big hats and popped collars

here in virginia, we are (apparently) all about horse racing. we have gold cup, foxfield, preakness, roedown, and who the hell knows what else because until very recently, i'd never been to one. but now! i've been to TWO over the past few weeks. am practically a steeplechase afficionado.

two weeks ago was my first! race! ever! and i managed to make it memorable by basically wanting to die for the entire time i was there. it was an absolutely GORGEOUS day, perfect for being outside in a sundress, but i had made some very poor decisions the evening beforehand which involved following up unholy amounts of tequila with effing carbombs (YES! MORE THAN ONE!) and that, shockingly, did not bode well for my overall health or willingness to survive the next day.

so while i tried hard to rally and enjoy the sun...

..i started wilting, fast.

shortly after that picture, i ended up lying down with my hat over my face, in the wee bit of shade provided by my friend alyssa, trying not to get heatstroke. it was.. well.. "pathetic" is probably the best way to describe it.

but! we were RIGHT UP next to the horses, which was pretty neat to see.

then this past weekend, we headed down to charlottesville for foxfield. it's right next to UVA, so it draws a LOT of current and former wahoos, all of whom dress up to the preppy nines. have you ever wondered what the pinnacle of preppiness looks like? please to let me enlighten you:

PEGGED. KHAKIS. WITH ARGYLE SOCKS.

i basically gave up at this point, since it was pastels and bowties every way i turned, and i would have used up my entire 2GB memory card if i tried to document it all. (the full dose of preppy can be found here.)

as you can tell from the pictures, it was a mostly gray and overcast day, which was too bad. i wish i could have matched up my willingness to not commit suicide at a horse race with the lovely sunny day, but alas. such is life.

i thought a big hat would be enough to preppify me. HA HA HA no. pls send jcrew catalogue, stat.