Pretty woman …
… I was not!
We all remember the scene in Pretty Woman. He with the slight smirk … she with the polka dot dress and wide-brimmed hat. Indeed, some believe the precise moment the tycoon fell in love with the call girl was when he saw her giddily stomping on divots on the Polo field. My fate was not so sealed.
Me … at a Polo match in Connecticut on Saturday for the Harriman Cup, the annual match up between the University of Virginia and Yale University alumni. I was told there’d be some Polo and a tailgate party. (Please keep in mind people, I grew up in Alberta where tailgating has a special meaning).
Tailgating my a**.
First off, I thanked my lucky stars I looked at the website and opted not to wear jeans. I would have been grossly underdressed. All the women (young and old), in true form, were in designer dresses, designer purses, designer sunglasses, and designer shoes. Some even added a designer hat, and I saw one even chomping on a designer cigar. Interesting. For the men, preppy was an understatement. A potpourri of pastel shirts, plaid pants, khakis adorned with small animal prints, blue crested jackets, slicked hair, and of course, a wide smile showing off the so-square-it’s-almost-cube jaw. Was it any surprise they were named Chip, and Mutton? (Yes, Mutton).
The “tailgating” was obviously a very loosely defined term. What first tipped me off was the table-clothed tables, adorned with a professionally catered lunch, complete with a variety of cheeses, fruits and even a fresh bread basket. As people where choosing between the seafood salad or the quiche, they could admire the decorative fall pumpkins, corn, and strategically placed bales of hay wrapped in colorful ribbons. Then there were the “Bars”. We’re talking a full on Bar set up with mixes, fixes and, oddly, red bull. One table even had a blender! (No idea what it was plugged into??) The drink of choice was champagne. Veuve Clicquot was everywhere … sipped out of a champagne flute, of course. And no table would be complete without a fresh cut centerpiece and candelabra … for appropriate mood lighting, I imagine.
The funniest thing was it started to rain for about an hour in the middle of the game. Up went the Ferrari roofs and Goldman Sachs umbrellas. The leopard print pillows were also tossed into cars to avoid getting wet. Yet somehow … mysteriously … despite the sudden rain, no other girl was walking around with sopping wet hair except …you guessed it … me. WTF? They must sell some special pomade in Greenwich that makes hair impermeable to rain.
The day was topped off with a performance by the “Whiffenpoofs” … Yale’s famous Acapella band. Personally, I didn’t think the penguin suits and white satin gloves were too much. (Link attached: http://www.yale.edu/whiffenpoofs/).
