Shopping outside the box

[hrj]

I may not have a date for the work gala dinner, but I have new pants. I decided that "semi-formal" does not encompass anything purchased in the work-clothes department of Orchard Supply, so I ventured forth to the Bay Street Mall and steeled myself to enter actual clothing stores. It was ... surprisingly painless. Both stores that I checked out had at least one style that I was interested in wearing at a price I was interested in paying. (Both ended up being on sale over and above that.) And both stores had this startling notion that I wear size 10 pants. (I think this is part of the "you pay a little more, you get to wear a smaller size" phenomenon, because the OSH size 12 pants don't feel significantly too large.) The ones I got for the dinner (to go with the electric blue silk shirt) are black velveteen. I realized one significant oversight in my plans when I got home and went to try them on again. Black velveteen pants. White cat. BLack velveteen pants. White cat. The ankles of the pants were coated in white hair before I even had the fly zipped.

Hey, you never know -- someday I may venture far enough outside the box to buy pants in some color other than black. (But they go with everything.)