Woozie and I however have more to bond over besides our family's aversion to Christian names. We both like eating weird things, reading book synopses in a dramatic fashion, and frozen yogurt, to name a few. Also, considering she is the youngest of her family, and her mom is my mom's sister, it's no wonder she's my bonus sister; we have been shoved together since we were babies.
On one such occasion, on a family camping trip as little girls, Woozie and I were bored, so we started reading aloud (in a dramatic fashion) the only reading material we had; an Archie comic. It was, like everything else we did together, hilarious. Our favourite was in a future comic, where Archie meets two characters named Gloria Gudluks and Vivian Vavoom. They were notable not only for their fabulous names, but because their outfits were so outlandish, they leapt off the comic strip. Naturally we quickly decided to branch away from our chosen names even further; Woozie became Gloria Gudluks, and I became Vivian Vavoom. We would call each other that whenever we felt especially silly.
I do not remember how long after this next instance was, but sometime later, Woozie and I were at Nordstrom Rack with our moms, and we were bored. Running in and out of the circular racks had lost it's appeal, so had playing hide and seek (we were about 11 and 13). The sugar rush we had gotten from Krispy Kreme beforehand was wearing off, and we were getting impatient. Imagine our chagrin when our mothers did not want to leave as soon as we stopped tearing apart the department store!
My sister, at the much older and wiser age of 15 came up with a better idea to stay entertained; why didn't we try and find items around the store to make an outfit for our gaudy alter egos? It caught on quickly, so much so that we built up Gloria and Vivian's wardrobes whenever we went out.
As we got older and began enjoying giant department store trips, Woozie and continued to play this game, even accumulating some Vivian/Gloria items for our own closets. We were in university in different countries, but I was still able to show her the Vivian coat my mom bought me (gold pleather) and she posted her Gloria coat on Facebook (faux leapord print fur).
Last spring, when I texted Wooz a picture of flourescent green wedge heels, a plan long overdue was hatched. Woozie would be in Edmonton for the summer, so we would have to go thrifting, and that plus the Vivian/Gloria items already in our closet would finally allow us to dress up as our favourite tacky comic book characters.
Last weekend we finally got around to it. These are some of our favourite Value Village finds:
And at home, we played a little dressup. Meet Gloria Gudluks:
And Vivian Vavoom:
