Monday, December 31, 2007

Out With the Old...

Happy New Year's Eve, everyone! This is going to be a short post as I returned from my holiday travels last night and am now frantically trying to clean my condo before guests arrive this evening to count down to 2008 with us.

One of the things I had to make time for last night, though, was rummaging through my closet and finding a way to fill ten garbage bags with clothes and shoes. A few weeks ago I called a local charity that takes all sorts of donations and scheduled a pick-up for today, and had to estimate how many bags I would be donating so that they could pre-print the tax receipt and hand it to me when they arrived. The good news is I had no problem filling the ten bags. The additional good news is that my closet now looks much more orderly, I can deduct the donation on my 2007 taxes, I did a good deed, and I won't be tempted to wear those ill-fitting tops/pants or blister-causing shoes ever again.

There's really not any bad news, except for the fact that what spurred me to give away some of my older pants was an embarrassing incident that occurred on the very first night of my Christmas vacation. My husband and I were visiting his parents in North Dakota, and we were on our way to church. As I stepped out of the car, I had reason to believe that something was not right. My lower half felt like the wind was whipping through my pants. While it was pretty darn cold in North Dakota that night, it wasn't that cold. I reached around behind my (thankfully) long down-filled coat and was horrified to learn that the back of my pants had split down the middle. As in had COMPLETELY split down the middle.

Luckily, the church service was pretty laid-back and many people kept their coats on for the entire hour, even when going up to Communion. So that's what I did--and then high-tailed it to the mall to buy some extra clothes for the duration of our stay.

Of course I felt awful that on the FIRST night of our trip my pants split, because I knew with all the holiday goodies that would be around me for the next 9 days I would only gain more weight and probably bust through everything else I had to wear. I really can't understand why the pants split (I only gained 5 pounds on the Antarctica trip, I swear!), but I think it may have had something to do with the fact that they were corduroys from the Gap that I got over 10 years ago and were pretty much threadbare. They had the last laugh, as my you-know-what was bare walking into church. So believe you me, I did away with any pants that were even remotely worn when it came time to pull together my charity donation.

Here's to hoping that my outfit holds together tonight while celebrating New Year's Eve!
Have a safe and fun night...

- e

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's so funny! The same thing happened to my husband once when we were on our way (& already late) to a wedding. His caught his pants on something and they tore COMPLETELY from his upper butt down to his mid thigh! He also described that "breezy feeling!" I was going to pretend they were fine b/c we were so late, but then I got a GOOD look and burst out laughing. there was no way he could go into a church like that! Plus, they were the only pants he had besides jeans! So, we missed the ceremony all together and rushed to the nearest store... Banana Republic to try to buy pants. My husband is really tall, so they didn't have a lot in his size. A very helpful gentleman had a lot of fun selling him the most expensive pair in the store. We rushed out and barely made the reception on time. Forgot to mention the recention was on a boat! We were the last ones aboard "The Dandy". The pants are still called the dandy pants to this day. They are great pants... maybe I should ask him to dig those out tonight!!!
Happy new year!

Anonymous said...

wow - good for you, filling 10 bags worth of donations! I've THOUGHT about making my year-end donation so that I could count it for taxes, but didn't get around to it. I liked it when you didn't need a receipt and you could just dump a load of stuff into those big bins in grocery store parking lots.

Erika (aka "e") said...

I LOVE the Dandy Pants story!

Anonymous said...

Don't feel bad. My five year old son and I (his father, not mother) went to the automotive store to pick up a portable carport. This item was a large box that I had to have help lifting onto the rack of my Subaru. Well, I had a pair of shorts on that were pretty old, but seemed fine. I bent over to lift the box off of the cart and RRRRRRIP. Instant cool air to the rear.

I jumped up and acted like nothing happened. All the while, it is running through my head...what do I do? Of course, the SUV parked next to me has a woman waiting for someone in it. She smiles. I smile. I pretend I don't know what has happened, help the clerk lift the box, and tighten it down. The male clerk is noticeably uncomfortable, but I continue to believe that the tear isn't that bad. Out of sheer embarassment. I jump in the car with my son and rush home.

The hole was as large as the flap on an old pair of long johns. Both buns in the breeze, baby. And no long shirt, coat, anything to cover up the sight!

I still cover my face when I drive by that store.