Top up

This is a post especially for my friend G, my host in Seattle when I moved, the person who helped me transition to a new country.

Back in those days when I had recently moved to the US, I was clueless about many things. I didn’t know how to say my quesadillas and fajitas right. I used to be so confused while ordering food. I used to frequent “Cold Storage Creamery” with G (It is Cold Stone Creamery). And then of course there were these fashion faux pas I used to make. G is a shopaholic while I used to accompany her to these shopping malls with wide-eyed wonder.

It was during one such excursion that I had picked up a fancy skirt that looked smart and chic, a nice and solid color, something that I might consider buying. So I had asked G to accompany me to the fitting room and opine. When I had come out of the fitting room wearing the skirt, she could not stop laughing.

It seemed like it was not a skirt in the first place, it was a tube top.

My embarrassment had known no bounds then.

For the next few years, G used to refer to that episode, indicating my dehatiness as a fresh off the boat, adding her own salt and pepper and spices in the process. Talking of salt and pepper, her other favorite joke was how I had messed up my soup at someone’s place because I had no idea how to use a pepper mill. That will be a post for another day.

Everything we do in life comes full circle.

A few days ago, I was at the shopping mall again, buying clothes for my upcoming trip to the beach. I looked at a rather fancy looking tube top, turquoise in color, really pretty, something you know you want the moment you set your eyes on it. However, I had my doubts, since it was there in the skirt section. I asked the attendant and she did confirm that it was a skirt. Nevertheless, I decided to try it out.

In the fitting room, I tried it as a skirt, and decided that it does not look that fancy after all. It looked way better as a tube dress, knee-length, showing off my collar bones. It was too long and unattractive as a skirt. So I thought, screw it. So what if it is a conservative long skirt, I will wear it as a tube dress and flaunt some skin.

And then, I remembered the episode all those years ago when G had laughed at my naivete. G, I have come a long way from that day all those years ago. Not only can I shop for myself without help now, I also decide what I wear as what J

sunshine