This has been a challenge. The majority of the puzzle is white with various lines and squiggles. I knew that when I purchased it, of course. The part yet to be finished is the most challenging. I worked on it a lot yesterday and I finally had to force myself to stop. That’s the NY Public Library, by the way.
I have to find something to wear to the premiere today. This pushes all my buttons because a) I hate shopping in a mall or a big store but I have to be able to try things on, and b) I’ve gained weight and I’m not the skinny thing I was for most of my life and facing that fact in a dressing room is extremely unpleasant, and c) the whole thing can be very depressing and tiring, and d) I don’t want to spend a lot of money on this. The suggested dress is Business Casual. Hmmm. So it’s not very dressy, thank goodness, but I have to look put together in a group of people who, believe me, will look extremely well put together.
Add to that that I am an introvert and the thought of the premiere fills me with excitement and dread. At the same time. So many people, so much talking, so much being ‘on.’ And for us, the trip in and out of NYC, finding a place to park, trying to grab a bite to eat before the start of the movie, is a bit overwhelming. It makes for a very long day that will find us getting back home in the wee hours of the next morning.
That’s what I’m dealing with this morning. I’m blessed to be able to go, I know, but that doesn’t make it any easier.
I’m shopping today because I sure don’t want to shop right after Thanksgiving, which would be insane. If I can’t find anything, I’ll go out again on Monday, but I’m hoping it will all be taken care of today.
Okay. I won’t post tomorrow as it is Thanksgiving here in the States and most of you will be very busy with meal prep, family, etc. We will cook our usual vegetarian fare.
Stay safe and Happy Thanksgiving.
Happy Wednesday.
Wishing you both a very happy Thanksgiving.
Even through the stress – understatement!!!!- of these past years, there is still so much to be thankful for.
Stay well, blog friends :)
Thanks, Naomi.
Stay safe.
How about a nice pair of trousers or midi skirt with a blazer? Oh and Happy Thanksgiving to you and Don!!
Thanks, Cindy.
Stay safe.
Now that is a challenging puzzle. I hope you find something to wear. The last time I looked for a special outfit was for my daughters wedding and it wasn’t fun but I did find the perfect dress. We will have a quiet Thanksgiving here, just Mom and I. As always I am so thankful for each day I still have with her. Happy Thanksgiving!
Enjoy your day tomorrow, Linda.
Stay safe.
Easy peasy . Black trousers, black top -cashmere sweater, turtleneck, crew neck. Lovely colorful scarf, comfortable shoes. Take the train, stay overnight and enjoy.
Finding black pants that fit is the problem. I already have a great top. Today was fruitless.
Staying overnight is too expensive for us.
Thanks, Barbara.
Stay safe.
Flax brand black linen floods. Elastic waist, comfortable. Dress them up or dress them down. Classics.
No, that wouldn’t work. I’ve worn Flax, and lovely as it is, it wrinkles immediately. I’m going to a big premiere where photos will be taken and I don’t want to wear wrinkled clothes all night long. But thanks so much for your suggestions Barbara. I so appreciate them.
xoxo
I agree with Barbara. Pieces that you will be able to wear again.
I am like you hate shopping and the prices are insane.
Wish you the best!
Well, I wouldn’t buy anything I couldn’t wear again. Today was frustrating.
Thanks, Linda.
Stay safe.
Between the puzzle, and your shopping adventure, I’m not sure which is the greater task. The puzzle certainly looks challenging, but the shopping? I don’t envy you. I like Barbara’s suggestion. That does sound simple.
Good luck today. And, Happy Thanksgiving to you both! There will be seven of us tomorrow….family for which I am most grateful! ;)
Already thought of that since I basically wear black. But I couldn’t find any black trousers that fit today.
Have a lovely day tomorrow.
Stay safe, Donnamae.
I really enjoy your dolls, the doll house tutorials and updates, and your puzzles. I really like the ones that look like drawings of famous places, etc. I have to live vicariously through your puzzling. This would be like a rubic cube to me and I can just see myself pushing the puzzle off the table and sobbing in frustration. Best to keep with reading and quilting (and enjoying you doing the work).
Thanks, Christine!
