i’ve been uploading photos of scotland this morning but i realize i’m going to have to do a little bit of work looking up specifics about the queen mary to share with you, so right now i’m just going to post these photos of this charity event that randy and i attended on saturday night.
it’s called dancing with the STARZ and donnie osmond certainly wasn’t there and it was a benefit for the springfield art association. i’d have preferred to pay my admission fee to support something a little more meaningful to me, like the APL or something, but it was OK.
it was a chance to get all dressed up. but then again, it was almost more fun getting dressed up and getting my hair done than the actual event.
this is a charity thing they’ve been doing for a while now, apparently. it started at 7 but we didn’t get there till eight. they had free champagne and appetizers, but the champagne was all gone by eight. there was a big band and my personal goal was to drink champagne and dance. but because we got there at eight, no champagne and the “dance contest” was about to start, so we danced just two dances and then were forced to just watch. there were three groups of three couples. one person in the couple was the “star,” but even in Springfield i don’t think you could call them stars. they were mainly doctors or lawyers, people with lots of money who would bring in lots of money. this makes sense, since it was a charity, but on the other hand, it would have been nice if some of the dancing had been, well…good.
of course, the real “dancing with the stars” is broadcast around the world and the people are all actual celebrities who take the whole competition very seriously and want to be good. this event was similar to that one in name only. each group of couples did a mercifully short dance. to be fair, i didn’t see the first group of couples, and maybe there was somebody there who could dance. but the couples i saw – mostly stiff and awkward-looking. one woman in particular was attractive, with a lovely dress, but looked uncomfortable just standing around, much less trying to dance.
but like i said, at least it was fast. but then the “judges” weighed in. they held up scores, like the judges on the TV show, but their “votes” actually meant nothing – the people who won were those who got their rich friends to give them money. the dancers went around to the different tables soliciting donations from all their cronies. so it didn’t matter if they couldn’t dance, it only mattered that they had friends with deep pockets.
after each group danced, the four judges made comments, which was ok, but then the comments got longer and longer and some of the judges were really enamored of the spotlight and went on and on and pretty soon i felt like i was an interloper at some private roast for somebody.
we wandered in and out, going into the other room where there was a silent auction and lots of food.
finally, FINALLY, we started dancing at 10:30. after the very long dance “contest” was over, people started leaving, and some of those who stayed had been drinking a lot. we didn’t care about any of that, we just wanted to dance. it was fun, finally dancing, except the band didn’t play a lot of fast songs. but we did enjoy ourselves for about a half hour.
but like i said, the most fun was getting ready.
i wore a dress that randy bought me in the 80’s. when he came to pick me up he spent a lot of time saying I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU CAN FIT INTO THAT DRESS! that was nice, but after he said it for the four thousandth time, i felt like he must have assumed that because 25 years have passed, of COURSE i was suddenly fat. maybe he only sees me in my sweats and doesn’t realize that i could fit into a nice dress. but he has seen me in other dresses; he’s bought me other dresses. but clearly he perceives me as fatter now, just because i’m older. actually, i think i look better now – more toned, and my hair certainly is better. and really, hair is everything. i’m going to have to get a photo that he says he has of us a long time ago when he first bought me the dress.
here’s me and mollie, before amy did my hair.
amy had worked all day that saturday, and so it was very very nice of her to spend so much time on my hair. it was very fancy.
and here’s me and randy. when we were dancing, people came up to us and said “you’re great dancers!” and then they said “i love your dress!” and i told them randy had given it to me many years ago and then he’d say I BOUGHT IT FOR HER IN THE EIGHTIES! AND IT STILL FITS!
me and kevin, who didn’t want to go out anywhere because he had a cowboy shoot early on sunday morning. it’s a good thing he didn’t go, because he’d have been asleep before the dancing started.
he says he’s going to shave for thanksgiving. he has that very big goatee, but then he doesn’t shave at all in between the goatee and the sideburns for a very long time. i think he’s trying to very slowly and sneakily grow a full beard.
after the dance, randy and i went to the jazz club Remy’s for a while. we got there at 11:30 and they stopped playing at 11:50, so we didn’t have a lot of time there. it’s a nice place. we might go tonight; there’s no cover, it starts at 8:30, and the jazz is quite good. it’s on Monroe, just west of DH Brown’s.
getting all dressed up and then feeling underwhelmed by the evening made me want to have a reason to get dressed up. this got me thinking about doing another GRACETALK. so at least i’ve been thinking about it for a few days now; perhaps it will motivate me into action.
ok then, i have to bake some pies and stuff now.
wednesday before thanksgiving grace.