The Oprah Winfrey Dress

Happy Holidays, everyone! Thank you for your cards and emails, I do appreciate them. I'm sitting in LAX awaiting a 7:11am flight to Columbia, SC via Memphis. We'll be in Charleston tonight. It's my turn to be on tour. I met John's dad and brother Christmas Eve, and now we're headed east to see John's good friends in the final shows for Jump Little Children and their annual holiday performance at Dock Street. John managed this band and produced this show the past eight years. This is his first and last year to be on the audience side as the band is breaking up and moving on to other things.

So, a few days before Christmas he found out that the shows are going to be formal attire. He knew I wouldn't be thrilled. Mostly because with the new love weight, I'm not fitting into my old dresses. Or shall we say dress. But, as all things work out, on my very first attempt, I walked into a formal dress shop at the mall and found a stunning gown. I tried it on and it was beautiful. It's a two-piece dress. The top is a strapless corset, fully beaded and embroidered in a burnt sienna or rust color with a cream trim. The skirt has a cream colored wave section that goes from my waist to down below my butt, and then the rest is a full flowing skirt with netted tassels in the same copper color. I could see Oprah wearing it while hostessing the Oscar's. Lucky for me, the dress was on sale because the shop was going out of business. I got the $375 price tag down to $150. This ended up being an extra good thing because it cost another $100 to have the dress tailored to fit me. Still, it's all worth it because you just don't find dresses like this too often these days. And it looks pretty good on, which I rarely say.

I've never been to Charleston before. I hope I like it because John would like to move there someday. Thinking about our current move, we're still not sure when and where in LA we'll be moving, though Long Beach has the lead. It either has to happen in January, or not till the end of the year after the World Series, but of course I'll let you know when we know.

What else? I had a great time with my family in San Diego. It was short, but good to see each other. My Uncle Jon is definitely reading the blog, and that's nice. But they all seem a bit leery of being written about. Too bad, right? Right.

The most blogworthy incident happened when we were all having breakfast at Kono's on the beach. John's huge burrito came wrapped but without a plate. I could see the mess that would ensue on s tiny napkin, and suggested he get a plate. He agreed and left to get it. As soon as he left the table, my cousins took turn telling me how much they liked him.

"Wapaaaah!" Katie said when I suggested the plate.

"No," I assured them, "I'm nice to him. I am."

"You better be," Katie said again.

"I like him," Michelle said.

"Yeah, don't mess this one up, Jenny," Katie said.

I could've seen this conversation coming from Nevada.

"Don't let him go," Katie added.

"Ok," I said. "Don't worry."

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