Stay safe.
i feel the same about the overall horridness of clothes-shopping, malls and dressing room mirrors/lighting, but you will find a great outfit for the premiere (maybe it’s already in your closet)!
same with finishing that puzzle.
i hope you can then relax, have a happy holiday and weekend and look forward to a special evening out with don and seeing your movie (at a premiere)!!!
i’ve done a lot over the past three days to get ready for thanksgiving and Christmas … feeling very good about that. also tired. and for having at least eleven hats to donate to the church sale (found a few previously knit in with my yarn stash). am now ready for a couple of slower days. will spend the night and tomorrow with some members of my family and enjoy it very much. i am so glad and grateful for them all.
and i am thankful for you all, too. claudia, i appreciate all the time, effort and other cost you have to post every day and for sharing of your life and heart. you and the other sweet people here have provided me with support and prayers and cheered me on and i thank you all for those things.
happy thanksgiving!
stay safe.
sending hugs, love and prayers for you all,
kathy
Kathy in Iowa: I am thankful for Claudia and all the readers/commenters, but I have wanted to thank you for quite some time. You always comment in the most loving, kind and positive way. I seldom comment, but I appreciate all posts and comments. Truly a wonderful community on here.
kathy!! I agree with Dottie. Your enthusiasm blows me away some days!!! YOU are appreciated!!
oh, chris … thanks for those kind and not-surprising words! you’ve always been so encouraging to me and that (you) helps and means a lot. i thank you!
i must give credit to my beloved parents for the enthusiasm … they raised my brother, sister and me to embrace life, to explore, to deal with hardships and face fears and trust God. also to know that (in one way or another) every day is a good day. sometimes that’s easier than other times for me to do (again, depression), but i don’t give up. :)
i hope and pray that by now your littlest sweetheart and her parents are all done being sick for their sakes and yours and so you all could spend today together. hope you had a wonderful thanksgiving and will enjoy an easy weekend ahead.
thanks again.
hugs and prayers,
kathy
what a sweet thing to say! thank you, dottie!
i try to focus on all the good around me (it is there), to lead with love (or at least an openness to life) and to let God lead me to do what i can to lighten someone else’s load and make the world a better place … but some days i do feel like “a pessimist in optimist clothing” (something that’s part of depression for me so i fight it) … so your kind words are very much appreciated!
and i agree about the community here … wonderful … and that’s thanks to claudia and you and everyone else here. i feel good here.
hope you and your family enjoyed a great thanksgiving, that the clean-up’s all done and there are leftovers to make meals easy for the week ahead.
thanks again.
hugs and prayers,
kathy
Good luck with your shopping trip. Happy Thanksgiving to you and Don and everyone in the MHC community. I hope you all have a blessed day.
Thanks, Denise.
Stay safe.
Half of the outfit is in my closet, but finding pants that fit right and aren’t too long is the challenge. Today proved frustrating.
Have a lovely day tomorrow.
Stay safe.
glad at least part of your outfit is at hand, but sorry you couldn’t find pants you wanted today, claudia. i bet you will find something by this weekend and know you will look great no matter what you wear!
i very much commiserate about finding pants that fit and aren’t too long! i am now under 5’2″, all pants are too long and getting things hemmed ruins the line of them .. so frustrating! that is why i most often wear skirts (that my sweet mother and sister have made for me over the years). :)
hope you and don had a wonderful thanksgiving with a good meal and a good book, that nyc library puzzle (and maybe another one) and mild weather and just plain took it easy today.
hugs and prayers,
kathy
Yes! This is a great community (and Claudia and Don are awesome) and I am thankful for you all!
Happy Thanksgiving to you and Don. Can’t wait to hear about the premier. Have fun!!!
Thanks, Mindy.
Stay safe.
Happy Thanksgiving, Claudia! Good luck shopping!
Thanks, Ellen.
Stay safe.
Hope you and Don have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
I feel the same way you do about clothes shopping. It is not fun! Good luck and I know you will find just the perfect outfit.
Thanks, Cathy.
Stay safe.
Oh, I don’t like to clothes-shop at this age either, Claudia! And I totally ‘get’ the excitement/dread thing of an event (fellow introvert here). You know me, though, ever-over-careful/scared about Covid, wear that mask, which I know must be hard to do when you’re greeting people, talking, hugging and being photographed. (I saw Jim Parsons interviewed again; this time on Seth Meyers’ late-night chat fest; he did a little bit of the Irish accent [his play] but didn’t this time mention you; believe me, I had my ears wide open for it!)
I’m worried about my husband today as he takes a one-day freelance job where NO ONE wears a mask (except him); and he’ll be around a lot of people in some tight spaces. He’s doing it as a favor for a former co-worker (death in the family) or it wouldn’t be worth the money with these circumstances (just do NOT like also that he has to do commuting today in L.A. county traffic [it’s quite a few miles from where we live], when all the traffic folks on TV this morning said to try to get out before 8am for this Thanksgiving-Eve day, or else don’t leave to hit the road til after 8pm, and that won’t be him on either end; so, a nail-biting day for me; NOT a day to be on gridlocked freeways in megalopolis Los Angeles [and in Santa Ana wind to boot]; I will be SO glad when he gets home and we can tuck in later tonight).
