(no subject)
Various things are happening. It is all a little much, capped with a homeowners' association meeting tonight about which I did not know till... tonight. But whatever, I attended it, and the obvious disorganization of the legacy chair was such that I basically took over running it so that it would end before kingdom come. Nobody seemed to mind, least of all the legacy chair, but he remains treasurer while I am merely note-taker and summarizer. I am too bad at arithmetic to volunteer for the treasurer job.
(It was a good meeting, really, despite some fundamental disagreements about proactiveness and how to spend money. All the owners were there, and we agreed on both jobs to plan out and when those plans will be submitted for a vote. As opposed to nebulous "in the future" stuff.)
I have all my paperwork now so can do taxes; I am not sure I did them to maximum benefit last year myself and am considering hiring someone to do them, even if only once, so I can see how they're meant to be done. (I was fine by myself when I took the standard deduction, but now I expect to be itemizing every year.) Recommendations for tax-doers welcome, despite the hit to my pride; I have long been able to figure it out just by reading the directions, but things have gotten more complicated, as they inevitably must do.
I wore myself out Saturday. There was a "sample" sale going on at the convention center, the kind where you show up the day of and rifle through piles with 150,000 of your closest friends and drop trou right there on the concrete to try stuff on, and lo I arrived at 10:15 so as to spare myself the dignity of the rush at first opening but still get a crack at the good stuff. (No, it was not all at sample sizes; by noon, the one table with a lot of stuff left was the size 18-22 table. The 2-4 and 6-8 tables had been completely demolished by then.) There was a lot of good stuff! It was a catalog company, so I'd never really tried their stuff on, but now I have a much better sense of how their stuff fits me. (Answer: Go up a size due to bust.) I chatted with several people in the sales line and all of us remarked on how much we missed the original Filene's Basement; two sisters had both gotten their wedding gowns at their old annual or semi-annual events. Me, I just missed the serendipity of it, the uniqueness and variability of what they carried and how persistent attention could be rewarded with good clothes cheap.
I've been to one other "sample" sale, on a weekday; I think they're rarer than they used to be but I enjoy them. The cooperative/competitive work of sorting through clothes, trying garments on with no or inadequate mirrors in front of everyone, asking nearby strangers whether this top makes you look fat. Several times I heard the low call: got a size 6 dress doesn't fit me! Anybody a size 6? This would look great on you! And just, the idea that we can intervene in the endless stream of Stuff very late-on, before it's shipped to some poor country to overwhelm their fashion industry, and still get some use out of things despite the season or the now-unfashionable cut.
I picked up two dresses -- one for cocktails, the other linen -- and a midweight skirt and a surprising interview jacket in slate gray, surprising because no size 6 dress fit me in the bust, not one, but the size 6 jacket was perfect. Perhaps it was cut wrong, which is how it made it to a clearance sale. Anyway, that was 4 hours on my feet on concrete, so no surprise most of the rest of the weekend was a wash. And the laundry and recycling still waiting balefully at my bedroom door.
I have moved mostly over to Dreamwidth. Please comment there if you can.
(It was a good meeting, really, despite some fundamental disagreements about proactiveness and how to spend money. All the owners were there, and we agreed on both jobs to plan out and when those plans will be submitted for a vote. As opposed to nebulous "in the future" stuff.)
I have all my paperwork now so can do taxes; I am not sure I did them to maximum benefit last year myself and am considering hiring someone to do them, even if only once, so I can see how they're meant to be done. (I was fine by myself when I took the standard deduction, but now I expect to be itemizing every year.) Recommendations for tax-doers welcome, despite the hit to my pride; I have long been able to figure it out just by reading the directions, but things have gotten more complicated, as they inevitably must do.
I wore myself out Saturday. There was a "sample" sale going on at the convention center, the kind where you show up the day of and rifle through piles with 150,000 of your closest friends and drop trou right there on the concrete to try stuff on, and lo I arrived at 10:15 so as to spare myself the dignity of the rush at first opening but still get a crack at the good stuff. (No, it was not all at sample sizes; by noon, the one table with a lot of stuff left was the size 18-22 table. The 2-4 and 6-8 tables had been completely demolished by then.) There was a lot of good stuff! It was a catalog company, so I'd never really tried their stuff on, but now I have a much better sense of how their stuff fits me. (Answer: Go up a size due to bust.) I chatted with several people in the sales line and all of us remarked on how much we missed the original Filene's Basement; two sisters had both gotten their wedding gowns at their old annual or semi-annual events. Me, I just missed the serendipity of it, the uniqueness and variability of what they carried and how persistent attention could be rewarded with good clothes cheap.
I've been to one other "sample" sale, on a weekday; I think they're rarer than they used to be but I enjoy them. The cooperative/competitive work of sorting through clothes, trying garments on with no or inadequate mirrors in front of everyone, asking nearby strangers whether this top makes you look fat. Several times I heard the low call: got a size 6 dress doesn't fit me! Anybody a size 6? This would look great on you! And just, the idea that we can intervene in the endless stream of Stuff very late-on, before it's shipped to some poor country to overwhelm their fashion industry, and still get some use out of things despite the season or the now-unfashionable cut.
I picked up two dresses -- one for cocktails, the other linen -- and a midweight skirt and a surprising interview jacket in slate gray, surprising because no size 6 dress fit me in the bust, not one, but the size 6 jacket was perfect. Perhaps it was cut wrong, which is how it made it to a clearance sale. Anyway, that was 4 hours on my feet on concrete, so no surprise most of the rest of the weekend was a wash. And the laundry and recycling still waiting balefully at my bedroom door.
I have moved mostly over to Dreamwidth. Please comment there if you can.