, because I'd just had something along those lines happen in my life. Moreover, my partner's ex-girlfriend was playing the lead. I remember debating whether or not to wear this dress, knowing she'd probably recognize me; was it too revealing? But I did wear it and, feeling insecure, even sat in the front row. Like I said...a raw experience.

#66

BOY this is a fun party dress! No idea where I got it. But I first wore it to the birthday party of my good friend Lucius Robinson, one half of the Delta Boys, with whom I do theater and other shenanigans. He was turning a whole twenty years old, and I think at least twice that number of people had showed up to celebrate.

When I arrived and saw there was no cake, I made an emergency run to Harris Teeter with my friend Kristin Parker, and we bought a ridiculously huge sheet cake. Coming back to the party lair, we struck up two whole rounds of "Happy Birthday," before finally presenting the cake to Lucius on the back patio, who was definitely three sheets to the wind at that point. He sat sloped while we sang, with a precarious grasp on the unwieldy cake, like a cripple with a harpsichord. Then when he finished, he just held it, staring at it gratefully, so I dragged it off his lap and commenced cutting in the kitchen.

One metaphor in this entry was entirely unnecessary. Guess which one.

#29

I've been recovering from a tonsillectomy, and my first post-op entry is necessarily unglamorous! Ah well. It is more important to get the daily work done than to worry about having it done perfectly.

I bought this dress at H&M, at a ridiculously late summer sale; everything else on the racks was knit or furry at the time. I packed it for my trip to Rome this past spring because it's a bright dress, an Easter dress; I wore it on a walkabout around the city. For three days, that's all I did, and it was glorious. I'd walk a ways towards the Vatican, find a good place for some "pizza margherita!" and "un' cappucino!", sit outside at a table on the street, and read for an hour while I ate. The city was bright and open and welcoming, and I stood out in this dress, because the preferred costume of Italian women is decidedly black! 

#97

Six months ago, I met Rajeev in this dress. I wore it over jeans, of course; it's much too short to be worn on its own (thanks again, American Apparel); with big silver hoops and a silver cross necklace.

At the time, my friends Lucius and Jonah were producing an adapted version of Othello, and much to my delight, I'd been invited to play. So I was meeting tons of people in the local theater scene. At a CHiPs show in mid-March, I sat down next to Jonah, right close up front - he was the only person I recognized in the whole raucous crowd - and I didn't want to sit alone, to look out of place. He introduced me to Rajeev, who had taken the seat on my right, as the Actor Who Would Be Othello.

We talked a few times throughout the show. Rajeev was kind, lighthearted, observant. He had me guess which of the CHiPs players was his best friend and step-brother (David Greenslade, as it turned out - and I got it right on the third try). He was eager to share, eager to tell me things. I liked him very much.
 

#51

The town of Wellesley is the home of my dear alma mater Wellesley College. It is also a very affluent suburb of Boston. A short walk from campus was "the Ville" - a stretch of street where stroller mommies shopped and ate.

One of the first stores was an Ann Taylor, which always had some kind of sale going on to lure in less-affluent college students. Of course I went in all the time to check out their sale dresses. I remember getting this pretty purple paisley piece. The sales lady told me in a fierce, conspiratorial, just-us-girls whisper, "GET THE 8. IT'S SUPPOSED TO LOOK SNUG." I was a size 12 at the time, and it did indeed fit snug.

But I never wore it. Why? Because it drapes weird! Look at the picture! Am I right!? And it drapes even weirder now that I'm actually a size 8.