Dresses or Pants? by Liz Flaherty

Since I got out of high school and it was no longer a requirement to wear a dress every day, I have always worn pants. As a yoyo dieter whose size varies every single year of my life, the kind of tops worn with said pants varies, but...yes, always pants. 

I wore jeans for a long, long time. They were comfortable and warm in the winter, comfortable and not hot in the summer. I went from tapered Levis to bell bottoms (where I stayed until I was the only person in a 50-mile radius still wearing them) to mom jeans to...well, no, I stopped there. I never warmed to low-rise--not enough coverage. Skinny jeans, while they look wonderful on some people, don't look wonderful on others. Guess which category I fall into.

During the years I worked in an office, I wore dress pants. Gabardine was my closest friend. It was loose and comfortable and feminine-looking, and you could dress them down or up and everywhere in between. 

Capris replaced bell bottoms in my heart as my most beloved pants. White capris have become the "little black dress" of the time. And then...and then...you know what I'm going to say next, don't you. 

Leggings. Leggings are a gift from God. Even if your legs are veined and wrinkled--who, me?--leggings can improve their look. Although I have token pairs of jeans, white capris, and dress pants, mostly I have leggings.

Photo from Garden Gate

But last night we went to an event at Garden Gate Greenhouse. It is the most beautiful place, if you haven't been there, with the nicest people. We watched the Barrel Scrapers play bluegrass (wonderfully) and talked to people we hadn't seen in a long time. Garden Gate Café catered. It was a good time. 

Barrel Scrapers Bluegrass

And some of the women there had on the prettiest dresses. I have a few. I wear them to church and to weddings and graduations. But mostly, you know, I wear pants. Shaving your legs isn't actually necessary in them, and you don't have to put on tanning stuff to keep your white skin from blinding people. 

But those were so pretty. Maybe 50-some years is long enough to just wear pants, no matter how much I like leggings. So this morning I ordered three dresses for myself. I'll let you know how it goes. What do you think?

Have a great week. Be nice to somebody. 

~*~

Excitement on the book front. Reinventing Riley, the second book in the Second Chances Series, is available in paperback. While I read almost everything on my Kindle, I have to admit there's just something about a book. 

I will have a limited number of books available, and Anita will have them at Anita's Boutique, too, but not yet. Here's the Amazon link. I hope you order and enjoy!

He’s afraid a second time at love wouldn’t live up to his first. She’s afraid a second round would be exactly like her first.

Pastor Jake McAlister and businesswoman Riley Winters are in their forties and widowed. Neither is interested in a relationship. They both love Fallen Soldier, the small Pennsylvania town where they met, even though Rye plans to move to Chicago, and Jake sees a change in pastorates not too far down the road. Enjoying a few-weeks friendship is something they both look forward to.

However, there is an indisputable attraction between the green-eyed pastor and the woman with a shining sweep of chestnut hair. Then there’s the Culp, an old downtown building that calls unrelentingly to Rye’s entrepreneurial soul. And when a young man named Griff visits Jake, life changes in the blink of a dark green eye.