the other day i mentioned that i found ellie the perfect party dress. i purchased it the same day from an online store called tiny tot dress shop … or so i thought. the next day i received an e-mail from a customer service representative saying she was very sorry, but the dress i ordered was out of stock indefinitely. she offered me 50 percent off any other dress on their site, but i wanted that dress, so i decided to look elsewhere.

a few days later, much to my delight, i found the same dress on another site called mygirldress.com. it was cheaper, too! only by a few dollars, but still … so i ordered it again. and a few days later – yep, you guessed it – i received an e-mail saying it was out of stock until the end of december. “the end of december?” i thought. “fine! great! the end of december comes before the middle of january.” but, as it turns out, they couldn’t guarantee a delivery date or even that they would have the dress in stock by then, so i cancelled that order, too.

and then i cried.

but wait! the plot thickens! i told our wonderful friend jon about the party dress roller coaster. i showed him a picture, and he said “WOW.” i said, “it’s just the most perfect party dress, isn’t it?” and he said, “it totally is. she should have that dress.” so what did he do? he found it for me. another web site. another chance to get my hands on the perfect party dress.

and now we wait. let’s hope in this case third time’s a charm!