Ghost dresses

About a year and a half ago, I gave my high school junior and senior prom dresses to my friend Carly, who volunteers with an organization that donates occasion dresses to girls who otherwise wouldn't have them.

Carly has been my friend Tatum's roomate for a year. She very recently moved out of Tatum's apartment, and some of her stuff has been discarded in corners (ostensibly for "someone else" to pick up).

Today I went with my neighbors Aryn and Celeste to Tatum's for dinner. Aryn is Tatum's boyfriend. (Everyone following here?) We walked in the front door and I was standing in the middle of the living room when I looked up and had a very strange experience - My junior prom dress was hanging in the corner. It took me a minute to realize that yes, in fact, it was mine - because out of sight, out of mind, I had forgotten that I had given them to Carly! So I decided to have some fun: I turned to Tatum said Hm, yeah, those are mine! You can imagine the confusion.

Apparently my old prom dresses are not "cool" enough to even donate. I bet you that if I held onto them for another 5 years, the styles would come back into vogue ;) One is a Gunne Sax, the other is Laura Ashley. Oh, yeah, I can hear you ALL laughing; yes, in fact, I went to two proms wearing girly and frilly creations!!

To amuse my friends, I decided to put on a fashion show. I think it's safe to say that not a lot of nearly 35-year old women can wear dresses they wore at 16 and 17 years old. Both of them fit me better now than they did 20 years ago - since now, I have the shoulders of a climber :)

I wonder what message the universe is trying to send me, with the resurfacing of 20 year old memorabilia dresses.


We were tossing around ideas of what I should do with these dresses. Anyone got any input? Celeste suggested that I dye the floral Laura Ashley dress dark blue, since it really fits quite well and I could actually wear it again.... we also tossed around the idea of tie dye, and of making the pink one into a Halloween costume a la "Carrie."

Raven Rock

Wednesday we had round two of OSCEs, a comprehensive clinical exam required for entry into level III clinic. Most of it went OK for me, but I think I bombed one of the sections. Well, if that's the case, I will have to take the consequences and do remediation, then move on from there. The world will not end.

My friend Matt H and I took the afternoon to travel to a swimming hole in North Georgia for the afternoon, as I was done with the exam at 1130 (it started at 730am). Raven Rock is rumored to be one of the best in the region, a five-star classic. So we plugged in the GPS coordinates into my little Garmin Nuvi, and off we went.

The pool is about a 45 min hike off of a forest service road. Matt's little Mazda didn't really like it... we should have taken my trucky, oops. The setting reminds me a lot of New Hampshire, except about 20 degrees hotter! The actual pool is about 30 feet across, by about 60 feet long, of running deep water, with a backdrop of a 100' wall of metamorphic rock (yes, climbable!). Cataracts bookend it. When we arrived, a group was passing thru on whitewater rafts, tho it couldn't have been a very exciting ride, since the water level is quite low.

It was a lovely, lazy afternoon. Good therapy.

Today the heat seems to have broken. Is it possible that summer in Georgia is done? This afternoon the sky was a deep, deep blue; it was the blue I remembered looking up at as a child.

Headed out shortly to my friend Annette's 30th birthday celebration, at a bar in Midtown. I won't be there long. We don't have smoke-free bars here.

Midterms this week. The slog continues... though a faint glimmer of the end is in sight!