round these parts

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i've officially been on vacation since last friday. but because i didn't fly home until late friday afternoon i had just enough time to get totally turned around and lost in the west village friday morning. i felt like a tourist in new york and it felt great. because i've been in the city for so long now, some of my very favorite moments happen when i stumble upon a street or cafe which i've never before seen and suddenly i'm transported. it always makes me feel like i'm somewhere else entirely: lost in europe, or visiting a friend in sydney. i think in many ways people like new york because it is so clearly someplace else. so for me, when i stumble upon that someplace-else-feeling, i end up imagining any place other than new york. and falling more in love with the city in the process.

but now i'm safely home in houston where i'm reveling in the comforts of home and desperately searching for a dress that both my mother and father think appropriate for my father's retirement party at the end of the week. a few years back i wrote about how my mother encouraged me to go in search of some strapless dresses because i had some weddings to attend. turns out a retirement-party-dress is the antithesis of a attending-a-friend's-wedding-dress. and pleasing everyone is proving nearly impossible.

but vacation is always a good excuse to shop. so i'm keeping at it.