Saturday, December 16
Dec. 16th, 2023 11:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
My husband took a load of garbage to the dump.
While he was there though, he had trouble with the truck. Luckily a friend of ours lives near the dump and helped him get going again, but it kept sputtering. My husband thinks it might be bad fuel, since it sat a long time since we last drove it.
He'll get the mechanic to look at it anyways.
I was in kind of a pessimistic mood about going to the city, because it seemed like we were late getting going; and I hate that feeling of rushing before the stores close, and then everything is just closed so you miss things.
I wanted to go to a thrift store today that supports an actual local cause, and made it before it closed. I found a great sequined bolero that was new with tags for a thrift store price, and an Edward Hopper book.
We then went to another thrift store that also supports a good local cause, and it was kind of revelatory. The woman who runs it, has kept it very upscale, and also runs an art/framing business out of the same space. She has a mix of high-end (but still pretty darn good prices) donated items like nice dishes and collectibles, as well as some donated artwork (as in prints or cross-stitch) that she actually fixes them up and mats them nicely and so on. I found two very pretty salad plates that I think I will hang as art. We'll definitely come back to this one.
You could tell that the woman who runs this place (it really seems like it is entirely her own enterprise, and she's been doing it a long time) is the kind of person who does a lot of "giving back". She was talking to us about her six rescue cats and her rescue dog too.
OF COURSE though, she's thinking about retiring soon. Literally we just found her place, and she's not sure how much longer she'll be doing it.
Then we went to the really big mall to do some serious clothes shopping for my husband. He's been working out of the office in the city for about two months now, and he's really feeling self-conscious about not having enough "office worthy" clothes to wear. He felt that his dress pants were a bit dated, and his shirts were okay but he could use a couple more so it doesn't look like he's wearing the same thing all the time.
This business of his job requiring him to work from the office "sometimes" is a bit annoying as far as clothes, because it means he does have to have decent clothes like dress pants and shirts, BUT, then he could go back out to work at a location and not need those clothes for years, by which time....they're dated.
He has a few pairs of pants that we bought for the last time he had to work out of the office for a while, he probably wore them regularly for a month or two tops, and then never wore them again. These he feels are now dated and he doesn't wear them.
SO. We went to a nice store with a good menswear department, and bought four shirts and two pairs of nice dress pants, and it all co-ordinates with what he already owns, so hopefully now he can feel good about his clothing options and feel good about how he looks.
I know it sucks to feel like you are wearing outdated clothes in an environment where it matters. It also matters at your job to look good. While he's not REALLY in a seriously dressy environment, he does have to look "business casual" good.
I'm glad we did it for him, I know he wasn't sure how long he would be working from the office, and not sure if he "needed"the new clothes, but I feel like he should be able to pick out clothes in the morning, knowing they look modern and fit well and go together, so that he can feel confident at work.
I bought some things for me too, so it was a bit of a "spendy" day for us.
We did manage to get to the second hand book store; I love going there and I really want to keep supporting it.
I had to say, I felt pretty awful when a homeless guy approached us for money, as we had spent a fair bit of money that day. It happens pretty much every time we go to the city, generally because we are there to buy things or attend something nice, or eat supper together, and there are plenty of homeless people or lots of evidence of their camps and such.
I always end up mentally going through all of the reasons why it doesn't help a homeless person to give them money, why it's better to support community programs, and I hope that it's the right answer.
Then we came home, and looked at my Sweetie's clothes to address whether or not to let anything go. The couple of pair of pants that are still almost new but the legs look a little dated, we set aside to see if they could be altered. There is a good seamstress in town where I do pottery, and if she can, it would be worth it.
He also pulled out a very nice, white dress shirt that he wore to a wedding over two years ago, that he put back in the closet without washing, and now it's all yellow where it sat on his body. Sigh.
I am in the process now of soaking it in various solutions to see if it will come clean. I know it's not the end of the world if it doesn't, but that was a nice shirt that was worn ONCE. I have to try.
Or maybe I can dye it.
