Photo and Text by Corey Amaro
Once a year, in Marseille, there is a show stopper party, for urban investors, developers and their partners, that French Husband and I are invited to. It is the type of party that makes me feel like Cinderella… Luckily, I do not need a Pumpkin because my Prince Charming drives a Peugeot. Don't ask me why I say things like that.. I am goofy like that most of the time. Even though this party is so very pretty, and the food extra wonderful, and the scenery divine… I am and will always a simple person who admires the beauty in life around me.
I hope you will be, as excited as me, to see what is in store for tonight?
This year, for the first time I actually thought in advance about what to wear. I feel so organized. Maybe the lack of a kitchen in our home has allowed room in my noggin for deeper thoughts to transpire?
"The Party" has been going on, once a year, for six years. Each year there is a theme. Last year I was not able to attend, and Chelsea went in my place, it was a Circus theme, with tight rope walkers serving cocktails, rides on elephant with silk cushion to sit on, tarot cards being thrown and acrobats twirling magical surprises in the air.
This year the theme is "The Secret Garden"… doesn't that sound yummy romantic? I am glad to be going, and of course my camera is invited.
Going to parties where I do not know many people, where the language is not my first, where the conversations will focus on business, the weather and where one vacations, usually finds me with a frozen, polite smile on my face. I am naturally shy, honestly I am!
But at fifty-one years old I have finally learned a few things about going to parties where I feel like a fish out of water.
1) That most of the other people feel exactly the same way.
So if I am my natural self, others might feel keen to relax and be their natural self too. Feeling comfortable makes for a good party.
The first time I ever went to a school dance I was in the sixth grade. My mother said I could go only if: A) She chaperoned. B) If I promised to dance ever dance.
My mother chaperoning was not a problem for me. My mother was cool and my friends liked her. So that part was easy. Even though I loved to dance, dancing ever dance was another thing. I asked my mother, what if I wasn't asked to dance, then what was I suppose to do? (Please take note this was in the late Sixties, early seventies where girls rarely asked boys to dance, and dancing in a group not the norm.) My mother gave me my most cherished advice: Never refuse a boy to dance. If a boy doesn't ask you to dance, ask a boy to dance, until one says yes, or dance by yourself.
I danced every dance. Asking others to dance gave me freedom. If someone said no, I moved on to the next guy, and if all else failed I danced alone.
Do you have any secrets on how to feel comfortable at a party?
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