"That" Dress

It is one of "those" dresses.

I glanced at it this morning. It is gray, short, sleeveless, and a wrap. It is professional and yet leaves little to the imagination. And I have not worn it in a long while.

It is the dress that I wore to a White House reception, knowing that it was the perfect mix of feminine and professional; knowing that it complemented my body's assets in ways that only "that" dress can.

That dress, jokingly called the "cheerleader dress" by some of my friends in the office, has been the dress that I seem to be wearing when something a bit weird happens.

It is the dress I was wearing when I had a crown put on one of my teeth. I usually dress down for the dentist, but this was just the fitting of a crown so it would take moments rather than hours and would not involve fluids of any sort. The dentist, a man my parents age, let me know that I looked great in the dress - not once, but twice.

I remember coming back to the office thinking "that was weird."

I went into my friend's office and asked him for his take on the situation. It was just weird. While I am chatting with him another guy comes in to see what all the chatter and laughter are about - clearly we weren't talking economics or policy (our respective areas of specialization). The economist (my friend) told him what had happened. The conversation took off in a completely different direction with my discovering that this other guy has a thing for cheerleaders. ( and on that note, I vacated the office.

Apparently this is the dress that loosens the lips of men and allows them to find their voices.

Every month, for about two years, I would join a coworker at a lunch meeting in DC to discuss political issues. I never missed a meeting if I could help it, so I truly was a regular. Although the conversations were often a bunch of men expounding upon their areas of expertise (whether they were experts or not is a different story) but some of the discussions were interesting. For me, it was nice to return, if only for a few hours, to the world of analysis, policy, and dialogue.

The room was usually filled with the same men each month. We were all fairly regular in our attendance. One day I wore "that" dress over choosing a more conservative outfit as I normally did. I am not sure what reason I had for doing this, just that I did.

I am standing in line waiting for my turn at the lunch table when the guy behind me decides to start chatting and introduces himself. Normally this would not have been an issue at all as that is what people do at these things - "network. The odd aspect of this conversation was that he and I were both regulars. At this point we had been attending these small (usually ten people) lunches for over a year. We had been introduced and truly had not given one another a second look from that first meeting. And yet, suddenly, he has decided that I am someone he needs to meet. (I thought it was a bit fishy. It probably wasn't the clever comment that I had made to the person sitting next to me that drew his attention - or was it)

Don't forget, this is a wrap dress. The neck line has a tendency to plunge.

This dress and I have been many places together and engaged in various adventures. I think I need to put it back on one of these days - just to see what happens!