(no subject)

I am contemplating this dress to wear to scottjames's wedding and other events thereafter (and possibly before).

The cons:
--It is more expensive than any dress I have ever bought myself.
--I don't know if it would actually fit me and would have to pay shipping to find out.
--It requires dry-cleaning.

The pros:
--It is violet. No anemic color, no mixture of colors that never belonged together, no accidental Gothwear yet again. Violet, violet, violet.
--It has a waist. Coincidentally, so do I. Further, it appears to be shaped for someone with curves without going for the "boobs on a platter" look. And while some of you may speak favorably of the boobs on a platter look, either in general or in specific, please note that I don't feel it's quite the thing for one's ex-boyfriend's wedding. (Yes, we've been friends for many years since and were friends for many years before. Still, this is not a technicality one-date former relationship but a for-real-and-serious former relationship, and I do not want to be the tacky ex-girlfriend. Somehow this is a much worse role in my mind than the tacky friend would be (although that, too, is outside the bounds of my aspirations for this event).)
--It is a "classic" line, by which I mean it is not attempting to be up-to-date and fashionable in any way, by which I mean I could theoretically wear it again and again without people thinking, "Oh, summer of 2005."
--The dry-cleaning means that I would not be the one to iron it.
--I could send it back if I didn't love it.
--It would save me many, many hours of shopping, and it would save the people around me many, many hours of my wailing. And frankly, I'm not sure where I could go besides Dayton's; I've looked several other places already. So other thoughts for apparel would be welcome if this dress seems not to be It.

Thoughts?

Two things, one of them sad

1. Where are all my parsimonious friends saying, "Are you mad, woman? That much money for a dress?" There are problems with having women friends beyond what I ever suspected. Not that the friendslist men seem to be shouting down the dress I mentioned in the previous entry either.

2. One of my cousins died today, suddenly and unexpectedly. They're still not sure what he died of. Kenny was only in his early/mid 40s, and his youngest daughter is not yet through high school. This is someone I saw about once a month up until I left for college. He was always one of my favorite cousins (well, cousins-in-law, really). He was larger than life, wry and funny, a born story-teller. We had lots of in-joke references to stories Ken had told, because they were worth remembering, not just interesting but also evocative of the people involved.

Dammit anyway.

The past tense is even harder to get a grasp on than usual for a death, here.

One last thing for the night

Thanks again, all of you who have offered condolences. I appreciate your kind thoughts.

A few years ago, my mom was talking about how lucky we'd been, how blessed, that we hadn't lost more of our old people. And about how we couldn't expect it to last forever. It's true, and what's more generally true is that I think I have an unusual number of wonderful people in my life. Some of you are some of them. Thanks. I do notice.