I Despise

Being Predictable

Ever since I was 5-years-old, I just decided I didn't want to be predictable. At that tender age, I insisted on wearing a cardigan sweater backwards over a mossy-green corduroy jumper. (I started a trend that would only become popular a couple of decades later. Illinoisans are slow that way.) Even now, I still feel rebellious. I don't want to be pegged. Ever since I wore cocktail hat Thursday night to the opening dinner for the writers' conference here I'm attending here in Galway, Ireland, other people have been asking if I'll wear this particular chapeau again. I've been toying with the idea. Do I wear it again or do I do the oh-so boring bareheaded look? Or do I become hat lady just because I wear the same topper twice? I'm seriously thinking of not wearing my silk shantung masterpiece. Simply because I don't want to be expected to don it again. I'm stubborn: You can lead me to drink water but you can't force to imbibe (particularly here in Galway where doing just that could lead to a serious case of food poisoning. Yes, the water's contaminated with salmonella at the moment. I've already accidentally doused my toothbrush twice with the local water. Thank goodness, I haven't gotten sick yet.). Quite honestly, I'd be more likely to show off my stitched hat a second time if people didn't say anything. Don't get me wrong: I loved being snowed with compliments the night I wore my cocktail hat, but having folk asking me since if I'm going to wear it again has been just too much. Besides, the point of wearing my millinery masterpiece was to pay homage to Philip Treacy. We were eating in the dining room he designed in the g hotel. It was so appropriate then to wear a hat! Tonight we're going to Ashford Castle, which Treacy as far as I know didn't design.Castles are fun, but they don't call for something quite so special. I daresay I'll disappoint a few scribes, but I think I want to be more anonymous this evening. Has there ever been a time when you have friends, family insist that you wear that fedora, picture hat, etc. that makes you so great, but you just didn't feel like it?