decidedlyodd

This afternoon, I had planned to go shopping for a futon frame before going to swimming at 5pm. I was going to go the Futon Factory, which is the place I bought my futon mattress. I’d noticed when I was there before that they had some nice frames. However, this time I went to their Seattle store up on Aurora and 100th instead of their store in Redmond. The store looked super sketchy, closed and had no parking (despite signage to the contrary). So I decided I’d just pass and check out the store in Redmond tomorrow instead.

I considered driving out to Ballard to kill some time since it was only 4pm (not enough time to go home, but too much to head straight to swimming). On 85th Ave heading west, I noticed a Fred Meyer in Greenwood and pulled in there. Fred Meyer is one of my favorite stores to wander around because they have all kinds of random stuff there. I ended up buying a pair of shoes that were on sale.

I haven’t bought a pair of Chucks in probably about two years. I’d just worn them for so many years, that I was ready for a change. Still, I miss them so I bought a new pair. Not to wear every day–they’ll mess my feet up if I do that, but for occasional wearing. While at Fred Meyer, I also looked at some shirts that were on clearance (cowboyish plaid shirts with snaps that seem to be in right now) for $10. Unfortunately, one was totally sized wrong (said small but it had to be a large at least) and the other looked good but one of the snaps was already tearing out of the fabric.

Lately, I’ve been seeing cute hipster guys wearing these sorts of shoes and clothes, which seems to also be encouraging me. The last few years I was living in Berkeley, I’d gotten fairly hipster in my dress I suppose (the shoes, my enjoyment of plaid shirts and black plastic rimmed glasses). By the time I got to Chapel Hill, that all seemed to be changing with me retreating to my earlier standard geeky dress consisting mostly of baggy t-shirts and jeans. In Seattle, I tend to mix t-shirt and jeans with the occasional preppy item. Sheesh, in the past few months I bought a v-neck sweater from Nordstrom, a nice winter sweater from Banana Republic and a pricey North Face jacket. Meh, I guess I just want to mix things up again and venture out of t-shirt and jeans land a bit more when possible without getting too fancy or dressy.

I dunno, I just don’t think fancy or dressy clothes work for me. Sure, they’re nice, but I’ve never been comfortable with the image they project, which is to say I feel too self-conscious wearing such clothes. At heart, I’m just more of a Target and Fred Meyer type. I’ve learned that I don’t mind spending more money for quality or something I like though. For example, it doesn’t bother me to shop at REI at all, even though a lot of the name brand stuff there is still pricey. It’s mostly that it’s just not fancy or dressy I’m guessing.

This whole bizarre fashion crisis seems to be brought on by shifting groups of friends. Here, most of my friends like to buy those kinds of clothes (Robert in particular), which is fine–those clothes work for them because they like them and feel comfortable in them. In the past, I had different friends that wore different kinds of clothes. For a lot of the years I was in college, it was all about finding deals at Ross or thrift stores for me or many of my music scene friends. I’m still more comfortable pursuing that route, but I don’t have anybody around here to encourage me to do it anymore. Instead, I find myself shopping with friends here at the outlets, being mocked (in a friendly banter sort of a way) for my apathy for the stores we visit and leaving with nothing or only a few specific items.

In the end, I need to start buying what I like and reforming my wardrobe. I have so many old clothes that don’t fit or I just hate. I need to get rid of those and I need to buy new ones to cultivate a broader image than just t-shirt and jeans with the occasional sweater.