The Year of Magical Doings

[I feel slightly bad about hijacking my blog post title from Didion's Year of Magical Thinking book, considering that I didn't read it (and in fact ranked it fairly low in our book club's book-of-the-month vote) and don't actually know much about it...but it seemed like an appropriate title for what I want this 2013 to be. I know, I know, it's almost February and I'm just now talking about my plans for the year.]

See, Mr. Cation and I keep talking about the possibility of thinking about maybe trying to produce a small human being (note the many levels of uncertainty) once he starts his new job and we get health insurance. While we're still decidedly ambivalent about the idea, what we are sure of is that this is the year to do all the things we've always wanted to do, before any SHBs come along and tie us down with their nap schedules. For me, this means going to the TORN Oscar party in February, as well as finally doing all the things I've wanted to do. Since I'm a huge nerd with an aversion to the outdoors, that doesn't mean classically exciting activities like bungee jumping or skydiving, it means making the Regency dresses I've always wanted and attending a high tea and a ball. It's only appropriate, since this year marks the bicentennial of the publishing of Pride and Prejudice, one of my favorite books ever! I'll do more detailed posts about my costumes once I take better pictures, but in the meantime, here are some teaser photos:

These are really horrible iPhone photos in a dimly lit place, but I was just so excited to show off my ball gown!  Oh an hey, there's a Carson lookalike coming up the stairs behind me!

The back of my gown. Bonus points if you know what
extant gown mine is based on/inspired by!

Saturday was a major milestone for me, and not just because it was my first experience making and wearing historical costumes. As I've said before, I'm not good with new people and big social events, and the Jane Austen Evening was a heaping helping of both. Since Mr. Cation showed no interest in getting all Beau Brummell-ified, I went on my own. I'll be honest, I was pretty anxious on Saturday morning, and when our garbage disposal decided to go kaput, I was tempted to take that as an excuse to not go. Thankfully, the 50+ hours I'd already spent making the costumes (and the ticket money) were burning a hole into my mental pocket, so I decided to suck it up and drive out to Pasadena. It was pretty awkward at first, since I didn't know anyone and the tea portion of the evening was open seating. I ended up plonking myself down by the door and eating my cottage pie by myself and watching everyone else socialize. It was very reminiscent of middle school lunches spent with only a book for company; I couldn't help but think of Mr. Darcy saying "I am ill qualified to recommend myself to strangers...I certainly have not the talent which some people possess, of conversing easily with those I have never seen before. I cannot catch their tone of conversation, or appear interested in their concerns, as I often see done."

If you're a P&P fan, you'll know that Lizzy then calls out Darcy on not practicing his socializing skills. I suppose I could have gone up to random people and introduced myself, but I decided to just take it as a victory that I had even gone on my own in the first place. I've already spent a good number of years looking at historically themed, costumed events and wishing that I knew somebody who would go with me. This year is the year that I just go ahead and go to them, even if nobody else will go with me. And if I haven't yet worked up to going by myself and talking to strangers, well, at least I'm not bothered by being the odd duck wandering around the event on my own. I've had lots of practice being a loner, after all, and I don't feel the need to perform to strangers.

There's nothing like dancing to a live band!

And lest you think gosh, what's wrong with you, you just spent all evening in the corner by yourself?! Well, after the awkwardness of the tea portion, things got much better. I ran into people I remembered from the practice class, and then danced with and met more people, and all in all got a lot more social as the evening went on. In the end, I was really glad that I stopped waiting for people in my life to suddenly develop a love for historical costuming; going on my own was scary, but well worth it for an opportunity to dress up!

I was channeling Miss Caroline Bingley's fabulous turbans...

Speaking of dressing up, I got a bonus costume opportunity last night when Mr. Cation and I got invited to The Magic Castle! I hadn't actually heard of it before, but all I had to hear was "NPH is the president" and "you can dress up and people wear all sorts of kooky things" and I was all for it. Mr. Cation loved the magic aspect, and while I enjoyed that part, the highlight for me was really that I got to wear all my thrifted costume-y pieces and wander around a castle.

Getting ready to go: I had my cape and muff and fascinator, and Mr. Cation looked sharp in his new gray suit.
One day,  I'll talk him into wearing ruffled poet shirt. 

The mesh top was from one of Shayna's clothing exchanges, the cheap black corset and and fishtail lace skirt were thrifted.  I always secretly wanted to dress like this in high school, but never had the guts (or budget, or parental permission) to. It only took a decade for me to finally step out in a vaguely gothy outfit! 

All in all, this weekend was quite magical and I'm excited to carpe the annum. I know the typical blogger thing to do is to come up with a 30 before 30 list, but I think I'll just settle for saying that this is the year I do things that I always wanted to do, even if it involves being a little uncomfortable or having people look at me funny. Here's to more costumed events!