HEY Pretty Woman... what's in the back of YOUR closet? original post 10/26/08

Remember the scene in Pretty Woman at the end of the movie where she's packing her things to leave town? And then Richard Gere shows up in his white limo and climbs the fire escape, through his fear of heights, and rescues Julia Roberts. Of COURSE you remember that scene. We all cried. And thought, briefly, about becoming hookers. Or maybe we thought it'd be cool to fall in love with a rich guy who.. dates... hookers... Hummm...... ANYWAY. What made an impression on me from that scene was her outfit. I still remember- jeans, a white shirt, and a black classy jacket.

A couple of years later, I was shopping in Dillards and came across a jacket on the "clearance" rack. It had been marked DOWN to $300 and something. I fell in love with it. I loved the look, the fabrics, the fit... how it slid onto my body & looked so classy. I told my mother about it and I was shocked when she encouraged me to buy it! She told me that it would bother me if I didn't and since I had no big financial obligations in life (have to laugh at the thought, now...) I should go for it. So I did! And I wore it with some fitted jeans, a white tee shirt, and my cowboy boots. I only wore it a few times, as I remember, as I had found the money to BUY it but never seemed to have the extra money to DRY CLEAN it. Ahhhhh... priorities when you are in your early 20's, right?

As the years passed on and I went up and up in sizes, I would regularly purge my closet of my ill fitting clothing but I never could pass that one jacket on to anyone else. As I gained more weight, it became my "one day if I have weight loss surgery" item. So last week I was gathering up Eric's dry cleaning & I saw the jacket hanging in the back of my closet. I added it to the bag with a note to the dry cleaners, asking that they would clean it and put it in it's own plastic.

I see this lone, bagged jacket as another one of the goals I have put out there for myself. I don't care if Pretty Woman was almost 20 years ago- I still love this jacket. (am I old enough to look back on things that were "20 years ago"?? Really...?) And over the years, it has taken on a new meaning. The next time you see this jacket, I'll be wearing it. It's a size 10. I believe I am around a size 16 right now. I'll get there. And when I do... it's clean and ready.

(and this time I can afford to have it dry cleaned more often)

~ Amy