Pink Tie Ball.

I went to the Pink Tie Ball last night with my good pal Ben. His wife is galavanting around Europe and was thus unable to accompany him to said event. I'm a good standby date for several reasons. First, I love going to galas. Second, I can entertain myself when my date has to go shake hands or wine and dine. Third, I talk a lot, especially to strangers, which is useful when there is assigned seating. Actually, maybe that last reason is more of a reason not to take me ... I'm pretty sure I said all kinds of annoying random things to the people sitting at our table. But then I'm used to being the crazy one, so I don't really care.

There's a trend these days in fundraising events to have Fill-In-Appropriate-Color Tie Events. All such events are Black Tie, but instead they say "Green Tie" (the Operation Brightside Ball) or "Pink Tie" (the Breast Cancer event). Clever, I suppose, but it sort of limits your wardrobe choices.

After accidentally sending Erin a text intended for my mom, saying "can i borrow your pink dress tonight?", I found myself with TWO pink dresses from which to choose. Erin was kind enough to offer hers up as well, despite the misdirected text. I went with my mom's because she lives closer, and I somehow managed to find two shoes that matched each other, and almost matched the dress.

The pink dresses at the Pink Tie Ball were mind-blowing. Old ladies in bright pink fitted ballgowns, young model-types in absurdly short hot pink numbers, and all kinds other women in gorgeous look-at-me dresses.

It wasn't until I ran into my friend Sarah that it occurred to me these people were probably wearing old bridesmaid dresses. She and her friends had been playing the game Point-Out-the-Bridesmaid-Dress, which I thought was pure brilliance. I was even annoyed that my past bridesmaid dresses are blue, yellow, and brown. I wanted to have a reason to wear one of them.

So I've decided that for the next big Black Tie fundraiser in Louisville, it shouldn't be a Fill-In-Appropriate-Color Tie Event. It should be Wear-Your-Old-Bridesmaid-Dress Tie Event. But folks shouldn't come dressed ironically. They should embrace the old bridesmaid dress, even if it's fuschia and orange and from 1987. They should wear it proudly and with matching eye-shadow. Someone please let me know if such an event exists.

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