all dressed up with someplace to go

saturday night ray & i went to the durham symphony gala fundraising thingy. it's an annual event, but this year was special because it was the DSO's 30th anniversay. the theme was "pearls", the traditional gift for the 30th. all the ladies wore pearls, of course. i had to borrow some from a friend.

i'd spent several days trying to figure out what to wear to this fancy event... something worthy of pearls. since i'm still losing weight, i really haven't spent a lot of money on investment wardrobe pieces. literally, this (and a few pair of jeans) is all i have in my closet. so, on monday i tried on a dress at talbots that was on super-duper sale, but ended up buying a super-duper on-sale 100% silk skirt instead. i then spent friday evening shopping for a top to go with it.

which leads me to a tangential spiel on the burlington coat factory. good lord, have you ever been to this store?? there's one just a few miles from my house, but i never thought of going clothes-shopping there until i saw a cute dress in the pages of budget living whose caption said it came from the burlington coat factory. so off i went, and i was amazed --AMAZED, I TELL YOU-- at the selection. they have a stunning array of designer stuff at ridiculously low prices. i made about a dozen trips to the fitting room, i found so much to try on.

i ended up buying a embellished frilly silk top for $12.99 to go with my talbots silk skirt, bringing the grand total for my whole outfit to a little over $40. woo hoo! with the borrowed pearl earrings and shoes i already owned, it was a smashing,cheap outfit even if i do say so myself.

anyway, back to the event. stepping across the threshold of the country club's banquet hall the first thing we encountered was a huge ice sculpture of a clam shell and pearl. we checked in, got our drink tickets and "funny money" (there were some gaming tables in the back) and browsed the silent auction items. i bid on a one-hour massage, but lost at the last minute (d'oh!), but ray won a nice photo book on the history of american musicals. he also won, during the live auction, a basketball autographed by the duke women's team.

there was a also nice buffet dinner, of which i slightly overindulged, and a killer dessert bar. i got a piece of ultra-decadent chocolate cake to share with the table, but i had a hard time limiting myself to just 5 or 6 bites. that was the best damn thing i've eaten in 6 months.

it was a very nice evening, with pleasant conversation and laughs with friends. i even learned how to play roulette. it was fun getting dressed up and hobnobbing with city councilmen and other durham movers and shakers. and if that weren't enough, the minute you walked into the bathroom you were certain it was a glitzy event. not only were there an array of complementary toiletries, but a mouthwash dispenser, too. classy, classy stuff.

Posted by xta at January 28, 2006 11:24 PM | TrackBack