Giddyap!
As my birthday is rapidly approaching and I contemplate getting older, I feel like I've changed in many way, but one thing has remained constant: I continue to be a clotheshorse. And yes, that's a word I actually use because my mother used to say it (just like "bee's knees"). According to the Online Eytmology Dictionary it was originally a wooden rack for hanging wet laundry on, and by 1850 also meant a "a person whose sole function seems to be to show off clothes." I'm not really into wearing wet laundry, but that second definition is definitely me.
I'm not saying that I'm into high fashion or trendy fashion...mostly I just like cheap and fun fashion (my apologies, environment). I really can't identify too many brands that aren't sold at Target. But I just love to buy clothes and put together outfits. There is nothing like the anticipation of getting to wear something new...or the frustration of not being able to find a piece of clothing I'm looking for. (Where, or where, is my The Current hoodie I lost circa 2008?)
There are two major downsides of my clothing obsession. 1) We do not have enough room for all the clothes I own, so most of my wardrobe ends up balled up in mounds in clothes baskets. (We do have extremely small closets, but that can only account for so much). 2) Even when I can find my clothes, I don't have enough places or occasions in my life to wear most of what I own.
I've written about this all before (To Me She's Married Not Unto My Clothes) but I've been thinking about my wardrobe even more lately with my birthday looming. Not only is my birthday a great excuse to treat myself with some new clothes, I'm trying to make the most of any clothes I have--new or old--that are aquamarine. As if getting older isn't stressful enough, along with squeezing the most out of every possible birthday-related social, and drinking, opportunity, I have self-imposed pressure to buy and wear as much as aquamarine as I can.
Why? From another post (Tuesday's Needy Piscean Child): "Yet one more bit of birthday-trappings that I'm obsessed with is my birthstone color, aquamarine. For no logical reason, I've started wearing the color everyday in the days leading up to and following my birthday. This year I think I've been wearing it for about a week straight. I would probably wear it more, but that starts bumping into St. Valentine's Day time, when I really, of course, like to wear pink and red. According to the first Google hit I got, aquamarine "has long been a symbol of youth, health and hope." Maybe wearing it will make me healthier and ward off some of the effects of my bad Pisces decisions. Or maybe my fixation on thematic color dressing is a lasting side-effect of having grown up in the era of Garanimals."
Yes, I realize I make my life needlessly hard. I have definitely heard the theory that if women didn't spend so much time thinking about patriarchially imposed-concerns, such as their body weight, all this mental energy would be freed up to cure cancer. But I just find that stressful and guilt-inducing...like it's my fault that I'm wasting time thinking about my clothes and whatnot. But really, best case scenario, I can only imagine that I would think about nothing (and not be saving the world with my redirected mental energy).
Tonight I finally made it back to trivia and one of the questions was about the more "traditional" (changed in 1952 or 1912, sources vary) March birthstone: Bloodstone. Ooh, that sounds powerful. Mostly a darker blue/green, with, you guessed, it, specks of red.
I think I'm just grateful that there isn't a color-themed official birthday drink. If there was I might be stuck with something made with blue curacao or Hpnotiq.
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| One of my favorite aquamarine dresses |
I'm not saying that I'm into high fashion or trendy fashion...mostly I just like cheap and fun fashion (my apologies, environment). I really can't identify too many brands that aren't sold at Target. But I just love to buy clothes and put together outfits. There is nothing like the anticipation of getting to wear something new...or the frustration of not being able to find a piece of clothing I'm looking for. (Where, or where, is my The Current hoodie I lost circa 2008?)
There are two major downsides of my clothing obsession. 1) We do not have enough room for all the clothes I own, so most of my wardrobe ends up balled up in mounds in clothes baskets. (We do have extremely small closets, but that can only account for so much). 2) Even when I can find my clothes, I don't have enough places or occasions in my life to wear most of what I own.
I've written about this all before (To Me She's Married Not Unto My Clothes) but I've been thinking about my wardrobe even more lately with my birthday looming. Not only is my birthday a great excuse to treat myself with some new clothes, I'm trying to make the most of any clothes I have--new or old--that are aquamarine. As if getting older isn't stressful enough, along with squeezing the most out of every possible birthday-related social, and drinking, opportunity, I have self-imposed pressure to buy and wear as much as aquamarine as I can.
Why? From another post (Tuesday's Needy Piscean Child): "Yet one more bit of birthday-trappings that I'm obsessed with is my birthstone color, aquamarine. For no logical reason, I've started wearing the color everyday in the days leading up to and following my birthday. This year I think I've been wearing it for about a week straight. I would probably wear it more, but that starts bumping into St. Valentine's Day time, when I really, of course, like to wear pink and red. According to the first Google hit I got, aquamarine "has long been a symbol of youth, health and hope." Maybe wearing it will make me healthier and ward off some of the effects of my bad Pisces decisions. Or maybe my fixation on thematic color dressing is a lasting side-effect of having grown up in the era of Garanimals."
Yes, I realize I make my life needlessly hard. I have definitely heard the theory that if women didn't spend so much time thinking about patriarchially imposed-concerns, such as their body weight, all this mental energy would be freed up to cure cancer. But I just find that stressful and guilt-inducing...like it's my fault that I'm wasting time thinking about my clothes and whatnot. But really, best case scenario, I can only imagine that I would think about nothing (and not be saving the world with my redirected mental energy).
Tonight I finally made it back to trivia and one of the questions was about the more "traditional" (changed in 1952 or 1912, sources vary) March birthstone: Bloodstone. Ooh, that sounds powerful. Mostly a darker blue/green, with, you guessed, it, specks of red.
I think I'm just grateful that there isn't a color-themed official birthday drink. If there was I might be stuck with something made with blue curacao or Hpnotiq.
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