It's amazing how a good piece of
clothing can make you feel.
New Year's Day, Loraine and I were at
Kohl's so she could use a gift card she got for Christmas. While she
was looking for shoes, I wandered over to the men's department and
looked at suit jackets. As you may recall, with my slight frame and
my extra long arms, I have trouble finding suit jackets that actually
fit me. If I find one that fits my torso the sleeves go halfway up
my forearm. If I find one with sleeves that are long enough, the
torso is two or three sizes too big. It's a problem I always have,
and it's one of the reasons I was strolling through the men's section
at Kohl's.
While looking at jackets, and playing
the usual “too short/too big” game, I came across one that caught
my eye. It was in a gorgeous charcoal color, and was a “slim fit”
jacket, which you don't often see. And because it was slim fit, I
dug through the racks, found one that had sleeves that were long
enough, and put it on. Because it was slim fit, it fit my torso
perfectly, and because it had long sleeves, my arms were covered the
way they should be.
It was like they had tailored the
jacket just for me. Keeping it on, I went to find Loraine, who
looked at it and said, “it makes you look so skinny”, which is
something everyone likes to hear. She then asked how much it cost,
something I hadn't even looked at, and my heart almost sank.
It cost a lot. Well, maybe not a lot
to some people, but it was more than I've ever paid for a suit
jacket. So I took it off and put it back on the rack, joining
Loraine as she was looking for a pair of pants to go along with her
new shoes. My mind, though, kept returning to that jacket, and in
either a moment of weakness or a moment of liberation, I went back
and bought it.
And am I glad I did.
It fits me perfectly. Unlike every
other suit jacket I own, the arms are the right length, and the cut
makes me look like I actually have a torso worth showing off. I wore
it for the first time last Friday taping “High School Bowl”, and
had several students (and student moms in the audience) tell me how
nice I looked. I'd like to think that I don't have much of an ego,
that it doesn't matter how people think I look, but you know what?
Apparently I do.
I never would've thought that one piece
of clothing could make a person feel so good about how they look, but
for whatever reason, that suit jacket does it for me. The cut, the
color, the...everything about it is just perfect. Who knew? Even
though that one piece of clothing cost more than any, oh, four items
in my wardrobe, I think it was worth it. You know that old saying
about “you get what you paid for”?
I'm glad I paid for it.
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