{"id":819,"date":"2007-04-11T06:25:43","date_gmt":"2007-04-11T14:25:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/torturedpotato.com\/cheeseblog\/?p=819"},"modified":"2007-04-11T06:25:43","modified_gmt":"2007-04-11T14:25:43","slug":"vanity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/torturedpotato.com\/cheeseblog\/?p=819","title":{"rendered":"Vanity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday we went to our local video store &#038; rented two DVDs.  For the first time in my life, it was easy to choose a movie because we have seen 1 (one) movie in the past 12 (twelve) months and it was Snakes on a Plane.   <\/p>\n<p>Me: Did you know there was a movie called Babel?<br \/>\nSA: Uh &#8211;<br \/>\nMe: Oooh!  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0441909\/\"> Almodovar!<\/a><br \/>\nSA: Oooh!  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0800328\/\"> Dukes of Hazzard prequel!<\/a><\/p>\n<p>(Doncha wish your friends were as cool as us?  Doncha?)<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, as we prepared for the walk to the store, I got dressed as follows:<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Red tank top over polka-dot (black and white) nursing bra.  Tank top covers tummy if tugged but is a pre-pregnancy item that also shrank in the dryer so much commitment to tugging is required.  If you guessed the world gets to see a lot of my tummy, you guessed right.<br \/>\n&#8211; A grey zippered warm-up jacket.<br \/>\n&#8211; Black, baggy, drawstring cropped pants.  My first post-pregnancy pants purchase.  Covered in white splotches.<br \/>\n&#8211; Pink, grey and yellow striped ankle socks.<br \/>\n&#8211; Navy blue <a href=\"http:\/\/www.holeysoles.com\/flashsite\/product.htm\"> Holey Soles.<\/a> Yes.  Over socks.<\/p>\n<p>(Thanks to <a href=\"http:\/\/posturbansuburban.blogspot.com\/\">Shelley,<\/a> whose Holey Soles I tried on last spring, spurring an obsessive search for a pair of my own.  Best Pregnant Shoes Ever.  My sole (sole!  har!) regret is that the fuschia ones didn&#8217;t fit &#038; the only colour of the rainbow available to my <i>pies gigantes<\/i> was navy blue.  Drat.)<\/p>\n<p>I gave myself the once-over in the full-length mirror and part of me did recoil in horror, as you might expect, but the other part, the part that rules motivation, said &#8220;Pah!  Who cares?&#8221; and we moved on without a backwards glance.<\/p>\n<p>This sentence arrived fully formed in my head as I walked away from the mirror: Obviously I have fulfilled my biological imperative to reproduce if I am going out in public dressed like this.  <\/p>\n<p>My grasp on dressing appropriately has always been tenuous (see: 1986 &#8211; 1998). Unique, yes.  Creative, definitely. Step-away-from-the-bargain-rack, for sure.  But I have never been careless.  In the past, if my bra strap or my tummy or my hairy knee was showing, it was on purpose; sort of like wearing a button that read <i> Have questions about my belief system?  Ask me!  You might want to buy me a beer, too!<\/i>  But since motherhood, (not since pregnancy &#8211; during pregnancy I still cared what I looked like except for that last week) it seems I have become nonchalant about my appearance while simultaneously hitting upon a hidden cache of self-worth.  <\/p>\n<p>I can narrow it to the following statements: If the world wants to ignore me, it will, regardless of my attire.  If anything has ever sparkled and been attractive about me, it&#8217;s not been my fashion sense.  If I need someone&#8217;s attention, I can ask for it.  <\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s very freeing.  I like not caring.<\/p>\n<p>Now, I still bought new shoes last week and the bloodlust that accompanied shoe-shopping for the first time in over a year was sufficiently blinding that I actually tried on a <a href=\"http:\/\/shop.camper.com\/product.camper\"> pair that cost $179<\/a> and then tried to convince myself that it was a good investment.<\/p>\n<p>Me: They&#8217;ll go with everything<br \/>\nSaleswoman: These ones over here, though?  Are half the price and more practical.<\/p>\n<p>You know if the saleswoman is DOWNSELLING you that the shoes are a bad idea.  <\/p>\n<p>But oh! they are so dreamy-ballerina-beautiful.   And they came in a size 11.  And it was so comfortable.  <\/p>\n<p><a href='http:\/\/torturedpotato.com\/cheeseblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/shoe_beautiful.jpg' title='beautiful shoe'><img src='http:\/\/torturedpotato.com\/cheeseblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/shoe_beautiful.thumbnail.jpg' alt='beautiful shoe' \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Picture this shoe in silver leather with blue trim and elastic.  I searched in vain for a lower-cost knock-off and purchased instead two pairs of Chinese slippers from Commercial drive for $7 apiece.<\/p>\n<p>Buuuuut &#8211; well, way off track now and can&#8217;t find the caboose.  <\/p>\n<p>Me = less concerned with my own appearance but still appreciative of beauty in all its forms.  <\/p>\n<p>And now, my child is trying to climb the stairs using only his teeth so I have to go put his straitjacket on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday we went to our local video store &#038; rented two DVDs. For the first time in my life, it was easy to choose a movie because we have seen 1 (one) movie in the past 12 (twelve) months and &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/torturedpotato.com\/cheeseblog\/?p=819\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,20,15,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movies","category-outside","category-shoes","category-trombone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/torturedpotato.com\/cheeseblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/torturedpotato.com\/cheeseblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/torturedpotato.com\/cheeseblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torturedpotato.com\/cheeseblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torturedpotato.com\/cheeseblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/torturedpotato.com\/cheeseblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/torturedpotato.com\/cheeseblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torturedpotato.com\/cheeseblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torturedpotato.com\/cheeseblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}