Clothes

Trick or Treat?

~ shawnaborman ~ 1 Comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? I’m trying to trick myself into buying myself a treat. I’ve been trying to talk myself into something for a while, but always make excuses not to. It’s very hard to come up with a reason to buy things that I want. If I don’t need it, why should I waste the money? It’s not like anyone is telling me not to buy shit. On the contrary. I’m constantly encouraged to treat myself. I just don’t. So, if I can talk myself into buying a treat in the near future, what should it be?

1. Fancy chocolates. I’ve been leaning towards a literal treat, but I keep putting it off because the shipping is like half the price of the chocolates. And fancy chocolates are always a let down. It tastes like chocolate. My palate is not sophisticated enough for expensive chocolate or coffee or whatever else people try to convince you is a whole different experience when you pay stupid amounts of money for it. It’s still just chocolate. But the flavor combinations sound fun and the ones I’m looking at aren’t too ridiculously priced. Except the shipping. Maybe I’ll feel better about it if I add a couple of other items and the shipping stays the same.

2. A sweater/nice top. Or just clothes in general. I bought a lovely, thick sweater last year and have only worn it once. I can only think of a couple of situations to wear it since it’s Texas, but I still love it. I could use a thinner sweater or just a nice long sleeved top. I have a nice summer top, but I have a feeling I’ll need a skirt to wear with it. I keep forgetting it exists, though. But we don’t really do anything that requires nice clothing, so I have a hard time justifying spending the money on that stuff. I can’t even talk myself into buying stuff that will go into my every day rotation.

3. Shoes! I’ve refrained from buying shoes for a long time, but they are some of my favorite frivolous things. I stopped buying them because I only wear two pairs of boots (biker boots I’ve had since I was like 16 for every-day-winter-leaving-the-house wear and a nice bronze/brown pair with short heels in the event we go somewhere dressy during the winter), my two pairs of Converse, a pair of wedge sandals, and a pair of purple flip-flops. I have dressier shoes for summer, but never wear them. I also have my fluffy slipper bootie things that I wear most of the time in the winter. I just don’t need more shoes even though I love them.

JessyHerc

4. Jewelry. I randomly buy myself bracelets and necklaces, but then feel bad because I only wear them once or twice. I do want a new ring or two, but I don’t remember my size and I’m too socially awkward to go into a jewelry store, get my fingers sized, then leave without… you know… buying something. Rude. I guess I could just buy a sizer or print out one of the paper ones. I just haven’t. But I would definitely spend money on new rings because I wear one 99% of the time. That’s probably why I haven’t actually gotten sized. I don’t want to spend money.

There’s also art and knickknacks and things that I’ll never convince myself to buy. Also, weapons. I’ll never be able to afford the weapons I want unless I become a millionaire and can convince myself to part with a couple of thousand for no reason other than I want to. Anyway, should I buy myself a treat? What? What kind of treat would you buy yourself? As always, feel free to leave your thoughts or comments or questions here or on my social media pages!

I’m Not Stylish

~ shawnaborman ~ 1 Comment

Hello, hello! How’s everyone doing today? I’m currently feeling better. It’s been a little up and down since I started the antibiotics for my sinus infection, but I feel better than I have in a while, so fingers crossed. The pain is way down and the pressure is fading, but my mucus is clouding up again. We’ll see how goes. But let’s get back to the ‘about me’ thing we’ve been doing. I’ve done numbers 47 (you can find the list of prompts in that post), 13, 43, and 33. Number 27 will be the last one unless someone picks another number. Today, I’ll be answering number 11 for Danielle! The prompt is: favorite style of clothing.

Are we talking about clothes I wear or just clothes I like to look at? I’m pretty sure I recently did a post about pretty clothes I like to look at. Yup, here it is. As far as what I actually wear goes… jeans and shirts. In the summer, I mostly wear cut off jeans (jorts if you’re into portmanteaus) and t-shirts. It’s the easiest stuff to get on and pretty much the only stuff that doesn’t look completely stupid on me. I have to wear tops larger than I actually need so they will have enough give to get over my arms (they don’t move much, so the shirt has to stretch). T-shirts look fine no matter how big they are (to a point past what I need anyway… I wear XL, but 2XL looks mostly fine, and 3XL starts looking wonky). Fancy blouses, not so much.

I also occasionally wear dresses during the summer. If we’re going somewhere. So, I haven’t worn one since at least 2019 thanks to the plague. Most of my dresses came from Earthbound Trading Company and have that stretchy crinkle top that flares out into a skirt. They look okay. I also have a dress I got from Scarborough Faire that I actually kind of like. I like all of my dresses. I mean that I like it on me. My closet needs to be cleaned out, though. I never wear any of my skirts or stuff like that.

