Cutting Me Down To Size

Posted on August 28, 2012 by Amy

I was taking some clothes out of the dryer today and I noticed a tag on one of my shirts that said it was a size XL. It kind of alarmed me because I didn’t recall buying an extra large shirt recently. Maybe alarmed isn’t the right word, but I knew what shirt it was and I thought I had bought a medium.

Well, as it turns out, I did buy a medium…in the US. In Japan, my shirt is considered an XL. Not a large, but an extra large. Two full sizes bigger. A few months ago I bought some shorts at Costco. I normally wear a size 8, but if it’s a slimmer fit, I might wear a size 10. I held the size 8 up and thought they looked a little big, but figured they would fit. I got them home and I could pull them on and off without even unbuttoning them.

Some women would rejoice at buying a size 6. I was pissed! I am not a size 6. I know I’m not a size 6 and I am 100% fine, secure and happy with that fact. Tommy Hilfiger, in what I imagine, in some attempt to attract a vain customer, drastically undersized their clothes. Out of principle, I returned the size 8 shorts and refused to buy a size 6. Or maybe a more likely story is that I thought the 6 would be too small and I didn’t want to have to make another trip to the Costco returns counter.

The medium shirt that I bought is actually a workout shirt. It fits me perfectly. I know that the sizes have changed quite a bit for women in the last 20 to 30 years and a size 8 today was probably closer to a 12 in 1970. I don’t really care that much about that, but I like being able to walk into a store and grab a medium or a size 8 and walk out with quite a bit of confidence that it’s going to fit.

I do wonder what happens to the size 0 or size 2 ladies. Are they in the negative sizes now? Do they have to buy girl’s clothes? Or do the clothes designers figure there most likely isn’t any sense in playing into a potential body insecurity issue with someone who is that small so they just keep them true to size?

Bad News #2

Posted on August 6, 2012 by Amy

There has been an outpouring of concern for Rory and his temporarily green iridescent franks and beans. He is fine. All is back to normal in regards to color and there has been no additional pain or discomfort for the boy.

The posts over the next week will be most likely be considerably shorter in nature. We are heading back to Iowa for about 5 days so I will be busy packing, traveling and then unpacking. This leads me bad news #2.

We had some errands to run today to get ready for our trip so it’s one of those days that Kamryn claims is “Not fun at all”. We ran to Costco, Target, the library and somewhere else, that I can’t seem to recall. I also had to get a quick run in this morning.

I picked up some of those little travel bottles to put shampoo in while at Target. I don’t know what they do to the samples of shampoo and conditioner, but it never seems like it’s the same stuff when I buy those little bottles. I used to take all of the hotel toiletries and then use them when I travel, but they are horrendous. The lotion is like water, the conditioner doesn’t come close to conditioning and the shampoo barely gets sudsy.

This time I was filling up my own bottles with my own shampoo and conditioner so I don’t have to sit for 30 minutes trying to get the knots out of my hair after a shower. I was almost out of both shampoo and conditioner – it was the perfect amount to fill my little travel bottles. I had them balanced on top of the little containers with a steady stream of product flowing in.

Rory was incredibly curious about this process, but I kicked him out of the bathroom and told him to stay out. He would sneak back there to check things out on occasion, but actually had the self control not to touch anything. Once I was sure I had every last drop of shampoo and conditioner out of the big bottles, I screwed the lids on my little containers and left them, along with all of my other toiletries that are going to be packed, on the chest in my room.

Rory was back playing in his room, or so I thought, when he came out and said he liked to drink shampoo. He was licking his lips and I asked him if he drank my shampoo. He said, “Yeah, Mama! It’s yummy! I love it!”

Sure as shit, I went back to find the lid of my travel bottle covered in spit and shampoo. I get the Costco, gluten free, vegan shampoo so I assume it’s safe for 3 year old consumption.

Seaweed And Popcorn

Posted on April 29, 2012 by Amy

We made a trip to Costco today to stock up on some supplies. God, I love Costco. I could walk around there for hours looking at all the super-sized boxes of things I don’t really need.

I usually make it a point to never seek out the samples because it’s an enormous waste of my time trying to navigate between the greedy bastards that stand in the middle of the aisles waiting for the pizza bagels to come out of the toaster oven. Today, however, we were there early and there was an uninhabited sample stand with pot stickers.

Pot stickers are a bit of a weakness for me. It’s one of the only cravings I had when I was pregnant with Rory. It was so strong that I made Ryan go and get me 2 orders from the nearby Chinese restaurant at 2:00 in the afternoon because I couldn’t wait until dinner. Anyway, I think this is the first time that I have ever tried a sample and liked it enough to actually buy it.

One of the things that always happens when I go to Costco is that I don’t have everything to make a full meal. I usually have the main dish, ie the potstickers, but no sides until I go to the grocery store. I didn’t have it in me to go to the store after our trip to Costco so we made due with what we had.

Here was Kamryn’s dinner, per her request:

Yum!

It’s seaweed salad and popcorn chips. Rory had the same thing, but with a sandwich. He calls the seaweed salad, “seaweed noodles”. I don’t think you could have paid me to even try seaweed when I was 5 years old, much less 3.

I love my little adventurous eaters and the fact that I don’t have to make chicken nuggets or mac and cheese every night!