Thursday, September 03, 2009

Dahlia

Procrastination Station

This week I've been trying to do at least one thing I've been procrastinating on each day. On Monday I finally made an eye appointment. I had an eye doctor I loved. The office staff was always pretty lame but the doctor was awesome. Last time I was there they were rude when I phoned, rude when I arrived, the doctor acted as though he'd been interrupted from the most fabulous meal in his life to look at my old eyeballs, then they made me stand there – one of only two people in the reception area – and wait until they begrudgingly took my money. I don't know what the problem was but I'm not going back.

I found a new eye doctor who is conveniently located and compatible with my new insurance. I'm going to buy about 10 pairs of glasses and put one in every drawer, counter niche, pocket and bag I have. I can never find my glasses plus two of the three operational pairs I have now have been sat-on so many time their arms are bent and one of the nose pads things fell off.

Some other long procrastinated things had to do with visiting retail establishments. It think it's been pretty well documented here that I hate shopping. I tried for awhile to improve my style but it takes too much time and you have to go to stores and look at things and try them on. Last year during the never-ending winter I realized that I'm a little thin on winter stuff plus over half the pants in my closet are 3 or more years old. So I finally went out into the world to get nice work slacks.

I thought the economy was hurting. I thought America need me to spend my dollars. I was prepared to pay full price. I wasn't even looking for bargains. Where is all the stuff? I went to 5 stores looking for pants. My infatuation with Ann Taylor is officially over. I've never had a great customer service experience downtown although the Loft has usually been okay. Yesterday no one in the store even looked up when I walked in there, one of only two customers in the store. At the Loft they said Hello and then I never saw them again. The selection was doody. Too bad I wasn't looking for a frilly sleeveless top or dress because they had racks of those on clearance. Those will be worthless in about three weeks.

I love Pendleton but could they please design slacks that don't look like they were styled for 80 year old ladies. (Um, sorry Priscilla). I liked the pants at J Crew except they were a little lightweight for what I had in mind plus the first pair I tried on was clearly too big but the next size down was about 3 grilled cheese sandwiches away from being too snug. I don't see how I can so precisely not fit into clothes. The obvious solution would be to buy the too big ones and eat grilled cheese sandwiches until they fit properly.

So I struck out on pants.

Yesterday I went to buy underwear. There were three choices: granny panties, thongs and frilly. Where is the normal underwear? I should clarify the normal underwear that doesn't cost $15 a pair.

Another thing is I made a hair cut appointment for tomorrow. I cut my hair myself for a long time but then back around the time I wanted to have more style I started getting it highlighted or weaved (wove?) or whatever the term is. At first I enjoyed it but then I got annoyed by how long it took plus it cost a lot of money. So I changed over to regular haircutting and now that seems to take too long and breaks up the entire day. But I ate my last piece of See's candy yesterday and I need to go to the Mall anyway to restock. Might as well get styled while I'm there.

My last thing that I did today was deal with some retirement account stuff. I always get nervous when I call there because they ask about 50 security questions so I feel like they're trying to trick me. And then when I put stuff into funds they say things like, "One you do this it can never be changed or undone even if flying monkeys conquer the earth in the next 24 hours and there might be some fees and we will send you a blizzard of emails and snail mails regarding this transaction until you worry that something is wrong. Do you want me to go ahead with the transfer?" Today I said: Go for it.