Still Standing

I'm really a criminal for not updating the blog on the gala after so much build-up to the main event. But, if any of you know me at all, you'll know that unless somethings gone wrong, I'm apt to keep my mouth shut. Also, I'm making the great global traverse tomorrow morning, first across the Atlantic and then across the Pacific, so I've had my hands full mentally and physically preparing. Japanese noodles: check. Supply of tea bags: check.

The gala went perfectly, in spite of all of my premature despairing. Earlier in the day, admittedly, I got my heart rate up when, in the hair salon chair and with the clock ticking, the stylist couldn't manage to do the updo that I'd brought her a photo of. I got a little choked up as I came to think that I wasn't going to look and feel the way I wanted to on the big night. Thankfully, however, after mentioning that I was wearing an Audrey Hepburn inspired pearl necklace, the stylist decided last minute to give me a "Holly Golightly" look. It wasn't.. terrible, but I felt a bit like I was wearing a rat's nest on my head- a fastidious, fashionable rat, but a rat's nest all the same.

TMI raised my spirits when I walked through the door by telling me he loved it, and continued to do so with every outfit item that I added to the ensemble as we hurried to leave. From the moment we left to the hour we returned, (6am, I might add,) I was showered with compliments. ..And that's all a girl really wants, right? There was a lot of eating, drinking, some long wine lectures, and then hours of dancing. At the end a guy friend approached TMI to say that I was "la femme la plus belle a la soiree," which naturally won the night for me.

Now back to packing. 6 am wake up call tomorrow, TMI and I both expect tears on the train station platform.