In February, I was excited to join the cast of the 2012 Listen To Your Mother Spokane show. LTYM is a national event in which writers read nonfiction about motherhood. We read at the Bing Crosby theater downtown on Mother’s Day (photo above from Elise Raimi).
I know what you’re thinking: but Wanderchic, aren’t you just a stylish cat lady? No Cinnabon in your oven, right? What could you have to say about mothers?
Well, friends, I have a mother, so I qualify.
Our rehearsals focused on the arc of the show, figuring out the microphones, pacing ourselves as we read. But the email chatter a few days before the show bandied about that perennial question: what to wear?
The day before the show, I strolled around the nearby vintage stores and the chichi mall, but didn’t find anything that wowed me. In a weak moment at Nordstrom, I tried on these Miz Mooz shoes below (photo from Infinity Shoes). They didn’t have my size in stock in green, and I wasn’t feeling neutral. The coast was clear!
I ended up wearing some Franco Sarto pinkish retro looking shoes I picked up last year at Buffalo Exchange. I decided it was more important to feel confident than have some new threads. I wore a knee-length black and white polka dot dress that I bought a few years ago at Target. That thing is indestructible. And it makes me feel like the modest, slightly neurotic version of a pinup girl.
It’s likely we all have those pieces in our closet, the old favorites that fit well and hold up.Sometimes these become our favorite travel clothes, too. I think of these outfits as road-tested. (It would be more accurate to say classroom or church or date tested, but you get the idea.)
LTYM was a powerful event. I read a lighter piece about liking my life but also hoping I don’t miss my chance to be a mom (and venting some passive aggressive feelings toward Hot Moms with baby joggers who hog the sidewalk). All evening, in the theater lobby and at the after party at Sapphire Lounge, women I did not know came up to me and said things like “I hope you get to be a mom” or “I was 39 when I conceived my first child.”
So I got to wear a pretty dress AND get kindhearted strangers to say all sorts of intimate, encouraging things to me. Total win.
I’m in a sappy mood, in case you hadn’t noticed, so I’ll finish up my belated Mother’s Day post with a couple of photos (one of my Nana Sheets holding my dad, the other of my Nana Taylor, holding my aunt and my infant mom).
Also, here’s what I’m learning from the LTYM experience:
Breathe (this was written in all caps on a piece of paper in the greenroom at the theater. Handy mantra! Memorable. Catchy).
If you’ve got a Listen To Your Mother event in your area, go next year.
If you’ve got stories inside, write them down. Share them with others. We love to hear them.
High five your mom, a mom, any nurturing person in your life.
Extra mascara doesn’t hurt when the big fat limelight beams of temporal fame are aimed at you.
Wear the shoes that allow you to walk tall, with your heart open and your head held high.