On Visiting One's Home Town
We are in MN this week. The first portion of the trip will be with Paul's family, and the second will be in WI for a wedding. That means a whole day and a half in the cities, so for you Mpls. folk, this is not your year. Hmm. We'll have to work on that.
Anyway, we took the red-eye flight in and arrived early Friday morning. With a whopping one hour of sleep under our belts, we crashed at my folk's house (who had conveniently made themselves scarce). So, upon waking around 2:00, it was time for breakfast. The kids all love Caribou Coffee and my folks live near 50th and France in Edina, so we walked to the nearest Caribou.
It was during this outing that I realized how ingrained certain habits and trains of thought are. No sooner was I in the door than I began to wonder if I was underdressed, even though I had taken the usual amount of time to dress and primp. I even packed only my nicest clothing. But somehow it wasn't exactly right. I needed to do my nails (or, should I say, have my nails done), my tan lines are uneven, and my hair was a bit out of line. I sat up straighter, hoping that would cover my flaws. I felt like I had reverted back to High School where everything had to be JUST RIGHT or else, well, it just wasn't and THEN what?!! Eeew! Then a guy came in about my age wearing patchwork blue plaid shorts with a polo in a matching blue and docksiders with no socks. And a beautiful tan. I mean right out of the preppy handbook. And at that point the spell broke. Okay, this guy was really cute and he was probably a classmate of mine in High School (except then his cool boxers would have been showing). And the women had beautiful, expensive clothing and tans. But I don't WANT to be like everyone else! This is part of what I LOVE about Oregon! I can wear my best clothes with little or no make up and NO ONE CARES. If you look great, great! If not, so what? You are still a great person! Maybe tomorrow you will have a better hair day. If your tan is not perfect, well no wonder! Who has the time?!
Even so, I still wanted my toenails done (I'm missing half a toenail from skiing, and have to wear strappy shoes for the wedding). So later in the day I stopped in and had that fixed and got a pedicure as well. When they are done doing your nails, you are supposed to wait around while the polish dries. They even give you these little disposable flip flops so you don't ruin your polish. They are one size fits all, blue, and hang off the back of your foot about 4 inches. But I needed to get home, so I decided to assert my newly self assured persona. I held up my head, paid the girl that had done my nails, sucked in my gut, and walked home wearing my brand new disposable flip flops.
Anyway, we took the red-eye flight in and arrived early Friday morning. With a whopping one hour of sleep under our belts, we crashed at my folk's house (who had conveniently made themselves scarce). So, upon waking around 2:00, it was time for breakfast. The kids all love Caribou Coffee and my folks live near 50th and France in Edina, so we walked to the nearest Caribou.
It was during this outing that I realized how ingrained certain habits and trains of thought are. No sooner was I in the door than I began to wonder if I was underdressed, even though I had taken the usual amount of time to dress and primp. I even packed only my nicest clothing. But somehow it wasn't exactly right. I needed to do my nails (or, should I say, have my nails done), my tan lines are uneven, and my hair was a bit out of line. I sat up straighter, hoping that would cover my flaws. I felt like I had reverted back to High School where everything had to be JUST RIGHT or else, well, it just wasn't and THEN what?!! Eeew! Then a guy came in about my age wearing patchwork blue plaid shorts with a polo in a matching blue and docksiders with no socks. And a beautiful tan. I mean right out of the preppy handbook. And at that point the spell broke. Okay, this guy was really cute and he was probably a classmate of mine in High School (except then his cool boxers would have been showing). And the women had beautiful, expensive clothing and tans. But I don't WANT to be like everyone else! This is part of what I LOVE about Oregon! I can wear my best clothes with little or no make up and NO ONE CARES. If you look great, great! If not, so what? You are still a great person! Maybe tomorrow you will have a better hair day. If your tan is not perfect, well no wonder! Who has the time?!
Even so, I still wanted my toenails done (I'm missing half a toenail from skiing, and have to wear strappy shoes for the wedding). So later in the day I stopped in and had that fixed and got a pedicure as well. When they are done doing your nails, you are supposed to wait around while the polish dries. They even give you these little disposable flip flops so you don't ruin your polish. They are one size fits all, blue, and hang off the back of your foot about 4 inches. But I needed to get home, so I decided to assert my newly self assured persona. I held up my head, paid the girl that had done my nails, sucked in my gut, and walked home wearing my brand new disposable flip flops.
posted by Lydia | 8:39 PM
4 Comments:
Clearly you would have more confident from the get go if you had been dressed in Beautiful Ed Hardy Spamwear.
Hey Lydia, We were in the Twin Cities last week too and I had an almost identical inferiority experience in Caribou Coffee. Everyone looked like they walked out of the pages of a magazine. All the women were so dressed up...very corporate-looking and all I could think of was that if I was going to go back to work, I'd want to work at a garden center where I'd get to dig in the dirt so I guess I'll never fit in in suburbia again. Nice garden, btw. - Janet
So. I just have to say that I live in said community and I do NOT feel compelled to "dress up" to go to Caribou.
But, I didn't grow up here. I'm from the Lake Country, where I feel relatively well dressed no matter I wear to Fleet Farm. :-)
lololol :P
i need to check my rss feed more often, i got behind.
i kno how you feel. i shouldn't have to worry about my hair or outfit to skip out to target/caribou/cub/i dunno where, but i fequently find myself canging into an entirely new outfit and fixing my hair up just to run a quick errand with dad. What has this community done to us?!?!
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