Recap of Living Out Loud volume 15: Prêt-à-porter

Ok, so I know that I say every month how I'm so pleased with the participants and everyone did great. I'm like that coach at the end of swim camp handing out trophies to everyone. But, no, really, this month was FANTASTIC for entries. Every single one was really great. They were all different and conveyed a wide variety of sentiments. I'm really impressed with everyone. Group hug!

Check them out!

Hrothny's Living Out Loud This totally rocks and completely counts for clothing. Never chopped liver, my dear, just the victim of my horrible organization, I neglected to include this entry at first. But it is a hallmark to me of your family's love.

Christina's Pret-a-porter This entry gave me goosebumps. I'm going to create some sort of gala for her to wear this dress to.

Rachel's (Tales of my Thirties) Worn I have a jean jacket in my closet that doesn't really fit me but my boyfriend bought me and I may never get rid of it. I wanted one so badly and his gift meant a lot.

Kathy's When In Doubt ... Throw It Out For such a regrettable shirt, I don't think I could get rid of it either. It was meant to be!

Jen's The ones that got away As someone who bought about 15 pairs of red shoes from Zappos looking for The Perfect Pair for our wedding, I can attest that finding good shoes, just like a good mate is hard.

Peg's Plain Brown "Wrapper" I've seen pictures of folks in those kinds of pants and I think it's definitely something to be proud of.

Kim's Esprit de Corps There is a part of Kim I will always think of in these clothes. But there are so many outfits now that fit my image of Kim that it's neat to hear about these.

Ruth's The Shirt Stays I was never a Grateful Dead kind of person, but I completely understand belonging to a tribe and something larger that just myself. I think it's what everyone wishes for.

Amy's What I would wear in a dream I can attest that making ones own clothing is really powerful. And my love of costuming through the SCA has been a great outlet for things I'd have no reason to wear in the 21st century.

SuziCate's Falling In Love With A Dress You need to take up quilting because there is a cornucopia of materials there! And I don't know that anyone else will ever wear my wedding dress, but I couldn't bear to part with it.

Megan's I offer you my hand in marriage and a pair of boots I admit I got all misty-eyed reading this. The acorn at the bottom really got to me, forsooth.

Karal's Laissez les bons temps rouler! I am amazed that someone offered you $50 for this, but good on your for keeping it. And I have an entire dresser drawer of shirts I never wear but can't part with!

And my own Remnants of love that didn't last

So after all those superb entries, picking just one to be our winner has been really hard. After much deliberation, I chose Christina as our winner this month. Her entry stuck with me for days after reading it and I figure that's the testament to a really great piece of writing. She'll receive a $20 Amazon gift card (as will several others as I'm way behind in my award follow-through) as her prize.

Sometime I think these recaps are a lot of work. But mostly, and in particular today, I'm just pleased I got so many folks to play along and produce such fine writing. It's a joy to read them all. Thank you all! And stay tuned for the next theme ...

Remnants of love that didn't last

I was discussing jewelry with my mother once and she said she might still have her old wedding ring from Lee. I asked her if it was fancy in any way and she said it was just a plain gold band but had an inscription in it. "What did it say?" "Oh, it said something like 'love everlasting' or some crap like that." I'm sure many years from now I'll find that ring in all of Mom's stuff and I'll probably keep it too. I still have one of the wedding rings from my first marriage. I won't say it's a ring from Jeremy because it's actually one his mother gave me. My engagement ring and wedding band were Jeremy's grandmother's and I remember taking them out of his cabinet many a time to ponder them while we were dating. He would eventually give me those rings and I wore them every day we were married.

This plain gold band, though, was Mary's. She had received it from Jeremy's father Carl as her wedding band, thin with a slight milgrain to compliment her solitaire. I was sitting on her bed and she was going through her jewelry box. She offered it to me somewhat apologetically. Jeremy's parents divorced when he was still an infant and I think Mary thought the ring might be a bit of bad luck. But I happily took it. I told myself that wearing it with the other bands was a symbol that even a bad relationship can produce a good person.

I handed over his grandmother's rings to Jeremy the day I left him, but I asked to keep the one from Mary and Carl. It was another reminder for me that bad relationships still have good people in them. The ring is handsome, simple and inexpensive. I don't ever wear it anymore and I can't imagine I would. I don't think I'd give it to anyone else. It's been through two marriages that didn't work out, so I think it's time to retire it. But some part of me just can't get rid of it. It's as if getting rid of the ring would throw away anything of worth from the marriages. So I keep it. I take it out and look at it on rare occasions, but mostly it just rests in my jewelry box.

I suppose even after two failed marriages, it's still doing its job as a symbol, though. It may not say love everlasting "or some crap like that," but it speaks of good intentions, honest mistakes and potential in a simple package. That makes it worth keeping as far as I'm concerned.

AwesomeTown

Megan texted me today: "Going to lunch with Kim and Christie. Wish you lived closer so you could come too." I've wished this myself at times. So many of our friends live near our nation's capital that it could be a great place for us to connect with them. Then I think about the ocean at the end of my street, my parents at the end of our block and the traffic up there and reconsider. Seriously, driving in that traffic would make me stabby. You'd see me on the news. I'd be the one making a stabbing motion at other cars.

So as I told Megan, I wish there were a place called AwesomeTown where all of the cool people lived in one place. Since it's my idea, I volunteer to be the mayor of AwesomeTown, but I'll be a good mayor with lots of parades and I'll keep the streets clean and the parks open.

AwesomeTown would indeed be awesome! It would have an urban area and some quiet suburbs with big trees and sidewalks and would be right next to a small farm area with chickens and pigs and cows (don't get me started about my new desire for farm animals at our house). No one would speed and there'd be lots of block parties on the weekend. We'd all be able to watch each other's kids and there'd be one HUGE community center with clean spacious bathrooms and lots of room for racquetball and tennis and swimming.

I guess we'd still have to work, but we'd be able to telecommute or work at the HUGE community center with our friends. There'd be a tasty cafeteria and every day you could pick someone new to lunch with.

And all of you, dear readers, would be welcome in AwesomeTown. Housing rates would be very reasonable and there would be no home owners' association. We'd wouldn't need it since all the residents would automatically be so incredibly cool.

After my little daydream, I wondered how I could create such a place. Physics being what it is, AwesomeTown seems pretty hard to manage. And then I looked around on Facebook and Twitter and my Google Reader and LiveJournal and I realized I've already got a pretty good facsimile of AwesomeTown. And that will do for now.

But we're still totally throwing a block party soon.