maybe I should just stay home... nah!

At the risk of sounding like Andy Rooney, why is it that I always take the wrong clothes when I leave home for a few days?  Julie and I just got back from Charlottesville, Virginia, where we spent the night before driving to Monticello the following day.  I read all the weather forecasts, I packed and re-packed my suitcase, but when we got there, I hadn't brought anything that seemed appropriate to wear.

I have never been to Charlottesville before, so I think that may have been part of the problem.  People - people my age, anyway - were way more dressed up and covered up than I wanted to be in humid 80°+ weather.  And that is the other part of the problem, I think.  I still have not learned to dress in an age-appropriate manner.  Oh, I don't dress like my Aunt Joanne or anything - she who always dressed more youthfully than me, and probably still does.  I stopped wearing t-shirts in public years ago - a step in the right direction, I'm sure.  But I don't think I should really wear shorts out as much as I do, and my skort may have been a fashion faux pas, as well.  I feel that if the weather had been cooler, I could have dressed better, but I fear getting overheated and sweaty on my outings almost as much as I fear unexpected rain or bee stings - maybe more.

The good news is that Julie and I enjoyed Charlottesville so much, and found Monticello so incredibly beautiful, that for long periods of time I forgot that I wasn't as beautifully dressed, coiffed, or manicured as some of the genteel Southern ladies in our tour group.  I hope on my next trip to Monticello - and I know there will be a next trip - that I will know exactly what to bring and how to dress.  But I have my doubts.  

laundry day blues over whites

As I was putting the laundry away yesterday, I noticed that I have six white shirts in my closet.  Two of them have three-quarter length sleeves.  Two of them have short sleeves, and two of them are sleeveless.  None of them are exactly what I want.  That's obvious, I guess, or I won't have to buy six of them.  I have a picture in my mind of exactly what I am looking for, but I haven't been able to find it anywhere in the more than two years that I have been in the market for white shirts.

I suspect I could find something looking like what I want on line, but I have not had good results with ordering clothes on line.  Clothes that look great on teeny models look less than great on me.  And I like to try on multiple sizes.  You know, like, this size is okay, but would I look even better in the next smaller size? Or, more likely, do I need the next bigger size?

Maybe what I want is just too plain.  Maybe I am shopping in the wrong places.  Whatever.  Like Bono, I still haven't found what I'm looking for.