Two Stories About Lilac Dresses

There's two stories about the dresses, both worth hearing. I liked Amanda's telling of the first one the best, but since she's not here at the moment, I will try to dictate from her voice for the first story...

Story One: "So, Sarah, Kyla, and I were supposed to be in a wedding on Saturday. The bride picked out three dresses, but they were BORING, I mean, plain with no embellishments, too long, just dull! So, we decided to alter them and add all these pretty ribbons and bows and tulle. Well, we arrived for the wedding and the bride got so mad, she kicked us out of the wedding! Can you believe it!? Keep in mind that Sarah was going to miss part of her birthday party to be in this stupid wedding, and the bride was so ungrateful! So, we decided to come out to the party in our dresses since we didn't get to wear them in the wedding."

The girls told Story One all night to random people in the bar and were gifted with free drinks, begged for pictures, and heard multiple, "Oh, that bride is so stupid, you guys look beauuuutiful!" Drunk people were especially compassionate to the woes of the jilted bridemaids. It cracked me up...well, kind of cracked me up because mine was on so tight around my rib cage that I could hardly breathe. But Story Two makes me laugh too just because these girls take their themed outfits so seriously...

Story Two: Kyla and Amanda dress up for everything...denim jumpsuits for a Sir Mix A Lot concert, blue eyeshadow for a night out on the town, coordinating business suits from Goodwill for a day at the office, animal prints for their bookclub...we're always wondering what they will come up with next. So, when they announced to me that they needed to dress me up as a pretty pretty princess for my birthday party, I was a little scared. But, I agreed. The days leading up are filled with shrieky phone calls and texts about what we will be wearing. It's decided that we want to look "pretty pretty" instead of "trashy pretty"...if there is such a thing. So, Thursday I head over to their office to try on the first dress...it's a teeny little kids dress in the lovely shade of lilac we ended up wearing. "You guys, I'm not THAT small," I shriek. Well, any good crafty girls have measuring tape in their social service office, so they pull it out and measure me up. "Okay, come back tomorrow, we will be ready."

Well, 'tomorrow' turns into a packed day with a child on meth by my side all day, not my idea of fun, but work is going to have to take precedence. So, no fitting. Then Saturday is too chaotic to make the 'fitting' as well. "Just bring the dress to the party and we will wing it" I text Kyla on the way back up to Portland.

Welcome to 8:30 pm. Guests are arriving for the party, and Amanda's husband Nathan comes in and waves me over. "Hey, the girls are outside waiting for you." "Oh crap, really. Can they change and come in til more guests arrive." "Oh, no, they are in their dresses and didn't bring any back ups." "Oh, well, I guess I better get out there then." As we walk out, Nathan explains his last 24 hours of sewing bows on our dresses and getting to be the model for my dress. "They made me put it on, but I made them fix the torso because I knew they were making it too short for you." He clearly is used to his wife's sewing escapades. We arrive to the car, and Amanda and Kyla are giggling on the sidewalk with a big bag labeled 'Goodwill' on it. They see me and yell, "Take off your clothes!" "Here?!" We're on a residential sidewalk. "Strip!" Off come the clothes and they cram me into the dress. As they are getting me into the dress, they explain that they drove all the way to Corvallis to find this little number and sewed bows on it on the way back up. It barely fits around my ribs, but they fight the zipper like this is the biggest battle they're about to win. The zipper goes up, the air leaves my body...they tear the Goodwill tag off with one swift pull, and we head in to have some fun in our lovely lilac dresses.

So, the dresses were a great addition to my 31st birthday, even if people were wondering why in the world we were in fluffy lilac gowns with fur and bow embellishments (the wedding of course!). I have moments of boldness, but this one actually made me really nervous before doing it, so I am glad these girls literally stripped me on the sidewalk and made me wear my dress...which has since been best described by this quote... "Good lord - there's enough flounce in there to power at least two seasons of Sex in the City!"

Thanks again girls. And thanks to everyone else too for making 31 a memorable birthday weekend.