So this evening, instead of working out, I went shoe-shopping. I need a pair of knee-high brown boots for an outfit I was going to wear to a thing this weekend, and I have a $5 and $20 coupon from DSW, plus a gift card from my birthday.
The only problem is that I seem to have developed freakishly huge calves. Despite the fake-outcry of certain people when I claimed to have cankles at our Christmas party, I have always had thick ankles. But this fat-calves thing is new to me. I tried on at least 20 pairs of boots today, and not one pair zipped all the way up. Not even the butch motorcycle boots that I tried on even though I knew they wouldn’t go with the outfit I had in mind…
To cap it all off, as I was wrestling with a stack of boxes, trying to get the size 8 out from under all the size 6.5′s, I jostled the shelves a little bit. By jostling the shelf, I accidentally tipped over the size 10 that was on display on top of the shelf. It did a little flip and hit me square in the eye socket, heel first.
I now have a tiny little cut under my eye, which is slightly swollen and hopefully not going to bruise. So, if you see me tomorrow, don’t ask me why I have a black eye. I will probably start crying, and people will assume Jay did it. “I got hit by a boot” isn’t really all that convincing.
P.S. How sad is it that I think the black eye would totally be worth it if I had found a pair of boots that fit?
Welcome to my new morning routine. Jay starts his new job today, which means we woke up at 5:50 a.m. so he can drink coffee, eat breakfast, work out and catch the 7:50 train downtown. When we first talked about this new routine, I was supposed to work out from 7-7:30, but you know what? That is totally not going to happen. It’s dark out, ya’ll! I can’t be arsed to work out in the DARK.
So anyway, the new plan is to write from 6:30-7:30 a.m., and then work out in the evenings between 7:30 and 8 p.m. Yes, it will be dark then as well, but… well, we’ll see. I won’t always be blogging in the mornings (I do have other stuff to write, you know)… But I think the big challenge here will be to not check my work email and to not get sucked into the bloglines vortex.
So as you can see from the photo below, we are now the proud owners of an elaborate hookah. Back in the day, I wrote this article about suburban Hookah lounges for Beep. The good folks at Beep purchased the aforementioned hookah for the accompanying photo shoot, and Jay was pictured in the publication smoking it (apple flavored tobacco only, geez.). So, the editor of Beep has kept the hookah on his desk since then, telling skeptical people that it’s a lamp. Then on Friday, he bequeathed the blue and gold treasure to my husband.
Needless to say, we will be packing it away in storage before we put the house up for sale (hey, does anyone need a 2-bedroom townhome, cuz I have one that I’m trying to get rid of…) Maybe we could offer the hookah as a gift-with-purchase? Ech, anyway…
The sun is coming up now, and I have one last cup of coffee waiting for me. Until next time…
Going away gift from jay’s old boss.
I should have known something was up when the flight attendant was friendly and helpful. On a not-very-full flight from SAN to ORD, I was seated in a two-person row next to a khaki and polo-shirt clad gentleman who seemed friendly enough. Since I had the aisle seat, I was relatively comfortable, although it did occur to me that the man looked a bit cramped.
During the beverage service, one of the flight attendants sees our predicament and says “You guys look like you could use some more space. I think there are some open seats… Let me help you find one.”
She finds me a seat two rows back on the three-person side. A small woman is asleep in the window seat, with her belongings on the middle seat. I can sit in the aisle seat and not have to share an armrest. Wonderful. I am slightly more comfortable than before, and the man I was sitting with is probably 100 times more comfortable. I am thinking American Airlines has the nicest. flight attendants. ever.
I get to work reading the last half of The Kite Runner (indescribably excellent). Three hours later, I’m finished with the book. I happen to look up to my old seat and notice someone else is sitting there. Who would have moved to that totally not-prime seat? THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT.
