Thursday, September 27, 2012

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.  

1 comment:

Ben said...

Even though you know how to dress, you still may not know what to bring. That's just part of traveling. We've been traveling for years, and if we get it right it's more by luck. Just accept that you'll have what you need, maybe not what you want. Isn't there a lyric like that somewhere?