A kinda sorta frustrating week!!

It started at the gym.

The gym is where I go to empty my brain, try to burn a few calories, and attempt to maintain some of the muscle mass that seems to be in a hurry to leave my almost 50 year old body.

But it's tough to do this while everyone around me is shouting into their cell phones, using the weight machines as personal recliners while listening to ipods and texting like mad, or the dreaded "Help me, I'm Talking and I Can't Shut Up!" person who's using the piece of equipment directly in front of me.

I also find it fascinating that the 'I Can't Shut Up' person feels compelled to apply a full applicator of eyeliner and an entire tube of mascara that I guess is supposed to coordinate with her brand new long sleeved shirt, sweat pants, and spanking white tennies, before her excruciating regime of strolling on the treadmill for a half hour.

Some brilliant comments I was subjected to:

Why don't the Haitians take care of themselves (with what I could have asked)?

Nobody better ask her to donate!! And she guesses if she ever needs help, it would be best if she was a European (Wow! Haiti is in Europe?).

Why doesn't anyone want to adopt American babies as there are thousands of them waiting for homes (apparently our streets are teeming with healthy infants)?

The only people who can afford to adopt are pedophiles with good jobs. (?????????)

I will put this experience into the "New Year's Resolution people who show up for a day" file and hope to never see them again!!

So after my shower I jumped back to my Simplicity 2951 dress and it's just deja vu all over again. I really hate to beat a dead horse but I've got a serious problem here. It would appear that I'm not destined to wear a fun Simplicity dress in the way Simplicity intended.

I finished my dress, showed it to Hans, and he asked why I was wearing a sack.

Dear God!!! I've bought simple fun dresses off the rack for years. Why do the ones I make, bag out from my body and hang in a shapeless messes?

Why is this so difficult?

And it brought me right back to this dress. I had to add darts to the back of that one to make it wearable.

So after I put on my latest disaster and having Hans declare it a sack, I ripped the back part of the skirt away from the bodice.

I then smoothed out the gathers and just made two big pleats, each about 3 inches away from the center back seam, and then I stitched them down about 3 1/2 inches from the bodice toward the waist.

Of course this changes the whole concept of the dress. It's supposed to be a flowing kind of dress and the back is now fitted. I haven't even taken a picture of it yet! Maybe I'll take one tomorrow.

So then Hans reminded me that he really liked this Burda dress, and asked why I just don't make it again.

Well, I like it too, but for God's sake I'd like to have more than one successful dress under my belt, and I'd also like one where I can let my gut hang out if I want!!!

Here I am wearing my one success at my 30th class reunion (almost 2 years ago). That's me on the far right and my best friend is in the black dress beside me, and I can't tell you how much fun we had as single divorcee's back in the late 90's.

I firmly believe the best age for having fun and being single is in your late 30's, early 40's.


I think I'll leave it at that.



As a last resort I guess I'll have to post a question on Pattern Review to find out if anyone knows how to fix the issue I seem to be having with a less than fitted type of dress.

Does one do a swayback adjustment on a tent? Does that even make sense? Surely I'm not the only short, curvy person who wants to make a simple dress!


Sunday was a dreary rainy hideous day, and my inability to sew even a simple dress took my whole sewing mojo away so I tried (unsuccessfully) to do my taxes online and Hans (I've mentioned before how smart he is) went into survivor mode and took me to the movies.

I ended up putting in a lot of hours at work this week which is good because I was feeling very sorry for myself and my stupid inability to make a simple dress! Today I picked up the material I need to make a little girl's purse (this fabric) and I'm feeling a bit better because if I do know how to do something, it's sew a purse!

Reunion fun and a door prize

My class reunion (see my last post) went very well, thank you very much! We didn't have as big of a turn out as we may have liked and for some reason a lot of locals did not attend. That made me feel badly for the people who took the time and trouble to drag their families across the country for this function.

There was a huge slide show consisting of old school pictures, past reunions, and those who weren't able to attend were nice enough to send updated family photos. I couldn't help but notice and I know it had to make a lot of people uncomfortable was the fact that while all these pictures of happy couples at our past reunions flashed on the screen all night long, they weren't the same happy couples at this reunion. Or shall I say they were one half old couple and one half new couple. Yes indeed folks, it would appear that the dreaded mid life crises bug has bit many of my classmates!

I bet there will be an updated slide show at the next get together!

