Gosh, but my shape has changed since the last time I wore this Eileen Fisher outfit. It still fits, but somehow the effect is…less willowy, shall we say.
I’ve been summoned to a brief reappearance in my old life as a society matron. A delightful and wonderfully competent woman who was a staff member when I was on the board of the Humanities Council is retiring from the executive directorship, a position she succeeded to over time. They’re having a to-do for her at the Arizona Biltmore, a hangout for Old Wealth and a place I haven’t visited in many a moon. Declining didn’t feel right, so in half an hour it’s off to the environs of the Richistani.
Problem is, I don’t have many clothes appropriate to events at the Biltmore: just a couple of old Eileen Fisher separates, and that’s about it. Since I don’t deal with the public, my job doesn’t require that I dress decently, and so I live in Costco jeans and washable knit tops. In public, anyway; around the house it’s swim-suit cover-ups in the summer and fleece tops and jeans for the winter.
I was surprised to get the invitation. I haven’t felt welcome in those precincts for quite a while. After I got off the board, it was made clear to me that my further participation was unneeded, since a) I don’t earn enough to make the large donations expected of board members; b) my politics are a bit iconoclastic for that set (believe it or not!); and c) among those in the know, my image is a shade racy.
>So, my friends: Andrea’s Closet, if you will.
It’s very hard for me to rev myself up for this sort of happening. Always was: one of real stumbling blocks for me as a trophy wife was that I don’t much enjoy social events-make that Social, with a capital S. They make me feel utterly out of place, even though I know that none of those people has anything on me. In general, too, it’s hard to break through the inertia that says thank you very much, but I‘d rather take a swim in my pool, finish editing the copy I didn’t read on Friday, and read another chapter in the John Adams biography. Usually I end up enjoying myself once I get there. It’s just getting there that’s the problem.
Update:
My! What a strange experience. It was like going to a high-school reunion: “Fred? Fred? Is that you, Fred?” Many of the folks in attendance hadn’t seen each other in any fewer years than I have, and some people have changed so much as to be barely recognizable.
It was a select group. Not all that many, but among them at least two old-line Good Ole’ Boys, one of them still in full moving-and-shaking mode. Lots of money in that room, rubbing elbows with the creative types and the certified intellectuals. Jeez.
2 Comments left on iWeb site:
Annette
Did you know that Lifehacker references your post of May 12th.Just saw it.
http://lifehacker.com/391448/make-your-budget-easier-to-grasp-with-targeted-accounts
Congratulations
Sunday, May 18, 2008 – 06:15 PM
vh
Zowie! Thanks for letting me know. That’s awesome!
Sunday, May 18, 2008 – 07:33 PM