I am wierdly excited that I wear a dress size six now. This is because I am shallow and narcissistic.

On Friday, my friend Julie and I spent the afternoon dress shopping at a local mall. This particular mall bills itself as being "shaped like a racetrack!" as an added feature of interest. Or, like an oval. Either one. There are some outlet-type stores of designer shops - like a Needless Markup Last Call and a BCBG/Max Azaria outlet. I've found dresses in this mall before when I didn't happen to be looking. (It also has my favorite shoe store in Colorado, an Off Broadway Shoe Warehouse that beats the pants off DSW or Famous Footwear). So we scooted west and headed straight for the "fashion" section of the "racetrack." (You are in Neighborhood 5! This way to Super Target!)

So I go into all those designer outlet stores and I am just not finding anything good. I try on a few things that are on super extra clearance (cute things, too!) only to realize that the reason they're on super extra clearance is that they have makeup stains or random stains or OMG I think something died on this stains. If I'm going to buy a dress it sure as hell isn't going to have a stain on it, no matter how little I'm paying. I tried on approximately 5 dresses at the BCBG/Max Azaria store and only one of them was interesting enough to really consider. Most of them had weird sideways ruching and horizontal gathering and just didn't look good. The one dress was actually very cute and might have worked - but it was a) $125 and b) too tight in the top by just a bit and c) was waaaaay too hippie. I will admit I was a bit of a neohippie in high school (this was before stuff from the 60s and 70s came back into style; I wore my mom's old clothes that she had saved from college, primarily because they were cute and they fit but also because my parents couldn't afford to buy me a lot of new clothes). Anyhow, I still might be kind of a hippie but I don't need to DRESS like one at my reunion.

We walked by a store that had a really cute white sundress type in the front area, and this woman who had to be at least 50 (or perhaps she subscribed to the newsletter of that lady in There's Something About Mary) jumped right in front of me and started pawing through the dresses on the rack that I liked. They had a few larges and one medium. I wanted to try on the medium but then noticed that it had a pink stain on the front. I left Lizard Woman to her imperfect dress and moved on.

Then I started on the teeny bopper stores. I tried on some things at Forever 21 and actually found a dress that I liked - but I wanted to be sure, so I put it on hold and kept looking. Charlotte Russe had a bunch of cute bodices (they have them in different colors and designs in each season and I own 3 because I lurve them so) but I needed a dress.

I found a teeny bopper store I'd never heard of, Papaya. They had tons of dresses! I tried on 8 and found 3 that I really liked. I narrowed it down to one (and the one on hold at the other store). Julie liked a different dress, one that was blue and sparkly. I wasn't really into the blue sparkly dress and bought the one I liked from Papaya. We went back to Forever 21 so she could see the other dress on me, and we both agreed that the Papaya dress was the dress.

So! I have a dress. It is black with smallish pink polka dots, fitted bodice with tiny spaghetti straps and a full skirt with a pink ribbon-lined crinoline. And a pink ribbon sash. It looks kind of like this, only the polka dots are smaller (and it has little straps; no strapless for this barely b-cup).

The best part? The dress was $30! And the bodice fits well enough and is constructed such that I don't even need to wear a bra with it. Sweet.

Now. I have some black strappy heels that are good for dancin' that I COULD wear, but they aren't PERFECT for the dress. I have no idea what kind of jewelry to wear. The Off Broadway Shoe Warehouse didn't have anything worth buying. I shoe shopped a bit on the 16th street mall today (to no avail) and poked around in the Claire's but I'm not sure what to look for. Ideas? And how should I do my hairs?

Luckily, we will be in CA for two days before the reunion so I can shop there too. Shoe Pavillion is probably calling my name.