One Year After The Dress (Or, How 16 Tacos Made a Bad Day a Little Better)

The infamous Dress.

One year ago today, I was walking down the aisle. Wearing a watermelon-colored bridesmaid dress. Escorted by a man who I am still pretty sure was, in fact, Zach Galifianakis.

After my friends' beautiful wedding, I decided to wear that watermelon-colored bridesmaid dress for an entire week. And that's when I launched this blog. So in addition to being my friends' first anniversary (happy anniversary, you adorable lovebirds!), it's also the first anniversary of Little Pixie Magic.

I wanted to commemorate this milestone with some really terrific little piece. However, as always happens, something happened. Something called Life. More specifically, something called A Really Terrible Day.

That's what I had today, on this anniversary-day: A Really Terrible Day. I don't even want to write about it. At least, not yet. But suffice to say: Really, Really Terrible. The sort of day that makes you feel like a total failure. The sort of day that makes you want to punch whoever came up with the saying "Aim for the moon, and at the very least, you'll land among the stars!" RIGHT IN THE FACE. The sort of day where the first blow socks you in the gut out of nowhere, and you feel really bad for yourself, because you got socked in the gut, and then KA-POW, you run in to someone having a much worse time of it, then BOOM, you wind up hurting someone else's feelings in an unrelated event, and then ZAP, you let down someone else in a totally different situation.

On top of all of this, I worked late, and then had to haul some furniture. By the time the late-dinner-hour rolled around, I was done. I wanted to put on my sweatpants, curl up, and sob into my couch pillows.

Jimmy, Me, Dress.

Enter my friend Jimmy.

Jimmy had decided to take on a challenge today. An eating challenge. There's a  tacos-and-tapas place in town, and they had a Taco Challenge. If you eat one of each of the tacos on their menu (a total of eight substantial tacos), in under 30 minutes, you get a prize.*

Jimmy wanted an audience for this battle. D insisted that we go and cheer Jimmy on. I was pretty dead-set on sulking, but I also didn't want to let one more person down today, so I went.

We got there, and Jimmy told the waiter to bring on the Taco Challenge! He was there to compete! He would take down the eight tacos and claim his prize!

The waiter looked at Jimmy as though Jimmy were a mentally challenged cocker spaniel, and told him they no longer had the Taco Challenge.

For a moment, Jimmy looked crestfallen. No taco challenge? No prize? But he had a dream! A goal! An audience! And so instead of throwing in the towel, Jimmy looked the waiter dead in the eye.

"Fine. Bring me two of every taco on the menu."

The waiter stammered. "B-but, sir. That's sixteen tacos."

Jimmy nodded slowly. "That's right."

We were all stunned. Other tables took notice - especially when the terrified waiter brought Jimmy his sixteen tacos, on six plates. Jimmy looked at his friend, seated across from him, and said: "Time me."

And Jimmy then proceeded to eat DOUBLE THE TACO CHALLENGE. SIXTEEN TACOS.

Jimmy vs. 16 Tacos

Fighting for it.

Tired, but triumphant.

And not only did Jimmy consume 16 tacos (DOUBLE THE ORIGINAL CHALLENGE), he did it in 25 minutes. And you know what else? Someone from one of those other tables wound up buying all of the tacos for Jimmy, out of sheer respect, and another friend brought him a celebratory shot**. His audience cheered, his girlfriend kissed his taco-y lips. The man got his prizes.

And I got my lesson, friends. A lesson in never giving up. More than that: a lesson in always moving past disappointment to find the bigger, better opportunity around the corner. When you go for something, and are denied what you thought you wanted, aim even higher. Because you might wind up with an even more incredibly fulfilling victory.

Or you'll just wind up incredibly full. Or something.

In other words... take inspiration where you can get it, y'all.

(Happy anniversary. And here's to a better tomorrow.)


*Like, a really crappy prize. A t-shirt or your photo on the wall or something.


**Which did not make him vomit. I know. I was surprised, too. Winning!


PS Seriously... Zach Galifianakis.