So, I think it’s kind of cute that I was involved in a potential love connection at 40,000 ft. But is it a little skanky for the flight attendant to brazenly hit on a passenger on a commercial flight? It’s not like it was Hooters Air, right? What if this man was totally not interested? So now he’s got some crazy flight attendant with questionable ethics keeping him awake and hogging his arm rest… I mean, when you board an airplane, you are pretty much captive for several hours, and is that really the time you want to be making potentially awkward flirtations with a stranger?
I’m pretty sure that is a customer service nightmare waiting to happen, but who am I to say? All I know is that I didn’t get a bag of pretzels, and I’m pretty sure I know why.
I got to play Stacy London and Clinton Kelly today, while Jay went shopping for a new wardrobe. He got a new job (!) downtown, and we (I) determined that his wardrobe is not downtown-appropriate. At his current job, he has to wear a dress shirt and tie every day, which you would think would be fine for downtown. And that might be the case if half of his shirts weren’t too small in the neck and two short in the sleeves. But his new job is business casual, and since the vast majority of his casual wardrobe features the word “ILLINOIS” emblazoned in huge letters across the front, he needed some help.
Did you know my husband alternates between just two (TWO!) pairs of pants? I guess it doesn’t say much about my wife-ish skills, but I had no idea that was the case. So, he is now the proud owner of 3 new pairs of shoes, 3 new pairs of pants, 4 new casual button-down shirts, 2 new sweaters, 4 new t-shirts, a new coat, belt and messenger bag.
We got all that stuff in about 2 hours. All that shopping was pretty fun, although, it’s not nearly as fun as buying myself all new clothes. Actually, I don’t think I have ever been on shopping spree of this magnitude… For one, it takes me 3 months to even find one pair of pants that fits properly, so buying 3 pairs in one day would be a minor miracle.
At any rate, I’m wiped out from shopping, and I have to wake up early tomorrow for a business trip. Keep your eyes peeled for a photo of Jay’s new shoes. I set up a flickr account so I can automatically post my camera phone photos to the blog, but there seems to be a bit of a delay.
Not quite ready for prime time…
After two tv posts in a row, I started to think that maybe people might think that all I do is watch tv. But that’s not true! Like, for example, yesterday, I went to the dry cleaners and dropped off a pair of pants, and TODAY I went back to the dry cleaners to PICK UP my pants.
And today after work, I called my parents and talked to them for a bit while Jay is playing basketball with some friends in Oak Park. And we may go out for drinks when he gets home to celebrate something that I’m not allowed to mention until at least tomorrow. Stay tuned, imaginary readers — exciting developments (for him more than for me) are afoot!
Meanwhile, please read this essay about large underpants.
P.S. I love how the British use “pants” to express something that is somehow negative in a way that I am not 100% understanding. This site attempts to explain.
Almost a full year of not posting down the drain after several weeks with no new tv shows. I could, like, read a book or something, but instead I am suffering through an exceedingly dumb episode of South Park and trying to get my blog on. I’m pretty sure that there was a Dr Who marathon on Sci Fi today, so Tivo probably has plenty of Who goodness for me to watch. But Jay doesn’t get it, and I somehow feel bad making him watch. He’s usually a good sport about it, and I have certainly spent more than my fair share of time watching sports (and South Park), but I still feel bad.
The problem, of course, is that I just discovered the new Who series about a month ago, so I have a full 3 seasons to catch up on. And since the show is on three different channels, at least 5 times a week, there are a lot of opportunities to catch up. And so, I guess, it can seem as if Dr. Who is ALWAYS on, and if you don’t pay attention, a lot of the episodes can seem sort of… the same. (“Didn’t they already kill the Daleks? Why are there more Cybermen?”) He also thinks the aliens look silly, which, hello? That’s kind of part of the point.
In more tv-related news, I watched American Gladiators last night, and it wasn’t really as good as I was hoping. The new Eliminator, besides reminding me of Kenny Blankenship on MXC, is a total rip-off of the Ninja Challenge show. And…
Ohmygod I watch too much tv.
