Flotsam and Jetsam

This blog has many topics, so try to keep up with the group.

1. I bought a new bra! Hooray! Recently, a graduation card was uncovered containing an American Express gift card for $50! So, I decided that I wanted to spend that money on something that I would probably not normally. So I decided to go to the lingerie store in my town and splurge on a bra that fit. I must say that I found the experience to be totally painless. I went in, explained that I needed a fitting and the chicklet was very helpful. I decided beforehand that I would accept what she gave me, not try to dictate to her the kinds of styles that I am used to, and see what she came up with. Mostly I like the shaped bras, no padding, but that weird stuff that makes the bra stand up on its own. She brought me a lacy model. I put it on and loved it. It fit and it was comfy. I had been wearing a 40 DD, now I am wearing a 40FF. As my wife so aptly pointed out, at least its not a 40I.

Along those same lines, as the chicklet was ringing me up she asked for my name. Apparently the store keeps records of your personal purchases so that you can come in and say, “listen I need a new bra, I have no time, I don’t remember what it was that I had”, they can pull it up and off the shelf and hand it to you. Nice. But as I told her my name she says, “I know someone with that last name”. Of course I knew she was talking about my brother, and she says, “Yeah, I knew him in high school. How is he?” I responded with some pat answer. Honestly, I can’t even buy a bra in this town without people circuitously trying to hit on my brother!

2. The weather. I don’t understand people sometimes. I simply don’t. Everyone at my office was thrilled when it was 75 degrees outside and now that it is threatening snow and freezing rain they’re all in the dumps. I don’t get it. I think that there is beauty to be found in all of the seasons. Fall has cool colors and that nice crispness in the air, Spring has new flowers and a mild temperature, Summer seems to be the teacher’s pet, but I generally find it to be a little too hot, though of course, it is quite enjoyable. Winter is awesome as well! There is sometimes snow, snow ball fights and snowmen, the cold air finds its way into crevices and reminds you that you’re alive! I love it when my face is cold and raw, I am never so aware of the tip of my nose! There are cool clothes to wear, coats and mittens and cool scarves and gloves and hats. Were it not for cold weather knitting would be a thing of the past.

My mother and I were talking about going to the beach and I foolishly brought that up to my “fair weather friends” at work. (that is, they are friends to fair weather, not that they are only my friends when things are going well. Just to clarify). They bemoaned the beach in winter, claiming that it has “no point” and that they “cant understand why you would go to the beach in winter”. Listen. The beach is cool year round. It has more to offer than catching rays under an umbrella in summer. More often than not, you get the entire thing to yourself and you can fantasize that you are the only one on the planet. Or at least the only one on the planet who can appreciate things out of the ordinary. You can pretend that you are at the beginning of the world, before buildings and shops popped up like weeds and made everything sad. There are things to be discovered in the out of the ordinary. Walking on a beach in winter may be colder, duh, and you may not get to feel sand in your toes, but there are other senses. You get to hear the waves without someones ipod speakers blaring up. You get to smell the sea air without cigarette smoke blowing up your nose. You can chase sand pipers without running over 4 year olds. A beach is part of nature, and nature has seasons. If you don’t like it, go live in California. But remember that repetition breeds boredom. When all you get is one thing, that’s all you get. I think its pretty blindingly naive to think that if you lived on the beach in California that you would never tire of it. Humans by nature get bored, as Terry Pratchett so apty put it,

“You had to hand it to human beings. They had one of the strangest powers in the universe. No other species anywhere in the world had invented boredom. Perhaps it was boredom, not intelligence, that had propelled them up the evolutionary ladder. That strange ability to look at the universe and think ‘oh, the same as yesterday, how dull. I wonder what happens if I bang this rock on that head?’”