Remember the memory game where you started with an "A" word (usually aardvark because it sounded funny) and packed everything down to "Z" while repeating the list? No one ever got to zebra, but it took up time in the car.
Here's a real question for you:
What do you put on in order to feel dressed?
I can imagine your answers, from "a smile" to "perfume" to "pearl studs", but I really want to know. Maybe your answers will be surprising. I know I surprised myself, because the thing I must put on in order to feel dressed is this:
It's that gold bangle which is not pure gold and sports a fairly visible dent in the side.
The bracelet has an unknown provenance. It was not my grandmother's, worn as a young woman when she escaped to America from the pogroms in Austria-Hungary. It was not my mother's, bought with hard-earned money from her first job or given to her by an early beau. I have no idea who owned it originally (or made that dent).
The bracelet was a gift from a boss, a man not known for being demonstrative. In fact, I didn't think he liked me much. It was the practice in this particular office to bring back little trinkets from one's travels. My gift was usually a communal box of salt water taffy from the Jersey Shore, but as a higher-up his vacations were more exotic. So let's say this came back with him from somewhere in Europe.
It's marked "14k gold filled" (hhhmmm... in English... must have been England) and is very lightweight. The bracelet slips on (no clasp) and was probably meant for a child. I have small wrists; other bangles slide right off. I used to think it was Victorian (because I wanted it to be), but probably it dates from the early 1920s.
So it's gold(ish), fits my wrist and was a surprisingly personal gift from a man I didn't think liked me. Would it surprise you to know that I thought more highly of that man ever since?
Although I wear a watch on the same wrist, I literally feel undressed without that bracelet. It goes with me everywhere. I think of the backstory and send a little mental "hello" his way (he mellowed over the years).
And then I'm ready for the day.
What do you put on in order to feel dressed?
Great story. I don't feel dressed without earrings. Although I have 3 holes in one ear, and 4 in the other, it's the bottom two "real" earrings that I always feel not quite done if they are not wearing a pair of hoops, danglies or studs.
ReplyDeleteLipstick. Without a doubt...lipstick! ;) Love this Michelle.
ReplyDeleteDitto on the earrings! And ``styled'' (sort of) hair.
ReplyDeleteMascara and earrings! Recently I visited a friend in the hospital and left home in a hurry. Afterwards I was supposed to have dinner with a bunch of girl friends and wanted to buy some flowers for the hostess, in the hospital giftshop. Only then I realized I was not wearing any earrings! I felt so "naked" I had to buy a pair of golden loops right there because I hadn't time to go back home. It was really crazy, I thought "I don't really need to buy another pair of earrings, it's only us girls, etc ", but I bought them and felt enourmous relief!
ReplyDeleteEarrings! Yes, it's as if the whole world can see those two tiny holes in your ears, as big as craters on the moon. Perhaps you can use my solution: I keep an extra pair of (cheap) earrings in my car AND in my purse.
ReplyDeleteYes!!! Why didn't I ? Great and simple solution...thanks!
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