Over Afternoon Tea

Tea is not only a drink but a ritual over which people have been relaxing, talking, and catching up on each other's lives for centuries. This blog is intended to serve as a virtual cup of tea, helping me keep in touch with friends and family in my physical absence.

It all started when I needed some new clothes to wear to the office. My professional wardrobe is extremely limited, and despite my shopping trip a month ago I'm finding that the same two outfits re-emerge every day with slight modifications. Besides, I'm trying to mold a look that's professional, and yet me. Tailored, yet softened. Tailored in silk, or maybe with a ruffle.

So we headed out to Filene's Basement (love that store) and I found a couple of shirts I liked. On my way to the dressing room, I grabbed a pair of jeans--just for fun. My husband had mentioned that he was curious to see what I looked like in jeans. I was too, a bit. Hadn't worn them for about 10 years, ever since I got tired of breaking them in and gave them up entirely on the grounds that they were uncomfortable (which, you must admit, new ones are).

So I tried on the jeans and turned around to look in the mirror. I was expecting to laugh, to be amused. Instead I saw myself, a stranger. The me I might have been if my life had gone otherwise, if I'd read magazines instead of Jane Austen, gone to a state school instead of Hillsdale, become--well--normal. But completely me, nevertheless. A part of me that had been underground for years suddenly surfaced and grinned back at me from the mirror. Cute. Fun. Oddly comfortable with herself. And yes, let's face the
s-word: sexy.

My husband liked the jeans. Nobody mentioned buying them. They were just a whim. And yet the next day we were back for them, a couple yards of fabric that form a living link with a me I'd forgotten, myself a stranger.