The Hunt for New Clothes

Today I braved the mall with my poor Dad who endured it all with me. The original plan: buy a nice/nice-ish new top to go with my nicer looking pants so I look somewhat decent at Issi's graduation and part. But alas, my lack of activity and poor diet as well as bad sleeping schedules has led to me gaining more weight than I like. >.< Definitely gonna have to start walking for real. So the plan changed to pick out top and nice pants/jeans to go with top. I thought the top shopping would actually be the difficult part or at least equally difficult as I am quite picky. Boy was I wrong.

The day started off with breakfast at my fave place, Huffs restaurant, and I tried something new. It was mmm mmmm goooood, proving yet again why Huffs I smy favorite breakfast place. I had a Greek omelette, egg (duh), sausage, mushrooms, spinich, tomatos, and feta cheese (I think I'm missing something). I asked for easy mushrooms and spinich as those aren't my fave. Man, that was a GOOD omelette.

Anywho, stuffed, we headed to....dun dun duunnnnnnn....the Mall. First department store we hit had a big ol' sale and I found (okay, Dad helped) a few tops at a good price. It didn't take long at all! I tried on like five, but just kept three. :D They're very pretty and simple, just the way I like 'em. :) We hunted for pants, but thanks to be a girl of "average/medium" height but "tall/long" legs it was super hard to find any pants/slacks that fit right. Ah well, other stores in the mall. Dad bought me the tops. :D Thank you, Daddy! :x And I was grateful, cuz I'd set aside money for one top and now needed pants too.

We headed to a store that caters to my size. But alas, after a long search and several pants and jeans tried, they either were too short or too long or too snug or too big or the wrong cut or some combination. I felt like freakin' Goldie Lockes. They didn't have many Talls to begin with. Ah well...

We went to two department stores next. One barely had a pants/jeans collection at all! Stupid summer. And the other had alot of options, but not in my size or in colors I'd actually wear! Curses, foiled again! I didn't really expect to find them there, but I hoped. Ah well.

We finally got lucky at Torrids. I like that store, for it's hipper plus sized clothes and super friendly and helpful staff but boy do you pay for it. >.< I discovered, I am NOT a skinny jean girl. :P They fit, but like they'd make the type of shoes I wear look stupid or rather my shoes would look stupid with the jeans or something. I'm not girly when it comes to shoes. :P Anywho, jeans were more pricey than I'd hoped. Thank you again, Daddy! But after I'd told Mom, she told me that's about what she'd always paid for them for me. Guess it's been a while since I bought/paid attention to the price of my own jeans.

We did window shop at a couple stores, a Toon store and a bookstore. And we went back to the first department stores to look at microwaves because ours is starting to kinda short out when heating stuff. So I was price checking. Anywho, that was our four hour adventure in the mall.

I hate clothes shopping for all of the above problems. I do need more clothes of all kinds. But I want to see if I can start walking and maybe slim down a smidgeon before I do. But for now, I can happily say, I don't have to wear clothes with holes, fading, or tiny bleach stains. Maybe I'll get myself an item or two a month until I actually have a wardrobe! If I'd just get serious about losing weight (and I know I won't do more than try and walk more and try and not eat as much), then I could fit into some of the older stuff I have in my closet that still looks fairly new. Like all my lovely button down tops that I used to LOVE wearing even though I hated having to iron them. :P

Anywho, it's late (much later than this post's timestamp, but I wanted it dated correctly) and I still have dishes to wash. Toodles!

Thinking of Him...

I honestly thought April was going to be harder. His birthday. The anniversary. I just thought it'd be a hard month for us all. And it had it's sad moments, but I think May's hitting us all hard. I mean I figured Mothers' Day wouldn't be happy for Mom. But it's all of us and not just that one day.

I keep seeing scenes in the shows or movies I watch or hearing others who are dealing with grief that make me sad and bring me back to those early months. Just this past week, I keep hearing that call and reliving that night. Most times I can just close my eyes and see his smiling face and I'll be okay. But sometimes it just takes a while longer even with his face in my head.

