Trashy Divas Shop Commando!

I invited Cathy, my photographer friend who lived on the ashram for 7 years on a shopping trip with me.
“Cathy, do you want to come with me on a commando cowgirl shopping trip where we plow through a few favorite stores as fast as possible?” (I can never leave the kids for long.)
“Absolutely!” she said.
She’s my yes girl. Whenever I ask her to do anything, she says yes or absolutely, my favorite words after “Can you bake me some warm chocolate chip oatmeal cookies?” (My favorite thing to bake to fulfill my baking addiction.)
“But I think commando means we don’t wear underwear,” she said.
“Fine,” I replied. “Underwear is overrated anyway.”
We left on our trip (non-commando) and started at Trashy Diva, a store that could have been named after us, the original trashy divas. We ended up staying there and not even making it to another store, because Trashy Diva is tres dreamy! They were playing Sinatra, which immediately immerses me in this beautiful romantic world with no hard edges. The clothes are all gorgeous vintage styles, made with modern day fabrics and cuts, and I tried on the most amazing dresses. I’m kind of like a trying-on cowgirl, meaning I can try on clothes faster than you can say “another glass of champagne darling?”. I was trying to find a dress to match my exquisite cream and black velvet Garbo coat, so that meant ivory silk.
I sashayed out of my dressing room in an amazing Rita Hayworth gown, that dragged on the floor. It had buttons down the back and flowy sleeves and I couldn’t decide if I looked like Rita in Gilda or the ghost of Willoughby Hall or a southern gal sitting on her big ol’ porch sipping mint juleps and entertaining her gentleman callers. Blanche Dubois at her craziest. Cathy was sitting outside the dressing room clutching a cashmere wrap she loved, trying to decide how much she loved it. “Oh yes!” she exclaimed upon seeing me. “I love it! I love the buttons down the back.”
“Well, that cashmere is divine! You have to get it!” (This is what we do, encourage each other to buy yummies.)
I was trying on my next ensemble when I heard Cathy calling out, “Lucy! You have some explaining to do!” I came out swishing in a slinky champagne silk Jean Harlow gown and Cathy was wearing a polka dotted silk robe over her jeans and sneakers, swinging her arms and kicking her foot ala Buster Keaton. “This robe is GREAT!” she shouted, impersonating a cross between Ricky Ricardo and Charlie Chaplin. “I’m having a ball out here. Maybe I should buy something so I look more like a girl and less like a truckdriver.”
(Mind you, Cathy doesn’t look like a truckdriver. She’s tiny and slender and beautiful with a radiant smile and a bouncing blonde ponytail.)
Our fun ended when the husband called to see where I was. This being a top secret mission to see if there was anything out there I couldn’t live without, I hadn’t told him what I was doing (he disapproves of shopping). He was very suspicious, to say the least, and thought I might be having an affair. Ha! Darling, I’m not having an affair, but just look at the fabulous ivory silk Marilyn Monroe in the Seven Year Itch halter dress I bought! It swishes against my skin like whipped cream silk. It will be perfect for mojitos on the porch at The Columns hotel listening to New Orleans jazz, or whirling around the dance floor at the grand hotel on Christmas Eve.
Ahhh, the trashy diva strikes again.

Similar Posts

  • Lemon Souffle Sheets–MMMM!

    I just caught myself talking to my sheet. “You are so beautiful,” I whispered as I lovingly tried to fold it. I’ve never quite gotten the hang of folding fitted sheets. They’re very unruly. But this sheet. Oh this sheet. I dreamed of this sheet for years before I bought it today. Linen, real linen. Heirloom linen. In the most divine yeallo. They call it maize; I call it lemon souffle, buttercream, soft sunshine after a wild rain. These Bellanotte…

  • Yanking the Tulip

    My Dad and I were recently discussing a mutual relative. This relative is having “Issues.” I asked my Dad what kind of “issues” this relative was having and my Dad said, “He’s been yanking his tulip.” We started giggling at the terminology. My family is Mormon and apparently masturbation is against the rules. My Dad, as irreverent and funny as ever, commenced to tell me how he worked at his father’s lumberyard as a young boy with all his relatives….

  • Ho Ho, Elvis, Monkey Room…

    The only coat Henry will consent to wearing is Annabelle’s red Santa coat. He calls it “Ho-Ho.” “Ho-Ho” is one of his favorite words because, in his mind, Ho-Ho is Santa, and he loves anything that even remotely resembles Santa. Any guy with a beard is a “Ho-Ho.” Any person wearing red is “Ho-Ho.” He wore the red Ho-Ho coat to music class at Loyola. Annabelle insisted on wearing her Cinderella dress complete with light-up glass slippers she can barely…

  • Pint-Sized Profanity

    Today when we left the beach, Henry was hungry and tired and cranky. As he dragged his little feet through the sand, he said, “Mom? You are a pain in the ass!” I explained to him that “pain in the ass” is a “grown-up” phrase, meaning only big people can use it. I demonstrated other phrases he could use instead, such as “Pain in the Neck” or “Oh Boy!” but if he really wanted to say something cranky to his…

  • | |

    The Viper Room

    When I returned to 8852 Sunset to show my children this summer, the logo on the side of the building seemed to rustle and quiver with aching memories, and I longed to tell them but what could I say? What could I tell them of sweaty nights and thumping bodies and poetry written by young boys smoking cigarettes and wearing fedoras who carried notebooks and tore off a page to hand to me as I walked out of the club,…

  • Scary moustaches, coats, closets, and coughs!

    Yesterday Henry developed a sudden irrational fear of black fuzzy things. It all started when our fabulous neighbor Allison came over wearing Groucho Marx glasses. Henry started to scream as soon as he saw her. It took him a long time to settle down and he kept staring at the pocket she’d put them in. She dropped them in the hallway, and after Henry settled down he tugged on Allison’s hand to show her something in another room. He saw…

One Comment

  1. Marcella,

    I’m thrilled that you have a fun friend to go shopping with, but I am twinging with jealousy remembering all our Melrose shopping trips and missing you, my friend! The dress sounds dreamy, not practical for Alaska however. I wouldn’t be hanging out listening to music outside. If I wore the dress outside here it would be swooshing behind me catching on ice picks and I would be rushed to the emergency room from hypothermia if I didn’t throw a hooded polar fleece over it. It would ruin the look somehow.

    Love you!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *