205.8: I'm Not A Fashionista

When I was a kid, my parents didn't have a lot of money.  They bought a house when I was 9 and it was about that age that I started noticing brands in school.  I longed for the coolest Tiger tennis shoes to wear with my Gloria Vanderbilt jeans.

Old-School Tigers

But it just wasn't going to happen.  I got a poor imitation of them that wasn't cool at all.  But I lived with it.  As for jeans, we wore off brand and if we were lucky, we wore Lee jeans, which were okay, but certainly not "IT". 

In college I was in kind of a no man's land regarding fashion.  I still didn't have enough to keep up with all the latest trends.  My parents were paying for college and I knew it was hard on them.  I had a part time job, but it certainly didn't cover everything.  And to be honest, by that time I was more interested in the $5 a beer cup/kegger house parties, Thursday through Saturday.  My fashion consisted of a couple of pair of fake jeans, some stretchy pants and different shirts and sweatshirts.  Hardly a fashionista.

On my 20th birthday my family came to St. Cloud where I was going to college to take me to dinner.  I don't remember the dinner part, but I do remember my Mom telling me that we were going shopping.  It was surprising because we didn't shop well together then.  I could stand in a store entry and tell that the clothing wasn't for me, she insisted that we go in every store and look at every rack.  But I went, because she offered to buy me jeans.

I do remember standing in the doorway of the store at the mall, which store I have no idea.  I wanted to walk away and she pulled me in.  In reality, when I stopped at the entryway of the stores, it was because I was sure that they didn't have my size.  I was embarrassed.  Yet, I let her pull me in and yank some sizes off the rack and send me to the fitting room.  I remember being really surprised that a size 14 fit me.  I had been an 18 and must have lost weight in my dorm life and all the activity of school.  I also remember that year that I could share clothes with my sister.  It opened up a whole new wardrobe and I was somewhat a fashionista that year. 

By the end of college I was a size 22 and I would get as high as a "tight" size 24 and 3X.  During/after one of my TMJ surgeries I got down to an 18/20.  However, it didn't last past that summer and I never looked back to the lower sizes.

Why am I telling you this?  Yesterday I was at Costco and saw the Gloria Vanderbilt jeans.  They don't hold the same power as jeans that they did when I was a kid.  In fact they were $13.  The "power" jeans now are $80-$200 and upwards.  But I bought a pair because I'm down to 1 pair of jeans that fit me.  I need at least 3 for the summer because of all the riding we do and extended weekend trips with no washer.

If you can't read that, it's a SIZE 14!!!  I went home convinced that they wouldn't fit, but that they would in a couple of weeks if I kept working at it.  But I shimmied those jeans up my legs and buttoned the waist and danced down the stairs to show Pete.  a 14!  I haven't been this size for 20+ years.  They may not be the most fashionable things, but they work for riding the motorcycle and hanging out.

Size 14.  I am a size 14.