As of yesterday in the vast state-run organization for whom he otherwise works a regular, part-time job in retirement out here (in what-is-to-be hot & indeed windy Southern California for the holiday today and tomorrow), my husband has to take a Covid rapid test every single workday before he enters the workplace (L.A. is on the uptick of cases right now, or so I understand). The tests are at the door, provided by the employer. And they’re dead serious about it; nobody gets a pass.
Gosh, I just pray people will be wise about getting together/gathering before they celebrate tomorrow with loved ones; the variant(s) are so contagious even all-too-often with vaccinations; some people aren’t getting too sick in what I know what’s around me in terms of friends and family, but then others are, and it defies explanation (my best friend has so far recovered well in the past three weeks since being infected, but her brother has not [both are in their early 70s], so they’re missing seeing each other tomorrow, but it can’t be helped as he needs to stay home and continue to try to heal/recover [seven in the family all infected the other in three separate households; everyone was fully vaccinated; I guess the key takeaway is that no one has had to go to the hospital as would likely have been the case back in 2020 before vaccinations; still, this virus ain’t pretty and I hope I can keep dodging it!]; I hate that Covid is still in our midst for three Thanksgivings now, when life can be worrisome enough without having to worry about it, too).
But, yes, for this wonderful holiday, wishing you and Don the happiest of Thanksgivings tomorrow! I look forward to the quiet; the thanks; memories. (And plant-milk eggnog!) Simple meal planning; because, believe me, in my past, and I don’t cook per se (I’m good at heating things up!), preparing the whole, big Thanksgiving meal was very stressful for me, although I did it many times (with helps) for family and friends. I’m not sad those days are over; it’s so much work! Too many dishes to wash up!
I’ll feel wistful to say farewell to autumn colors of the gorgeous garnet-reds, all shades of orange and yellows. Even the browns! I can’t recall WHEN I have been more aware of turning leaves on colorful trees; we’ve been in Fall splendor differently than from what I recall in other years of my part of Southern California. I just can’t get over it, and have been awestruck with the beauty. Poplars, oaks, sycamores, the sweet gums, birch and aspen; ginkos and maples. (Those golden sycamores in the canyons go for miles; it’s such a treat to see them frame the landscape with that blue-blue, clear sky!) It’s been when I want to break out the coppery decor for the house, too. But now, the high winds have stripped many of the pretty trees of their drying leaves (we’re forecasted for 8 percent humidity tomorrow), and it will be time anyway to move toward Christmas with winter pastels and the quintessential red/green; it’s such a fast transition, though, isn’t it?! Reminder to self: Enjoy it all while it lasts! (And we DO have a chance for rain next week; please-please.)
xoxo
Happy Day tomorrow, Vicki.
Stay safe.
Thinking of you and sending good thoughts regarding the shopping…
Have a peaceful Thanksgiving…
Good luck with the shopping! I find Op Shops (do you call them Goodwill or similar?) a great place to start: it is truly amazing what some people dispose of! I buy pretty much everything apart from underwear and socks there, and it’s not uncommon to find brand new stuff still with tags attached. My mother-in-law was always horrified when she would compliment me on looking nice and I would tell her where I had bought it!
The ones around here are pretty sad. I never find anything there!
Thanks, Denise.
Stay safe.
Clothes shopping is ver stressful, indeed. I usually find things when I’m not really looking for them but you don’t have the luxury of that because of the time crunch. Happy Thanksgiving to you and Don and the girls. Even in this crazy world we have lots to be thankful for. Hugs, Elaine
We do.
Thanks so much, Elaine.
Stay safe.
Dear Claudia , Have you tried Nordstroms on line. Do you have a favorite pair or style that works for you , I had to have an outfit for an event , I was stressed . My friend suggested I go to a consignment shop, I said I just might. Went the very next day and found the perfect material and style I loved but they were a size too large, I noted the brand and found the very thing on line at Nordstoms on sale. Thank goodness I vented and tried the consignment shop it was the clue to the frustrated woman I was, Give good old JC Penney and Nordstrom on line a look you just may find what you are looking for . May all the friends on you blog that have looked in those unforgiving dressing room mirrors say a prayer for shopping comfort ,
I don’t have time to order online, Patricia, and I wouldn’t because I have to be able to try on whatever I’m thinking of wearing.
But thank you.
Stay safe.