Salvation Army Score

Let's see if I can tell you about this--the ring finger is killing me big time this week, which means typing is no fun at all. But I want to show you what $19.96 will buy on a half-off day at one of the charity thrifts. Here, that's the Salvation Army on Fridays and Goodwill on Sundays.

What I like about the Salvation Army is that it's close to our house (since we're almost right downtown, it's about a mile away) and that they have Voucher Coats--racks of coats you can get with vouchers. I like this because I figure people who really need a coat have access to those, and I don't worry so much that something I buy from the regular racks might have been something they really needed.

The things I don't like about the SA, though, are legion. It's dirty, and there are very strange people who hang out there, both inside (a woman who alternates between yelling at me and trying to be friends) and outside, where they sit and wait. All around the building, in the nooks and crannies and doorways of surrounding buildings and under trees and in the alley, are piles of bedding and possessions. I'm thinking 95% of the people in Midland have no idea that this block even exists. Midlanders like to think they don't have a homeless population, given that we have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation and are still doing really well financially, thank you very much, George W! When oil hits $100 a barrel, we'll be doing even better!

When I say "we" here, I'm speaking metaphorically, as "we" doesn't factually include, say, *me*. Or The EGE. Or anyone who doesn't benefit directly from The Awl Bidness. And since the people in Midland who DO benefit from that business don't really support things like art shows or galleries or museums or concerts or public art of any kind, well.

Oops. Did I start to rant? Sorry about that. What I was saying is that the area around the Salvation Army is blighted and sad and populated with people who aren't going to benefit from low unemployment numbers no matter how low they are, given their many problems, and most people in this town have no clue that they exist. I don't know that I'll be going there ever Friday because it's just quite horrid. Plus I don't like that toothless woman yelling at me. Plus I have to make sure I dress properly. Yesterday I had on old jeans, tennis shoes, an old baggy shirt, a knit hat, and sunglasses. I don't carry a bag, and I didn't wear make-up. I figure if I were hanging out there, I'd be really offended by someone who came to shop dressed as if they were going to Neiman's. You know: designer jeans, fur hat, $500 boots. Not that I own any of that stuff, but you know.

Anyway. So I bought stuff and brought it home and washed it and then tried it on, and some of it is going back. This is what I do to make myself feel good. If I don't love it, I donate it back. So I gave them money for it, and then I give them the stuff back. Not much, but it's something. Anyway--there were three pair of Wet Seal jeans--cheap things, but really bright colors. Alas, they were not only cheap but were made for someone about 15, someone who likes to have the "waist" of their pants down around their crotch and doesn't mind needing suspenders to keep those pants from exposing parts of the anatomy even plumbers don't show off.

Plus they shrank. So never mind the bright green and fuchsia and blue hues; they're going back.

But the other stuff? Oh, my--it's fabulous.

The EGE found this:  a black gi. It felt new, and I don't think it had been laundered. It's going to have to be ironed now that I've washed and dried it, but I think it has a lot of possibilities. Plus I like the way it feels. I worked with a gi before--one I appliqued and did machine embroidery on, but I think it was a poly blend, and we never bonded. This one is 100% cotton and is going to be cool as soon as I press the fire out of the wrinkled parts and stitch those into submission.

[You may notice I had some help this morning.]

There's this Ralph Lauren size 6 Knee Skirt (that's what it says on the tag: "Knee Skirt") that I love because it's so well-broken-in. I've talked here before about how much I love pre-worn clothes, and how I've always loved them and felt deprived as a child because I never had hand-me-downs. I wanted hand-me-downs so badly as a kid, but there was no one to hand them down. Plus I was a large child--I reached this size pretty much in junior high, and while the size I am doesn't seem large now, it sure did back in 1969, let me tell you. I was the third biggest kid in elementary school, right after Peter Burkett, who was both tall and chubby (the only "fat kid" in the whole school, believe it or not--and now he'd be considered  on the skinny side of what's normal) and Sally Graham, who was a giantess of a girl back then and the only girl I ever knew who wore (slightly) larger shoes than I did, but she was also rich and so didn't care and is now probably ambassador to some European nation.

So:  I love old, soft, worn clothing. Love it.

