Now your life can be a Michael Buble song, too. It seems all you really need is a sunshine bauble bracelet. I’m not going to lie to you: I love bracelets like this. They remind me of walking barefoot late in the afternoon, when the light is orange, and it’s time for a crisp white wine and an evening of oysters and awnings.
A bracelet like this makes me want to wear white capri jeans. And if there’s one thing my figure knows, it knows never to wear capri jeans, especially not the white variety. But that’s what a bauble bracelet will do to a girl: make her skip like a sprite, wear two coats of mascara, and change her toe polish to an unnaturally heinous, but trendy, shade of "Sag Harbor." Unless you’re a bride, looking for "something blue," there’s never cause for blue nail polish. Unless it’s so navy it’s almost a vampy nod to vamp, but I digress. This bracelet with a periwinkle featherweight sweater, a pair of worn in jeans, and it just might be love. Except the blue of my jeans has to be high-contrast enough with the blue in the sweater, or I fear I’m sporting the Mexican Tuxedo look, which might have worked for Tom Hanks in Big, but I’m pretty sure I can’t pull it off.
I set off for Fort Lauderdale tomorrow, to the Literary Feast. Which means today, instead of attending film screenings at SXSW Film, I’ll be getting my manicure/pedicure and heading to the J of all Crews for some baubles, so my life can be described in nouns like "sunshine" and "primrose garden."
On Friday morning, I’m heading to Flanagan High School to speak to students, then, after lunch, I’m off to Meeting of the Minds, where I’m told dress is "tropical casual." Does this mean I need a Tommy Bahama dress and an orchid hair accessory, or simply that I need to dress like Larry from Three’s Company? I’m told "pictures will be taken with your dinner host." Oh, the pressure.
Come Saturday, I’ll be shuttled off for my 10am Lit LIVE! Panel at Nova Southeastern University (NSU) in Davie, which is where I’ll be until 2pm (FREE EVENT, OPEN TO THE PUBLIC). Then back to my hotel to change for a Night of Literary Feasts, where "cocktail attire" is requested. I just bit off all my nails thinking about packing for this trip. It’s not the talks that are unnerving, so much as the "As soon as we arrive at the Panorama Ballroom, all of the authors will gather for a group photo" itinerary. It sounds so serious. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s the word Panorama.
The Night of Literary Feats is a cocktail reception and book signing from 6-8pm. Each author is then escorted to different dinner locations, to eat with guests, as the guest of honor. And all I want to know right now is, what the blank do I wear aside from the baubles? And will I get to meet Joyce Carol Oates? I hope so. It really is an honor to be part of this event. I feel lucky to be included and hope to meet people with great stories of their own.
