surprisedI am going to Australia, and I have been nominated for the Campbell Award.
Because I am going to Australia, and I have been nominated for the Campbell Award, I am attending the Hugos.
Because I am attending the Hugos, I needed a dress.
Originally, I was having a dress made, but time got away from us, and now this year's fabulous pumpkin patch of a dress will be next year's fabulous pumpkin patch of a dress (which gives me something to look forward to in Reno). I wound up in the unexpected, somewhat awkward position of needing to find a formal dress at basically the last minute. Oh, and did I mention that I have a wacky build and wear a size 16-18 right now? SUPER-FUN.
Thanks to a fantastic crew (Kate, HappyCat, Jeanne) and a fantastic saleswoman at the Walnut Creek Nordstrom's, we found me a dress. Floor-length, one-shoulder, teal and peacock, Grecian-cut...seriously, I put this thing on, and I am suddenly both thirty pounds lighter and thirteen feet tall. It is A DRESS OF MAGIC.
Because I have a dress, I needed shoes and jewelry.
Due to the cut of the dress, a bracelet was mandated; no necklace, which eliminates most of my jewelry collection (I'm planning to carry a Chimera Fancies pendant in my strapless bra, because I am a superstitious bunny). I found a lovely blue and silver swirl bracelet, and ordered a pair of beautiful blue glass earrings from Beckett's Etsy store. My shoes are two-inch tarnished silver heels with a sling-back.
Because I have shoes, I need a pedicure. Because I have a formal dress, I need a haircut.
Being a girl is difficult, yo. But it's all going to be worth it. My little sister (#2, the gothic Betty Page) spent yesterday working out my makeup, and Cat and I are going to have our hair done before the Hugos. I will look like a princess. A weird blue princess who may have a chainsaw somewhere under there, but still, they don't depose you for that.
I am going to Australia, where I will wear my dress. To the Hugos, where my name is on the printed material.
Wow.
That is all.
August 17 2010, 02:35:56 UTC 6 years ago
When I had to learn How To Dress Like A Lady Lawyer (sadly, I actually had to be taught this, as it wasn't something I could've picked up from osmoses: my father is retired military and a mechanic and my mother does something involving vendor and community relations for our local Lowes, so everybody is just lucky I don't show up at business-y-thingies wearing camouflage fatigue pants, steel toed work boots, welding goggles and a bright red hard hat with a shiny flower painted on it, although lawyers dressing in this festive manner would certainly help counter our reputation as stuffy douchebags, end lengthy aside) I was most annoyed that men basically got away with "wear a suit and a tie that's not a clip on and doesn't have jubblies or beer cans all over it. Probably you should iron it. The suit, that is. Not the jubblies or beer cans which should not be on your tie." and I got dragged away to have my eyebrows plucked and my nails lacquered and my face gooped up with stuff that clogged my pores for a freaking month and THEN they ("They" being my mother in law, btw) insisted that my watch was all wrong and NO I COULD NOT wear either doc martens or cowboy boots, even though the former would add a totally awesome "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome" and the latter an awesome "Spaghetti Western" quality to my work day. Also there were complicated rules for suits for summer and suits for winter, suits for court and suits for meeting clients, outfits for "business casual Friday" and suits for "We call it business casual friday, but that only applies to people who can wee wee standing up and/or have their name on the plaque outside."
And then they told me "And somebody you will get to dress like this ALL THE TIME!!! WILL THAT NOT BE FUN!??!?!" and I basically cried.
Your dress sounds rocking awesome and I will MAIL YOU A KITTEN!!! OR A POSTCARD OF A KITTEN!!! if you somehow figure out how to sneak a chainsaw into the Hugos. Do post pictures later!!!
August 17 2010, 04:28:58 UTC 6 years ago
I've never seen you post before, but I just friended you for this.
My office is littered with the absence of not only tie beer cans and jubblies but fish and light bulbs as well. Although I have been known to strap a dorsal fin on the back of my suit for Halloween and tell the judge I've dressed up as a lawyer. But not before the judge who once had her clerk go out during a trial and buy a pair of black socks so that, when the clerk returned, she could stop the trial, point to the otherwise appropriately dressed counsel's bright red socks, and say, "I find your socks in contempt. Now, put on these black ones!"
Think we might get along, unfashionably or otherwise?
August 17 2010, 12:06:34 UTC 6 years ago
Just be aware my journal is currently largely a sad place where I rant that my in laws are attempting to run my career (into the ground), and I do not yet have bar admission (long story, but the short of it is: when legal peoples tell you: Don't work full time and study for the bar, and you've been boxed into a situation where you HAD to work fifty hours a week while you were studying for the bar, you can understand why I am not confident I just passed), and stuff.
I do get more cheerful.