Sometimes it's hard to find clothes to fit, though, esp. jeans. If they're long enough, they're too big. If they fit me, they hit somewhere around my ankles. In some cases, I'm willing to work with this. These Levi's, for instance. I love Levi's. They're hard to find. So if they fit at all, I'll work with them. These fit, but they're 1) way, way too short and 2) too flared to fit inside boots, which is the standard remedy for too-short jeans. You can see the pins where I'm going to start tapering just below the knee and come down to make just a small opening. I'll rip out the hems to make everything flat and smooth. They'll look fabulous with boots.

Speaking of:  a friend told me the other day that she's "too old" to wear jeans tucked inside boots. I just looked at her the way a dog looks at you when you're talking about filing tax returns. She's about my age, and fabulous, and this baffled me. It's a Rule I hadn't heard, and I'm not even sure where it comes from. Now, I know a lot of the rules--well, I'm learning them, one at a time, because there's this book at Barnes and Noble, and sometimes when I'm looking for more Look Books, which I adore, I'll pick this up to entertain myself. It's something like "How Not to Look Old"--yes! Here it is: How Not to Look Old:

Omigod. It's filled with the most amazing Rules ever, like what color lipstick to wear and what colors are "old" and which ones are Y&H. And what gets me--what drives me INSANE--are all the tips are about how to look Y&H, for "young and hip." And that also kind of makes me want to cry, thinking that there are women my age who desperately want to look Young and Hip. "Hip" is not a good thing, because "hip" means:
hep, up-to-date, knowing what's going on. [And, by the way, "hep" is a pretty weird word all by itself, gaining that meaning in 1908 but having a really different, anti-Semetic use prior to that. Odd. Words are both fascinating and strange.]

Anyway:  so being hip, being tuned into the current fashion = eh. Remember:  style is good; fashion is foolish. Having a personal style is wonderful; following current trends is just nuts. But they want us to do that, never mind that we're way past the age when it's going to benefit us in any way (you know, like being so groovy looking we receive offers from rich billionaires who think we look so hot and fabulous they're willing to pay to keep us in a penthouse apartment and set up a line of credit for us at Bloomingdale's.) But people are making money making up these rules for us. Although it's hard to trust a woman who'll put a photo like that on the cover:  windswept hair, chest thrust. Aieeeeeee.

Whew. Where was I? Let me scroll back and check.

Ah. Jeans tucked into boots. Rules for Older Women. Let's all go rinse out our brains, cleansing them from society's strictures, by visiting Ari Seth Cohen's Advanced Style Ladies, shall we?

Ahhhhhh. Much better! I love Ari and his friends.

So here are are two more pair of jeans, these just fabulous. They're Gap jeans. I've never bought, nor even tried on, Gap jeans, but these are perfect:  they fit, and--yahoo!--they're long enough! Unbelievable. One is flare, and one is boot cut. Already soft and ready to wear. I don't have to do A Single Thing to these, amazingly. Oh, I forgot:  everything I bought yesterday was either $1.99 or $2 apiece, depending on how they do half-of-$3.99.

And then this cotton sweater, which I love. It's not shiny like this--this photo makes it look worn and more tired than it actually is. It had shoulder pads--I think I get a lot of stuff because it has shoulder pads. People see those and go, "Ick. Out of Fashion!" and pass it by. I get it, toss it in the wash, remove the shoulder pads, and wear it happily. For this sweater, I have this idea of running lots of strands of bright embroidery floss in a haphazard way through the weave. I don't know that I can do "haphazard" effectively, but it would be a good exercise for me. I've been working on the concept of "random" for decades: when The EGE and I used to decorate Christmas packages, we'd do stick-on stars, and his would look like a galaxy, and mine would be all evenly-spaced and anal, and so I'd watch him and then practice to try to place them randomly (and if that--practicing to be random--made you snort, you get extra points for paying attention). I've been seeking randomness ever since.

OK. I've taxed my poor finger--and your patience (every time I do a long rambling blog post, I think of two people:  my lovely editor, who definitely won't make it this far, as she firmly and sensibly believes that, when it comes to text, less is more; and the person who commented on a blog post long ago that I use "too many words")--enough this morning. Thanks for reading this far, even if you're gnashing your teeth at me~~♥

And what are you up to this weekend? Hope it's something you love~~