Tonight I decided to venture out.
I went to a place I don't often go, these days.
I don't often go because I don't enjoy it.
To be honest, I usually leave with a strong desire to eat something delicious and NOT nutritious!
I went.................
SHOPPING FOR JEANS! ***shriek***
Yes, that's right. I did it. And tonight, unlike most times I go, I actually came home with a pair of blue jeans. denim pants. dungarees, if you will. :)
I walked into the store and went to the section with the name that I knew had treated me right, in the past. And I proceeded to sift through the many pairs of jeans. I picked out about 6 pairs (3 diferent pairs but each in 2 different sizes- because it's not as easy for a girl to just pick a pair of jeans, in one certain size, and know that they will fit right) and walked to the fitting rooms. Uh-huh. It's not that they didn't fit. They did. Well, I guess that depends on what you determine is a right fit. My grandma probably would have said they looked like I poured myself into them. Yup. Someone else might have said, they looked great and I should get them!
One thing that really deterred me from them was this: those words skinny or straight. Why? Why is it that most jeans, these days, are skinny or straight legged. Excuse me for saying that straight is just a different word for tapered. And if I remember correctly, tapered jeans went out of style long before my mom turned 40! So what made them come back? And skinny just means that they're leggings made out of denim. I don't like to wear these kind of jeans for several reasons. If you wear them, great! They're just not my favorite.
Which got me thinking about clothes and fashion and how much has changed in the last 100 years! A hundred years ago would be about the time of "Downton Abey". If you're a fan (and even if not) you probably know what that was like. Dresses. When women started wearing pants, it seemed like a HUGE thing and they were mostly really really loose and flowing ones.
Ladies in nice dresses, Paris 1914.
Photographer: Gustave Martin.
(http://servatius.blogspot.com/)
Sometimes I wish we could go back to those days. The days where there was much less body hugging and skin showing clothing. Days where long flowing dresses were more common and they seemed to cover up and make everyone look more similar. Days where you didn't wear clothes that my grandma would say looked like they were painted on. :)
Honestly, I sometimes think it would be an easier way of life to live as The Amish do. Yup. :) Technology is amazing and I truly love it! I wouldn't be able to blog without it. I would miss my phone and Facebook and being able to get in my car and drive many miles in the matter of minutes! BUT.......sometimes. sometimes I think of a simpler life. A life that doesn't include all of the things that are meant to make our lives easier and yet can actually make things more complicated- including deciding what to wear. As an Amish woman, you don't have much to choose from and so I'm sure they don't spend much time, at all, looking through their closet, trying to find something that they WANT to wear! It's an easier choice. Yellow or blue? Or maybe red? :)
A few years ago I was in a hurry to get home from the store. I turned the corner, getting closer to home, and got behind a young Amish couple. They were in an open wagon (unlike the more common buggies). You could see that they had been to Wal-Mart (and probably a few other places) and were headed home. Headed towards the country. Away from the city lights and hustle and bustle (as much as my town of 30,000 people can hustle and bustle!). As I passed them I started to think. It was a beautiful spring evening. Not too cold and not too hot. Beautiful. And it was just the two of them. And knowing that the closest Amish house would be at least a few miles down the road, I knew that they had some time until their horses got them there. If they were in any sort of hurry, there was nothing they could do about it. In fact, they'd probably let go of any anxiety of being in a hurry simply because there was nothing they could do to get there faster. So, I imagined the different things they would get to talk about as they rode home. The smiles they shared. The laughs they had. Maybe even some cuddling and dreaming of the future. The memories they made. All in their trip home from Wal-Mart. Wow!
I have to admit, that night, as I watched them, for that split second it took me to drive past them, I was a bit jealous. Don't tell me that you wouldn't have been too! :)
But I digress. :)
Tonight, I ended up finding a pair of jeans, off by themselves, that the legs were flare. I don't normally jump at the chance to buy a pair of flare jeans but I tried them on anyway. And they weren't too bad. :) I took them up to the cash register, unsure of the actual cost of this pair of jeans, because of finding them apart from the section that boasted a "sale" sign. The tag said $40 but I told myself that I didn't like them enough to pay that much but I would like them enough to pay $23 at the most. To my surprise they rang up at $19.99! I exclaimed "OH, SWEET! I'll take them!" and walked from the store, knowing I now have another decent pair of jeans to add to the motley crew at home. It's a far cry from Amish, but in a sea of skinny jeans, I walked away with the pair that were just different enough that some might look at me funny. But I don't care. :) Yup. I guess I'm just a horse of a different color! And you know what, that's quite alright with me! It takes all kinds! :)
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