Rudi and I headed out yesterday evening to Tyson’s Corner to look at a sofa. It wasn’t what we were looking for, but while we were at the mall we got watch batteries for some dead time keepers and some free skin products (from the company who is subsidising the book I’m writing), so all was not lost.

We had one more errand to run while we were out that way and headed west. It was just at sunset and the sun was poised just over the treetops like a single red Christmas light. Had I wanted to recreate it here for you, it would be the perfect use for a fluorescent red Crayola crayon.

So maybe that’s why I did it. Maybe I was inspired by nature…

I had already looked through the dress racks at TJ Maxx. There was nothing that would be appropriate to wear to Caroline’s wedding. So I went off to look for inexpensive tea and for athletic wear. I found the tea, but no workout clothes. But as I turned around, there it was — a dress.

And not just any dress, mind you, but a ruby red dress.

But it was a size smaller (and sometimes two) than what I normally wear.

I looked at Rudi. He looked at me. He said, “It’s just one size. You could fit into it by the wedding.”

So I went to try it on. Rudi offered to wait for me, but I told him not to bother. I wouldn’t be able to zip it up. I certainly wasn’t going to parade a half-done-up dress out in public.

The dress felt lovely going on over my head. It should — the lining (although not the rest of the dress) is silk.

But the side zipper seemed to be stuck and with the dress only half-zipped it looked like the dress hadn’t been cut properly, which would have explained its presence at TJ’s.

I kept working at the zipper though, and millimeter by millimeter it rose toward its destination. And, as it did, the rest of the dress evened out, until finally the zipper was done up and the dress looked fine.

Except…

Do you remember the scene in Dirty Dancing when Baby tries on her dancing costume dress for the final fitting? And she starts giggling because the dress dips so low you can see her bra?

Well, that’s this dress. And it looked a little funny because my tan line from Falcon Ridge is very pronounced right now. But I’ve never owned a dress with such a décolletage (as a side note, the word actually refers to the neckline of the dress and not the woman’s anatomy, as I had always thought) before.

I bought it (and a bikini that was marked way down so I can even out the funny tan line).

I’m not sure a plunging neckline is appropriate for a wedding, though, (and I’d hardly want a reputation as Caroline’s American cousin with the poor taste) so I might hold off and wear it to the Kennedy-King dinner in October instead.

But it sure does feel good to look at it hanging in my closet this morning.