Tuesday, March 13, 2007

All Dressed Down and Off to Wal-Mart

I had a plan for today. I set out to clean out my closet. Amazingly, I accomplished my goal. After only a few hours, I have neat drawers, thinned out hanging clothes, and more bags than I care to mention to go to Goodwill. I feel good about my progress but I am embarrassed by the numbers of things that I gave away and still I think that I have too much. I realized that all I really wanted to keep was my jeans, several of my favorite T-shirts, and 2 or 3 over sized button down shirts for times when it gets cold. Okay there are also the three sweaters that I have finished and the obligatory socks and underwear. If this were all I ever had to wear (and launder) I would be blissfully happy. Unfortunately, I had to keep some of the stuff I don't like to wear - those dress pants and blouses (not shirts) that make me look "professional" for those times when I have to look the part of a respectable professor, the funeral attire, a skirt because every woman needs just one, and a fancy dress in case I ever get the urge to play dress up. Most of these things I will never wear but I have to keep them just in case. And, these things that I don't like to wear also require peripherals - proper foundation garments and appropriate shoes. Frankly, if it can't be worn with tennis shoes or Birkenstocks, you should not be wearing it!

The point of all this is that I have a clean closet. This is something that I have been trying to do since Christmas break and I have not had the time (or possibly the inclination) to tackle until today. As Erin would say, "Gold star for me!"

ON A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT NOTE
I ran in to Wal-Mart today to buy an umbrella. This was to assure everyone that the severe thunderstorms we were having at 4:00 would be passed by the 5:30 soccer games. It worked. I now have a virgin umbrella. As I made my way to the checkout stand, I noticed on one of those strategically placed displays intended to make you succumb to impulse buying, what looked like a new kind of Pop-Tarts. As I looked closer, indeed it was. The new "Trivial Pursuit Pop-Tarts". I am sure you are wondering what in the heck I am talking about. These are toaster pastries with trivial pursuit type questions stamped on the frosting. And we wonder why American youth are overweight - and stupid! How ridiculous is it that our society is sp desperate to teach children something that we have stooped to using Pop-Tarts to educate them? This does raise some interesting questions:
How many Pop-Tarts do you have to eat to score well on the SAT?

If you eat your cheat sheet can the teacher prove that you were cheating?

Are the questions on the strawberry ones more difficult than those on the brown sugar cinnamon ones?

Do you win when you have eaten all the Pop-Tarts in the box correctly?

Were the marketers who came up with this ludicrous idea educated in a similar manner?

The consumer world never ceases to amaze me!