U.S. Marine Corps Ball Manila 2010

Happy 235th Birthday to the United States Marine Corps! We celebrated in Manila this year in style at the Sofitel on the Manila Bay. Justin and I packed our overnight bags and draped our fancy clothes over the seats of the Jeep for our night away from the girls. The event always humbles me when I whiteness the Marine Corp celebrating the tradition of passing the birthday cake from the oldest Marine present to the youngest Marine present in a symbol of passing on the responsibility to protect Americans from generation to generation. Often the glamor of the event overshadows the true meaning of the celebration. The embassy community is really attending the ball to thank the men and women who serve in the Marines and specifically those who serve in Manila to keep our embassy safe. The twelve Marines who guard our embassy were the guests of honor tonight. I love that we get to celebrate and honor them every year.I won't lie though, the embassy community knows how to party and we clean up well. The Marine Ball is the annual event that everyone gets excited about. Gowns are made, shoes are ordered and tuxedos get pressed. Its fun to see how amazing everyone looks for that one night when we all get to be adults in fancy adult clothes; eat adult food (sea bass for me) and drink adult liquids (none for me thanks to the damn metronidazole). I have to say everyone looks smashing for the first few hours. By midnight Lady Gaga and MC Hammer are leading a crowd of sweaty, tipsy, satin draped women on the dance floor in a moment we all get to relive our Prom night. Only we aren't 18 any longer and it will all take infinite more amounts of time to get over the late night for us at 30 than it did back then. And still, grown up parties are awesome.

My dress turned out great. When I got it out of Frankie's dark turquoise walled shop into some natural light I fell in love with it again. It fit like a glove and looked very 1940's Hollywood glam (or so I was told all night by friends-Thank you very much it made my night-since I was completely sober dancing to Imma Be in front of my husband's colleagues when usually I'm dancing in our living room with my three year old to that song. Don't ever try to dance sober when you turn 30. It's hard.) Anyway, I was really happy with the dress in the end. I wore a pair of vintage earrings from my Mom as my only accessory. Although I guess the red lips kind of accessorized too. I ended up going with NARS Flamenco, it really tied the whole look together. As always, Justin was a gentleman all night. I love dancing with my husband and being introduced to new friends and colleagues at the office that I never run in to. In turn, I love introducing him to my Mom and Dad friends I see every day at school. We talked and danced and had a fabulous time. At the end of the night, after a piece of birthday cake and Justin's shot of whiskey (his boss insisted); I love that the two of us went upstairs to our hotel room and removed all the glamor of the night and just snuggled up under the big down comforter and fell asleep like any other night together. Fancy red dress or t-shirt and jeans, the end is always the same. This is one of the reasons I love my marriage. It was a perfect night.