Day 24, Dressing for the Family

My sister and her youngest child came to NY for a visit which has been so exciting. N and her children live far, far away and I miss them terribly so I took off a few days when they were in town. It's been funny because my nephew Liam kept telling me I looked "ugly" because he thought I was too fancy all the time - that's an Israeli for you. All week he asked me things like "why are your lips red?" and "why are you so fancy? I don't like it." He told me I was pretty exactly twice. Once when I threw on jeans to go get my CSA on Saturday morning and on Yom Kippur.

On Thursday we went to have a little mini-family reunion with my grandma's twin and her family. I wanted to look nice because you always want to look good when you see family, but also because my family is a bit obsessed with weight and is always talking about diets and other stuff that makes me want to tear my hair out. Diets inevitably fail and they only serve to make people feel bad about themselves. I am not a fan.

Here's a bit of background as to what I'm talking about with my family. My Grandma passed away while I was living abroad and I flew in for her funeral. I hadn't seen my family for quite some time and somehow a year of eating frozen pizza and drinking oodles at the pub had led to a large weight loss for me. Don't ask me to explain, I don't understand it myself. Anyways I show up at my Grandma's funeral and my cousins oohed and ahhed over how I looked and one of them said to me "I wish your Grandma could see you now, she'd be so proud." And I looked at my cousin and said "I'd like to think my Grandma would have better things to be proud of me for than my weight." I mean here I was getting my Masters from the freaking London School of Economics and my weight is what my deceased grandma would be proud of? That is fucked up people. My sister thought I was terribly rude, but that's because she has no conception of what it's like to be fat and have your body be this public space that family and strangers alike get to discuss.

The point of all this is that I wanted to look good. It was also what was possibly going to be one of the last truly warm days of the year so I whipped out my favorite dress of the summer. I had "re-discovered" it earlier this summer and it's been quite a hit each and every time I wear it.

Dress is once again from Thea, my favorite vintage shop in London. The belt and earrings are from Accessorize and the shoes are from Primark. The dress is a little tight so I like to wear my red, rhinestone bra from Lane Bryant underneath it cause it matches and I think it looks sexy when it peeks out from the dress. Photo credit goes to my sister who took it on the porch of my great aunt's apartment.

After the visit I went to what may be the only Forever 21 with a plus size section in all of New York City. One of my purchases will be revealed in just a few short days. Are you breathless with anticipation just yet?