Slice of Life Tuesday: The Prada dress and the Starbucks apron

Slice of Life Tuesday is hosted by Stacey and Ruth at Two Writing Teachers

We have just completed the bedroom shuffle - one kid is pretty much gone from the roost, and another decides it's time for a change in venue: Ben takes Elizabeth's old room, what's left of her stuff moves into his old room.  This sounds like a simple thing to do, but, of course, it's much more complicated than just moving pieces of furniture around.  Elizabeth, with the clear-eyed, unsentimental  rationality of a young person who knows she is on the move for the next few years - New York City now, Cairo and Beirut for the summer, then London for the school year, and then who knows - gives few instructions about her belongings ("I have what I'll need, Mom").  Ben, anxious to set his room up ASAP, is all too willing to toss what he deems "unnecessary".  So, I've been helping out and making sure that the little rocking chair, the books, the memorabilia from college, and the posters and pictures accumulated from years past, find a new home in her brother's old room.

Among the transferred items were these:

In her senior year of high school, Elizabeth began working at the Starbucks downtown.  She had a very specific goal in mind - instead of going to the Senior prom, she was going to save up and do something much more worthwhile and memorable - dine at the newly opened Per Se restaurant in New York City.  She had been treated to a birthday feast at  Thomas Keller's first restaurant The French Laundry by her uncle, and had decided that she'd rather forgo all the hoopla of prom for a dinner in the city.  A like-minded friend who also dreaded the ordeal of prom,  was in on the deal. Together, they made reservations months in advance, and then got to work working to come up with the funds.  

As the big day approached, Elizabeth counted up her savings and decided that she had enough to purchase a fabulous dress befitting the occasion - so she went on Ebay and found the Prada dress pictured above (brand new, complete with tags!).  Soon, the dinner day arrived, and off she went - looking lovely and thrilled and bursting with excitement.  The staff at Per Se could not have been nicer to these two high school kids, fussing over them as though they were "somebodies" who dined this way all the time.  Elizabeth floated home in a dream-like state - and we feasted on the story of it all for years afterwards.

Yesterday afternoon, I removed the few items still in Elizabeth's old closet to her new digs - and there in the back, were the Prada dress and Starbucks apron.  She has moved on to a new life, much more worldly and exciting than her high school days, but this apron which outfitted a dream so long ago, and this dress which lived to see it all come true, will always have a special place to call home.