Paying Homage to the Little Black Dress

It all started with a long look into my closet where I noticed my cute little black dress which had yet to be worn for the season. The summer was fading and it looked like my opportunities for wearing a short summer dress were limited. A little voice inside me said, "It wouldn't kill you to go on a date; just one date is all I ask". I had been nose to the grindstone trying to score a high GPA (managed a 3.9) and was currently working toward taking the nursing entrance exam. In all my studying, I had managed to completely ignore the opposite sex and had felt like I didn't need the distraction (that's what Facebook is for).

The day after I led a fantastic hike to Cady Ridge near Lake Wenatchee, an opportunity to take my black dress out into the light presented itself. A fellow hiker asked if he could reciprocate for the nice hike with "a hot drink or a casual meal". Casual, my ass, I need to wear this dress! So I picked a Taiwanese dumpling house at Lincoln Square in Bellevue and readied the dress with shoes and a necklace.

wasting time on FB in my LBD

The day of the date, I was digging ditches on the Pacific Crest Trail at Snoqualmie Pass while heavy smoke from forest fires in the east hung in the air. The thought that later in the day I would be all girlied up in Bellevue was almost too much of a shift, yet I managed it with near-grace (I changed in the Issaquah Community Center's bathroom, on the way down from the Pass).

When I arrived at the meeting spot and saw Rich, his jaw slacked for just a moment, as he had been expecting to see me in hiking wear or casual attire, at best. He had no idea of my hidden agenda to get my dress out for an evening.

Two months after that first date, my dress is no longer in season, but the relationship sparked from that first date (yes, I give some credit to the dress) has endured.