Friday, February 12, 2010
Stretches. Weight training: superslow tricep kickback, superslow lateral raise, superslow front raise. Breakfast at home by myself: 2 Thomas' english muffins, one with Smart Balance Light, the other with Adams creamy peanut butter. Went to Macworld Expo today. Chatted with Rodney at the Expo. Snack: cheesy potato crisps and water that I brought from home. Lunch by myself at Osha Thai. Shopped in Westfield Center at H&M then at abercrombie. It was my first time shopping and buying clothes in abercrombie. The store fully reminds me of all the clothes I wore when I used to go moose hunting and canoeing with my dad in the Appalachians <wink>. The quality of the cloth is much higher than to which I'm accustomed from my purchases at other clothing stores. Yes, the Bruce Weber photography (it's him, right?) and the sagger mannequins showing buttcrack are a bit creepy, but the nudity and suggestiveness is a lot tamer than A&F. I guess Mothers Against Softcore Kiddie Porn In Clothing Stores (MASKPICS) has yet to be founded. It's all kind of laughable, from the cologne and perfume table to the crazy crap (canoe hanging from the ceiling, moose head mounted on the wall) to the sizing label "MUSCLE" inside some of the shirts for boys. (Since when did lots of teen boys require clothes which claimed to be specifically designed for muscular physiques?) I bought some sale items but for now am still avoiding the $25 t-shirts and $40 button-downs. I know it's crazy, but that sounds expensive to me after having long bought perfectly-fitting $11 polo shirts at H&M boys. You can mark up the price on an item with thicker/better cloth only so much before I say no. If the button-downs go on sale and I have more time to try them on maybe they will be good for me. I now have essentially given up on my previous mainstay The Gap boys department. 10 to 15 years ago I used to be able to visit Gap Kids and buy really great jackets and a lot more that fit me well. Now there are only 1 or 2 kinds of jackets each time I go, and the sleeves are too short anyway. Long sleeve anything no longer fits me at the boys department at The Gap, so they are pretty much good for only short-sleeve t-shirts now. Today H&M boys had nothing interesting and a smaller boys selection than I remember them having, but it's hard to tell for certain because they rearrange the layout of the store somewhat every time I go. They had no socks for boys—none at all. I found some great sale items and bought some gifts, and I found a cold weather cap with green in it, so it was not a complete waste of time at H&M. Took the L train home—it was backed up at West Portal where we waited doing nothing for perhaps 10 or 15 minutes. Took me 45 minutes to get home. Dinner at home by myself: yesterday's leftovers with some organic garlic udon noodles, 22 ounces of Odwalla carrot juice. Dessert: one almond roca. Answered this question on Formspring: Question: If you won a $1,000 shopping spree for any store, which store would you pick? Answer: Amazon.—Stretches. Weight training: superslow shrug, superslow dumbbell fly, crunch, sissy squats. Installed Firefox 3.6 and the theme called Parasol Totoro by eryc. Enjoyed the almost-full-screen browsing—finally! Late snack: multigrain chips, organic garlic and rosemary crackers, and hummus. Realized that the apartment now smells like the abercrombie store—they seem to soak the clothes in cologne or perfume, which is a rather sneaky and smart marketing tactic, I think. You can't take the clothes home without the perfume. You get hooked on it until it goes in the wash and on your next store visit the smell comes back to you like an old friend.