Battling the Wardrobe Blues.

Oh goodie! I just got the last of my summer checks and it’s a biggie. Enough to fix the house (hopefully — we are still waiting for our quote from ye ol’ contractor) and to pay for the trip to Peru, with a little left over for other items. Earlier this summer, I expressed the desire to buy either a Wii or an iPhone; the desire for both has faded over time. It’s too damned hard to find a Wii (and when would I have the time to play it?) and the ATT network is having some kind of issues. Seeing how I left my regular cell phone buried in the bottom of my purse for, oh, six weeks without charging it … a iPhone would be wasted on me. I might break down eventually, but for now, I can live without it.

So this morning, between advising two grad students, one major, and one completely lost gen-ed kid, I decided to do a little shopping. Normally I go batshit crazy and buy a ton of books. Yeah, that didn’t happen this time. I’m still working my way through the pile of books I bought off the $3 table at Borders; plus, I have two research projects going, so I have all that reading to do. I did buy a manual about fixing vintage cameras, but that’s about it.

I did go a bit crazy with clothes. You see, my typical teaching uniform is:

• sweater/shirt/khakis
• shirt/turtleneck/khakis
• Blazer/shirt/turtleneck/skirt

Once in a while, I’ll wear a t-shirt — if it’s a test day and the message works well — and sometimes I wear a suit (ugh, Administration!) but my closet includes the same style of shirt in different colors, the same style of pants in different colors, etc. Now, I noticed that my turtlenecks were starting to look a bit ratty. I guess they should, seeing how I’ve had most of them for at least seven years. So today, I bit the bullet and logged onto the LL Bean website.

Three new turtlenecks later … I logged onto the Land’s End website. I nearly bought a cashmere sweater (I want one BAD), but I couldn’t bring myself to part with my hard earned savings. Instead, I bought two scarves, both marked down to $9.99, to use in my car. Yeah, I need them because my hair is approaching shaggy hippie length and I have to tie it down or I end up with hair that looks like the crazy bus driver’s on South Park.

No, I won’t cut my hair. It’s at an awkward stage right now, but I am trying to get it long enough to French braid while I am in Peru. Last year’s Mexico experience with cold showers was an eye-opening one. But, this is besides the point.

I did roam around a bit on the J.Jill and Eddie Bauer websites, but everything was butt ugly. I did find a coat I liked in the digital bargain bin at Eddie Bauer, but it was sold out when I tried to buy it. Blah. So, I went to the Old Navy website and bought a shirt, two tanks, and a pair of blue jeans.

WTF? When did buying jeans become so complicated?  

Oh the choices! Wide , boot cut, skinny, or flair legs. Dark, light or indigeo wash. Diva or flair cut. Short, regular, or long legs. Buttons to the side. Zippers on the front. Mother of God! All I wanted was a pair of jeans to wear with t-shirts! After perusing the site for about 45, I ended up with something along the lines of flair/dark/diva/short. And, of course, they will never be short enough.

The disclaimer here is that I haven’t bought a pair of blue jeans since I worked in Chicago, oh, 12 years ago. I wore the same ones all through grad school, never wore them in Louisiana, and ocassionally threw them on while working as a teaching fellow. All of my jeans now have holes where I shoved my hands in my pockets way too hard. But, I just picked up three hysterical t-shirts to wear throughout the campaign season (see here, here, and here) and t-shirts don’t look right with anything other than shorts or blue jeans.

And now, I must go back to advising hell …