Gangster's Ball and after

The night before last I finished reading "The Great Gatsby" which Emma kindly bought for me in hard copy. :)
Last night I attended the Gangster's Ball. My costume was very plain, which was in-keeping with my mood, but left me feeling slightly out of place in amongst all the finery and pomp. I was very happily surprised to meet Marilyn Monroe this year. :)
However, the stage acts were wonderful, I enjoyed the juggling, singing, acrobatics, magic, feats of... well, interesting feats. I forget the word describing what sort of performance hammering nails into your own face is. Probably endurance?
So I had a lot of awkward moments, and some lovely moments, like this one: when I was feeling particularly weird about even being there, a small beautiful lady walked up to me while I was near the bar, and grabbed both of my hands in the way lovely tiny women who feel very concerned about you sometimes will, made consistent eye-contact with me and said several things, to me until she broke through my emotional defences enough that she was certain I would pay attention and remember her. I don't remember everything she said, and her kind words basically conveyed the message of "please try to cheer up", "you're no wallflower", and "enjoy yourself".
I told her I would try, and I will. I couldn't even keep eye-contact with her because I was at that moment so sad if I had I would have broken into tears.
I guess I must have wanted to save doing that for a more private setting, because earlier on I did just that.
I also guess it'll be difficult to tell her I did pay attention and I will try to do as she asked (because it's good advice), except if she either reads this somehow, or I actually do what she says.
Fortunately, after having a good cry and feeling upset for ages I've made a breakthrough on how to make some headway with feeling happier. ^_^