August 26th, 2019

If you know me at all by now, you are certain of a couple of things.  One, that I am tidy and Two, that once I am dressed for the day, I really  hate to change my clothes.   That Second thing is completely at odds with  Third thing about me which is that I have a real fixation about dressing appropriate to the occasion.  Lastly, I take very good care of everything I own.

You mix those things all together and well, it's just a mess sometimes.   Here is how it kind of works.  First thing in the morning, I check my calendar just to remind me what the heck is going on that day.  Whatever is the Most Important Thing in my day, is what I dress for and then I try to work everything else around that so that, I only have to get dressed one time. 

For example, if it's a Museum day, I dress appropriately to working in a museum and that is what I wear all day.  I plan to do nothing that will mess up those clothes.  If I am museum dressed, I do not, for example, change in the oil in the car or prune shrubs or scrub grout. Instead, I choose to do clean non-sweaty things until it's time to go to the museum.  When I get home, it's time to fix dinner but I wear a full apron over my clothes so that, once again, I don't ruin my clothes but also so I do not have to change my clothes.  Tidy is after all number 1 on my hit parade and not having to change clothes ranks a very close second place.

I have relaxed my standards a teensy bit for very rare situations.  I have been seen at the grocery store in my workout clothes a few times when I was really pressed for time. It felt strange to be out in "public" (actually Publix) in clothes that I normally only wear at the gym or in the Pilates studio where everyone else is dressed similarly.  Not  pretty picture by the way.  Gym garb, no make-up, no jewelry, messy hair and probably kind of sweaty.  FYI, nobody but me cared about that one bit.  But most of the time, I stick to my own personal rules (which by the way, only apply to me, nobody else.  I'm not going to be all judgey on you if you are mowing your lawn in a cocktail gown or tuxedo and in fact, I will probably admire you for it)

But every once in awhile, my rules go right out the window.  I had a day like that not long ago.

It was a teaching day so as soon as I was up and showered, I dressed in my "teacher clothes".  Yes my clothes are THAT specific to what I am doing.  So there I am, all looking teachery, hair looks good, make-up is fine, small but nice jewelry, I am ready to roll.  I did a few clean things around the house and had gathered my purse and my teachery gear and I was just about the leave when I got a phone call from my student that her son was sick and she couldn't come to class.  I thanked her for calling and then reconsidered my day.

  I now had a large block of unexpected free time.  Well dang it all, the thing that was needing to be done the most was to clean the bathrooms.  Bathroom cleaning requires a lot of cleaning products and bleach. I am not going to risk ruining my nice teachery clothes with bleach and I am a klutz so the probability is high so I am going to have to change clothes. Drat.  Oh well.  Off I went to change into grub clothes. Grub clothes are garments that I have already fairly well ruined with grass stains, paint drips and bleach blotches.  Ok.  

  So I scrubbed  bathrooms and then moved on to kitchen scrubbing at which point Tim was ready to do the noonwalk.  I glanced into a mirror. Holy cats, I  looked like a homeless urchin!  I quickquick changed into real clothes and we zoomed out the door.  We do the noonwalk on Tim's schedule between meetings and phone calls so there was no time to waste.  An unexpected rain shower drenched us both before we returned (I did remember to bring the small zippy bag so the hearing aides were perfectly fine).  As soon as we walked in the door, first order of business was to put on dry clothes.

I knew that I needed to run a few errands that afternoon so I chose new dry clothes that were presentable, fixed my hair again, make-up one more time and set out on my mission.  By the time I got back from my errands the temperature had dropped probably ten degrees.  I was so chilly in the house that I put on a sweater.  Not really an entire outfit change, but an addition so it counts.  After a few minutes, it was clear to me that the sweater was too warm.  But without it was too cool.  Sigh.  Only one option.  Take off  the sweater AND my lightweight sleeveless summer top and replace it with a lightweight pullover sweatshirt. Ok That works.  But it was definitely at least a half an outfit change.

As the day neared dinner time Tim appeared from his hidey-hole (home office) and said, "let's go out to eat tonight) and told me what restaurant he was in the mood for.  I know that one. It's always freezing cold in there.  So I changed again, into long pants, long sleeved shirt and closed toe shoes.

By bedtime I realized that I had changed clothes 5 1/2 time by my count. 6 if you include the change into my PJ's at the end of the day.  I had accumulated quite the pile of clothes that while not really dirty, were not really clean either and I was more tired than usual.

I think maybe it was all the ch ch ch changes of clothing that wore me out!  Sometimes I am absolutely ridiculous.  I can only stand here and shake my head at myself. Crazygirl.