The best dress ever (ever, ever, ever)

I don't even know where to start with this dress. I thrifted it about a month ago, and it is the best thrift of my life. Even better than the Isaac Mizrahi dress. This is a polka-dotted, ruffly, soft, silky extravaganza of a dress, and it was $5. AND the tags were still on it. What? 

Here is a series of photos of me in the best dress ever (ever, ever, ever). My face morphs from serenely happy to seriously goofy. What can I say? The dress makes me giddy!

It is a ridiculous dress. When I first bought it, I thought I might be able to dress it down with flip flops or something, but this is no summertime fun maxi-dress. This is a going-out-on-the-town, ruffled, backless, totally sassypants maxi-dress.

So I wore it to the Lion King. The Lion King was as good at being a musical as this dress is at being a dress. Meaning: very, very good.

Here are a few details for your viewing pleasure... First up is my clutch, which was given to me by a student for Christmas last year and is super awesome. I love the beading details, and it fits my cell phone and red lipstick perfectly.

Here is a tiny, tiny, shiny button.

And I wore the same shoes to The Lion King as I did to last weekend's gallery opening because they are cute and comfortable, and I had forgotten they existed, and now that I have rescued them from the back of my closet, I might be wearing them all the time.

I love having an excuse to dress up. I love going out on the town. I love theater. I am mad for musicals. I knew The Lion King was going to be good, but it surpassed my very-high expectations. (Pictured above: the curtain before the start of the show.) The sets and costumes were a-mah-zing. The "Circle of Life" opening with all the animals coming on stage was worth the ticket price in and of itself. I've never seen anything like it. (And I've got to say, I love me some puppets.)

The whole night was just really spectacular and lovely and aesthetically pleasing. Check out the ceiling in the auditorium!

Even the elevators in the parking deck were beautiful. I stayed up past my bed time and had to get up early for training (summer is over people, but it looks like it is going to be an excellent school year), but it was more than worth the sleepiness. I laughed, I cried, my husband wore a bow tie. A girl could not ask for more.