Marissa stands in front of her closet. Today’s going to be a long day. With her parents’ brunch at eleven, interview at two and her best friend’s twenty-first birthday party, she has very little room for error. She glances at her watch, 8:30, she has about two hours to plan her outfits, shower and head out for the first event of the day. She pulls out a pair of light blue skinny jeans and tries them on. They show off her thick thighs and child-bearing hips. They’re comfortable enough to wear, dressy enough for brunch. She heads back to her closet in search of a top. She moves the shirts from left to right. Black tank? No. Too cold. Red sweater? Too itchy. White shirt? Too easily dirtied. Blue off the shoulder? No, too much blue. And then she sees it: a light grey flowy t-shirt with a small pocket on the left-breast side. She puts it on. Between the light blue jeans and the light grey shirt, it’s too many light colors. She slips off the jeans and pulls on the first pair of dark colored pair of jeans she finds, perfect!
She takes the outfit off, folds it neatly on her bed, and glances at her watch, 8:55. She hurries back to her closet and puts on her black pencil skirt. She flips through her button downs, long sleeves or 3/4 sleeves? After a minute of pondering she decides on 3/4 with her black blazer. She lands on two light blue button downs. One is just plain blue and one is with pink vertical stripes. “The vertical stripes would make me look taller,” she thinks to herself. Pink and blue it is. She tries it on with a pair of heels and nude color stockings just to be sure. Perfect! She glances at her watch, 9:30. Her eyes widen with surprise, where is the time going? She sighs, quickly takes off the outfit, folds it on her bed and heads back to the closet. Now for the big event.
“How casual do I want to be?” (she says to herself). Jeans? No, her best friend would kill her. Leggings? But with what? Dress? But most of them won’t keep her warm on these chilly autumn nights. She taps her leg getting more and more anxious. She has a closet filled with clothes, yet she can’t figure out what to wear. She glances at her laptop, with an idea. Maybe playing some party music will help get her in the party mood and make it easier to decide on something to wear. She opens it, goes to Youtube and pulls up “Shots.” She begins dancing and singing around her room trying to get in the party mood. She pulls out a red dress and holds it to her body as she continues to sing, it has potential. Black strapless dress? No bra to go with it. She pulls out a teal colored dress. Too bright for the season. Another black dress. She’s really tired of the black dresses. She pulls out a white and black dress with mesh from the right shoulder to the left armpit. She holds it up to the mirror and stares for a moment.
She realizes the music has stopped, how long had it been? 10:15. “Shit,” she thinks. She tries on the dress, wrong bra. She goes to her drawer and picks out her favorite bra, puts it on, then the dress and twirls in front of the mirror. Not much time to change again. She takes it off and folds it on the bed. She grabs her towel and grabs her things for her shower. As she leaves out the door, she passes the ironing board. She’s sighs, “Fuck, I need to iron my skirt and button down. Guess I’m going to be late.”
She showers quickly, puts on her first outfit and sets up the ironing board. She quickly irons her skirt and button down, finds a bag and neatly puts all her outfits and makeup, along with hair supplies, in the bag. She looks around, wondering if she’s missed anything, which is a great possibility considering the rush she’s in. She grabs her metro card, walks to the train and begins putting on her makeup as she makes her way to brunch. When the train stops and she gets off, she glances at her watch, 11:15. Not too bad, who starts eating the second they get there anyway? She walks into the restaurant and looks around. She sighs, the men are in slacks with a nice button downs, the women are wearing those long maxi dresses. She looks back down at her outfit. She’s definitely under-dressed. It’s going to be a long day.
