thoughts while packing for Sirens

[swan_tower]

SELF: Oh, noes! I cannot wear the costume I wanted to bring for the Sirens ball, because I have gained too much weight!

REST OF SELF: Well, we're not eighteen anymore.

SELF: No, we're not. <is tragic>

REST OF SELF: . . . hang on a sec. We have gained something in the waist and hips, yes. But this outfit is cut such that it actually still fits just fine through the waist and hips.

SELF: BUT IT DOESN'T FIT.

REST OF SELF: . . . through the ribcage. I somehow don't think we've gained large amounts of weight in the ribcage. I think we've just grown. Seeing as how this was sewn for us when we were eighteen, and we are now thirty-two.

SELF: Wait, that's almost worse. We can pretend we might lose weight someday, but we can't really pretend our bones are going to shrink back to teenaged levels.

REST OF SELF: I'm going to ignore that weight-loss comment and point out that this is why someone invented corsets.

SELF: HOORAY THE DAY IS SAVED!


(I actually have to wait for kniedzw to get home and help me get dressed to see if this solution will work. If it doesn't, then I should probably let go of the dress, since yeah -- it not fitting is a function more of my skeleton than anything else. But I think it will; the dress only just barely doesn't fit.)

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

There is definitely no loss of honour in having grown.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

There shouldn't be a "loss of honour" in having gained weight, either, but I'm not immune to social conditioning on that front. Growing, however, is at least something I can firmly put into the box of "nothing I can do about it, so there's absolutely no use in getting worked up over it."

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

No, there shouldn't. But that social conditioning just gets under the skin.

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

Beware the fate of Snow White....

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

I'll be sure not to eat any apples, nor to take naps in public.

[(Anonymous)]

And this is why I will never fit into my wedding dress no matter how much weight I might lose. Bearing 2 children changes your rib cage and your pelvis!

[squishymeister.livejournal.com]

yay corset opportunities!! And there's lots of good things about not being 18 anymore ;)

[d-c-m.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this fabulous post of self discussion. :)

[stormsdotter.livejournal.com]

I can no longer fit the stuff I wore at 18, because I am no longer unhealthily underweight.

Ironically, I bought a dress that was intended for a fannish bridesmaid at 18. I wore it to friend's wedding, though my grandmother had to hem it 6" for me. It sat in my closet for years. After I Lots a Lot of Weight due to being gluten intolerant, I tried it on again. It was still too small. So I called my mother, who is a tiny Irish woman, and asked to see if she could fit the dress.

She fit it wonderfully, though --you guessed it-- I had to hem it another 6". Mom insisted on wearing That Dress to my wedding, since both Grandma and I worked on it and we lost my grandmother a few years ago.

Costuming: the gift that keeps on giving. :)

[unquietsoul5.livejournal.com]

Bones do shift a bit with age... in various places... as does muscle. Feet for example. Both my wife and I have had to go to wide sized shoes as we got older.... gravity gets to you there as you age no matter if your weight has changed or not. (And my feet actually went from a 9 1/2 (What I wore in my early 20s) to a 10 1/2 in length (what I wear now). Its not because my feet are fat, just gravity spreading out the bones with age.

Then again, I'm almost an inch shorter than I used to be when I was in my 20s.