Wedding Dress?
It's established Swerdloff History that I've taken to enjoying shopping. I think my exact words were: Shopping, it's not just for women and queers anymore. The ultimate test of my shopping ability? Wedding dresses. Is it shopping that I love, or finding things for myself?
I'm still not sure of the answer.
Today I was met at 11 by Liz and Chelley. Liz is marrying Ben after Thanksgiving in 2000. It was my job to gvie a second opinion, after Chelley.
We tried two bridal shops, one in Chinatown, and one on 81st street.
I'm not sure what one is supposed to look for in someone elses wife's wedding dress, so I just went with my gut reaction. Liz had shown me pictures of several gowns from magazines that she liked, and I tried to match what was on her to what I'd seen. That, plus what looked good on her. I have no idea if I was helpful or not, but it was definately a learning experience.
One of the dress shops does not allow men past the waiting area. I didn't een bother explaining that I was just the random friend helping out. While in the waiting area I got a taste of what women go through to prepare for weddings. Men, take it from me, you don't want to know. Ladies, I have newfound respect for the amount of work it takes just to get prepared to marry us, let alone stay with us.
While my time with the ladies was quite pleasant, the more interesting experiences happened on the perifery. While waiting for Liz to show me a dress, I listened to a coterie of women, waiting for their dresses, discussing the merits of going to law school or having a baby after graduation from college. I gathered that they were college seniors, of that rarefied Upper West Side breed. I didn't give my two cents, because frankly, I didn't know these people from Eve. But the final verdict?
Babies.
I learned something very interesting today. For those of you guys out there thinking of getting married, give your beloved plenty of time to shop for her dress. We spent 10 hours shopping. Did we come up with anything? I can't really say, but we spent 10 hours trying. One wedding store only sold wedding dresses in off sizes, so that an off-the-rack-buy is impossible, requiring time and potentially expensive alterations. If I'm the last one to find this out, great, everyone knows. If not, boys, give your ladies some time to work so they can look as beautiful as Liz will look at her wedding.
Chronologically, the ladies called me and nearly woke me at 11 this morning. "Let us in, it's freezing" one of them implored. I buzzed them up and realized they were at the wrong building. I hopped downstairs, called them oer, and the day was off and running.
I made them breakfast, a patented Swerdloff Crimini, thyme and Shallot omlette for each of us. We ate, and walked down to the Chinatown store. Liz tried on a half dozen dresses, and I thumb-approved and disproved them as they struck me. I don't think that the management was thrilled to have a man in there, but what choice did they have? I think we may have found a bridesmaid dress in there. 'Chelley tried it on and I think we found a winner.
Uptown, there was more shopping, and eventually, after many many hours of shopping, we ended up at Barnes and Noble with Ben, who met us there.
Downtown, from there, to Stingy Lulu's for dinner.
Shopping can be exhausting work. I had no idea. I think I prefer shopping for myself, but I'm glad I got the chance to do this with these women. Learned a lot, about why people get married ('Chelley is married, and Liz, obviously, is engaged) about the lengths men will go to, and about just exactly how hard it is that women work to be what men expect. Chelley was quite interesting and a story in herself, but not one that I'm here to tell. She's a bartender. Imagine, if you haven't, speaking to a bartender in private day-to-day life. It's interesting.
I'm tired, now, and watching the movie "The Black Mask" with Jet Li on DVD. Glad I bought my G3 when I did, I've got a whole entertainment system worked out here. Watch movies in one window, write my daily in another. I'm such a yuppie in training.
Hope your holiday season is still going well.
Tommorow: Work? Website management, and who knows what else.
In other news
I enjoy hitting the webpages left by readers who comment. Gives me a chance to see sites I ordinarily wouldn't hit. Even if you don't comment, email me your site, I'd love to see it.
Anyone else getting really fucking sick of all this Y2k stuff? Frankly, I just want it all to be over with. I don't want to make a big deal about it. I don't care if the new millenium starts on 2000 or 2001. I really REALLY don't care. It's not the sort of thing you can hide from, unfortunately. Sort of like graduating from college. I didn't want to do that, either. Of course, other than the loss of an old home, the graduation from college was essentially painless. They're predicting a %80 chance of terrorist attack somewhere on American soil. Paris is underwater. Next thing will be blood in the Red Sea. There's definately something end of days-ish going on, I just hope that no one intends ot kick start Ragnarok.
What have you done that's out of the ordinary?
Posted by Swerdloff at December 27, 1999 04:12 PM
