Pant Dilemma

I hate deciding what to wear in the mornings. I stand there, freezing in my icebox of a room, donning my pink furry slippers and an oversized t-shirt . . maybe pajama pants if I wasn’t too lazy to put them on the night before. I stand, just staring at my shelves of clothing, closet of clothing, and piles of clothing. “First of all, what looks easy?”, I ask myself. What isn’t wrinkled and doesn’t require ironing or even ‘fluffing’ in the dryer? The answer to that question is probably less than half of what I own. I vow to myself each morning that on that very evening I will come straight home for the sole purpose of organizing my stuff and maybe even camping out in front of the TV and just ironing anything that needs it. Hard to believe I hate messes, because it seems that my room is the epitome of messiness. But really, I can’t stand them. That’s why, other than sleeping, I easily spend less than 10 minutes a day in there.

Anyway, back to my morning wardrobe dilemma . . . First, I select a shirt/sweater. . something I feel that I could pull off pretty effortlessly (“pull off” as in slip on and look decent in). Then, I decide which pairs of pants would look nice with that shirt. Mind you, I can’t have worn these pants yet that week, which makes the decision harder. If the only pair of pants that looks good with Chosen Sweater is the pair I wore two days ago, I have to pick a different sweater. This morning, the pants that I knew would look best were wadded up in the bottom of a laundry basket in the utility room. Super! I got to iron today. But, it wasn’t as simple as that, because The Pants were of such a material that they had to be turned inside out and ironed on low heat. Low heat just doesn’t cut it with these pants. They’re difficult. They’re made of thick material. Not to mention that they’re tailored cargo pants, so ironing the wrinkled pockets from inside the pants is a real chore.

After spending a good fraction of the time I’d allotted for getting ready that morning ironing, I went back to my room to put on the outfit. Other than the fact that my pants are about a millimeter away from not fitting around my waistline, I had no shoes to go with them! This is pretty amazing considering how many pairs I do own. The problem was that my pants are not long enough to be worn with heels and I don’t have any brown flats. Yet, I was in such a hurry that I am now wearing these pants with heels . . and, let me tell you, folks, I am embarrassed for myself. It could be worse, but it’s bad enough that I’m just not comfortable walking anywhere . . especially since I have mules on and my pants have even risen high enough to get stuck under my foot. If only I would’ve had another pair of pants that looked good with this sweater!

This pant dilemma today caused me to remember a conversation I had with BF the other day right outside the Banana Republic fitting room. We were shopping the fabulous indoor sidewalk sale and I found the cutest black pants in my size. . only to learn that BF had them already! Ah! I don’t want to copy, but it’s not like we’re together very much so no one would know but us. She said I could get them, but I’m still not sure if she really meant it. It’s just something you say because you know it isn’t that big a deal, but for some reason it kinda matters to you. You want to be an individual. You’d like to believe that you’re the only person in town with those pants - at least the only person you know. For some reason, when she said, “What are you trying on?”, I was almost nervous to turn around and show her for fear she’d say that she had them already. After I’d tried them on and they fit like a glove, she asked if I was going to get them. If you could’ve seen the inner struggle that was going on inside of me . . . I want to be sensitive to BF, but perhaps she really doesn’t care. After all, it is just pants, not a unique shirt or shoes. I think I made some comment to the effect of “I just knew you’d say you had them. You have so many pairs of pants”. To which she responded, “I could never have as many pairs of pants as you, Laurs.” Let’s just stop right there, because it makes no difference BUT that statement is completely untrue. I even was pathetic enough to try and list off my different colors/styles of pants just to prove I didn’t have that many pairs. BF said,

"I don't even have a pair of khakis."

"Yes you do; that darker khaki pair. I don't have a pair of corduroys."

"Neither do I."

"Yes, you do, the blue-gray pair."

You see, the difference between BF & I is that I announce every time I go shopping and make a purchase. She just shows up wearing something really cute or I see it hanging in her closet. So, it would appear that I have more, but I really don’t. I bet BF would've had more than one options to go with my sweater this morning.


By the way, BF, I love you . . . and I love your new Frye mules ;)

And I don't care how many pairs of pants you have.