I learned that only 40% of people have a Psoas Minor muscle.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psoas_minor_muscle
My husband took a load of garbage to the dump.
While he was there though, he had trouble with the truck. Luckily a friend of ours lives near the dump and helped him get going again, but it kept sputtering. My husband thinks it might be bad fuel, since it sat a long time since we last drove it.
He'll get the mechanic to look at it anyways.
I was in kind of a pessimistic mood about going to the city, because it seemed like we were late getting going; and I hate that feeling of rushing before the stores close, and then everything is just closed so you miss things.
I wanted to go to a thrift store today that supports an actual local cause, and made it before it closed. I found a great sequined bolero that was new with tags for a thrift store price, and an Edward Hopper book.
We then went to another thrift store that also supports a good local cause, and it was kind of revelatory. The woman who runs it, has kept it very upscale, and also runs an art/framing business out of the same space. She has a mix of high-end (but still pretty darn good prices) donated items like nice dishes and collectibles, as well as some donated artwork (as in prints or cross-stitch) that she actually fixes them up and mats them nicely and so on. I found two very pretty salad plates that I think I will hang as art. We'll definitely come back to this one.
You could tell that the woman who runs this place (it really seems like it is entirely her own enterprise, and she's been doing it a long time) is the kind of person who does a lot of "giving back". She was talking to us about her six rescue cats and her rescue dog too.
OF COURSE though, she's thinking about retiring soon. Literally we just found her place, and she's not sure how much longer she'll be doing it.
Then we went to the really big mall to do some serious clothes shopping for my husband. He's been working out of the office in the city for about two months now, and he's really feeling self-conscious about not having enough "office worthy" clothes to wear. He felt that his dress pants were a bit dated, and his shirts were okay but he could use a couple more so it doesn't look like he's wearing the same thing all the time.
This business of his job requiring him to work from the office "sometimes" is a bit annoying as far as clothes, because it means he does have to have decent clothes like dress pants and shirts, BUT, then he could go back out to work at a location and not need those clothes for years, by which time....they're dated.
He has a few pairs of pants that we bought for the last time he had to work out of the office for a while, he probably wore them regularly for a month or two tops, and then never wore them again. These he feels are now dated and he doesn't wear them.
SO. We went to a nice store with a good menswear department, and bought four shirts and two pairs of nice dress pants, and it all co-ordinates with what he already owns, so hopefully now he can feel good about his clothing options and feel good about how he looks.
I know it sucks to feel like you are wearing outdated clothes in an environment where it matters. It also matters at your job to look good. While he's not REALLY in a seriously dressy environment, he does have to look "business casual" good.
I'm glad we did it for him, I know he wasn't sure how long he would be working from the office, and not sure if he "needed"the new clothes, but I feel like he should be able to pick out clothes in the morning, knowing they look modern and fit well and go together, so that he can feel confident at work.
I bought some things for me too, so it was a bit of a "spendy" day for us.
We did manage to get to the second hand book store; I love going there and I really want to keep supporting it.
I had to say, I felt pretty awful when a homeless guy approached us for money, as we had spent a fair bit of money that day. It happens pretty much every time we go to the city, generally because we are there to buy things or attend something nice, or eat supper together, and there are plenty of homeless people or lots of evidence of their camps and such.
I always end up mentally going through all of the reasons why it doesn't help a homeless person to give them money, why it's better to support community programs, and I hope that it's the right answer.
Then we came home, and looked at my Sweetie's clothes to address whether or not to let anything go. The couple of pair of pants that are still almost new but the legs look a little dated, we set aside to see if they could be altered. There is a good seamstress in town where I do pottery, and if she can, it would be worth it.
He also pulled out a very nice, white dress shirt that he wore to a wedding over two years ago, that he put back in the closet without washing, and now it's all yellow where it sat on his body. Sigh.
I am in the process now of soaking it in various solutions to see if it will come clean. I know it's not the end of the world if it doesn't, but that was a nice shirt that was worn ONCE. I have to try.
Or maybe I can dye it.
I learned that only 40% of people have a Psoas Minor muscle.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psoas_minor_muscle
