Year 11 Formal

This evening, my school has organised a “formal” for the year 10s and 11s. I foolishly agreed to attend this “formal” when the organisers were desperately trying to get the numbers. I promised umpteen times that I would go, I paid the deposit, I even collected the ticket (yes, without paying for it in full. I wasn’t going to complain about saving $20 now, was I?). Unfortunately, I neglected to do one thing. I neglected to buy a dress.

I have mentioned before the extent to which I really hate clothes shopping. That’s because I do. I loathe it. It’s horrible. It’s almost as bad as shoe shopping. For that reason, I procrastinated on buying a dress. It was in the back of my mind — “Hey, I really should get one of those dress things soon…” — but I couldn’t bring myself to actually go and get one.

It was yesterday I realised that the situation had turned into an emergency.

Shopping

I had to go clothes shopping today.

You have to understand that this was a difficult thing for me to decide to do. I loathe clothes shopping. It’s not that I hate clothes — in fact, I really enjoy piecing together outfits from what I have, coordinating the colours and whatnot. I just hate the process of acquiring clothes. I hate the way clothing stores never cater to the short and skinny — whoever came up with that myth deserves to be shot, since it simply isn’t true! I hate the fact that trying on clothes is so time-consuming, especially when you factor in the time it takes for a booth to become available. I hate the sheer expensiveness of clothes — I’m not paying $40 for what is essentially some fabric that got cut up and sown together again, no matter how pretty is. The process of acquiring clothes is extremely frustrating, and I despise it for that.

However, the situation had become urgent. I realised this when attempting to dress myself last Friday morning. Ordinarily, my choice would have been simple — school uniform or detention? — but last Friday was casual clothes day, and things were different. I had to somehow put together an outfit that was presentable, that fit me, and was not the same thing as what I wore last time. I couldn’t find anything that fit all of these criteria.

Protip

If you have some kind of birth defect in either of your ears (or both), for the love of everything you hold dear do not try to buy in-ear earphones. Well, you can buy them, but never ever try to use them. Why not? Untold agony, immense suffering, that kind of thing. You’ll never forgive yourself. Take it from someone who learnt the hard way.