Retail Therapy

[velvetpage]

This morning at nine o'clock, Oma, Opa and Aunt Krista arrived to pick up Elizabeth and me. We headed out in their minivan to Vaughn Mills, which is north of Toronto, out in the general direction of Canada's Wonderland. It's about a forty-minute drive in good weather, but we stopped for coffee at the busiest, slowest Timmy's in Hamilton so we actually got there just as it opened, at ten o'clock. Oma, Opa and Aunty Krista took Elizabeth shopping while I went on a hunt for The Perfect Skirt. I had prepared so well that I was actually wearing the (decidedly unseasonable) top I wanted to match with a periwinkle skirt.

The goal was a flowy, uneven-hemmed, approximately knee-length skirt in a fairly bright, almost-turquoise shade. I was prepared to settle for a grey or black skirt that met the other criteria and looked good on me. As it turned out, the skirt I got met only two of the four criteria. It is burgundy, a shade which is just slightly too dusty for me to wear with the new top I got a few weeks ago (pictured in my icon.) It has an elastic, invisible waist, is very flowy, but has an even, just-past-knee-length hem. It has sequins in a pretty floral design right near the bottom. It's flirty and pretty and it only cost $25. I'm thrilled with it.

Now I need to go shopping to find a top to wear with it. I'm thinking a dusty rose in the same basic material as the top I was originally trying to match. It shouldn't be hard, or expensive, to find.

After this purchase, and after trying on and rejecting at least a dozen other skirts, I met the rest of the party for lunch at the food court. Oma bought two complete outfits, more clothes than she has purchased in years. They're great colours, too. Krista made sure everything matched. They bought a Pooh bear blanket for Elizabeth and a Miffy bowl that looks quite Chinese.

I bought four picture frames, two matted to an 8x10 size and two matted to 5x7. We have dozens of pictures waiting for frames around here, and I want to get Elizabeth in for pictures soon again. Piet wouldn't agree to that until some of the ones lying around the house actually got onto the walls.

So, having already spent $70 or thereabouts, we finally passed by Fairweather.

They had coats on sale racks right by the entrance. They were wool coats, several different styles, regular $200 or so, on sale for $75 and $50. I descended on them. I tried on coat after coat, in half a dozen colours and styles. We compared the bulk factor, the bulge-in-the-back factor (these coats were made for someone taller than me) and the fact that for most of them, we'd need to sew all the buttons back on. I even tried on one suede one that I absolutely loved - except that the sleeves were miles too long and the lowest button was pulling a bit tight through the hips. I decided I couldn't justify that money for a coat that didn't fit right.

Then I saw it.

I wandered over to the racks of leather coats, most of which were on sale for $100. I didn't want a black one, so I skipped past those. But one colour caught my eye.

Purple. Subtle enough to look black in certain lights, bright enough that Elizabeth took one look at it and said, "Mommy purple coat!" Waist-length, zip-up, low, flat collar, perfect fit in every respect. It was gorgeous.

And it was way beyond my budget. (I didn't exactly have a budget, so pretty much any further expenditure would have qualified as beyond it.)

Opa gave me $20 towards my coat, which paid the tax plus a bit. I shelled out $94 for a purchase that makes me smile every time I think about it.

It was worth it.

Comments

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

Pictures will follow today, hopefully.

You know, if my career choice had been different, I would probably think a lot more like you do. But my career almost requires that I have socialist tendencies. My professional life is devoted to making this little piece of the world a better place for a few dozen kids. While I might like the idea of a tax break and using the money to do what is important to me, I also realize that if people like me don't contribute to some social equalization for these kids, the cycles of poverty and neglect that many of them live in will continue for another generation. If my tax money helps one family make their life better enough that they don't need the social assistance in another generation, then the money will have been well spent.

I don't take anything as a personal affront. :) One of these days we will get around to that discussion of what libertarianism means to you, though. :)

[mizheekay.livejournal.com]

It always floors me when I meet the rare teacher who votes right wing. Your words have so much truth, and the longer I teach the more leftist thinking is simply synonymous with moral thinking. I have to watch that I keep my personal political views toned down in the classroom and get the kids thinking for themselves.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

I'm almost ashamed to say this, though I can justify it by pointing out that I wasn't a teacher or even well on my way to becoming one at the time. But I voted for Mike Harris in 1995. (I was working for the LIberal party at the time in a different riding, too.)

I was on strike for 17 days my first year teaching. In that time, I became a left-voting, right-thinking teacher. Gradually, I've gone over to the left since then. I know exactly one right-voting teacher.

My feeling is that a true Christian is going to lean toward the left of the political spectrum, because the basis of socialism is taking care of those in society who cannot take care of themselves for whatever reason. Of course, in Canada, someone who describes himself as right-wing can still believe in mostly-socialized medicare and a strong education system. It's one of the things I love about this country.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

In response to personal political views in the classroom - I recently taught the grade 5 Canadian Government unit. I made the difficult and somewhat controversial decision at the beginning of the year to be truthful about how I voted and why, if they asked. My reasoning was that I want them to be politically engaged. Engagement on any level has to be modelled. If their parents vote, they likely will too, but the reverse is also true. I made a point of telling them that they had to make up their own minds, always, and that far more than voting as I did, I wanted them to read everything they could get their hands on before an election and make an informed decision.

Now, of course, with the work-to-rule happening, I simply can't discuss union stuff in the classroom, even if they ask. Two of them have already noticed the shift. The next few months will be very interesting.

The worst part about the strike in 2000 was coming back and having one grade 8 tell me I shouldn't be discussing the strike in class, while two more spouted off about how greedy and self-serving teachers were being and we should all have been fired. I told them if I wasn't allowed to discuss politics, neither were they, so they could either let me reply to their comments or they could stop making them. I ended up sending two kids to the office who refused to stop making the comments. Dealing with their parents was not fun.