the pretty woman dress...

On June 30, 2006, I blogged that I’d lost 27 pounds and was walking around in some fat girls pants.

Today, October 8, 2008, I’ve lost 65 pounds and changed every single thing in my life twice.

I’m still 7 pounds from my goal. I took nearly a year off, gained 15 back and had to loose it again. But, that’s just the small potatoes.

I still don’t recognize myself walking by a mirror. I still go straight to Lane Bryant in the mall only to feel like a misfit when everything is too big.

I cannot speak for others, but for me, after a lifetime of shopping in the plus sizes, I feel completely lost and obvious in a store where the biggest size is 16. In fact, I look a little like a seven year old in a haunted house… utterly terrified.

Don’t get me wrong—I’m happy to be here and not complaining. I’m still getting used to the new me.

I have always romanticized the hell out of the movie Pretty Woman. I adore Julia Roberts' character, and well, that is my deep-rooted Cinderella story.

In the movie, Vivian wears a brown and white polka dotted dress that I think is fabulous. (click this blog title to see it.) When I would go shopping, I always looked for a dress like it, but never could find one that fit—you know where this is headed.

A few months ago, I saw this sassy little brown and white polka dotted dress and I got all dreamy. It looked just like the now mythic dress. On a lark, I took it into the dressing room. It didn’t just fit; it fit like Cinderella’s glass slipper.

I stood in that Macy’s dressing room and I cried.

I didn’t buy the dress. All I needed was that moment. My very own Pretty Woman moment right there in that tiny dressing room.

I learned that day that absolutely anything is possible--including me shopping at Ann Taylor Loft if I feel so inclined.