I
mentioned in my last post that I had done some shopping at Talbots the other
day. A couple of you wrote and asked what I bought.
The trip
was prompted by an upcoming dinner for the MSKCC radiation oncology residents.
In past years, spouses were routinely included in these events, but more
recently budgetary limitations have made them faculty-only evenings. However,
Barry is being recognized this year for his teaching, so I am invited to attend
along with him.
Although
I am sure Barry can testify that I have said this many times over the years,
for the first time I can say in all honesty that I truly do not have anything to wear to the dinner! Having raised two
daughters, particularly the younger one, I fully appreciate that "need"
when it comes to clothing is a somewhat subjective term. But any appropriate
clothing I may have owned for such an occasion is simply too large. I also remembered
that the son of one of our friends is getting married in August. Realizing I
would need something for that as well, I decided to go for it.
My
beloved LL Bean and Lands End serve my every day needs, and I have bought some nice
things on J Jill and Travel Smith, but none of these fit the bill. I saw a
couple of items on the Talbots web page but I felt it would be easiest to go to
a local store and try them on. I had shopped at Talbots quite a bit during my
early years at Pfizer, the days before “business casual” became the norm and when
I was going into my office every day. While I know the looks have changed, I
still imagined it would be a good place to start.
As it
turned out, the store had completely different items than shown on the web page,
so I was essentially starting from scratch. I figured the worst that would
happen was I could determine what size I needed and go back and order through
the catalogue. The first item I tried, and I was really surprised that it was
Barry who saw this and suggested I try it on, is a suit: a
sheath dress with a long-sleeved jacket, in a yellow tweed that is somewhat
shiny. It reminds me of Lisa DeAngelis (neuro-oncology head at MSKCC), who
often wears these sorts of outfits (maybe that's what struck Barry as well). I have
a pair of bone shoes from Dina and Aaron’s wedding that are barely worn and
still seem to fit, so I'm all set.
The other
outfit is more vintage me: a long khaki-colored linen skirt with eyelet trim on
the bottom, and a very cool white linen tunic.
I am 100%
convinced that women's clothing manufacturers are making clothes larger than
they used to. In other words, a 2013 size 8 is not what a 1980 size 8 was. I
NEVER in my life bought a size 8 anything! I have always said that I was born a size 12!!!!
I know I have lost a lot of weight, but size 8? Really?
It's
funny, because Barry has been on a campaign over all these months to get me to
eat. Perhaps it has satisfied his need to do something: if he could
not make the cancer go away, he could at least feed me. But for the first time
in that dressing room, I think he really enjoyed seeing the thinner me. As I
have been saying all along, although it is not a weight loss regimen I would
recommend, there's nothing wrong with making lemonade when life gives you a
lemon.
To
complete the transformation, and hopefully to help improve my vision and functioning,
I took my new eyeglass prescription to the optician. I had in mind to simply
replace the lenses in my current glasses. But he looked up my file and it turns
out I have had those glasses for quite a few years, so he enticed me to try on
something new. I guess the frameless look went out of style a while ago. So I
am making a rather radical leap to a dark reddish plastic frame. I will have to
post a photograph when I get the new glasses.
It is a
beautiful day here in New York, although they say the rain will return by
tomorrow. Fortunately the weekend looks good.
Be well,
all.
Love,
Rebecca
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