But It's No Sacrifice At All.

I've blogged before about how when I was a little girl I don't remember ever being a girly-girl. My fondest childhood memories are not of playing Barbie dolls and babies but of playing cow boys & indians, cops & robbers, swinging from the branches of the willow tree across the street from us, and running & playing in the field behind our house. I was not one of those girls who enjoyed getting dressed up. I hated dresses and nylons and even joked before my wedding that I would walk down the aisle in white slacks. I didn't of course.

I joked that one of the reasons I chose nursing for my career was so that I could wear pajama-like clothing to work. That's not true of course. But wearing comfy clothes and nursing shoes on a daily basis was certainly a HUGE perk for me.

But somewhere along the way I've changed.

You will still find me 90% of the time in jeans or work out clothes and even a baseball cap......unless I'm going to the kids' schools so as to keep from embarrassing them. I'm all about low maintenance comfort. But I now look forward to opportunities to get all "girly-ed up." I now look forward to weddings with excited anticipation. Unfortunately, most of my family and all of my friends are already married so the opportunities for this are becoming increasingly rare. The last wedding I attended was my cousin's back in Sept. 2007. And before that it was my other cousin's wedding like over 5 years ago.

So last week when my husband informed me that he had been given tickets to attend the Auto Show's Charity Preview event I was beside myself with excitement. This is a black tie affair. I could care less about the "auto" part of the auto show.....I was just excited as hell that I would have an excuse to purchase and wear a beautiful glorious girly girl evening gown. And maybe even an extra sassy and sexy pair of strappy stilettos.

I even went so far as to start my search on-line for that perfect evening gown.

And then I checked our calendar and realized that the weekend of this event is the same weekend that our family will be in Chicago for a gymnastics meet.

*sigh*