Thursday, Part Three: The Preparty

Before the main festivities were to start in the evening, we were all invited to an unofficial preparty thrown by Cornelia’s friend Rae in her hotel room at the Four Seasons. Sharon and Jullain begged off, pleading travel- and tourism-based exhaustion but Karen and I both showed, the first to arrive and severely underdressed. Everyone else arrived in their clothes for the banquet, including Cornelia, who showed up in a very sharp tuxedo with a very complicated collar. We ate delicious appetizers and drank perhaps a bit too much champagne and I (pre-champagne) asked Sarah Weinman if the panels on her dress were see-through, which I meant as a compliment but realized later that it could be taken the wrong way. And somehow the conversation got around to telling stories of inappropriate content, none of which I will repeat here, except to say "Sparkles".

Afterwards, Karen and I made our way rather unsteadily to the subway station and from there back to my hotel to get ready.

Since I was staying at the banquet hotel, we had all agreed to meet in my room to dress, which gave me the added advantage of having three extra people to help me decide on my outfit. (We settled on the skirt with the beads and the black top, which unfortunately seems to make me look as wide as a house in the pictures but actually looked quite nice on. I hope.)