Cinderella Goes to the Ball

Last night I attended my first, real ball and on Valentine's Day to boot! Some weeks ago we were invited to the American Chamber of Commerce of Bangkok's Hollywood Ball. There were dresses to be made, tuxedos to be ordered, reservations to be made...Balls are a common thing in Thailand, it may be because there is a seamstress on every block and there have to be occasions for their services to be needed? Mark's secretary directed me to the House of Jayna for my dress selection and Mark was sent to Raja's in Bangkok. I learned a lot through the process, first to be more prepared when you walk into a seamstress shop. I falsely assumed that they would have albums of previous designs they have done to choose from. I walked in and was seated with a designer and a blank sheet of paper, who asked, "What kind of dress do you want?" She wasn't very cooperative though, I asked for something that would make me look 50lbs lighter!!!! She's probably heard that before. We finally decided on a design and then I picked out the fabric before having a ton of measurements. Two weeks later I picked up my first special order ballgown. Mark's tuxedo was more complicated and took two fittings and three weeks.

We arranged to stay overnight in the hotel where the ball was being held so the boys could camp out upstairs while we were downstairs in the ballroom. It worked out great. Esso was one of the sponsors and we had front row seats to view all the beautiful gowns (I was storing up lots of ideas for next year's dress.) and to enjoy the entertainment. We were expecting some ballroom dancing, so we had the boys run us through some of the steps they learned in last year's Cotillion classes all to no avail. It was all rock&roll dancing, we didn't even get out on the dance floor. At one point Mark looked at me and sayed, "You don't want to dance do you?" (he's sooo romantic!!) and when I said, "Not really." He sighed, "Good!" It was fun watching everyone else and listening to the band. They played some really great songs-all with an American theme like, American Pie. It felt more like open Karaoke, everyone was singing along and having a great time. Of course the opening song was the King's anthem, followed by the Star Spangled Banner. The US Ambassador to Thailand was two tables over from ours. We had a wonderful meal, an auction for charity was conducted and we met lots of new people. Mark was excited, he killed two birds with one stone, fulfilled a work obligation and treated his Cinderella to a night at the ball on Valentine's Day!