The Traveling Red Dress or Blue Stone

I've been following Jenny Lawson's blog - the bloggess and came across this post: the traveling red dress. Although I don't want a red dress - partly because I wear red a lot already, so I don't feel I need one - I deny my alters many things that they want because they are impracticable. In this post Jenny says, "I want to be shocking and vivid and wear a dress as intensely amazing as the person I so want to be. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized how often we deny ourselves that red dress and all the other capricious, ridiculous, overindulgent, and silly things that we desperately want but never let ourselves have because they are simply 'not sensible'."

Which brings us to my alter Laura. You meet Laura whenever you read my blog. She does most of the writing. If you have eaten a good meal at my house, you have eaten her cooking. She is also responsible for the cleaning of my house, which may or may not get done if she isn't out. She is responsible for keeping our system running smoothly because she is very organized. You have not however, ever spoken to Laura because she doesn't talk. Laura is gentle and her favorite color is not the favorite color of any other one of my alters. She loves blue - soft blue - lightest blue - nearly white, a color I never wear.

She saw a necklace she wanted, but I immediately shut her down, saying, "But we don't have anything to wear it with. There is no point in getting it." Because Laura isn't verbal, she gets shut down a lot. She normally quietly retreats to the background.

But this time, she was empowered by the words of Jenny Lawson, and reminded me that although it doesn't match anything in the closet, it matches her. So I ordered the necklace for her. It came with earrings that she won't wear because although my ears are pierced, hers are not.

When the necklace arrived, Laura was so excited. She quickly put it on and lovingly caressed it. She felt loved and cared about by the system because although no one else may ever see the necklace, she got to wear it and touch it and feel loved.

Shadow comes out sometimes when I am shopping, and she buys odd, bright little treasures that appeal to her. Grownup and Glory do all the clothing shopping which is why nearly everything in our closet is red or green. Louisa is able to snag a few things in peach, but this annoys Grownup and Glory, but Laura, being quiet and helpful, never until now has bought anything for herself.

Now if I could just convince my husband to spend thousands of dollars to put all the things I've pinned on pinterest into our home. While spending thousands to upgrade our home into a DIDer's fantasy land isn't sensible, a small inexpensive necklace is. And Laura deserves the happiness it brings her. After all, she keeps the system running smoothly.