What am I doing here?

Weekend before last I had an invitation to meet a bunch of people at a local tavern.  I only knew two of the group, (slightly) so it would involve meeting a lot of new people. New restaurant, new people, a mildly stressful situation. 

I argued with myself for an hour, about the benefits of leaving the house vs staying home and reading until I finally came up with the ultimate argument: "if I don’t go out and meet people, I am going to turn into a crazy cat lady.” 

And that is how I found myself in a karaoke bar, listening to an incredibly flat (but very enthusiastic) rendition of Bon Jovi’s "It's My Life".

I tried. I really did. I got up and sang. I had a couple beers. I bounced around on the dance floor. I chatted about the benefits of vodka soaked gummi bears over jello shots. (Both are gross, but gummi bears are less messy) But I always felt like I was watching the whole evening from the outside. Everyone else seemed to be having a really good time, and I don't know why, but I just couldn’t get into it. 

I wasn’t miserable, but I really wanted to go somewhere where the music was softer, where I could talk to the person next to me without shouting, and the drinks weren’t bizarre concoctions designed to get you drunk as quickly as possible.

Speaking of which, have you ever heard of a Birthday Cake Shot?  I'd never heard of such a thing before. So I learned something from the evening, which means it wasn't a total loss. 

I also have an invitation to a Halloween party, where they will be serving the aforementioned vodka soaked gummi bears.  Should I go?

Boredom

It's the tail end of summer, and I'm bored. There's nothing on tv, I'm tired of reading, and it's too hot to spend much time outside. Almost everyone I know has left town, or is preparing for the new school year. Even my favorite bloggers seem to be phoning it in.

This is really my problem. There must be things of interest in front of me. I'm just not seeing them.  I need a vacation to clear my head and readjust my vision. And I have one planned, but for now, I've got the internet.

Sometimes I think I'm creative, and then I see stuff like this, and I know that I am a rank amateur. None of this would have crossed my mind. What right do I have to be bored when the world is full of people doing things like this?

Extreme Ironing

World Beard and Mustache Championships

Precision Lawn Mowing Team

Work Clothes for Summer

My friend Leslie Farnsworth posted about a recent shopping trip, a trip that was doomed to failure from the start, because it's May and she wanted clothing for work.

 

I knew it was doomed for two reasons:

1. I had gone shopping myself, and had seen the dearth of clothing first hand and, 
2. because women's clothing is seasonal.

Don't misunderstand me, I'm not talking about trying to find a parka in July. It makes sense that as the weather warms up, the clothing gets lighter, and vice versa.  That's not the problem. The problem is that for some reason, the fashion world has decided that women don't work between Easter (April) and Labor Day (September). The clothing choices in Spring and Summer are almost exclusively for vacation. The stores are full of bathing suits, coverups, maxi dresses, tunics and camp shirts. I like all these things, but I can't wear them to work.

 

Floral and transparent - I saw a lot of this in the stores this weekend.

And the colors! Instead of nice, normal neutrals, shirts sprout flowers in neon pink and coral. If you are desperate enough to look for a suit in summer, it will be pastel and short sleeved. And every few years some designer tries to pass off formal shorts as office wear. (It's not going to happen - give up.)

 

Admittedly, there are more choices if you shop online. But the problem with online, is that you can't tell how it fits. You can't tell from a picture that the fabric is itchy, or if the jacket cuts you off at just the wrong point. Just return them you say? True, but then I have to spend time going back and forth to the post office, and checking to make sure that the cost was credited back to me. Time I'd rather spend doing something fun. 

 

Men don't have this problem. Men can buy a dress shirt all year round, in a normal color. That's all I want, a corner of the department, set aside for office wear. The rest of it can be a blaze of seasonal color and string bikinis, I just need something I can wear to work in July.

 

 

 

 

When do you start Christmas?

When do you start Christmas? Not the holiday itself, but decorating the house, putting up lights, and digging out the Christmas music? I ask because all the Christmas decorations are up in the stores (they started putting them up around Halloween) a few of my neighbors have wreaths on their doors, and when I was driving through River Oaks two days ago, I saw a lighting team working on the holiday lawn display. There's still a week of November left!

 

Don't mistake me, I love decorating for Christmas, but having all the decorations up by Thanksgiving makes it less special for me.  If you do it too early it gets caught up in Thanksgiving, and I think each holiday is deserving its own time. Part of the fun is pulling out the decorations, remembering when you got that silver pincone or seashell Santa, and deciding where they go. It's part of the build up to the big day, and you can't have that if it's all done by the last week of November.

 

Also, I'm not through with Autumn yet. I haven't made any pumpkin soup, or taken pictures of the turning leaves. I haven't even made it to RenFest. Christmas can wait, I'm going to enjoy Autumn a little while longer.



persimmon tree in Montrose