It occurs to me that mostly everything I’m wearing today comes with a story attached. And, while life has a timeline, I don’t know the timeline to everything here, today.
But, I’m wearing a dress I bought in Spain two summers ago. I had just finished walking the Camino de Santiago, and I saved a day and some $$ for a new dress, at the end. Clean hair, new dress…what better end to two-and-a-half weeks backpacking-the-country-with-three-shirts could a girl ask for?
I roamed Madrid for a day, and found this dress in a little fair-trade-ish/ earthy shop. The dye lot near the hem was a bit miscolored, so the dress was on sale and…I bought it. For a few odd Euros, I bought this light-cotton, light-blue dress where the hem hits just at the knee–exactly where I like it.
A few weeks ago a woman in the elevator with me said, “I like your dress.”
And I said, “Thanks!” and, after a pause, “I bought it in Spain.”
And the other folks in the elevator chuckled.
“So, good luck finding one of your own,” another man on the elevator said to her.
A few weeks ago I was riding my bike through town and stopped at a T.J. Maxx on a whim. A helpful whim, I might add, for most of their summer shoes were on sale. I picked up a pair of sensible, neutral tan flats and I was like, “How sensible and professional and responsible. I will buy these.”
BUT, I also found these striped ones. I tried them on one time and then another time, and I was like, “How will I match these to anything? How??”
And then I remembered something my cousin once said to me. Namely: “What even is ‘matching’?”
And I was like, “Dude, they’re less than twenty bucks” so I took them home with me, in my little backpack as I rode my bike home.
And, I might add, I have worn the brown shoes once. And I have worn these nearly every other day since I bought them.
What even is ‘matching’???
And, also, my bracelets.
These were made on a night when all of the ladies were coming over, and I had one bag full of vintage beads from my grandma, but Colleen also brought a Styrofoam cup full of beads and then we just made bracelets like fourth graders but, I still have mine and look at them and think about my grandma and Colleen and the other ladies at the party that night and…I think that’s just excellent, don’t you?
Oh! And I go the sweater at a trusted-person’s garage sale after last year’s major flood. Ha! Now, there’s a memory and a half. 🙂