Am I Scandalous?

Life has been pretty enjoyable since Clinton finished his first year of medical school. During the weekends we actually get to go DO things. Yesterday, we drove down to this little restaurant that I have been begging him to go to since we moved here. It is called Apple Holler. It is ADORABLE! The restaurant is a converted barn and the insides are all lit up with thousands of Christmas lights. There are old country signs everywhere and there is a cute little country shop attached (with country prices to boot!) There is a bakery in the back and the food is all homemade. Anyway, there is a restaurant and all of the food served is also homemade. We went to their lunch buffet and it was delicious! The food was so yummy and the atmosphere was just so much fun! I guess they have a dinner theater as well, so hopefully some day we'll be able to attend that as well.

After our lunch we decided to head down to the outlet mall to find some shorts and sandals for this Wisconsin summer we are/will be having. I found a few pairs of shorts, Clinton also found a pair and a couple of extra shirts (no surprise here...they are all plaid button-ups...but he did buy shorts, so I'm slowly helping him become more casual...he's even been wearing open-toed sandals folks!!!;)! Anyway, as we were rounding the corner we came across a White House/Black Market outlet store and I couldn't resist--their clothing is so fashionable, but with the fashion comes a heavy price! However, this was an outlet, soI thought I could maybe just peruse. I scanned their $60 discount racks (ha!) but couldn't bring myself to spend that much on something full-priced, let alone "discounted"! I continued to scan the racks until my eyes fell uponthe most amazing little-black-dress they ever did see. I looked at the price tag and this originally $200 dress was marked-down to $20! It was gorgeous! There is no way this dress could be made for $20. It is covered in black lace, it had cap-sleeves and came down to the knees. I HAD to at least try it on.

I went into the dressing room and the zipper slipped effortlessly up my back...I looked AMAZING! I came out to show Clinton, passed all of the gasps and twitters from my dressing room companions as I graced their presence in this gorgeous dress. I come around the corner while Clinton turns and looks at me--sheer boredom on his unimpressed face. I ask what he thinks, and with a brief shrug he nods and says, "Do what you think." Um....(sound of balloon deflating)...I walked back into the dressing room as the women literally pull their friends out of their respective dressing rooms to show off "this girl" in "this dress" (AKA:Me!) A much better reaction than the one I got from my husband outside the dressing room. So, I'm feeling pretty at the moment and since it is ONLY $20, I decide I would be more sad if I didn't get it, than if I did. I take my purchase up to the counter and the clerk looks at the tag, exclaims how much she loves "this dress" and how tiny I must be to get a size 0 (it's a dress folks, I'm not really that little)...so my balloon begins again to inflate. I leave the store a little lighter than when I walk in. It was a great moment!

So, all evening I'm thinking about how I'll fix my hair and how I'll do my make-up for church the next day so that I can best show off my new dress. I woke up and took extra care to get ready. I ate in my tank top and slip so as to not spill on "the dress". Then the moment came to put on my dress. Again, the zipper slid up my back like warm butter does on hot buns (pun intended). I glided down the stairs (feeling like a skinny-million-bucks) and rounded the corner into the kitchen so that Clinton could hook the loop at the top of the zipper. I turned around, expecting a complimentary "Dang girl!" and got, "Um...should this dress be so low in the back?" (sound of record stopping abruptly) "What?!" I responded. "What do you mean? My garments are totally covered (no tucking or anything)...What do you mean?" He said my dress was almost scandalous. Scandalous?! Really? The $20-antidepressant was scandalous? I couldn't see how, but I was running out of time to get to church so I marched back up the stairs, yelled down to him to come help me with my hook and eye, rapidly changed into something WAY less satisfying and walked out the door for church.

This brings us to the purpose of this post. As I was contemplating what to blog about today I thought...perhaps I should ask my friends what they think.I had Clinton take pictures of me with my dress on and I want to know, honestly, what you think. Is my dress actually scandalous or was Clinton just seeing an optical illusion of, as he put it-"half of [my] back hanging out" perhaps because my hair is short? Was there no optical illusion at all for him but for me in thinking that my dress wasn't really scandalous at all? So, please let me know what you think.

I thank you in advance for being gentle with your words :)