Toad Woods Way Station, Day 1

So, there's this box at Hubbard House, and, I believe there are similar boxes at other houses at Smith College. It's the Free Box. It's where students put clothes they don't want any more, and where their housemates often find new pieces for their wardrobes.

Gavi has had amazing Opitz-fu since her high school years. Opitz is a Minneapolis designer fashion outlet and Gavi's wardrobe is filled with stunning clothes that fit her beautifully and cost, oh, $1, or $3, or sometimes even as much as $15. It helps that Mrs. fredcritter is a seamstress with a knack for repairing the sort of damage that lands high-end designer items probably worn once on a runway in the most deeply-discounted Opitz sales. And, as Gavi has come to believe over the years, there must be a specific, surprisingly short model with Gavi's exact build because she regularly finds ornately-tailored garments on those discount racks that fit her perfectly.

Life at Smith repeatedly demonstrates that Gavi's wardrobe-fu isn't limited to Opitz. First, there was a black evening dress she found in a free box on the streets of Northampton. That was followed by various attractive tops and dresses from the free box at Hubbard. And this, her most recent find, this dress, which I first saw when I picked her up today:



Apologies for the picture quality combined with the fact that I'm clearly not a fashion photographer. There's a rectangular cut-out in the back, which shows a bit behind the cut and looks stunning when she's walking. ( Okay, I'll put at least one of these photos behind a cut-tag. No, wait, I'll put two there. )

Thursday morning, pegkerr mentioned "the form-fitting sheathes popular in most of the stores are made for twenty-year old pretty young things. Um, like Fiona." Her comment came to mind the moment I saw Gavi a few hours later. Ah, yup. Indeed.

To back up to the subject line, Gavi's here tonight because we're getting up in the morning and heading down to New York. But we'll go a bit east to Worcester first and snag n6tqs, who's here in New England for a few months. Our destination? Fanhihall, where more fine company, a cookout, and a swimming pool await. The very same swimming pool where Moshe Feder snapped this picture of Susan Palermo and me 4 years ago.



We'll drop Gavi back off at Smith on our way home to Toad Woods, then on Sunday, I'll take Doug back down to Newport. The return bus schedule wasn't nearly as convenient as the one getting him to Worcester. No complaints here; I love driving and am looking forward to watching the Cardis turn over 195,000 miles as we bop around these small states up here.

So, yeah, Toad Woods is a way station this holiday weekend. Complete with gelato.

Good times behind; good times ahead. Happy Birthday, America!