Dressed to Impress

My latest resolution bowl challenge was to wear dresses. I’m a wee bit of a tom boy and even though I have no problem hanging out at the beach or lake all day in my bikini while I Jet Ski or kite board, for some reason I feel self conscious about wearing dresses. This makes no sense I know, which is why I added it to my challenges this year so I could step outside my comfy zone and improve myself.

My ‘wear a dress’ challenge was made even more fun by having a pact with a coworker. I told her about meetup.com social events as a way for her to meet new people and expand her horizons. She was a little shy about going so we decided I would wear a dress for each event she attended…up to five that is.

Wearing dresses has never been high on my ‘to do’ list. Personally I feel like they just limit you. There’s no running, jumping and piggy backing when you are in a dress so what fun is that? But a pact is a pact and I was going to keep up my part of it.

My first dress was a pink sun dress. Only the finest dining for me and my fancy new dress would do so I wore it to Taco Bell after a day at the beach. I wore it over my bikini so it was maybe a bit of a cheat but it’s a start.

Next up I wore a skin tight stretchy dress to the farmers market but I spent most of my time putting the dress in place since it kept riding up and was quite annoying. So I Googled ‘how to keep a dress from riding up’ and saw a suggestion to use butt glue. I’d never heard of butt glue before but I decided I’d rather just not wear the dress again than glue my butt.

‘Dress’ three was actually a long work skirt suit that I’d had for years but hardly wore. My friend and I decided dress or skirt is ok as I never wear either. Seeing as it went to my knees it wasn’t too bad but I couldn’t do the morning stretches I normally do and I found the high heels annoying so I was barefoot most of the day which may have taken away some from the whole ‘dressed up’ look.

‘Dress’ four was my superhero balloon girl skirt. This may be cheating a bit but my friend cheated on her end too and she allowed it.

‘Dress’ five was a denim mini skirt. I wore it with bandages all over my knee due to road rash so that may have taken a little away from it. But I still got some compliments.

Dress six was a bonus to my five dress challenge. I have a LBD that’s been hanging around for over a year. I wore it to a girls night dinner and out to a bar. It was cute but I didn’t feel as comfy as I would have in jeans. And since no one seemed overly impressed with my legs I should have just worn the jeans.

This challenge which was supposed to take a week ended up taking over three months. It’s hard to fit in dresses with jet skiing, mountain biking and inline skating. The few times I was going out to a party or concert I wanted jeans so I could enjoy myself instead of having to act girly all night.

With this challenge thankfully over I wonder if I will keep wearing dresses at least on occasion. That’s hard to say. I own dresses now and if there’s one thing as important to me as being a tom boy it would be getting my monies’ worth from my purchases so we’ll see.

As a side note, my coworker’s results were pretty good. She enjoyed a few meetups, made some new friends and plans to continue attending events. I’m happy this challenge was good growing experience for both of us.

Take a chance and try something out of your comfort zone. It can only help you grow as a person. Try the buddy system like I did to make it even more fun and ensure you actually stick with it.

Cat “She’s got legs” Cathy