My daughter goes off to college in a month. I have been getting her ready and this involves many trips to different doctors. On this day, I was on my way to a few of these necessary doctors’ appointments.
Putting on one of my favorite skirts, one I had not worn in a while, I was happy. It is a long black skirt of many tiers. Made out of Indian material. I bounced downstairs and out the door. To take my daughter to the dentist. Getting out of the car, I was still happy I had worn my long black skirt. At the dentist’s waiting room, I was still enjoying the skirt.
However, in the car on our way to the next doctor’s appointment, I noticed there was a split in one of the tiers. Oh, I thought, this can be remedied easily! I just had not noticed it before. Then, at a stop light, pulling up the skirt (It is a full skirt.), I saw holes in it. And more rips in the tiers. In fact the entire skirt was coming apart. This was like an scene from a science fiction movie.
Stepping down from my SUV, the skirt tore by way of one its holes. Mind you, these holes were not present when I left the house.
At the doctor’s appointment, I let my daughter go in by herself.(After all, she is eighteen years old anyway!) I stayed huddled in the waiting room as the skirt gently unravelled and left me with no lower garment.
Needless to say, I greeted the doctor in the waiting room, not getting up. And as I had its remaining pieces clutched to my lower half, I got in the car and drove to the nearest boutique.
Yikes Hollis! years ago I had a bikini top swim away from me and I had to negotiate my way through a crowded beach with my arms crossed. I do like that Indian material – the best for summer. I hope you got another one 🙂
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Oh Yolanda, I think you have topped me in the X-Files department. How awkward and funny too! (But mostly awkward, having been sort of close to it lately) I would liked to have seen the expressions on the mens’ faces. They probably loved it! Yes, CP Shades in Santa Monica. I am sending the skirt back and asking for a replacement!
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Those lovely flowing skirts do that, don’t they? I’ve had several go at the tiers, or as you say, even in the fabric, I guess as a function of it being so thin. I’ve never had one go in such a dramatic fashion, though.
Hope you got a nice replacement and they had one just as flowing. A new fresh start.
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Well, I got that wonderful skirt in NYC at CP Shades and I think I will write them a very nice note and send the skirt back to them (based in Santa Monica now only) And see what happens. Yes, it was dramatic. Scary.
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Oh Hollis…I’m sure you weren’t laughing, but the way you told the story…I was. 🙂 Perhaps you can make it into a mini skirt. I suppose you have an excuse to go shopping!
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It is funny. And kind of metaphorical. My daughter is going away. I love clothes….. and my skirt is all of a sudden full of expanding holes.And my skirt (life) is falling apart. I truly felt like I was in a horror movie! (But with humor) Yes, I will send it back and maybe get a replacement (new life) and all will be well. 🙂 BTW, Jill thanks for laughing! It makes things the way I intended it to be and makes me feel better!
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Thirty years ago I was walking down a street in Paris (the real one, in France!) and my half-slip let go and fell down around my ankles. Just that quick. I was more budget-minded then and wore my clothes until in this case the elastic rotted. I stepped out of it and threw it in the nearest trash can. Then of course into a store to buy a new one!
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You know, Claudia, I think I had the skirt a little too long also. I am not sure. It was like a horror movie.
But your story is even worse. But you handled it perfectly. The way you just stepped out of the slip and threw it away! Poof. No one saw you!
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I had a sweater once that just unraveled over the course a few days, right after I bought it. it was like one little strand started coming undone, and it just unraveled the whole thing!
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Mareymercy, that is the way this was! Just no logical explanation or reasonable thinking….anything could have explained what was happening. Holes giving way to completely disintegrating the fabric! I know, we clothes-minded people should accept this as some sort of karma, huh? We buy easily and we have to let go…..
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Not me – I’d be taking the remnants of that skirt to a tailor to make me a new, sturdier one if it was a favorite! I’ve done that before. 😉
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I keep an emergency picnic blanket in the car. You never know when a picnic may need to take place. Maybe we should include an emergency change of clothes!
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Haha! Yup, you just never know!
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Oh Hollis, how funny and tragic all at once. I hope there’s no more unravelling in the garment department although I fear a little personal unravelling may take place for a while once Lyla has flown the nest. This was a great story but on a scale of 1-10, how embarrassed was your daughter when she came out of that appointment to see her mother sitting there half undressed? 🙂
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I, too, Jenny, thought the story was a metaphor for the way I feel. Unravelled and falling apart! No…. Lyla knows me. She takes her mom in stride. Since it was such a full skirt, I was able to muster up all the fabric and wrap it around me to get out of the doctor’s office. Funny thing, though, was when I got to the boutique (Going in there would have been out of the question on a normal day;Too expensive!), the owner said “Oh my God! You can see your underwear!” (When I dropped the skirt down.) I was happy, as you know, to justify buying a new skirt!
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***Opps***… didn’t see that coming.. I usually have some pins and in my hand bag also a sewing kit.. just in case for moments like that.. 😉
Also, I’ve nominated you for the Very Inspiring Blogger award – thanks for the inspiration! Have a look at my blog to see the rules, if you’d like to accept it 🙂
I love your blog .. 😉 thank you for the inspiration all these while.
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Thank you Angela!!!!!! So very much. Have to rush off right this minute, But will look at it this afternoon!
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Thank you for following my blog. I remember sending daughter off to college six years ago (yes she graduated). I was like sending a piece of my heart into the world. Enjoyed your post.
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Thank you. Yes it is hard. but it’s time! (I know this intellectually) A roller coaster of a journey, parenthood, huh??
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True
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That’s a great story, Hollis. I love how you’ve told it.
The Great Unraveling – there is a children’s book in there somewhere.
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Thank you!
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Oh Hollis! I’m in a coffee shop reading this. I’m sure people think I’m not quite right as loud as I’ve been laughing (not at you but at how life does this too us at times). We step out into the big world with our best foot forward and things unravel outside of our control and we are left figuring out how to respond. I appreciate how you connect this experience into your current circumstances and how all that happens in life can teach us if we are open to the lessons our experiences can reveal. Always learning from my own “unravel-ings.” 🙂
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Thanks Eli!!!!! You “got” it!
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This is so funny! I had something that was from my 70’s hippie period where batiking was in style. It had an Indian batik which meant it had been hand dyed, on a cotton fabric. I think that it is just age that gets these pieces of our lives unraveling. But it does sometimes to me, evoke a metaphor, to my aging self! Smiles, Robin
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Thanks for reading this!!!! Yes what a metaphor!!!! I still want CP Shades to reimburse me. We’ll see!
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Thanks Robin for reading this!
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Wow, I couldn’t imagine that happening to me. Were you wearing a slip under it?
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Lisa, thank you for commenting! No I was not! Luckily the skirt was so big and full that I could wrap it around me as I exited the doctor’s office. What a mess!
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I was just wondering because the picture of the skirt looked like it was kind of see through. I don’t know about you but I tend to go without a slip a lot more than I probably should.
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