Need to Get Out More

One of the things about being a writer is that, IMHO, one needs to get out into the world and see and feel what's going on out there, be a bit engaged with the world as it is, the good, the bad and the ugly, even the commercial. That's why I feel a bit guilty about not watching much TV, or knowing the latest rock stars (are there still rock stars?) Unless you are writing historical, it seems like you as a writer need to be out there on the edge, observing and feeling and taking notes.

None of that was on my mind when I started looking for a kind of jacket online today during a lull at work. We're travelling to Paris and Berlin in late fall, and I'm already thinking travel wardrobe thoughts. The thing is, in Europe as in NYC, I don't like to be the country cousin. It's nicer to be a little bit au courant and on the cusp of things, age appropriate, season appropriate, and all that rubbish. So a new jacket is in order. Something for late fall, not hideous New England winter. Something to go with some decent wardrobe stuff already hanging in the closet. In other words, let's not get carried away here.

So there I was, googling, rejecting this, considering that, when I hit Nordstrom's web site, and all of a sudden, there were suitable jackets galore and they were all on sale! I mentally postponed the night's schedule, which included finally finishing the big put-together-into-one-ungainly-document of Promiscuous Mode, and nothing would do but to cruise down to the mall in Providence and strafe thru Nordstrom's for those jackets.

Significant other had noticed some cool shoes on sale at Nordstrom's in today's paper and was gung ho to shop, so off we went, with the idea of a cheap dinner at the mall and a quick shop.

I am not a Shopper with a capital 'S', but I have been shopping thrice this summer. That may not sound like a lot to some of you, but it seemed like plenty to me.

What I observed at the mall: my sneakers are all about 4 years out of date and weigh 4 times as much as any current sneaker. Put on to do list. Shop for new sneakers that don't weigh 5 pounds each.

Kid in hip hop clothing (looked like basketball uniform). Can someone tell me why masculine atheletes wear what looks to be skirts while playing ball with what looks to be a panty girdle underneath? Same kid purchasing sneakers at Nordstroms. Significant other looking askance. I am browsing through shirts in the young men's department. Realize some of this stuff is for men younger than my kids. Feel like old grandma. Handsome young mixed race kid that looks about 20 pulls out a roll of 5o dollar bills and buys three pair of sneakers. S.O. still completing sale. When he finally finishes, I say ,"we have to get out more." He agrees. Aging hippie type with very long hair looking at shoes. The world here seems very different that at work and at home and in the supermarket.

In the ladies jackets, I don't see anything like what I saw on the web site, and can't even find anything to try on. Very accomodating sales clerk shows me catalog, but I still can't find the web stuff. Decide to order on the web and return if it doesn't fit or I don't like. Found 2 cool t-shirts in the teeny-bopper section and bought them anyhow.

Can't find Fire and Ice, can't get into the Cheesecake Factory. I am in diet mode this week and tell S.O., "I can't eat any cheesecake and if I can't eat it you can't either." He nods. Moot point.
Can't find Joe's Bar and Grill, so we end up in fancy restaurant and blow a hundred bucks. So much for cheap eats. I order the vegetarian plate, and it is muy delicious and surely very healthy, but it tastes too good to be diet, and the scale will not have gone down in the morning. Maaybe we don't have to get out more. The two cans of tuna are still on the kitchen counter waiting for dinner. Tomorrow is another day.

Aloha,

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