I did have to laugh at the pictures of the 20th (this was our 30th) as there were pictures of me and my 'date from hell' that I hadn't seen in 10 years. That date truly deserves a post of it's own and someday I'll blog about it, I promise! But anyway after that awful night my best friend got out a pair of manicure scissors and cut him out of the pictures so I wouldn't have to cringe every time I looked at them. She was at the reunion the other night and we still laughed about it!

My little Chlorox got into the act too and right before we left the house she presented me with a door prize to take along with me.

She's thoughtful like that.

But anyway here is a picture of Hans and me (wearing my Burda dress). I have a lot more photos but there are other people in them and I don't want to put pictures of unsuspecting people all over the internet!

Here she is, Chlorox the pretty yet practical party planner. She's always ready with the purrfect gift!

Class Reunion..

... two words that can strike fear, excitement, indifference, or anticipation in the hearts of many.

My high school class reunion is this weekend.

My 30 year class reunion!

I still remember the day my mother drove off in our big green Pontiac to attend her 2oth reunion and I thought: God is she old.

Now I'm old plus 1o years.

Since I still live in the same area that I went to school, I've attended all of my reunions and even helped plan several. I believe we were a class of about 105 kids, small by some standards but I think smaller classes have more success at getting together than larger ones. I've met people who had hundreds in their class and don't even hold reunions.

I think we had a pretty nice group, but I meet people who vow to never attend their reunion, "I hated everyone in school and I don't ever want to see them again!" is a recurring theme.

When I was in school we certainly had our share of cliques. The jocks, the nerds, the greasers, and the plain old popular kids. I didn't fall into any of these categories and even though I was a cheerleader, I wasn't popular.

How on earth is that? you ask. Well, I could do a split and turn a cartwheel without falling on my butt, which is about all it took to make the team at my little school.

I've stated before that I was never really up to par when it came to the inner knowledge of girly things and I still stand by that. I had long frizzy hair when long straight hair was in. I wore coke bottle glasses until I was 15. I had chipmunk teeth (I didn't get braces until I was in my 20's). Halfway through my illustrious high school career I developed acne and gained such a large amount of weight so quickly that I have stretch marks on my hips and thighs as a result (I eventually managed to get rid of the weight and later on actually weighed less when 9 months pregnant than I did back then).

These qualities do not make for popularity.

But I certainly wasn't the only one with these issues, and I did have friends, and luckily wasn't tormented like some kids were.

By the time I graduated though, it seemed like everyone crossed those invisible 'cliquey' lines and became friends, and that's an unusual thing.

We hold our reunions every 5 years and I look forward to them each time. For the most part they've been pretty successful with some members arriving from all over the states, but I really wish those who have yet to attend, would.

The strange thing is that those who've come each year look the same, but those who've only came to the latest reunions have changed so much! Hmmm.

But it's funny how what made kids popular back then is not at all what would make someone desirable today. I remember at my 10th reunion when one of our nerdy classmates (chess club, camera club, good grades etc...) showed up with his beautiful wife who was sporting a huge diamond wedding ring and had a nanny for their 3 kids (I believe they have 5 kids now). He was so nice and so patient with his children (who bawled and fought through an entire picnic) and we 'girls' (just because we were unpopular didn't mean we wanted to date the unpopular boys!) were kicking ourselves because we hadn't been smart enough in school to see his potential.

What I like is that even though old friends end up gravitating to each other by the end of the evening, everyone takes the time to circulate and visit with those who they may not have been close to in school.

I still get a kick out of Betsy who has also attended each reunion. Betsy was in special ed back then and although we weren't friends I do look forward to seeing her now, because Betsy really just loves life and has so much fun. When I arrived at our last reunion 5 years ago I had a ton of junk (center pieces etc...) in my car and really needed help getting it into the building. Betsy and her boyfriend Bill (Betsy pronounces it Beeeyal) had just pulled in beside me.

"Thank God, Betsy!" I said. "I really need help getting this stuff in there." And I looked pointedly at Beeeyal.

"Sure, Honey, I'll help you, but Beeeyal can't, he has a bad back."

So Betsy (who was wearing what appeared to be a peach, satin prom dress) and I staggered into the building under the weight of all my junk and Beeeyal brought up the rear, carrying our purses which is all his bad back could handle.

In the last 5 years we've lost 3 of our friends to a brain tumor, an accident, and a suicide. I have distinct memories of each of them and my heart goes out to their families.

So Friday night I'll be wearing my Burda dress (since I haven't made anything else this summer!), introducing Hans to all my old friends, and will hopefully have a nice time.

And since I didn't get stuck planning this reunion, I'll give Beeeyal and his bad back a break.