"Are you guys all siblings?" "...sure, we'll go with that."

Today was a day a long time in the making.  It involved weeks of study beforehand and the concerted efforts of many.  It had nothing to do with law school.  It was, of course, Mike Makeover day (part one).

Since my first days of college there have always been a few intrepid friends who have made bold attempts at making me care how I look.  It has always been a difficult job, since I have never been able to imagine many things I cared less about.  Still, they have tried and many small improvements were made over time.  Some of you reading this blog are among their number.  Thank you, as always.  I know I can be difficult.

So I shouldn't have been surprised when it was suggested (suggested is such a nice way of putting it...) that the time had again come to go to the mall and play dress-up.  Davia, Ben L, Steph, and Micah constituted the design team.  We met at 11 this morning at the Pentagon City mall to strategize.  Really. There was a legitimate planning session involved.  Micah quickly took the reins (he had given me the homework of reading the entire GQ Style Manual- he knows his stuff) and organized the day.  Work from the bottom to the top.  Shoes first.  We went to DSW and found two nice pairs of shoes- one brown and one more casual and blue- at a steep discount.  From there we took an epic tour of the clothing stores of the mall.  The entire group would enter and each member would start tossing me items at random.

For example: Davia going for the jeans.

I would go into the dressing rooms and put on things as I was told to do before coming out to their general derision or adoration, whichever was more appropriate.  This was repeated many many times before every one of the four was happy with every single piece.  And me, of course.  They did at least pretend as though I had a say.  The four of them standing directly outside my dressing room caused some traffic jams and occasional questioning from the employees.  "Are you all siblings?" One of them asked.  "Is this for a TV show or something?"  said another.  The answer was always yes.  Because... why not?

Ben trying to find me a vest.

I walk out, they take a picture, I walk back in.  Over and over.

In the end it was a very successful shopping day.  I do not like shopping, but I had a great time because it's impossible not to have a great time with such a group.  I ended up with a couple of jackets, a couple of sweaters, a couple of shirts, a couple of pants, and a couple of shoes.  Well, a couple of pairs of shoes.  Four shoes.  

Then Davia and Stephanie took it upon themselves to go through the clothes I already owned to try to find things to get rid of.  They made a good case that a few of my things... might be a bit too big for me...

Case in point.  

By Steph's face you can tell they were having a good time with this part.

I feel I have made significant wardrobe progress.  For now, at least.  Mike Makeover day (part two) is on Wednesday and involves a haircut of some sort, I've been told.  I'm actually okay with that, as I was called Harry Potter (again?!) while walking down the street the other day.  I am not Harry Potter.

Many thanks to Ben, Davia, Micah, and Steph.  You are all wonderful people and you deal with me so patiently.