Tag: Shirts

  • ODDS and ENDS: It’s Cold, Life with an Oxford Shirt, and Yellow Cake

    ODDS and ENDS: It’s Cold, Life with an Oxford Shirt, and Yellow Cake

    (Tin Roof! Rusted!)

    It’s winter now. That was fast. Seems like last week, it was still Autumn around here. And I don’t just mean because it was Thanksgiving back on last Thursday. No, there were still colored leaves on trees. Then, this morning, it was 21 out, and all the leaves were gone. Just bare trees, and cold winds.

    My mother used to always buy me blue Oxford Cloth Button Down shirts growing up. I hated the shirt style. It seemed too formal for a kid to wear, and if you did have one on and went to school, the other kids would make fun of you – call you a nerd. Though I always had one in my closet, just in case when I need to wear a tie. When I was in college, and hated doing laundry, I started wearing the Oxford shirts again, and on some level, it felt comfortable this time around. I am sure it had everything to do with no one calling me a nerd. I kept Oxfords in the rotation when I started working professionally, as they looked smart with a tie, but also not too formal, like I wasn’t trying to dress up. Now, it’s what I want to be in all the time. Not sure what that says about me.

    Sometimes I just want a box-mix yellow cake with chocolate icing for desert. I know that yellow cake doesn’t really have a unique flavor – I think it’s vanilla, right? But right now, I really want to have that lite, spongy sheet pan of a cake. And the icing as well. That cream cheese icing with coco powder. Nothing special, or ground breaking, just solid great tasting icing that isn’t too sweet, and with a slight hint of biter chocolate. That cake feels like the best comfort food I could have right now. Maybe ice cream would be more comforting, but it’s too cold for that. No, I want right out of the over yellow cake.

  • What’s Left in My Closet

    I used to own a bunch of shirts. Like button down and dress shirts. When I went to an office daily, I liked dressing for work. I had a bunch of khaki pants, and sportscoats. Lots of ties, and shirts; white, blue, gray, navy, and I even had some patterned dress shirts for “casual” days. I liked dressing up for work because it was like I put on a costume, and I could play the “character” of employee. Then, when I would get home, I would change clothes into something casual – jeans and a t-shirt – which allowed me to relax and forget about the day. (Not that I always forgot about the day, but I was making an effort.) This really shouldn’t be surprising as I am a theatre guy, and I still view the world through a theatrical prism.

    Then the pandemic hit, and I stopped working. During one of the especially bad waves, when we were completely stuck inside, the wife and I decided that it was time to clear out and declutter the home. One of the tasks was to clean out the closet of clothes that we didn’t wear or didn’t fit. (I will fully admit that I put on Covid weight, and I am still trying to get it off.) So, on my end of the closet were all these dress shirts that had gathered dust on the shoulders, and didn’t fit. Out they went, and it felt good to get rid of a past life that I wasn’t particularly proud of.

    As time has moved forward, and I am in my new role as stay-at-home-dad/vagabond-rogue, my daily attire is very casual, but I do still enjoy a button down and flannel shirt. Yet, as I looked at my closet this morning, I noticed that I only really wear five shirts. That’s it; five. I just rotate these five, along with two sweatshirts – gray and blue. (I did hold on to all the sportscoats. I just might still become that dad at the playground, sitting on a bench, reading a book, all tweed’d out.) This is my existence, which is not to dissimilar from my attire in college, and that brings me to believe that I want to be comfortable more than anything.

    All my life’s a circle.

    (Can you believe that we are both here at the same time? Ah, the power of words! And if you think like me, then please be kind and give a like, share, or a comment. Even a follow would be the cat’s meow! Every little bit helps.)