Wednesday..... Gorgeous Day

Today was picture-postcard perfect...... nice and warm, but not too hot. Cool breeze coming in from the Gulf, just enough to stir up the air without making it a bad-hair day. It's a day like this that makes me forget all about Monday's rain.

Wednesday is piano-lesson day, and that went well this morning. Come to think of it, the lessons have been going really well. I think everything just clicked and I don't find myself sitting in front of the keyboard and searching for a 'B' or an 'E' or the always illusive 'A flat.' Somehow, all the notes are right where they should be... and were probably right there all along. (I can hear my dear friend Frankie saying: "I told you that long ago, darlin'.")

I'm still going through the clothes in my closet. Every time I take something out that I think I want to wear, I stand there in front of the mirror and decide if it's really me or definitely not me. If it isn't me, then it goes right into the donation box. One of the local charities picked up two small boxes of not me clothes today. The boxes were filled with clothes that I've just had for too many years. I tend to do that.... keep clothes for years and years. They don't wear out, I don't buy anything too trendy so they don't go really out of style, and as long as they fit and I still like them and wear them, then I just keep them.

Somehow, the clothes that I was wearing in my 40s are not feeling and looking the same now that I'm into my third year of the 50s. The feel of the fabric is the first thing.... if it doesn't feel soft against my skin, then into the donation box it goes. I somehow managed to find three blouses in my closet that probably would've set off a metal detector at an airport--- talk about scratchy material. What in the world was I thinking when I bought those? I bought them in my 4os, when style was "key." Now in my wisdom-enriched 50s, comfort is "key." (And blouses with metallic threads running through them doesn't spell comfort.)

I've seen the inside of Marshall's and SteinMart just about every week for the last month. I find clothes on the racks, try them on in the dressing room, pay for them and take them home. Then the next morning, I try them on again in my own dressing room. Sometimes, the same clothes that I loved the night before in the store turn into something totally different in my own mirrors. There are two full-length mirrors in my dressing room, and believe me, they have no mercy. If something doesn't look good from all sides, it becomes evident in three seconds flat. (Like the three pairs of shorts I just returned: they looked great from the front. From the back, the pockets did strange things to my hips.)

And back to the store I go.... I get a full refund.... then I go searching the racks again. I returned those three pairs of shorts tonight, came home with two more items (a pair of capris and a blouse). Not wanting to wait till morning, I tried them on when I got home. These are keepers. I've already ironed them and they're in my closet. The capris even get bonus points, because not only do they match the blouse I bought tonight, but I have four other tops in my closet that look great with them. (That's a good shopping trip in my book.)

Men just wouldn't understand all of this. A good shopping trip for a man is not to have to go into a store in the first place. (They don't know what they're missing.)