hmm...

the most amazing thing happened today in wally world.

i decided on a 'look' for teaching next semester, and put on my potential purchase list: button-up, collar shirts akin to the business casual menswear type; nice slacks to wear with them. these things went before eggs, bread, all that. there's no sense in purchasing food and then spending forever trying on clothing that never fits.

so i think i've figured something out that really had never occurred to me. that sharp button-up look just doesn't look good on me, to my eyes. i see myself in the mirror and think of myself as a teenager playing dress up with daddy's cast-offs. even if the rest of the world were to see me as teacher material or some such, i am the one that matters when it comes to clothing. it's one of those things you can be selfish about, because if you feel incompetent and fakey in your clothes, you'll feel that way about yourself eventually.

so instead of purchasing one of those shirts i was determined to wear for a semester, i looked at the rest of the clothing. that is not to say that i didn't try on every button-up, business shirt in the store, in at least two sizes per style. i did that. they were very suspicious at the fitting rooms. i got the evil eye several times, and they started taking the clothes out of my hands and counting them before letting me in a room instead of believing me when i said i had six items. oh well.

i actually tried on some feminine, blousy blouses. things that were soft, both in material and cut. things that draped and hung instead of bunching when i raised my arms to write on the board.

in the end, i found three skirts that i liked, each with enough color that three or four different colored tops would go equally well. and because i've been stupid before, i only considered skirts that had matching tops readily available. no more bringing home perfect skirts that languish in the closet because the perfect (or even a suitable) top does not exist.

plus, for some strange reason, many of the tops i was considering were ridiculously marked down. i'm not one to complain when this happens, and so i mixed and matched, and really pissed off the fitting room folks, who could have been nicer since i was full of smiles and very nice to them. there's no point in purchasing a garment if you aren't 100% certain it goes with this other garment, and trying them on is perhaps the most accurate measurement i've found for gauging this.

during one of my trips to a rack of shirts, i spied a bunch of pants. they were casual, but not jeans or cut-offs or anything. there was a magical letter on the tags that i almost never see, but which lights up my eyes on the rare occasions when it appears before me. P. that's right. petite. means short people. means me. so i scooped up a sampling of sizes and styles, and prepared myself for the ordeal of trying on 12 pairs of pants (6 different styles/fabrics in 2 sizes each) and discovering 1 pair of pants that almost fit except for some glaring problem.

they almost all fit. i about died there in the fitting room stall. this never happens. anyone who has shopped with me can attest that i frequently try on pants and almost never find any that aren't embarrassing in some way. when i find pants that almost sort of kind of fit in most ways, i snap up two or three pairs. pants and i have a rocky relationship with much cursing and many tears.

another round to the fitting rooms, and i emerged triumphant. i have never had such a wondrous success when shopping for clothing. i can go a whole day visiting 5 or 6 different stores and trying on anything that looks like it might fit and come home with a t-shirt. but i went to wally world of all places and ended up with three nice skirts (two of them match 8 tops, and the third only matches 7). there's a new pair of jeans that fits nicely (they only had the one, or i'd have done the usual and purchased 2-3 pairs). i've got black slacks! two pair, because these are the first i've ever encountered that i don't have reservations about. i've got three other pairs of slacks in a tan, a beige, and an earth-toned stripe. there are nice, blousy shirts that go with multiple skirts and all of the pants.

seriously. what happened? i thought i'd go in there and spend a few hours becoming discouraged about ever finding something to wear teaching that i was thrilled about and that actually had color involved beyond brown. but just the opposite happened. the teaching wardrobe isn't what i thought it would be, but i'm happy with it. meaning that i feel comfortable in it, and not 'dressed up' (read: unnatural). the skirts are lined, too, so no slips to worry about. in fact, the wardrobe is such that i could wear it to work before school starts up again to get used to it.

other than that, i finally got around to hanging curtains in the living room. festus could care less. charlotte is endlessly fascinated. she was rubbing against my knees while i was using the power drill. the curiosity was stronger than the noise. the curiosity was also responsible for much tangling of curtains while threading them onto the rod. i half expect to wake up in the middle of the night to the sounds of cat and curtain rod mingling in the center of the room.

she's batted the bottoms of the curtains. she's sniffed and licked the gathered fabric at each side of the window. she's experimentally bitten the makeshift hooks that the sashes are secured with. she's nosed behind the curtains high and low. the one thing she hasn't done that i really thought she would do is try to hook a claw or three in the fabric. in the old apt, i hung a bunch of fabric up on one wall to cover the hideous wallpaper, and the first thing she did was try to climb it. we'll see if the curtains are still up in the morning.

love and peace