Month: June 2011

The things I did today

I woke up early, but didn’t get out or my pajamas and into the world until late morning. I ran a few quick errands, stopping by the dry cleaners, the post office, and the library. And then I spent the rest of the day hanging around the house, mostly just watering the garden beds and mowing the back lawn. I watered the tomatoes in the back, which haven’t gotten a lot of rain, along with everything else. A small bird misunderstood, but was quite happy with the bath I had apparently decided to provide it. With the new bird seed and suet cake I put up, it’s almost like a small bird spa back there. Beats the puddle I saw two pigeons bathing themselves in, the other day, in Manhattan.

I also spent a fair amount of time watching episodes of In Treatment. I’d seen some of it before, but I never made it through the first season for some reason. It can be pretty intense, especially for a show that’s often just two people in a room talking, a conversation between patient and therapist. (Even on my days off, I can’t escape from the world of psychotherapy.) It’s a really good show.

And that, such as it was, was my Saturday.

It is Saturday, right? I had to double-check a couple of times to make sure I hadn’t lost a day somewhere.

Suiting up

First off, I took the Allegra this morning. I wasn’t really too worried about it, whatever impression I might have given yesterday, and it does seem to have helped. That, or the weather cooled off enough with today’s rain that allergies weren’t as big an issue. Either way, I don’t feel like I’m caught in a perpetual sneeze like I did on Thursday.

I also bought a couple of suits today. I went in to the men’s clothing store with the idea of buying a jacket. I have a family wedding coming up, and while I have a sports jacket in my closet, it has probably seen better days. I have a suit as well, but that’s definitely been hanging around for awhile. Not quite as long ago as high school, perhaps, when I wore a jacket and tie every day — we had a dress code — but long enough that it doesn’t fit as well or look as good as it might.

So I went in with the idea, vague in my head, as I don’t really know my measurements beyond waist and leg, of buying a sports coat. And I got fitted for one that I thought looked nice, had the sleeves measured to be tailored slightly, and was taking it up to the register to pay for it. That’s when the other salesman — I have the feeling they work on commission there, and the gentleman helping me initially was just doing so because they were so busy — convinced me to try a couple of suits. They had this “buy one, get another for $100” deal, which was actually not bad. I ended up paying a couple of hundred dollars more than I would have with the other jacket, but I got two full suits out of the bargain. And I got to take the blue suit jacket with me, since this one needed no tailoring. And that’s good, in case they can’t finish tailoring the other jacket and pants before the wedding next month.

I went in and spent more than I had anticipated — and after talking yesterday about my not insubstantial Kaleidotrope expenses — but there’s something grown-up about buying a suit. I don’t know how often I’ll wear either as a suit. Even at the wedding, I’ll probably wearing the blue jacket with some other pair of trousers. But it does feel like an adult thing to do.

Having not really been on my own in awhile, I may have grown a little rusty at that.

Song of the day

“Jesus Was a Crossmaker” by the Hollies

I can’t claim to have really noticed this song in Cameron Crowe’s Elizabethtown, which is where all those clips in the video come from, and on whose soundtrack this song appears. But I’m a big fan of Rachael Yamagata, and of her cover.

Actually, it’s possible her version is the one that appeared in the film and I never noticed it either. It’s on volume 2 of the soundtrack. (You can fault Crowe for a lot with that movie, but the man knows how to put together soundtracks.) It’s possible. I don’t quite feel like watching Elizabethtown again to find out.