is the word 'diary' better than the word 'blog'? probably not.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What Are You Going To WEAR?!
What Are You Going To WEAR?!
Yesterday I was supposed to have lunch with Eggers, but he was running late, so when Liz IM�d me to ask if I wanted to have lunch, I said yes. We went to Ti Cous. Liz had a crepe called Le Gourmand, which she couldn�t finish because it was too rich, but that did not stop her from ordering a caramel crepe with coffee ice cream afterwards. I had a salad and then my favorite favorite sundae, which is vanilla ice cream with fudge and espresso poured all over it. Coffee is another one of those forbidden things for me. I have been so, so bad lately. Later that day, when I was at Loehmann�s, I realized that my back hurt and that I was unconsciously walking around holding my kidneys. Not good. Anyway, I only have the special espresso sundae like once a year. OK?
Anyway, I ran a bunch of boring errands, stopped by Loehmann�s, then went to meet Eggers. He and I had iced tea at a caf� and talked for quite a while. It was good to catch up. We talked about books and writing and babies and dating. He asked about �the guy in Amherst� about whom I had told him earlier this year when I drove to the Berkshires to meet him for one of his speaking events. So I told him the story about �Do you think you and I would ever date?� �No.� Ha. Oh man.
Since Evany and I are not actually in the wedding party, she, Marco and I went to see The 40-Year Old Virgin while Sunny, Caroleen and Jeff dealt with the politics and comedy of combining two extended families. We met them at Li Po around 11:30, and that was fun. Caroleen spilled a whole glass of bourbon on me when she hugged me hello. I smelled great! We had a big booth in the back (IYKWIM), so we could be loud and silly without bothering anyone. Sunny�s all, �what have you guys been doing,� and Evany told her we had been to see The 40-Year Old Virgin, and Sunny gave me a LOOK. I said, �I didn�t mean to cheat on you. It just kind of happened!� Sunny and I were supposed to see that movie together. I�m a low-down dirty ho.
Jeff�s best man left early-ish, and then I could see Jeff pressed into a corner of the booth asking himself how he came to be in the back of a bar, the only man at a table full of ladies, once more. Marco had gone out to get a pizza. So Jeff was doing that thing that Tom�s son Jimmy does at about bedtime: he got very quiet, so that he would draw no attention to himself. This way he might avoid being teased (or asked to go to bed). Until I asked whether he was excited about finally getting to have sex with Caroleen! And then I asked whether they would like me to be there to answer any questions they might have on their wedding night, and began making directional signs such as are made by the guys who direct airplanes around runways and the like. (Someone else I know will be lead, unavoidably, to thinking about landing strips right now.)
Right as I typed that, I kid you not, Colleen was walking by carrying a box, talking to William about the 70 stairs at her new Berkeley Hills place, and she said, �But don�t worry, there�s a landing strip half way up, where you can rest.� Totally.
At the movies we saw a shitstorm of trailers for very bad movies, that kind that make you embarrassed that they exist in the same timeframe with you. But then we saw the trailer for SERENITY, the Joss Whedon/Firefly movie! Mal looked HOTT up there on the big screen, and I asked, out loud, �Why isn�t he my BOYFRIEND?!� However, looking around the audience, Evany, Marco and I weren�t sure how the trailer played for people who weren�t already Firefly enthusiasts like ourselves. So sad, the limited numbers who have followed the best futuristic throwback utopian space western television show ever written by Joss Whedon and then cancelled!
At present there is a frenzy of people asking and being asked about what they are wearing to JEFF AND CAROLEEN�S WEDDING. I think I must be the only person in the universe who didn�t buy something new to wear. That is strange, no? I mean, given my love of clothing and also of having the excuse to purchase a very good dress. It�s just that I recently moved and moving made me look at all my possessions, and, looking at all my clothing, I came to the startling realization that, on any given day, I could be asked to six or eight formal dress events and have no problem attending them all without reduplicating an outfit. And I�m only talking about the really formal things right now, such as might require, say, a floor length beaded skirt with a fitted black velvet top. The lesser formals which ask of you only a very lovely dress I could attend also for quite some time before �needing� to go shopping.
Nonetheless I bought a very cute black dress at Loehmann�s yesterday. Because I had COUPONS. There are a few categories I am allowed to fill presently when shopping: good black dress, teaching clothes, mid-weight jacket. I didn�t even go to the separate branch of Loehmann�s across the street where all the shoes live. EVEN THOUGH I HAD COUPONS.
So eighteen people have emailed me in the last two days to ask what I�m wearing. LG asked while we walked the streets of Hayes Valley, talking. I ran into Gayle and Leila on Union Square, and they asked. Heidi just text messaged me to ask right now. Marilyn called, too. Last night, Leisa asked. I said, �I am wearing my turquoise lace Betsey Johnson dress.� She�s all, �Oh, I REMEMBER THAT ONE!� I clarified, knowing what she was referring to. �I�m not wearing the ultra-cleavage-y one. (The one I bought to force myself to deal with the fact that I have cleavage.) I have two dresses that could be described as turquoise lace Betsey Johnson dresses.� Sunny interjected, �I�m interested to see how you think you are going to hide your cleavage!� I got technical. �The rack will of course be visible, unless you are orbiting from above the earth. However, the meeting hall where the cleavage is created will be covered over by fabric, you see?� I continued, �This is the dress made of Battenburg lace, not tiny silk lace. It isn�t the one with the sparkly blue rhinestones on it. It does have spaghetti straps but it doesn�t have a V-neck, it is cut straight across like a strapless gown.� Etc. You see what I mean? I do not need a new dress for a fancy event.
I will be wearing a very good dress. The dress is one of those things I was considering throwing in my bag when I thought my house was going to be evacuated because of the neighbor�s fire. As to the shoes: either the turquoise/green/yellow Fluevog shoes, or the red T-strap Via Spiga shoes, depending on which look better once I put the dress on.
In the midst of typing this all of a sudden I heard a voice and Gibbs Chapman was in my bedroom! The doors are all wide open because Colleen is moving her stuff out, I had my back to the door, and here I was sitting in my pajamas, unshowered, with my hair all crazy. (I�m trying to grow my hair long again. But I�m discovering that this means that I wake up with crazy hair, as opposed to when my hair was always super short and thus always looked the same no matter what I did.) So I jumped up and hugged him and apologized for my appearance. Not that Gibbs would care. In fact he said, �It�s not shocking.� So I gave him a martini glass and we sat around and talked for awhile. Now I am going to go mop some floors! Marilyn is on her way over to my house from the east bay, too! Then I�m on the 3-4 prep shift for the wedding. What are you wearing?!
12:48 p.m. - August 27, 2005
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
