The ones that got away (happy ending)

I remember my English teacher back in high school reading us a poem...I think it was by Robert Frost, it was about a man who was in pursuit of a deer. After the deer managed to get away from him many times, he slumped down, depressed. He had given up, and then the deer approached him.

I wasn't too keen on analogies then as I am now. My teacher related that it was a poem about playing hard-to-get.

Speaking of hard to get:

Let me introduce to you the After Dinner T-Straps no longer available at Anthropologie. I have a general policy of not buying shoes that I can't try on unless there is a good return policy. Needless to say, Anthropologie has a return policy which is good enough for me. On the day these were brought to my attention in a meaningful way, I had also seen a sweater vest I was interested in on the website and I decided before anything, I should just go down to the store and try on the vest to see if I'd really be that interested in it. I would not want to spend the extra money on shipping if I didn't have to. I go there and it turns out, they don't have my size in the vest. I lurk around some. ( I bought the Vaego dress - never try on anything just for fun or you might find that you just can't take it off.) Earlier at my apartment, I looked at the vest and I search through the sale section on shoes, just to see if they'd have anything I'd like and when I searched in my size - the After Dinner T-straps showed up. NO FREAKING WAY! There's never a cool pair of shoes in my size, $69.95, down from $138. However, to not incure more shipping charges (expensive, mind you) I decided to go to the store first to see if I was truly interested in that vest. When I got home, the shoes were sold out, and I went frantic.

Times like these when practicality turns into "what was I thinking? There was a return policy, I had nothing to lose." After much sulking, I resolved myself - I shouldn't be buying 3" heels anyway, I'm not sure when I'd wear them...and so forth. I was fine, irritated, but fine. About a week later when searching in my size again after a new notice had popped up of more items going on sale at the site, there they were again! "REDEMPTION!" maybe some luck too. I didn't wait, I purchased them fast along with the vest that was in my size that I eventually returned. Life doesn't give me many of these opportunities.

New lesson learned: If you see something you want, and there's a return policy, you really have nothing to lose save $13 to satisfy that burning curiousity

Polyester is a B-ee-tch!

While I'm fond of learning new things, about 33%-50% of those new things are learned by trial and many many errors.

In my taking advantage of the Tax free weekend, I bought a shift dress at Banana Republic. It was only about $30 and unlike most of my other dresses, this one could be worn on a more regular basis. It was very Fall appropriate and that argument pushed me over the fact that it was 100% polyester.

After having the odd sense to wear it while still summery, it had absorbed it's fair share of my sweat and I thought to myself, "Ill just wash it, no big deal." Upon coming out of the dryer, nearly all of the seams had come out of the hem and sleeves.

Since I recently bought 3 new pairs of trousers, I brought one of them to the tailors and I took my dress along thinking that the seams wouldn't be a big deal. $28.50 for the dress hem, $18.50 for the sleeves. A grand $20 more than I paid for the entire dress. I have tailor loyalty already, so these are my go to people, but as much as I love them, I've decided that I'm going to try and sew the hems myself.

Polyester isn't exactly silk, and it's really delicate. It's not really the best of both worlds.

Moral of the story: Read care tags, and follow them.