Prom Dress Post Script......................................

Not only did my youngest find a really great dress for her senior prom, I found a really great (and really pricey, so must shop sale only) store full of really fabulous clothes, but that is another post.

One of the greatest things about the store was how wonderful the salesperson was. She hung all the rejected dresses back up so I didn't have to do it. Talk about feeling pampered!

Of the two dresses my daughter had found on the net, one of them was at this store, but the other one wasn't. My youngest ended up finding a third dress she really liked, but just to be sure wanted to go to another store that had also been listed as having the dress not at the first store (are you following me?). Let me tell you about this experience...

When we first got in the door we were required to remove our shoes. My first thought was about public health code violations, but this was suppose to be a fun trip so I kept my mouth shut and dropped my shoes at the door.

The first lady we encountered told us, "I don't deal with prom dresses," in a tone that suggested they were some wicked step sibling of the wedding dress, and directed us into the bowels (or basement) of the store.

There were three or four girls already trying on dresses, but the salesperson told us we were free to look around and try and find the dress on our own. My youngest finally found it, and as I was saying to her, "But it is purple not pink" the salesperson shot a dagger my way and promptly replied in a haughty tone, "It's lavender mother, not purple." My youngest looked at me and rolled her eyes to keep me under control (you know, so I saw the humor in it rather than reaching out and scratching the woman's eyes out of her perfectly coiffed head).

My youngest decided to try on the dress, LAVENDER that it might be, but the size she needed was in a fitting room being tried on by another girl. When the young lady came out to preen in front of the mirror, we checked out the dress. As we were doing so, the girl's mother caught wind of our interest, whipped her head around and spat out in our general direction, "What school do you go to?" Scared for my life, I told her the name of my daughter's school, and thank God she immediately calmed down and said, "Oh! That's okay then." Apparently my life was to be spared after all. The woman went on to explain the store's policy of keeping a register and selling only one of each style of dress per school. Appearing to be as sane as you and I this women goes on to say," You wouldn't want another girl showing up in your daughter's dress now would you?" Afraid now, very afraid, I still could not lie and has to tell her that I really didn't think it would bother me all that much while at the same time my youngest piped up, "You mean like last year when there were two of us with the same dress on?" I kid you not, this woman literally shoved her daughter across the room to get her away from us (devil spawns), as she sputtered, "Well I'm sorry I even talked to you two!" What is up with that?

After a couple more minutes of standing there (feeling quite soiled for some strange reason) my youngest said, "Well I don't really want a PURPLE dress anyway" so we snuck past the viper woman, and made our way up the stairs to reclaim our shoes. As I was walking past the row of shoes to the end where my pumps rested, I said, "Hey! There are a pair of shoes just like my brown ones." And then my youngest slipped them on her feet and it wasn't quite the amazing fact that it had been the second before. We went back to the first store, took the nice salesperson one of the doughnuts we had picked up, and my youngest paid for her choice of dress.

I know I am a strange bean, but sometimes I just don't get how people can get all wrapped up in things that seem pretty insignificant to me. Is there someone out there reading this that really truly had their life destroyed because another girl showed up in the same prom dress as they did? If this is the case I would really like to understand your point of view. My girl would have been fine with having an identical dress as her very good friend, but opted out for the sake of being a good friend. Apparently my youngest's friend is not the only one that feels this way. Where was I when this rule was being handed out?

I hope I was busy teaching my girls about being a good person/friend. Teaching them that what is truly important is what is on the inside, not what you put on the outside. Busy making them feel loved exactly the way they are. Apparently I wasn't busy teaching them anything about color shading, but then no one is perfect. Right?