This Is What Happens When You Get Dressed Too Fast

This is me wearing
a dress correctly.

By Jeannie Watt

Have you ever had one of those days when you look down and realize that your dress is on backwards?

I have—as in this past Tuesday. I was happily teaching class—three periods into the day, mind you—when I sat down at my computer to enter grades and noticed something odd. There was a kick pleat in the front of the dress. Funny, because I’d worn this shift several times and never noticed a kick pleat before..then I realized that was because the other times I’d worn it, the kick pleat had been in a place where I couldn't see it. Instant horror. I’d thought the neckline had felt kind of funny earlier, but had dismissed it. Morale of the story, don’t dismiss funny feeling necklines. Investigate.

After making my startling discovery, I excused myself, raced to the ladies room and turned my dress around. How, I ask you, had I managed to wear a dress for that long in front of eighth graders—a species not known for their tact—without getting a heads up? I have no idea, but I was, in a word, grateful. It’s the beginning of the year and I have a rep as a serious educator to maintain. Hard to do wearing a backwards dress.

Here’s the truly sad part of this story—this isn’t the first time this has happened to me. Once I was car shopping—seriously shopping and wanting to be taken seriously—when I realized that the odd mesh pockets on the exterior of my nylon hiking shorts were supposed to be on the inside. That discover also entailed a mad dash to the ladies room to make everything right again. I don’t know if the salesman noticed, but I did buy the car I’d been looking at.

My question—have you ever had something like this happen to you? One randomly drawn responder will receive a $10 gift card to Amazon. Looking forward to hearing from you.