Day Nine--Chicagoland

June 3, 2006

It was the day I had dreaded since the beginning. Bridesmaid's dress day.

Dawn was to meet Sue at her house (again, way out the Ike) to get the group organized and then drive over to David's Bridal in who knows what 'burb (there are so many, I'm losing track at this point) and pick out, get fitted for a bridesmaid's dress. Sue did have an innovation--choose from these dresses, pick then one that best fits your body type, etc, but you'll all get it in the same color.

Smart.

What am I supposed to do while all these women try on dresses for two hours?

I asked. I begged. I just wanted Dawn to drop me off at the nice little Caribou coffee in LaGrange and let me hang out there until they were done. I didn't wanna go! I wanted them to have their girl time.

Dawn wanted me to eat lunch with them when they were done and meet them all. I was trapped in a gi-normous catch-22, and I finally hit my head against the wall of social "on-ness."

So what did Mr. Grumpypants do? When we arrived at Sue's, he chose to sat in the car. He was extracted, not very willingly, by Dawn. He met everyone as pleasantly as he could (Sue's sister, Sue's MOM! Sheesh! girls everywhere!) and finally calmed down a bit. Everyone went into Sue's house for awhile, he just stood around outside.

So finally, Dawn comes back out, and Mr. Grumpypants feels better once he insists that we follow them to the dress store. "IF I can only have a car, I can escape."

..And I did. As soon as we got to the shop, I skeedaddled out of there. I drove around and found this nice sort of wholesale, cut out bin bookstore. It was a big store, full of stuff, and I spent a couple of hours reading and browsing and rather enjoyed myself.

Dawn finally called and everyone was happier, I was happier. I still felt a little like I was intruding on girl time, but I kept my usual witty banter mostly to myself and enjoyed our faux-nese lunch at the Panda Express.

What else we did that day is kind of a blur to me. It's been awhile.