Remember that episode of Sex and the City where Carrie turns 35 and throws herself a birthday dinner at a Spanish restaurant? It’s the one that we all watched with a communal knot in our stomachs and a common thought of “THAT IS MY WORST NIGHTMARE” in our heads. The clock ticked on and someway, SOMEHOW, none of her guests turned up in time – it was tragic.
Well, my friends, we got to live our very own version of that episode last night. We planned a beautiful event at V.S.P. Consignment for the launch of our REBEL PAPA jerseys. We even brought along an epic surprise of LIMITED EDITION BLACK-ON-BLACK REBEL MAMA jerseys. We steamed, we folded, we photographed… and then we waited.
And we waited.
And we waited.
And we waited some more.
And in what we can only refer to as a stark and bizarre contrast to the series of wildly successful pop-ups we have held in the past… nobody showed up.
So as we sat there, pondering the possibility that we had, perhaps, really and truly entered the twilight zone, we did what any red blooded Torontonian would do: We blamed the weather (it really WAS shit, after all). And then we blamed America (“Black Friday” was their invention and it was DEFINITELY the driving force behind the epic thumbs-down that was our final jersey pop-up).
It was around this point that we started trying on all the incredible couture pieces in the shop – and there are A LOT of them there… And oddly enough, playing dress-up really did put some pep back in our step (Thanks, Fashion Gods). *Side note – to all the members of my immediate family: I found what I want for Christmas. Call VSP. Britt has been notified. THIS IS NOT A DRILL!
And then, as we were hanging out and shooting the shit with store owner, Britt *unintentional rhyming* (who, by the way, was the kindest and most understanding/hospitable hostess EVER), the text messages and the Instagram Direct Messages started to roll in:
“Hey babe! So sorry I won’t be able to make it! How can I get a jersey??”
“Hey can I order some of the new tees from you? I’m stuck at work!”
I guess that’s where we had a bit of a one-up on our friend Carrie Bradshaw. She had to wait until she got home to check her answering machine to hear all the totally reasonable explanations of why her people weren’t able to get to her in time (the episode did air 15 years ago): Traffic, wrong address, stuck at the office…
She got it after the fact. We got it all in real time.
And that’s when we began to laugh.
It turns out that Outkast was right when they said, “You can plan a pretty picnic, but you can’t predict the weather” (ahem, “Miss Jackson” was released 16 years ago – in case the S.A.T.C. reference didn’t already make you feel old AF).
So while we did have some lovely souls call the shop and place orders over the phone, and a couple people stumbled in off the street and randomly purchased jerseys not knowing a lick about The Rebel Mama (the ultimate merchandise compliment, really), it truly all boils down to this:
Shit happens. Weather happens. Life happens. Sofas happen. Wine happens. Weed happens. Laziness happens. Cyber Monday anticipation happens. Babies happen. Work happens. Christmas parties happen.
That’s just kind of the way it goes – and not to get all kumbaya about it – but, in the end, Aleks and I were just really grateful that we had each other (and 2 of our dearest and most solid buds) there to share in the laugh; to hug and to reiterate that the most important thing we can do is to move forward (AND spend the weekend filling all the orders that poured in via social media – thank fucking God!).
So, just as Carrie threw in the towel and walked herself and her cake home (well, she actually ended up almost getting stuck on fresh tar and dropping her birthday cake on the ground – heartbreaking, really), we too decided to call it a night – except we’re moms and we don’t often find ourselves childless in the city at 8:45pm so we said, “To hell with it! Let’s go for dinner!”
And that’s what we did. We went into a small, noisy restaurant on Dundas called The Federal (which was awesome), ordered a round of Barolo STAT and a bunch of tapas to share as we toasted to each other. We toasted to the effort we made, to the work we do, to the kids we raise, to the friends we have, to the victories and to the disasters.
A lot of good came out of last night, actually, and a lot of it was on a personal level for us… BUT, there was definitely a “something good” that happened on a superficial level for YOU and that’s that you can now buy the whole TEAM REBEL MAMA collection (including the original RM jersey, the Limited Edition RM jersey AND the Rebel Papa jersey) at VSP!
It’s a retail miracle!
And if you don’t live in Toronto and you still want to get your paws on a jersey (or 3, or 5, or 10), boy do we have a miracle in store for you next week! 😉
AND if you are hella impatient (like us), and you need a jersey in your life IMMEDIATELY, send me an email at [email protected] and we will figure out a way to work some Rebel Mama magic for you.
The moral of this story is three-fold:
- Everything there is to know about life can be learned by watching Sex and the City.
- 15 years later & Outkast still knows what’s up.
- Getting knocked down sucks, but getting back up (as tricky as it can be sometimes) might just be the best damn feeling in the world.
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Photos by Aleksandra Jassem
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Word to the wise: VSP CONSIGNMENT (the BEST consignment shop in Canada, as far as we’re concerned) is now officially on crazy sale and they ship internationally… just saying.
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