The Dress!

It was a very eventful weekend -- I found my Golden Heart dress!

It's always fun to shop with my Grammy -- she is getting up there in age, but you'd never know it from meeting her. She's as beautiful as Lauen Bacall and as stylish as any TV-fashion guru. Last year, the dress she helped me pick out was a pink tiered silk gown, fit for Nicole Kidman at the Golden Globes. A confection, Grammy called it.

This year, we hit Nordstrom's Special Occasion department, where we were quite disappointed. Aside from a few lonely Sue Wong gowns -- in all the wrong sizes -- and one maybe Tadashi blue silk number, the place was like a picked over wasteland.

We found "the" dress in the Narrative department -- aka Date Dress Land -- on a *gasp* sale rack! It was like the Holy Grail -- but not in the DaVinci Code way -- of little black dresses! Spaghetti straps, black beading in a swirl that runs down and around the middle to the hem, some drapey panels that float the floor. It was, as Grammy put it, "a classy-slash-sexy" gown. Of course, I tried others on, but Grammy was right. I ended up buying that exact dress.

The shoes were harder to find, and even harder to walk in! I'm seriously going to have to practice before the GH Awards ceremony at the end of July.

The thing I liked best about "the" dress? I feel gorgeous when I put it on. You know how like in Hello, Dolly! they sing the song "Put on Your Sunday Clothes When You Feel Down and Out" ? If I ever really get that rainy day feeling I will reach for that dress.

When you know you look good -- for yourself and no one else -- it does make the world seem brighter. Even a paranormal author needs that sometimes.

Hugs!