Hats! Hats! Hats!

Every year the running of "The Kentucky Derby" reminds me just how much I miss wearing hats. I think it started when my parents (aka "Santa") bought me a leopard print hat with a matching fur muff. For a four year-old living in Pekin, Illinois, it was pretty much as close as I got to haute couture. Sadly, hats have all but disappeared. There is an occasional jaunty beret, an idiotic backward baseball hat, or an occasional sun blocking canvas deal on the beach, but the fabulous head-gear of yore is the stuff of photos and flea markets. Once a year, for a brief shinning moment, fabulous hats (Not those frump-du-jour things Queen Elizabeth wears. Couldn't she have inherited just a little pizazz from her nattily chapeaued mama?) hear gear reigns supreme at the "Running of the Roses". I have no idea who won the damn race this year; it's all about the hats.

This is how to rock a hat. My brain says I want to look like this in a hat, but in reality I wind-up looking like this:

Sad, but true. I live in a world where the only tickets I can get for Derby Day are on the infield, but that doesn't stop me from trying! Bless her heart for attempting this look in the rain.

Why is it that every place else blue flowers occur they look tacky, but never on a hat?

Another 2010 Derby Day masterpiece.

Spectacular.

"A bird on the head is worth two in the bush." Actually, I think I may have the matching shower curtain.

What the hell is that blue thing?

Johnny Weir.

"OMG! Did you see Johnny Weir's hat? I am SO jealous!"

Everything looks better if you wear it on your head.

"You may not believe this, but my other hat is a wedge of cheese!"

Now THAT'S a HAT. Glad I am not sitting behind this baby.

This has nothing to do with the Derby, but I wouldn't want you to miss this bit of wonderful.

Or this.

I really miss hats, but how cute is Johnny Depp?