It’s far too hard to find a picture of me in a dress, so here’s one from when I was young and brave/stupid and went to clubs. And (holy crap) I actually kinda believe I look attractive in this pic.

In winter, I switch to jeans and long sleeve shirts, most of which are henleys. Same reason as why I wear mostly t-shirts. Easy to get on and look acceptable in larger sizes. Plus, most of my winter shirts are warm and snuggly. That’s about it. I do have a handful of sweaters, but I should probably replace most of them. I only really like two of them, but one is old and a little tight and the other looks plain. The plain one is great and cuddly, but I really only wear sweaters when we’re going somewhere nice. I’m not really sure it counts for that. Also, my sweaters are in women’s sizes, so they’re smaller than most of my tops. I usually buy unisex/men’s sizes since they’re about half a size larger.

But mostly, I like shoes. At home I’m almost always barefoot or wearing fluffies (slippers). But I love my Converse. I have a black pair and a white pair with shiny rainbow stars. I switch between those and flip flops or sandals in summer. In winter, I tend to wear boots if we go somewhere. I love my biker boots that I bought when I was sixteen or seventeen. My other favorite boots are a bronze pair I got a few years ago. Only got to wear them twice before the plague ruined everything. It’s been so long since I’ve worn any of my other shoes that I can’t remember which ones I still have. Oops.

And that’s enough rambling about clothes. I love lots of styles, but this is what I wear. Sorry for rambling and not actually saying anything interesting. Gold star to anyone who makes it this far! As always, feel free to leave your thoughts or questions here or on my social media pages.

Arguing With A Brick Wall

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this bright and beautiful day? It’s that time of year where all of the doctor check ups/appointments seem to pop up together. Dad and I had the one with our PCP last week, he has one with a shoulder specialist this week, I have a dentist appointment that I’ve been putting off since the pandemic began next week, at the end of the month I see the pulmonologist, then early next month we both have at least one more appointment. Anyway, it has me thinking about masks and how people refuse to wear them. It’s annoying. It’s idiotic. It’s just people being assholes. And I’ve already ranted about it before, but I guess I’ll do it again.

I laughed.

Despite what people say, there’s no reason not to wear a mask. Other countries have been wearing face masks for years. In Japan, it started about 150 years ago as a way for miners to cut back on inhaling dust. In 1918 they became more popular to help stop the spread of influenza. And from there it’s just become a normal part of life. It’s common courtesy to wear a mask, especially when sick, so you don’t spread your germs. Yes, having to wear it every time you go somewhere can be annoying if you’re not used to it, but that’s no reason to flip out about it. So, why are Americans so opposed to the little piece of cloth? It’s ridiculous.

I even got bored enough that when a friend made a snide comment on another friend’s Facebook post, I engaged in a stupid argument that ended up being about how masks are bad for kids, physically and mentally. I asked for sources. He sent three articles and a YouTube video. I didn’t watch the video (I had stuff to do and I prefer to read), but I did go through the articles. The first one quoted a study, but the study they link to is for something completely different and doesn’t mention the quote at all. The second article made claims without research to back it up (the research papers it did reference weren’t horrible, but left a lot of questions open), didn’t mention that solutions have been found for many of the issues, and was obviously skewed in what it mentioned or neglected to mention. The third article wasn’t even relevant since the study it was based on has been formally retracted due to questionable methodology. It took me a few clicks and some light reading to see how many holes these articles were full of. I didn’t even have to Google anything. I just followed their own links. Why don’t other people do that? It’s not usually hard, unless the sources and effort put into the article are legitimate. If everything is legit, it’s much harder to find flaws. And yet people still insist on using this stuff as “facts.” Just stop.

Yeah, I know. It’s all a conspiracy by the Left to control people. Right? Just like pants and shirts and shoes and every other item of clothing. That’s all masks are. New clothing. Why don’t you run around naked if you’re so against a piece of clothing? It’d be more entertaining than hearing another rant about civil liberties. Or is it because you don’t believe in Covid? I guess people are just dropping dead for no reason. Seriously. I don’t understand people. And it’s like arguing with a brick wall. Non-maskers are fucking idiots and that’s all I’m going to say on the matter.

I’ll try not to go off on a rant next week. Feel free to share your thoughts or comments here or on my social media pages as usual, but I will be monitoring any arguments and intervene if things devolve too far into chaos.