useless obsessions du jour

[flea]

I spent quite a lot of time today looking to buy a SUIT on websites (Lands End, J Crew, and the like.) Note: I do not currently own a suit. I have never owned a suit. I do not need a suit.

mr. flea, on the other hand, has a job interview on Friday, so we were discussing what he should wear. His suit doesn't fit him any more. Today he called the receptionist and asked about the work environment. She said office casual and when he floated the suit idea she said, "Well, I wouldn't go out and buy a suit if I were you." Sportcoat and khakis it is.

But, here's the insane thing: today, I kind of want to own a suit. I want the kind of life that requires occasional dressing up. Also, dining out, driving ridiculous flashy cars, and international travel, business class. I never have had and never will have such a life. I don't usually want it. Perhaps it is the aftermath of spending yesterday watching TV with sick children in pajamas on a crumby living room rug that makes me want a suit today.

(Dillo is much better. He was quite sick all yesterday, but the fever broke at about 6 and he had a normal night and went off to school for the afternoon, since he eats and naps better for them than for us, and he needs food and sleep. Casper threw up at 8:45 but then was fine the rest of the day, so whatever.)

Comments

[loligo.livejournal.com]

today, I kind of want to own a suit. I want the kind of life that requires occasional dressing up.

My Clothing Lifestyle Porn of choice is the Title Nine catalog. I want to pretend I have a life where it makes sense for me to wear expensive & sassy but practical clothing that I can go surfing or rock-climbing in at a moment's notice. (No, I've never been surfing or rock-climbing once in my life, not even when I was young & single and living on the West Coast.)

[cofax7]

I LOVE Title 9. Also Activa and Athleta. They all have way too much of my money.

PS: if you ever come out this way again, I'd be happy to take you rock-climbing in safe indoor conditions, so you can say you've done it.

[loligo.livejournal.com]

And guess what -- the second thing in my inbox after your comment was some Title 9 marketing spam *g*. (I sent my sister a gift certificate from them last year when she wanted some new running gear, though I have yet to order anything myself. I just drool over the pretty, pretty pictures....)

(And I will certainly take you up on the climbing if the occasion presents itself!)

[forodwaith.livejournal.com]

Heh. When I get in those moods I remind myself that suits usually require pantyhose. That makes me feel better about my business-casual lifestyle.

[casperflea.livejournal.com]

And if I wore pantyhose, I'd have to actually shave my legs! Which I stopped doing, most recently, in the fall of 2005.

[serrana.livejournal.com]

Well, you already have red shoes, so you can't obsess over those....;>

(I have red shoes! *bounce bounce*)

[brendalu.livejournal.com]

But, here's the insane thing: today, I kind of want to own a suit. I want the kind of life that requires occasional dressing up.



I have a pair of boots in my closet. Really expensive boots, that I really couldn't afford when I bought them. Frye boots, black, suede on the top but traditional pointy toed black leather cowboy boots on the bottom. And I dithered about taking them back until way past the return period. I never wear them.

I spent a lot of time trying to figure out why I don't wear them, but I just couldn't take them back, even though I needed the money. And I finally got it.

I don't want these boots. I want those boots ten years from now, when I've been wearing them for all that time. I want to *be that person* who wore those boots every day for ten years and now they're almost a part of me. That's what I was buying.

One of these days I'll maybe actually wear them, and then we'll see. For now, they're a vision of myself I didn't know I had made concrete, and gathering dust in the closet. I can't even say it that's a good thing or bad.

[mearagrrl.livejournal.com]

Dressing up, yes. Suit, no. Dining out on the company dime is awesome. I have never gotten to travel international business class for work (once, on vacation, I did. It was awesome)

Personally, I want to own everything in the JCrew store and manage to coordinate it like in their catalog. And then magically look liek someone in the catalog. Sadly, that will never happen either.

[wandsci.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

Hi Flea! I'm visiting you back.

I own several suits, thanks to a project I did once for the government. My usual pharma/biotech circles would look at me funny if I wore them for anything but job interviews.

If Mr. Flea decides he needs a suit for any future interviews, take him to a Men's Wearhouse. A man can buy a suit in like 20 minutes there.

I have never bought a suit so easily. It is another one of the injustices of life.