Clothes Shopping and Other Unpleasant Tasks

AKA, Getting a Round Tuit.

I desperately need pants but I just loathe clothes shopping. I always have. I was never the kind of girl who looked forward to clothes shopping, picked out stylish items and changed three times a day. It was always a horrible chore when I was growing up. I would do anything to get out of it. My mom would try to roust me at 8 a.m. so we could get to Hyannis when the stores opened at 9, and I would feign deep sleep for as long as I had to, to put off having to go. My mom is one of those people who notices the tiniest flaw in clothes. If a seam was 1/6 of an inch off, she'd notice it. Hours and hours I'd be in the dressing room, being scrutinized head to toe, until finally one item might just pass her eagle eyes. My dad used to joke that her Indian nickname would be "Wide Eyes". But this really took a toll on my self esteem as I was brutally criticized with each new shirt or pair of pants: "You shouldn't wear straight leg pants, it accentuates your big rear end", "When we get these hemmed, I'll have the seamstress use dark thread instead, because the coloured thread at the bottom of the pants legs accentuates how short you are", "I don't like the stitching on the back pockets, it draws attention to your big rear end". Because you just can't hear that stuff enough when you are a child. As a result, I am a complete and utter slob with the way I dress because I just loathe going to get clothes. And don't get me started on the horror that is bra shopping.....another item I desperately need but haven't shopped for in years and years.

I know I've gained weight, but I am sorry, they are not manufacturing accurately sized clothing for women anymore. I was looking at a shirt today that was tiny, but marked as 1X. I thought it was mis-marked till I saw the one behind it was the same. This is a trend I've noticed over the past few years. What was once a normal medium or large, is now being marked as XL or 1X. And the reason I know this to be true is that whenever I buy a decorative tourist or tie dye t-shirt, I buy XL, just like I have for the past 20+ years, and it fits perfectly if not a little loose. The tshirts have remained marked their correct and standard size over the years, while other clothes have not.

And the thing that really goes up my ass a mile, is when I'm browsing through a catalog, admiring pretty shirts, and then see: "S, M, L, XL - $29.99, 1X-3X - $34.99." FUCK. THAT. I mean why don't they just come right out and say, "Hey! You! Fat Ass! Yeah YOU! You are so FAT that we have to use more fabric and more thread to clothe your FAT self and so we are penalizing you for being so FAT by making you pay an extra $5.00." It's bullshit man. Seriously. Especially when 1X used to be normally sized as a Large or Medium. I have asked other people if they've noticed this mis-sizing trend and have heard the same complaints. It's discriminatory. It's clear that the manufacturers are taking full advantage of the fact that most Americans are overweight and need the larger sizes.

So I sucked it up and went to Fred Meyer to get a couple pairs of jeans since they were on sale. Of course now I have to get the jeans hemmed which is the story of my life. I still need more pants, but at least I'm finally getting around to it. I saw some pretty cool looking shirts but when I examined them, the fabric is so sheer and flimsy that they looked like they'd fall apart in the first washing. When I saw the price I was floored. I am sorry but I'm not gonna pay $30.00 for a flimsy piece of shit from Mexico or The Philippines, that probably cost all of .50 to make. And ALL of the clothes are like that, everywhere I go. I can't afford Macy's or most department stores for the "good" clothes, but the clothes at places like Target, Fred Meyer, etc. are piss poor quality.

Another unpleasant task I finally got to was contacting Norton about not being able to get it to work. I knew I was flirting with disaster, and today when I tried to go to my blog, I got a security warning that mal-ware was attached to it. Fortunately I got to the live chat section of Symantec's site and a tech in India (of course) helped me. It was more than creepy to allow him to take control of my computer like that, and see my cursor flying around the screen, opening and closing things. As a fan of "The Terminator" franchise, machines that seem to be doing their own thing really scare me. About a half hour later, it was all done. I really should have taken care of this ages ago but it's another of those things I just hate doing. I think it's because I'm always expecting something to go wrong. I know I'm a 'glass half empty' kind of person, and I do believe in Murphy's Law. Because anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, and it usually does. That way if things go smoothly and/or efficiently, I am pleasantly surprised, but if things do go south, I was prepared.

Our upstairs medicine cabinet fell apart. The upper hinges on 2 of the doors snapped off, so both are hanging at crazy angles, and the bottom hinges are so stressed that I am worried both are going to fail and then we'll have shattered mirrors everywhere. And the last thing we need is more bad luck. (Both the center and far right doors are broken).

Brian and I are not do-it-yourselfers at all. I don't know how to do it, and he sucks at it. He admits he sucks at it. But come on, how hard can it be to remove one from the wall and put another one up? Still, this is going to require a trip to *snore* Home Depot. I hate hardware stores as much as I love craft/bead stores. I am dreading this trip big time.

The thing is, after I've finally dealt with the unpleasant task set before me, I always feel sooooo much better that it's over with and I can put it behind me. Like today, I cut the front yard and blew the crap off the driveway. It looks great out there, but it took forever to get motivated to deal with it.

But the backyard still isn't done!