Friday, January 27, 2006

How I know I've been away from civilization too long

I am seriously realizing that I have spent entirely too much time in the country lately. I REALLY need a city fix. Maybe a lunch out with mom? Or dinner out with Steve? Oh, it's not that we don't go OUT...it's that we go to little places like "Best Friends Restaurant" where the gravy covers everything. I need something fancy schmancy and decidedly less artery-clogging.

What brings this up, you ask? My laundry. Yep...I've gone round the bend about my laundry.

The other day I received some clothes I had bought off eBay. They came in a recycled brown box (you know you do it too), but they were carefully placed in between some crisp pieces of white tissue paper and were obviously freshly dry-cleaned and pressed. They even still had the dry cleaners tags on them! I was ecstatic! I haven't used a dry cleaners since...oh lord...I don't know when. There has got to be something seriously wrong with me if I'm getting this excited over freshly laundered clothing.

Then this morning, I was ironing my button down "stretch" shirt (you know the kind...cotton/spandex blend that us fat girls wear to give the impression that we have a figure somewhere under our fat rolls) and all I kept thinking was, "No matter how much I iron this shirt it's not going to look like those other ones did from the cleaners." And I was actually sad about it! I started calculating in my head how much it would cost me to have my work shirts cleaned and pressed weekly (too much if I'm going to maintain any sort of other bad habits...like buying expensive yarn...and eating). Then I realized that it really wouldn't matter anyway. Here I am getting all dressed up (and it's not even "dressed up" by NORMAL professional standards), and I KNOW I'm going to walk into my meeting this afternoon to find at least one person wearing jeans and work boots...maybe even a worn out baseball cap.

I DO love the country. It has many advantages. But I really think I need to revisit civilization every now and then or I just might start wearing my wrinkled pajama pants to the grocery store (but now I'm told that may actually be "IN" now...who knew?).
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I took the plunge and bought the 80% alpaca, 20% angora yarn from my friend. It's so soft, I just want to sit here and pet it for a while. It's a natural color...I will post pictures later. Now I just need to figure out what I want to make with it. She tells me it doesn't have the "memory" of other types of yarns, so something flowy or drapey would probably be best. And before someone suggests it...no...I still will not make a poncho. To find the perfect pattern...

Good grief...I've been in the country so long I'm buying locally produced textiles/fibers and making my own clothes.

Help!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ahem.

If you want city my friend. please come have lunch with me someday. That is an actual invitation.

kate said...

Heh...i live in the city and i *still* don't dryclean my clothes -- those robbers will bankrupt you. And i think your new yarn sounds just yummy...how about the old standby, a scarf? You could get some fancy ribbon for the ends to weave through and give it a little more color, since it is natural. My favorite yarn store has these hand-dyed silk ribbons which are fab...

cat said...

MMMMMmmmmm... Alpaca/Angora... sweet. If not a poncho then how about a lovely large shawl or throw to snuggle up to.

Unlike ponchos they are almost always in style. Country or city.

Can't wait to see the yarn.

laura said...

you must come see me! i am up to my eyeballs until hans's birthday, but then we must set a date for you to come in for a city day.

Kathy McC said...

God...I haven't been to a dry cleaner in ages. But that "oh so crisp" look is just impossible to duplicate...*sigh*

Mom

My mom insisted on living independently. She wanted to live in the two-story house she and my dad built in the 70s, despite the fact that da...