Macy's Clearwater Choir in Orlando

(This post is from March 5th, 2019)

10am:Today's travel adventures consist of me traveling with my company's call center choir. Anxiety is at an all-time high and not because we're not only traveling a charter bus to Orlando to sing at a private corporate event, but because we're wearing choir robes.

Now that doesn't sound like something that would give the average person anxiety, but here is the thing.. finding clothes that fits my luscious ample body is not that easy. And while the robes that we will be wearing do come in Plus Sizes, I did find out that the largest size they have is only 1.2" larger than my bust measurement. And I have no idea if it's going to fit me because we won't try them on until just before we sing. A size 57FF has been ordered for me. It's 57" long and FF stands for "full figure", should fit a 59.2" bust. Plus I don't know if it will fit my arms, let alone close at my hips! So I have anxiety right now at 10 in the morning as I'm on my way to work on a very cold rainy day.

I am glad that's a small portion of the choir that is going to the even t because that guarantees that I will be okay taking up two seats on the bus. I am also happy that my good friend Bridget is also in the choir and that she has my back in situations that I know may make me uncomfortable.

with Bridget :)

So here is the game plan, if the robe does not fit me.. I will try my hardest not to cry. I will take this as a paid field trip, and support my fellow choir members, and I will videotape the event. Alright almost at work. Wish me luck!

11:25am: The charter bus is super nice. Seats are comfortable, so much leg room, plenty of extra seats. We are loaded and ready to go. We have snacks and beverages, and everyone is super excited. We take a few pics and hit the road. Still nervous about the whole robe thing, but nothing I can do now.

yay for my own row!

5pm: Let me summarize what's happened until now! So we got to the Marriott Resort probably around 1:30pm-ish, and we've been treated like royalty. We have an area just for us where we can put our things. We had a catered lunch and in the area there's is also hot and cold beverages and wait staff too. We did a "dress rehearsal" which really consisted of us walking to and from the stage. Lining up and testing mics, that sort of thing. So far lots and lots of walking. I'm wearing flip flops right now, but will change to some ballet flats before we go on stage. To add to my nerves, still haven't tried our robes on and there is a ramp I have to walk down from when we leave the stage, and it make a big boom sound when I was walking down it. Oh geez -_- I'm keeping positive energy though. This event is a who's who and feels like the red carpet, and I just want to keep up! They're are getting ready to serve us dinner, and it smells fantastic. We walked so much, I'm pretty sure I walked off my lunch!

After an amazing dinner... now it's time to race across the resort and try the robes on!

9:50pm: So.. the robe fit! It was a little snug in the hips area, but the material was stretchy, and I just lifted the robe when I sat down. We're on the charter bus heading back to Clearwater now. My legs and back are killing me, my whole body aches to be honest. We did a lot of walking, I mean A LOT OF WALKING. I kept up though!

The best part.. singing with the choir. I know I over think, and I worry about a lot of things that are silly. It very well could have been that the robe wasn't going to fit me. I worried about something I didn't have control of! The event was unbelievable. I truly feel blessed. Not only did I get to be a part of the amazing event, but of the 50+ people in the choir, I was hand selected by the directors to go to this particular event. I got to shake hands with Macy's CEO Jeff Genette, and got to see a beautiful dance from Shawna Burgess and Keo Mostepe from Dancing with the Stars. It will be a night to remember! We rocked it, and no one noticed my robe was snug.

xoxo,

Tiana

P.S. So Bridget has a smartwatch. It counted her steps. I now know why my body ached for 2 days straight after. Her pedometer counted almost 10,000 steps and 3.8 miles! Phew, I knew we walked a lot!

P.P.S.

Edited to add our videos! Always standing out ;)