White Skirts and High Heels

To celebrate my birthday last year, my boyfriend and I went out to dinner. I had bought myself the most spectacular black pumps and a new black blouse from H&M. To pull the two new items together and to look my best for my birthday dinner, I donned a white skirt I had bought a The GAP years before. I had never worn it because I had never had the right stuff to go with it.

My boyfriend and I first biked 5 km to the train station (I was wearing the heels already), took the train to the city, and then decided to walk to the restaurant from the train station. Why spend money for the S-Bahn, when the restaurant is in walking distance?

First Lesson: Walking distance for sneakers is a lot further than walking distance for high heels.

We stopped at an Apothecary to get bandaids on the way because blisters had already started forming on my heels. By the time we got to the restaurant, I was in excrutiating pain. But it was my birthday and I wasn't going to let 11 blisters ruin my evening! (And yes, it really was 11 blisters.)

We had reserved a table, so we were able to sit down right away (thank goodness!). Being fans of virgin cocktails, we each ordered one and continued scanning the menu for our meals. My boyfriend ordered a Cocunut Kiss (Virgin Pina Colada with Grenadine Syrup), and I decided to go out on a limb and order something interesting: I remember that it included carrot, tomato, and orange juice, and that its special ingredient was Tabasco sauce. It was even salted and peppered. Our drinks arrived and I tasted mine. Gross. Very gross. I leaned over the table and tasted my boyfriend's. Delicious. As I leaned back again, I knocked my full glass of Tabasco cocktail over... onto my *white* skirt. Oh Darn.

Lesson Learned: Don't wear white clothes to dinner.

So, still determined to have a good evening, I hobbled off to the ladies' room to try to rescue my skirt. The faucets only delivered cold water, so I just had to hope that was right. Fortunately, I was able to get all of the red stain out of my skirt within 15 minutes, although it was still rather unpleasant (standing at the sink in high heels with 11 blisters on my feet, trying to rinse out my skirt without revealing too much of what was under the skirt, then trying to blow dry the skirt (the dryer just *had* to be over the counter, so I couldn't even stand directly under it), and then spending a large portion of the rest of the evening in a wet skirt.)

Lesson Learned: Frigid cold water and normal handsoap removes tomato-based stains from clothing.

Since then, however, I have discovered that this trick doesn't work quite as well on ketchup. It probably has something to do with the food coloring they use.

After dinner was over, I still couldn't walk, so my boyfriend carried me to the nearest S-Bahn stop, and we took the S-Bahn back to the main station.

Lesson Learned: Having a boyfriend can be very practical.

And I'll have you know, that was still a wonderful evening.

Lesson Learned: Laugh, and you'll have nothing to cry about.