Several years and several pounds ago, I was on Oprah. YES - that Oprah. I was on the show to talk about losing weight. She and I were both thin at the time. (Oh for the good ol' days.)
Fast forward to now...both of us are trying to lose weight again. Well, I decided in addition to trying to get rid of the junk in my trunk, it was time to get rid of the junk in my closet. I've held on to that Oprah dress all this time. For several years, the dress fit. For the past decade, it hasn't. But it's the Oprah dress! And, it was hanging there right next to the Jenny Jones pantsuit, the Sally Jessy Raphael workout wear and after-show celebration outfit, the Home Show dresses, the Faith Daniels dress, the Jane Whitney little - and I mean little! - black skirt, lace top, and bright blazer...then there were the two buckets of clothes from other shows, speeches, appearances, etc that all held a special meaning. All of them taking up a full closet.
My neighborhood garage sale couldn't have been more appropriately timed - Earth Day week. Time to go green and pass along all these beautiful clothes to someone else. So, I got them out, put a ridiculously small price on all of them, and hung them up on a rack in the garage. I got out a bunch of other stuff that was going unused in my house and hung out the sale sign.
All was good!
Until the first person picked up the Oprah dress. I whimpered. Oh. My. God! Someone was looking at the dress. I thought I was going to puke. What if they bought it and I didn't have it any longer?! It was the Oprah dress! I whimpered again.
The lady looked at me and asked if I was okay. "Yeah." I choked the answer out. Then I blurted it out. "I wore that dress on Oprah." What the hell was I thinking? If she didn't want it before, she certainly did now! Who wouldn't want an Oprah dress?!!!!! Stupid!
Before I knew it, I was holding court. Everyone wanted the Oprah dress. And at $5.00, who wouldn't? There was only one problem, it was TOO SMALL for everyone. So, no one would buy it.
We went through all the TV clothes. After Oprah, the Faith Daniels dress was the most popular. (There is a helluva story about that one. Wait until you see that in my memoir!) No one could wear any of them. All of the clothes were too small! I was stunned into silence. But, everyone quickly moved to my bigger clothes and bought several pieces. They all wanted something from the "girl who had been on Oprah".
Towards the end of the day, a skinny, skinny lady walked down the driveway. She headed straight for the rack with the Oprah dress. It was the first dress she held out. She smiled and said, "This is such a pretty dress. I wish it was bigger so it would fit me." ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I could not believe that it was too small for her but darned if it wasn't. I think that was the first time that I truly understood exactly how thin I had been.
So, when all was said and done, the Oprah dress ended up back in the closet at least for tonight. Lord knows I'll never get into it again. I suppose I could use it as a scarf but that's as close as I'd ever get to getting it on my body in any fashion in the future.
Next weekend is the annual neighborhood sale in my parents' subdivision. I think I'll give it a go and see if there are any shoppers with eating disorders on their side of town. If not, the clothes will be packed up for charity. Somewhere there's a hungry person who might be able to wear them.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Thursday, April 9, 2009
The Ultimate
I love seeing my name in print. It's the ultimate! And this time, it's literally THE ULTIMATE - THE ULTIMATE TEACHER.
We've all had good teachers. And, we've all had bad teachers. Some of us have been lucky enough to have had teachers who have changed our lives. I had a teacher like that - Mr. Everson, my seventh grade geography teacher. As the title of my essay says, he meant the world to me.
I grew up in a factory town in Illinois. Dad worked in the factory, Mom worked in the grocery store. It was a beautiful little town - a river divided the town between East and West. Those of us on the East Side were the factory kids. Those on the West Side were the doctor and lawyer kids. There was always a rivalry between the two sides of the river. Those of us on the East Side all passed through Mr. Everson's classroom. We were the winners in Aurora.
You see, we might not have been the richest kids in town but Mr. Everson gave us the world every day in his classroom. He taught us about places we could only dream of visiting - the places the kids on the other side of the river went to without a second though, without appreciating.
He inspired us to learn all we could about our city, our state, our country, our continent, and ultimately, our world. He had been so many places and done so many things. He made us believe that we could go to those places and do those things, too!
He's not the only hero in my story. My Mom and Dad made sure that the dreams he planted grew into real experiences. When I'd come home with a sparkle in my eyes, all excited about somewhere we'd talked about in class, we'd add it to our travel itinerary for the future. We've visited many of those places he taught about so many years ago. And, we continue to travel as a family at least once a year still, working on that list.
What teacher made a difference in your life? Have you ever thanked them? It's not too late! I wrote Mr. E a letter a few years ago. We've been in touch ever since, sharing postcards from our travels. It was one of the best things I've ever written. It has certainly provided a lot of fun and interesting correspondence over the last few years!
National Teacher Appreciation Day is May 5th. Drop your favorite teacher a note and thank them for what they meant to you all those years ago. Maybe you'll even want to send them a copy of The Ultimate Teacher.
We've all had good teachers. And, we've all had bad teachers. Some of us have been lucky enough to have had teachers who have changed our lives. I had a teacher like that - Mr. Everson, my seventh grade geography teacher. As the title of my essay says, he meant the world to me.
I grew up in a factory town in Illinois. Dad worked in the factory, Mom worked in the grocery store. It was a beautiful little town - a river divided the town between East and West. Those of us on the East Side were the factory kids. Those on the West Side were the doctor and lawyer kids. There was always a rivalry between the two sides of the river. Those of us on the East Side all passed through Mr. Everson's classroom. We were the winners in Aurora.
You see, we might not have been the richest kids in town but Mr. Everson gave us the world every day in his classroom. He taught us about places we could only dream of visiting - the places the kids on the other side of the river went to without a second though, without appreciating.
He inspired us to learn all we could about our city, our state, our country, our continent, and ultimately, our world. He had been so many places and done so many things. He made us believe that we could go to those places and do those things, too!
He's not the only hero in my story. My Mom and Dad made sure that the dreams he planted grew into real experiences. When I'd come home with a sparkle in my eyes, all excited about somewhere we'd talked about in class, we'd add it to our travel itinerary for the future. We've visited many of those places he taught about so many years ago. And, we continue to travel as a family at least once a year still, working on that list.
What teacher made a difference in your life? Have you ever thanked them? It's not too late! I wrote Mr. E a letter a few years ago. We've been in touch ever since, sharing postcards from our travels. It was one of the best things I've ever written. It has certainly provided a lot of fun and interesting correspondence over the last few years!
National Teacher Appreciation Day is May 5th. Drop your favorite teacher a note and thank them for what they meant to you all those years ago. Maybe you'll even want to send them a copy of The Ultimate Teacher.
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