Monday, January 19, 2009

Designer Me

I never really got the concept of designer jeans. Oh, I guess I understood that you could add some stitching, a certain fit (although Levis offers fits galore), some rhinetones, some creative fading and even some wear you wouldn't have to put on them yourself. I guess I'd rather design my life myself. I wear Men's 34x30 Levis in 550 or 560 fits. The former only fit when I weigh less than 165. They come in a white-washed blue, regular washed blue and black over dye. The latter are best for travel, showing little grime and topped with a nice collared shirt and blazer, able to sneak where their more denim-looking breathen will not.

This is a shop window reflection from the very high-end Julian Gold store on West Sixth. I've never been inside except when it was a very cool travel store called TravelFest in which we invested. (We lost our money. We weren't bailed out. But I digress.)

We are all designing our lives. We decide whether to go to the gym or walk the lake. (Or, you know, just sit here blogging.) We decide whether to put up with congestion or take an OTC drug. We decide, in fact, when to see doctors for tests and treatments. We decide what to wear, first by buying stuff and then by selecting. We decide on our haircut (maybe our hair color). Glasses? What style? Or...contacts. We pick a car, a place to live. We study for a certain career, take a job or not. We pick our hobbies. Tennis? Who will we play with? How competitive will we be? Will we take lessons? Bridge? Casual or serious duplicate for points? We decide what to eat and when. Coffee or no? (This morning our coffee machine, the expensive Jura E8 was acting up. I knew we had this problem before and couldn't remember how to fix it. We called the 800 concierge number and we were up and running in a minute.) Yeah, we decide what appliances to own. Coffee at home or out. (We could go downstairs in the morning now and get coffee at the shop in the building or one just across the street. I was about to do that when we got our machine working.)

We decide when we go out and when we stay home. We decide when to travel. (Maybe our employer decides, but still we make lots of decisions along the way.) Lots of people chose to be in Washington, standing in the cold watching that concert on the Lincoln Memorial. OMG, who was NOT there? Me. I was home watching it after the fact off the DVR. "Who is that?" Rewind. "Oh, Pete Seeger's grandson."

When we are at our computers, we decide what mail to answer. We decide what blogs to read, what news to watch. Today I decided to download some backup and sync software because I read about it in The New York Times because I decided to read the NYT last night instead of reading a book. We have the Times because we decided to subscribe years ago and are powerless to stop. It's an addiction.

What will I choose today and what differences will it make as I bump against all the other choosers (or is that deciders as GWB said?) and their choices?

Life is fascinating after the first couple of cups of coffee, huh?

4 comments:

Sarah said...

So, did you get a cold or were you able to dodge it this time? I did the echinacea/goldenseal routine this time and, while I still got a cold, it wasn't so virulent as in previous years.

I live in jeans when I can. I have even gone to work in black jeans or other colors (except blue), though our dress code says NO JEANS. I wear a top that comes down over the pocket rivets, so who's to know?

One of the reasons I long to retire is that I want to wear what I prefer--jeans, tees, sweaters in the cold, upper body undergarments at a minimum. When that day comes, I'm going to have some kind of getting-rid-of-work-clothes ritual to mark the occasion. Until then....I skirt the line of acceptable and never wear skirts.

Linda Ball said...

I think I have allergies. It's gotten better but no fever and, at the moment, just a drippy nose and my eyes are burning. Because I went outside, I guess. Nevertheless I'm trying tennis tomorrow. No headache though and that's a relief and no sore throat and no cough to speak of.

When I started work, skirts WERE required as they were at college. Hard to believe. That got relaxed to 'pants suits' and at the end of my career I had a job where we wore whatever we pleased except when I saw customers I wore custom dress pants, shirts and blazers. (With two inside pockets so I could carry a briefcase but no purse.) I couldn't believe that I could go to work when I was just designing and coding in jeans and a polo and hiking boots. Yeah!

Anonymous said...

How did the sync software do? I read the article and was thinking about trying it.

Linda Ball said...

So far the syncplicity software seems to be pretty cool. But I haven't simulated a recovery or anything. But whenever I save the file it goes to work to sync it.