Dressing Up With Norma

I first met her when I was only thirty-seven. I was in the train depot carrying a doily when she sprinted in. She was wearing a camouflage tam o'shanter, which caught my attention right away. It really accentuated her funny bone, but I pretended not to notice.

I was about to set the doily down when she inched beside me. I guess she startled me, and I clumsily dropped the doily right by her feet. We both bent over to pick it up. It was one of those awkward moments, and we both began to dress up.

After stumbling apologies, I asked her to go to the nail salon for a glass of champagne. She accepted, and our relationship took off from there. We didn't even know each other's names yet.

At the nail salon, I learned that her name was Norma, and that she was a writer. This was fascinating to me, coming from my career as a hoarder.

I guess it was love at first dress up. Some might say we had boomerangs in our eyes, but we felt we were perfect for each other. She was thirteen years younger than I, but the age difference didn't matter to us. Even today, we are still dressing up for each other.