Dresses and Tea

Tomorrow is a very ladylike day for me. I'm going out with my friends to our regular tea jaunt, and just to sweeten the day with even more gentleness, we're catching the ballet beforehand. It's going to be an afternoon of loveliness.

I've had a cough that's persisted since my wedding. I've gone to a couple movies and I've done my best to suppress it or time its release to convenient moments in the film. At the ballet, I can only hope I don't bother too many people.

I'm currently in love with a number of dresses that I can't have. I can't have them because I can't afford them currently. Why? Well, this laptop I'm typing on was plenty expensive and Christmas is coming.

But here they are anyway:

I love this little dress, but at $100,

it's a wee bit too expensive for me.

This has recently gone on sale.

Once le computer is paid off, it shall be mine.

This happy little number is so retro chic.

It's also on my must-have list.

I think this one was made for me.

Perfect colour and a high waist. Love!

Now this would be an indulgence.

It's a great party dress, but how much wear would I get out of it?

Plus, it's no longer on sale come tomorrow.

I have somewhere in the neighbourhood of 40 dresses. It's taken about three years to build my collection and I can now get away without wearing pants. But considering there's no mix and matching, and they've got to be seasonal, and party dresses are not entirely useable for daily wear, 40 dresses doesn't go as far as you might think.

Hence... I need more dresses. Heee!

Tea Time

Going to high tea on a Sunday is charming, Harry Potter was exemplary, and my first pumpkin has begun to grow.

These are the small things that please me today.

A few members from craft club have decided to make a ritual of high tea at the Windsor Arms. It's really a wonderful way to spend the afternoon. Sitting around in my pyjamas transcribing TV shows, sweltering in the heat outdoors, paying bills, doing housework and all the like is necessary life drudgery. We all need to work, clean and spend money to make it all happen. But wearing a charming outfit in a beautiful room, having tea served on a Sunday afternoon along with tasty goodies in the company of good friends, well, that's just living the good life, if you ask me.

It's a British custom I wish were more common in daily life: tea time. Just taking the time out in the afternoon to have a light snack with a tea and enjoying some calming conversation.

Western life is just too hectic for that, even for people like me who have so little going on. Seriously, I have it low-key around these parts. But no one else does, and therein is the bummer. I'd love if I had a friend nearby who would reliably pop in for an afternoon spot of tea. I suppose that's what privileged women did back in the day. And sure, they didn't have property rights or the vote, so this really is a rose-coloured glasses sense of wistfulness, but what a shame that tea time went by the wayside.

High Tea

Today was a day of adult pleasures. And I don't mean XXX pleasures, I mean some friends and I went out to the Windsor Arms for high tea. It's not the sort of thing you do in your early twenties. Sundays then are for greasy breakfasts at dives to recover from the night before, where you'll recap your evening with hungover friends over a plate of bacon and hashbrowns. Been there, enjoyed it. But that era of my life, such as it was, is over like Grover.

It was really fun and charming, and I think we had some of the best conversation possible. How could you not while drinking pot of aromatic looseleaf tea in a delicate butterfly teacup? I gave myself a mini facial and then dressed for the occasion in a retro-inspired green dress and a delicate sequin-collared cardigan and the wrongest shoes I could have selected for a rainy day. I had a soaker in both shoes by the time I got there and my feet were going squish-squish.

There's no classy way to dry your feet in an expensive hotel lounge, so I had to go to the bathroom, remove my sopping shoes and dry them with paper towel. This is probably the third or fourth time I've worn these inappropriate shoes to the wrong place and suffered the consequences. I wore them on a walk through High Park and got them filthy. I wore them on an excursion in Mexico to Coba and climbed a monument and my arches ached. I wear them out in the rain and they always get waterlogged. I really don't know why I keep doing it.

But anyway, the tea, back to the tea. The tea was wonderful. The waiter brought out the layered tea trays with scones and treats and these cylindrical sandwiches that resembled sushi. The scones were what all scones should be. They melted. There was cream and jam. McPal's boyfriend said his grandma called the cream the food of the gods. I said if I were God, I'd eat that cream every day. There was whipped cream and strawberries. We were there for two and a half hours and I'm still actually full at 12:30 a.m.

I can't believe there was an era of time when people just did a tea every day. Perhaps it would lose its lustre if it was a mandatory daily thing, but I can't see how. What a sad thing more people don't have the time to sit down to some tea and treats and talk. The four of us were wishing we could always have high tea. McPal and his boyfriend wanted to throw a tea party. Hell, I want to throw a tea party.

I know this means I'm getting old. I don't even care. High tea and my friends makes me happy. Getting older and maturing means doing what you really want to do instead of what you think is cool. Speaking of which, we have a craft club coming up. I love being 28 and I love being a nerd. I also love that being 28 frees me of any self consciousness I ever had about embracing that.

Materialism, sort of

Things I need/want

1. A charming tea set, preferably a charming novelty tea set that's not so large that I have no room for it in this smallish apartment. I am open to petal themes, bumble bees, owls, kitties or cupcakes. Actually, I'm open to way more than that, but if I were to envision the perfect novelty set from which to enjoy my peppermint tea, it would be one of the above.

2. Cushions for the new couch that go with the cushions it came with, and the red walls. This is actually a strangely hard choice for me. They're just cushions! I spent less time deciding on this apartment than I've spent mulling over cushion options. Hell, I think I picked my college program quicker than I've selected cushions. What's up with that?

3. A new pair of jeans to replace the only other pair I had, which I ruined while painting the apartment. As winter is coming, this is actually pretty desperate.

4. A loofah. Ho hum. But I need one. I threw mine away because I couldn't justify carting it around damp in a musty box, not something I rub all over my body. Ew.

5. A waste bin for the bathroom. I recently threw away the bathroom set I bought in college from Wal-mart. It was time. It felt good. I hate Wal-mart. Jerks.

That's about it. Oh, and a Wii Fit.