Month: March 2017

Most of this month was spent obsessing about Donald Trump or going to funerals.

I am not going to even discussed his orangeness.  He takes up enough of my time.

Two men that I worked with for many years died over the course of two weeks–Charlie Hobbs and Bobo Dean.

I was just getting out of law school with not a job prospect in sight.  My boss at the time, a judge at the local D.C. Court of Appeals, got a call from Charlie asking if he had any good law clerks and the judge recommended me.  I had never heard of Indian law. But I went to the interview to find out what it was about.  He hired me to work on a very big Indian case against the federal government concerning mismanagement of timber owned by Indians in Washington state.  To say our relationship was complicated is not saying enough.  We fought.  A lot.  I was a very volatile and opinionated person.  Charlie valued the opinion but not the volatility.  We produced great work.  Kind of like band members who fight with each other all the time but make great music together because of it.

Charlie was a guy who was willing to hire me when no one else would and I can never thank him enough for that.  So it was very difficult to watch him decline over the years.  Near the end, Matt and I visited him in the hospital several times, just going in to talk with him and cheer him up.  We can be very entertaining.  But he finally succumbed.  I’ll miss you Charlie.  You taught me a lot and the next time I write a sentence that reads, “Not so!” or the next time I refer to “jub jub” I’ll think of you.

As for Bobo, he was the greatest conversationalist in the universe.  I could talk to him all day long.  He was infinitely interesting.  I did not work with him regularly since I was usually working on litigation and he did other things.  But he was a vivid man with a tenacity that I have never experienced since.  He changed Indian law for the better and I hope that people appreciate that.

 

February usually is a lousy month. So we decided to throw a Mardi Gras party.  I spent two days cooking up a New Orleans extravaganza of jambalaya, collards, mac and cheese, muffulettas and an appetizer stuffed with crawfish and cheese.  We had king cake and lots of beads and hats to top it off.  We thank everyone who came, especially my family.  We had fun seeing everyone.  We took some pics before the party started.

Sometimes I get ideas in my head that are just kind of kooky.  A while back I went through my closet and tried on all of my gowns.  As many of you know, Matt and I used to go dancing but we can’t do that anymore so the gowns have collected dust and I wondered if I should keep them.  Well, I had to say goodbye to most of them since my torso has decided that I need to look more like my mother.  I can’t have a closet without at least a few gowns.  You never know. So I started to work on replacing them.

I don’t really spend much on gowns.  I look for sales, clearance, whatever I can.  I’m not that particular and I have purchased more than one gown from the local JC Penneys’ prom rack. No kidding.

This time, I decided to see what came up on Amazon. There I found Honey Qiao.  Honey Qiao is a person, I am going to assume a woman, in China who will create a custom gown for you for about 70 bucks. While you can buy a standard size from her, if you send her your measurements and pick a fabric, she will whip up the dress that is pictured on the page to fit you.  I discovered that there are several such dressmakers on Amazon.  I went with Honey Qiao.

I asked Matt to help me with my measurements.  I had to measure the usual–bust, waist, hips but also arm length, length from collar bone to floor, the distance from shoulder to shoulder, arm hole, and full height.  Off those measurements go to Honey Qiao and she responds within an hour.  She thought that one of my measurements, from collar bone to floor seemed wrong and she asked me to measure it again.  By this time, Matt was sleeping, so I took a stab at it.  It seemed to be the same but she made me nervous so I added an inch.  Her response was, “friend,we got that.we will make the dress for you now.thanks very much for your measurements.”

And a week later, the gown arrived accompanied by a note that read as follows (punctuation per the letter):

I wanna say: Hi there, my dear friend,thank you choose our products,choose me,choose honest.  I am a dress desinger which make the occasion dresses, wedding dresses for 8 years and my family is human hair factory over 30 years old.  This is not an adviertisement but and Introduction about me:) The dress you got , it is sequined fabric with cap sleeved closed by zipper and has a cowl back. before this hot summer,I make this dress with satin lined, with padded. but I got some messages from buyer and they wanted to return dress because they felt too hot,too thick ,hard.uncomfortable.after I got this news,I improve it that very night . and made some new samples with US2 to US24W ,and find 20 girls to wear the new dresses with different sizes.the new dresses,I choose very thin. soft. big elastic lined.  no padded.  here is very hot in China too.after they try them on.  15 girls said feel comfortable did not feel too hot.but 5 girls said a little pain of armpit since there was sequins,so.i put extra soft fabric to cover the sequins under the armpit .and then it is great finally.

since this fabric is made of lots of sequins ,so,maybe sometimes will fall off,and when we cut the fabric ,some sequins was fall off too .just like fabric fibre will fall off too when you cut it. but sequins fabric very popular now,it is sparkly,shinny, this design is modest but not stuffy.

just like : If you love someone,you should accept its everything,includes its faults and weaknesses, just like : love me.love my dog.love this nice dress love my fall off sequins 🙂 lol

i am sorry for bad english .i just want to say,yes,this fabric has its faults .but we love its sparkly,we should accept everything it brings.

but pls do not worry, i accept refund or exchange if you really don’t love it.

your girl friend does not love it, return!

your boy friend does not love it,return!

your baby does not love it,return!

Your dog you cat does not love it.return!

hate it ,just return it !

we make refund so easy   🙂

but…

if you love it.

pls don’t hesitate to leave your best 5 stars reviews in out product websiteand 5 stars good feedback in your order.

And Pls Pls remember contact me if you want give us bad feedback when u met problem, just i can ,i will help u do my best.as you know,i am a new seller here, work hard,i don’t want make buyers disappointment and i hope i can get more suggestions from my buyers and give you more good dresses  .

Thank you for understanding

[She then tells me her contact information on whatsapp and email]

Give my sincerest wishes.

Lily

come from Honey qiao company

 

You have to admit.  That was one adorable letter.  And the dress was gorgeous except for one tiny problem–it was too long!  I should never have changed the length measurement.  It was dragging on the ground.

Well, Honey Qiao did say that if I did not love it for any reason, I could return it right?  But it was my fault.  I gave her the wrong measurement so it would not be fair for me to ask her to take it back.  Instead I emailed her to just say, hey, the dress ended up being too long.  I was hoping she would say, no problem, I’ll fix it.  Yeah, she didn’t.  She said,

“i am sorry to hear that dear.longer is better than shorter .
hehe
i think the dress length should is 56.5 inch .right ?:)

Yeah, she was right.  I gave her that number so it was hard to argue with her.  hehe.

In the end, I took it to the seamstress to be hemmed.  So my $70 gown ended up costing $120.  Did I save money?  Hard to say.  The gown fits like a glove and I would never find that off a rack.  But, as she warned, I do seem to leave a trail of sequins in my wake.  As she instructs, that is a flaw that I have to accept if I love the dress. And I do love the dress.  So lesson learned.  Never listen to Honey Qiao when she questions the measurements my husband gives me and accept whatever she produces, flaws and all.  Now all I need is a place to wear this bombshell thing to.