4 posts tagged “clothes”
I'm sure I'm in the minority, but I don't like suits. Never have. I find dress clothes can make a man look sharp, but a full-on suit is just not an attractive look to me. So I don't own one. It's never been a problem before. I work for a charity and most people in the non-profit sector don't dress up too much. You might get a shirt and tie on occasion, but mostly it's pretty casual around the office. And I have never been invited to a lot of formal events or had to attend many funerals (knock wood)
Well, now I've reached a point in my life where I'm starting to need one. Junkii and I are invited to take part in two weddings this fall - one in August as groomsmen and one in December for Junkii's sister - and we need formal attire for both. Since he doesn't own a suit either, we were in a bit of a bind. We considered renting suits for the first wedding, but when we found out we needed formal wear for the second as well and it just seemed more logical to buy a basic black suit.
Turns out our timing was pretty good. Moore's - the basic suit store in Canada - launched a buy one get one free deal just as we decided to purchase. So off we trotted to Moore's to see about taking advantage of this offer. Neither of us was terribly impressed with our shopping experience:
- The Salesperson we had helping us was pretty disinterested in showing us more than one or two jackets. (Junkii will tell you it probably didn't help that - because I don't like suits - I just wanted to get the purchase over with.)
- The salesperson was very distracted as he was preparing the instructions for the tailor and we frequently needed to correct his work.
- We were supposed to have the same suit, but mine turned out to be $100 more expensive than his - so the overall cost was about $100 more than it needed to be (again, my fault - I'm not very confrontational and I'm more likely to simply pay the extra than bother looking for another suit or challeging the price).
Bring on the fancy dress parties!
We made a pilgrimage to Waterloo, NY this weekend for a clothes-shopping excursion at the outlet mall. Not as much for ourselves as for our friend, who wanted to renew his entire wardrobe. What great timing too. Most of the outlet stores were offering sales of 30, 40, or even 50 percent off merchandise, in an attempt to help spur sagging sales figures. The fact that it was father's day weekend probably didn't hurt either.
We arrived at 1pm on Saturday, ate our lunch, and proceeded to wander from store to store until about 8:30, just before the mall closed. Seven hours! That's a lot of shopping! Junkii and I did okay - each buying a couple of pairs of shoes and a few small items - but most of our time was spent helping our co-traveler outfit himself in new couture.
Once we finished, we faced a new challenge: where to eat. None of us wanted another dose of food court (I had already had my Arby's fix at lunch). So despite our rumbly tummies, we decided to suck it up and wait for dinner until we drove back to Syracuse, where we spent the night.
A New Default Chain?
Now, we didn't want to spend a lot of time or money at a nice restaurant - nor were we dressed for fancy fare - so we elected to go to one of the many chain family restaurants on offer in the US. In the past, Junkii and I have had disastrous luck with such places. Friendly's, Chili's - they've all promised yummy food, but they've all delivered over-salted, over-sized, over-cheesed, otherwise unmemorable meals. We've nicknamed Appleby's Crappleby's because it's so dismal. Nope - from our experience, chain eateries tend to be sub-par at best. Still, they're quick and cheap, so we decided to try our luck at one we hadn't tried before (for food, anyway) - TGI Friday's.
Maybe it was because we were so hungry, but honestly the food was good. A little over-salted maybe, but we ordered off the "reasonable portion" menu and received a good-sized plate of tasty food. My crusted pork chop was tender and juicy, with a yummy sauce and some particularly good mashed potatoes. Junkii had a perfectly cooked (medium rare) 8oz steak that was like butter. We left satisfied, overjoyed that we now have a chain restaurant option that we can turn to in times of need. Huzzah.
Of course, there is another chain that we rely on. We visit one every time we go to the States, and this visit was no exception. Breakfast at IHOP! It was the highlight of day two, and really, there was nothing else to report on.
well, maybe one other thing...
No Go Hotels
Junkii and I now have a total of 4 hotels that we won't use in Syracuse anymore. we long ago concluded that the Red Roof Inn was dirty and the bed was too hard for another stay. And we found Motel 6 too smokey to bother going back. But we added two more to the list this weekend. Mel likes the Days Inn, but I find it feels old and dirty. I've always liked Super8, but on this trip Junkii found it gave him the creeps on cleanliness. So we agreed not to use either anymore.
Our co-traveler's experience this time also helped change my mind about Super8. His room had an odor so bad that he couldn't stay there. Unfortunately they had no extra space to move him to. He wound up sleeping in our room on the floor (well, on a couple of comforters and some sheets. It was a hard bed, but at least it didn't stink. They comped him his room in the end, but there's no call for such poor quality cleaning.
So far, the only hotel we agree on is the Quality inn. It's comfortable, clean, and with a friendly desk staff. That will probably be our default hotel. It's pricier, but it's worth the extra $20 a night for the peace of mind.
Junkii says I'm a cow when it comes to how I wear out my clothes. I'm beginning to think he's right. I tend to get holes in my socks faster than he does, and my clothes generally just don't last as long. So it should have come as no surprise when I got to work with a soaking wet sock this morning. That's right, my walking-to-work shoes seem to have developed a slow leak, and wicked up all the water from Ottawa's sidewalks during my short commute. How frustrating.
And it's not like they're cheap shoes, either. They're Clarks! And yet, here I am, after less than a year of daily wear (I didn't wear them in winter at all!) and there's a crack the size of the grand canyon running across the sole. Bollocks, I say. There's no pride in how things are manufactured. Things are clearly made to fail.
What's worse is that I had a hard time finding decent shoes to begin with; ones that were both stylish and comfortable. And now I've got to go out and do it all over again - drop another C-note for yet another pair of shoes to wear with office casual.
I guess it's true. I can't have nice things.
We decided to do our part to spur on the U.S. economy last week. On the Saturday before Black Friday we took an impromptu day trip to Syracuse, NY to buy ourselves a few nice things.
It was a lovely too. A gorgeous sunny day. At least when we left Ottawa. Once we hit Watertown, the weather turned nasty and the rest of the drive included everything from snow squalls to white-outs. It was not nice driving, but we managed to make it to the outlet mall in Waterloo in time for lunch. (Mmmmm, Arby's).
Unfortunately, we weren't staying overnight and we weren't sure how much we could bring back without invoking the wrath of Canada Customs. So we limited our search to a couple of key items.
we found these coats at Banana Republic - at 40% off! Woohoo! We still need some more fashionable scarves, but those are easy enough to find here in town.
(Incidentally, I was also in the market for a new ski jacket - the zipper was disintegrating on my old one - but didn't really expect to find one. But Columbia came through for me, providing a brand new ski jacket for 50 bucks. What could be better? And it's proven to be much warmer than my last jacket too, so I'm smiling.)
Best part of the trip? The snow stopped once we left Syracuse and at the border, Canada Customs was nice enough to wave us through without requiring us to pay tax. Sweet!