Mom's been having a lot of nightmares and I know Dad keeps thinking about him. It's like my prayer for April to be bearable worked, but it was only like a dam to hold back the sadness and it's spilling over now. It's got me worrying about Mom and Dad more again, not that I'm always all smiles. I feel like I need to be able to check on Mom more. Like I'm worried about leaving her alone at night. Which means a possible weekend away thing won't be happening. Something inside is telling me I shouldn't go.

I'm watching Extreme Makeover: Home Edition right now, and the last couple episodes the families have lost someone. For both families, they told them that they need a change and I've heard that about helping to heal one's life after a loss. In both, the family memembers lost died in the homes and rooms were left untouched. I think of Dad. I wish so much for him to get that change. A new home, fixed up, looking nice, without so many ghosts as they put it. And I think of Mom who needs a change just as badly, to get out of the house and to start living again. She'd started to slip into this isolation when her dad died and then when she started working from home. And me. I need a change too. I want to regain that independence I had back in Anaheim and even the smidgeon I had in Norwalk would be nice.

Heh, of all the times I sat down to write a blog this morning and mentally all yesterday, this was so not what I thought I was going to write. I actually was just going to share a video of a cartoon Josh and I loved as kids. I know HAVE to find this on a DVD. Anyway... to end this on a lighter note, here is Robin Hood Daffy from Merrie Melodies in 1958. Enjoy!

Daddy Days :)

Thanks to things not working out right for Dad's work, he had a four day weekend. I saw him three of those days. :D Weeeee.....

Thursday, after he found out a job he wanted wasn't available, he came over and brought breakfast. Mom had gone into work that day (yep, second time for that this month!) and so it was just the two of us. :D We ate MickeyDs breakfasts (yum!) and talked and laughed for a couple hours. Oh, and he kept trying to scare Pixie. :P Punk. Thankfully, when he left and I went to bed (cuz I was still up from day before), Pixie wasn't all riled up and was able to go mimi too. The rest of the day was nice too. Mom came home earlier than if she'd worked a full shift, thanks to getting off early for a doctor's appointment in the same area as her work. She came home, and I made dinner (toaster oven pizzas, :D ). We started watching Avatar, but she like asked SOO many questions and we kept stopping it. She was getting bored and she was tired (or maybe that's why she was bored and unfocussed). Anywho, we didn't finish it (even to this day >.< ). But we still had a nice evening, wehich was completed with the surprise dessert I made her (Jell-o chocolate fudge pudding!).

Saturday, Dad picked me up and we grabbed some breakfast sandwiches at this one donut shop and rented some DVDs before heading to his place. We watched a movie and goofed off for a little bit, then went out to shop for some supplies for my house. We didn't get to watch the rented movie that we both wanted to see (we picked up three: Pirate Radio for him, Zombieland for me, and Everybody's Fine for us). Ah well, always the next day! I took Zombieland home with me and I'm glad he rented it for me, cuz it was pretty funny. :P

Sunday, Dad picked me up again (yay for double whammy Daddy), and we headed to my fave breakfast place. :D Like the dorks we are, we brought our books in to read at the restaurant. :P In my defense, I was ALMOST done with my book. Bah, who needs a defense. We're a family of bookworms. :P Anywho, we did some more shopping at the Dollar Tree and then some food shopping (again for my house). Got a new book, and socks, and a few seasons of SG-1 too! Thank you Daddy!

While at Costco (wholesale market/store), I saw a couple of kids playing. A brother and sister that looked to be close in ages. Heh, the little girl was even wearing glasses and bossing the brother about a bit. >.< Yeah, it only reminded me of me and Josh when we were young.

We watched the movie we rented the day before. Everybody's Fine was a gooood but sad movie. It kind of bugged me that none of his kids visited him and kept things from him. I can't ever imagine not visiting my parents as often as possible. Even decades from now, when they're really old and possibly in rest homes or being taken care of or whatever... I can't imagine not visiting them. (FYI, I'm personally hoping the Rapture happens before anyone I know gets to that round the clock needs a nurse to care for them stage.) Anywho, definitely not a movie for my Mom to watch due to its sad moments being a little too close to home.

Anywho, we had to cut the day short thanks to my brilliance at forgetting the movie that needed to be returned in Dad's neighborhood. So he had to take me home early, so he could pick it up and have time to return it before the rental shop closed. Ah well, still it was a good day. A good couple of days! And I finished my book, FINALLY! Yay! :D