Retail therapy 18 December 2007

I was very naughty yesterday. When Kurt came home from work, I asked him what exactly he planned to do for the afternoon. See, he’s not teaching yet, though he’s passed the test and is qualified to do so, and won’t teach until after New Year’s. So what does he do all day at work??

Answer: He prepares for teaching and becomes familiar with the various PowerPoint presentations that have been written before he arrived at his command. He also makes new presentations.

But why does he have to go to work to do that? We’ve got PowerPoint here at the house; we’ve got a laptop; we’ve got an internet connection.

I told you I was naughty.

So he called in to work yesterday afternoon and took me shopping instead. In my defense (or “defence,” if you live on the other side of the pond), the shopping trip was to his benefit! Our Christmas party is tomorrow night, and he hasn’t had any new dress clothes for at least five or six years, while I get a new dress almost every year. I hadn’t planned on getting a new dress this year; since our last formal party was the Navy Ball in Washington last year, I figured I could just wear that dress. No one here in Rhode Island would know I was recycling a dress! But then Kurt twisted my arm (hard, too!!), and made me try on this gorgeous red dress when we were in Macy’s last week. Then he made me buy it. I had no choice.

Hee hee.

We headed up to Providence, mainly because we’ve been to the Warwick Mall about a gajillion times in the last few weeks, and it’s not really a good mall to go to that many times in that short a time frame. We had to go to a Macy’s because we’d gotten Kurt this fantastically wonderful winter coat a few weeks ago (we didn’t need cold weather gear in Washington) on massive sale — but they’d forgotten to take the security device off it!! It’s a damn good thing I hadn’t managed to shred the receipt yet.

We got that taken care of and found a nice outfit for him to wear to the Christmas party there at Macy’s. Only the shirt’s sleeves weren’t quite long enough, and the pant legs weren’t quite long enough either. We decided to wait to purchase the outfit till we checked out Penney’s. I didn’t have much faith that we’d find something at Penney’s, seeing as Macy’s is supposedly the nicer store, but what do you know?? They actually had at least the shirt in the proper size!! Ideally Kurt should wear a shirt with an 18″ neck, and 36/37″ sleeves. Macy’s had had an 18 34/35, but no 36/37s. And the Macy’s associates wanted us to believe that was an odd size only available online. We still weren’t able to find a pair of 40W 34L pants at either store, but a pair of 42W 32L pants, while big in the waist, were sufficiently long enough for Kurt’s monkey legs. And the waist isn’t so large he can’t fix it with a belt. Plus everything at Penney’s was on sale to boot! SCORE!!

I also found myself some awesome shirts at Old Navy. See, I have the World’s Shortest Arms, which means long-sleeved shirts are really a no-go for me. For several years, clothing designers have deemed the shirts shall have wide sleeves at the wrist, and that they should hang to the knuckles of a woman with normal arms. This means that shirt-sleeves tend to fall past my finger tips, and when you’ve got wide sleeves, it’s not like you can just roll them up. However, Old Navy has answered my prayers for the absolutely perfect shirt to keep me warm, and they’re even on sale for just $10 each!! These shirts are fitted, instead of hanging off me like a tent, and have sleeves that have a band at the cuff, much like sweatshirts. This allows me to roll them up enough that they stay where they should — on my wrist. Also they are surprisingly warm!! So I get both fashion and comfort.

I now own five of these shirts.

If you are male, you may want to look away now.

I also got some new brassieres for the first time in months. See, I am so well-endowed that I can’t just go to Walmart or Target and buy a bra off the shelf for $10. Even going to Macy’s and investigating their old-lady bras yields nothing for me; I’m just too small around my rib cage, shockingly enough. I carry all my weight in my bosom and my bottom half. Really. I have teeny tiny wrists and arms and rib cage and an occasionally visible collarbone, which is odd for someone of my weight.

I decided it was time to return to Nordstrom’s. At least that way if anything goes wrong with one of my new brassieres, I can return it. Really!! Nordie’s is awesome like that. I’ve had to do it before with bras that were just the wrong style for me, and they smile and tell you, “No problem!” while scanning your credit card to return the money to it. It’s a wonderful thing.

I got two more of my standard brassieres (which are the absolute awesomest — support and comfort in a non-padded bra, really!!) and one sexy bra. It’s been so long since I’ve had something sexy. It’s hard to find something that fits and supports me as well as my standard brassieres do, so it’s hard for me to want to give up that comfort and support to wear something actually pretty. Plus bras in my size aren’t cheap; I can’t be spending that kind of money on something I’ll wear only rarely. But then I found this one, and it’s gorgeous and pretty and wonderful and awesome, and I’ll feel so gorgeous wearing it, even if I’m the only one who knows!

On our way home from Providence, it was already dark, since the sun sets so incredibly early here. As we drove along, I noticed the snow on the ground now has a sheen to it. It’s iced over!! And yes, this snow is the stuff that fell on Thursday. It was somewhat warm on Friday and Saturday, causing most of what was covering pavement to melt. But each night the snow froze solid again, and we got a nor’easter early Sunday morning with more ice and freezing rain. Since then, the temperature has yet to climb above freezing. It’s odd for me to see snow for so long; the few times it snowed in Washington, it would be gone by the very next day.

I have to say, old snow isn’t very attractive, at least on the sides of the roads. It makes me wish for another snow fall, just to pretty everything back up again!