Weekend of many hats

 

OK, maybe not hats, per se, but certainly costumes. As a kid, I really never saw myself as being the “play dress-up” type - at least not consciously. But when I look back, many of my key childhood moments and chapters involved costumes of some sort. Take for instance the vestments (if that’s the right term) that I wore as an altar boy. Then there was my cub scout uniform. And who could forget that awful AWFUL oh-so-70’s white polyester tux trimmed in 70’s brown that I wore as an usher at 1 of 5’s wedding? Low and behold, I would be missing a very big point if I didn’t acknowledge that in many aspects of my life, playing dress-up is exactly what I do. Heck, take this past weekend for instance.

It all began Friday night, as my gal-pal Kerri informed me that I would be going out with her and a couple of other friends. Figuring that maybe we’d be hitting a country-western bar, I initially figured that dress-up would involve a nice button down shirt, jeans, boots, and a cowboy hat.

Oh no.

Instead, the plan involved Miss Kitty’s Black Unicorn party. Altogether now… “Um… WTF?” Long story short, it involved a trip to LA to a bar that would be putting on somewhat of a provocative burlesque show. OK, change of uniform – leather boots, leather pants, leather belt, and leather harness. (No hat). All in all, a very fun night that went WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY later than it should have, given that we both had to be up early on Saturday.

3 ½ hours of sleep later, my hubby was waking me up to go to Coronation. “Ugh…” I thought to myself. “I am NOT a spring chicken anymore and really should NOT be doing this.” So I chugged some coffee and jumped in the shower before getting into my next costume – 15^th century Italian.

Wending our way to beautiful-downtown-Hesperia (yeah), we watched the thermometer climb, and the sunlight brighten to a near-blinding level, bouncing off of the sand and bleak landscape. “Um… WHY exactly does Kingdom schedule summertime events inland, and wintertime events on the coast again?” I asked my hubby, knowing the answer all too well as conveyed by a massive eye-roll and a polite smile.

Coronation was quite nice, combining reunions with friends, memorable court occasions, laughs, a wee-bit of mischief. But there was no fighting the obvious – I only had a few hours of sleep, and as the day progressed, I began to shut down. I’d LOOOOVE to think of myself as immortal, but… well… I just ain’t. So after heading out, having dinner with friends, and wending our way home, I changed yet again into the most important uniform of the weekend – comfy clothes that would be perfect for the comfy couch.

Sunday was day of domestics and day of rest. Working in the garden, and in the kitchen, I puttered around while playing the role of Don Domestic. My hubby says that the kitchen is my “center”. I think he’s quite right – even in the most exhausted or mentally-fried state, I do see to refocus and just zone out in the kitchen. And donned in my comfort-costume – a kitchen apron, I was able to get to tasks at hand, including dinner, cheese making, berry harvesting, etc., etc., etc.

I don’t think I realized quite how large a role various costumes play in my life. But low and behold, they do. How about you, dear readers? What costumes help define the chapters of your life?