The "Diva" Dresses

According to the cruise documents, we have approximately two formal nights per week on the cruise. Now I don't know about you (and by you, I'm talking to the women reading this...although a couple of you guys might have been the same way...I'm just sayin' ), but when I was a little girl, I loved playing dress up. Growing up, I loved getting a new dress for Easter every year and having new shoes to match. When I started dating, I had a whole ritual for getting dressed and ready to go out. And to this day, when the holidays roll around, I love seeing all the fabulous dresses -- beaded and bejeweled, sashed, gathered, diaphanous, slinky or fat with fabric -- and dream of an occasion for me to buy and wear one. So having formal nights on the cruise gives me an opportunity to pull out all the stops, even though Joe, Brett and Jon are rolling their eyes at having to put on a suit just to eat dinner.

I daydream about being dressed to the nines at dinner, with an orchestra playing in the background at the edges of an empty dance floor, and Joe is suddenly overcome with Cary Grant syndrome and asks me to dance. He escorts me to the floor, and I discover that he's been taking dance lessons at Arthur Murray just to surprise me. As we're twirling around the floor, all eyes watching, he whispers in my ear that I am the love of his life and he wouldn't be surprised if every other person on the ship was incredibly jealous of me at that moment. God, I should write romance novels.

So anyway, I have these two "diva" dresses. I bought them several years ago when we lived in California and I was singing in a performance group. I wore them when I sang a couple of torch songs: "Someone to Watch Over Me" and "Cry Me a River." I was like Michelle Pfiefer in Fabulous Baker Boys, except without the crawling on the piano part. But I haven't had them on in over three years, and until recently, I certainly wouldn't have fit in them. Tonight I had a little try on session, and they fit! Like a glove, baby! I'm so excited...now I can't wait for formal nights. Okay, Joe, time for you to call Arthur Murray.