Day 24 Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Yesterday, initially luck was not on our side. As much as I hated to do it, I had to pull my daughter out of school at 10am so she could try on her gown one last time. Please keep in mind, we had told the shop her prom was yesterday. We get to the shop, my daughter tries on the gown and the gown is still a total disaster. The bodice still bordered on obscene because it wouldn’t stay close to her chest, there were seams which still weren’t sewn closed, they hadn’t even bothered to press the dress.

At this point, my blood pressure is rising and my eye is beginning to twitch. I don’t do confrontations, but this time I let them have it; there was no yelling and I did wait until there were no customers in the shop, but my words were harsh and left no doubt I was extremely angry. I grab the dress and my daughter, we march out of the store and head to a tailor a friend recommended. He, a sweet old Italian gentleman, has my daughter try on the gown yet again so he can have a look. He studies, he pulls here and there, he scratches his head and quietly mutters something in Italian I don’t catch and then he asks my daughter to take off the dress so he can inspect it.

So now we struggle again to remove her dress, and hand it, inside out, to the tailor.  (Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, the other shop somehow did not realize my daughter’s shoulders are larger than her waist, so she literally had  to turn herself into a contortionist in order to get into the gown.) As he looks it over, he’s shaking his head and telling me what a hack job these other folks did. They should have never taken on something so complex, something they obviously could not handle. There was no way he had enough time to fix the gown properly, but he wanted to try something to see if he could make it at least passable. In approximately 2.2 seconds, he had seams undone and the ridiculous cups pulled out of the dress and he wants my daughter to try it on again. I wrestle her back into the dress and we exit the dressing room. The tailor studies, he pulls here and there, he scratches his head and quietly mutters something in Italian I don’t catch and then he says the dress looks better, but there is no way he could fix it in time. He would literally have to pull the whole thing apart and start from scratch, basically making my daughter a handmade dress. So basically, at this point, I am holding a $200 dish rag in my hands, and the eye starts twitching more.

Great, exactly one week before prom and no dress, but here comes the tailor to the rescue. He sends us to a small shoppe in New Hope, PA. Says to tell them he sent us and then tells us when, not if but when we find a dress, and if it needs alterations, bring it back to him and he will take care of them for us. So off we go, bee-bopping across state lines in search of a tiny dress shoppe. Of course we pass it several times never noticing it, but with the aid of the friendly folks in the New Hope post office, we finally locate the shoppe. We are greeted by the friendly owner and upon hearing our horror story, she begins to assist us in locating my daughter a new gown. She asks us what size and when we say we are not sure because my daughter has lost weight, she points us to gowns several sizes smaller than my daughter has ever worn. Although skeptical, we begin selecting possibilities. We’d choose one and the owner would remove the plastic and hang the gowns in the dressing room. When we had a sizable collection, we began the trying on process. When the first size six dress zipped up perfectly, you could see the surprise and delight in my daughter’s eyes, making all this aggravation worth it.

My daughter comes out of the dressing room so she can look at the dress in the various mirrors and, for the first time I look at the tag, $400! So now I’m having a heart attack, but knowing we were out of time, what was I going to do? After an hour or so, we had narrowed the selection down to two; one ethereal pink number for $360 and one elegant navy one for $195. I kept my mouth shut and let my daughter decide; she chose the navy gown. The only alterations needed were to shorten the straps about an inch and one bead was loose and needed to be secured. Perfect! We paid the bill, headed back to the tailor, dropped off the gown to be picked up the day before the prom, called my daughter’s escort so he could change the color of his tie, vest  and flowers, and then we celebrated with lunch at Chili’s. Thank God, that’s over!

Yesterday’s challenge was:

 It was the most romantic proposal ever…

We had just finished a relaxed candle lit dinner on the veranda of the picturesque island inn where we had spent the last few days. The night was clear and mild, a warm breeze wafted through the tropical foliage and surrounded us with their subtle heavenly scent. He suggested a romantic walk along the beach, to which I eagerly agreed. We left the restaurant hand in hand and meandered our way through the mangrove toward the shore. We pause momentarily to remove our shoes. The now cool sand cradled our feet and squished between our toes. The sound of gently lapping waves drew us to the water’s edge like moths to a flame. We walk silently, comfortably as the ebb and flow of the tide lightly trickled over our bare feet. He stopped, raised his hand to my cheek and softly kissed my lips. Then, to my absolute shock, he bends to one knee.

Yeah, I wish. My own proposal was nowhere near as romantic as that! We were at a New Year’s party. I was sitting on my now husbands one knee and my girlfriend was sitting on his other. At the stroke of midnight he turns to me and says, “So, what do you say?” as he holds up a diamond ring. To this day, when he tells the story, he teases that he married me because I was the one of the two who answered.

Your Day 25 Challenge is:

 

You are seeing your child for the first time…

 

You have 10 minutes (be honest). There is no right or wrong, just write. Spelling and punctuation don’t count and NO ONE is allowed to criticize what someone else has written. Go.