hats and shoes, a punch-drunk at work story, writing rambling

[derien]

When I saw the price of the Tilley hats a muttered "Jesu Kriste" erupted from me. eor already got his own, and I can't believe my sweetie has such expensive tastes.  And I know I saw the price when he ordered his own, which is why I haven't wanted to order one for myself and I've been putting it off.  But I do need a hat, and is there a better hat?  No, I don't think so.  I may just have to pay the price.  Ouch.  I'm sweating and straining - I can't bring myself to put the order through.  So, doing avoidance procedures, I began to scan the rest of the site, and found the Tilley winter hat. About the same, narrower brim, teflon coated wool, with flaps you can fold down to keep your forehead and ears warm. I WANT.  Then I thought, "It's wool.  It will make me itch.  I can't get it."  Nope - lined with peached polyester.

I still can't help thinking, though, what a yuppie dork I'll look like in these hats.  People will point and laugh behind their hands, "Poseur!"  How very unlike my preferred persona of ...  well.  Skank slacker?  I'm a plaid-flannel-shirts-and-jeans kind of person.  I was thinking that my next big outlay of money was going to be for a pair of black and white wingtip Doc Martins.  (Although I have a bad problem with docs being too high at the ankle but too low at the bridge, so I really should consult a cobbler before I make that outlay.)  But they do appear to be the best hats - best made, most adaptable, etc, etc.  It's worth while spending money for quality that lasts, right? 

The wool hat, though... even more ow.  I'll try to remember to think about it again in September.  Maybe I'll feel richer.


Honestly, though, I never would wear them together, as the hats fall in the category of 'Day Wear' while the wingtip shoes are what I call 'Evening Wear.' :) 

And, completely unrelated - I've been meaning to post this for two days, and I'd better do it before I forget it all.


After a rather long and tiring day, we were practicing talking (because screeners have to talk to put passengers at ease) by role playing.  Malibu took the role of passenger for me, which means he had to come up with something fast off the top of his head as a story about where he was going and why.

Me: Hi, how you doing today?
Malibu: Great!
Me: Where you headed?
Malibu: Nepal!
Me: Nepal!  How interesting.  What are you going to be doing in Nepal?
Malibu: We're looking for an au pair.
Me: Au pair?  That's like, someone who takes care of your kids for you, right?
Malibu: Yes, I've heard they have the best au pairs in Nepal.  And they can carry a lot of groceries.

At that point I cracked up and couldn't continue. :)

Of course I knew what an au pair was, but we realized during this exercise that it's probably better to pretend that you're a little dumber than you actually are, because it makes a person less intimidating.  This is actually really hard for Malibu, and I have some theories as to why.  1) He gets picked on a lot because he's one of those smart people who can't walk and chew gum at the same time. Very distractable and one-track.  And he takes the teasing well, with good humor, but it's still got to be a little hard on him at some level.  2) He has this world-famous specialist doctor for a father - his dad is one of the foremost experts on some particular bone of the head or ear, I can't recall what at the moment - and I suspect his father might have expected a lot from him when all Malibu wanted to do was surf. So when he can has a piece of knowledge he'd rather show it off, not hide it.

Another story he gave someone else was:  ""I'm here in Maine to set up a coconut business.  I want to make Cumberland County the Coconut Capital of the Country, or CCCCC!  My family thinks I'm nuts."


Now I'm at this point.  Post this, or let it sit and possibly add more too it, making it even more of a monster?  Hmmmm.  *procrastinates by checking her email*

BTW, if anyone has a better reference site than the Key to English Place Names, toss it my way.  I'm using this site to slowly compile a list of suffixes and an understanding of how English place names work (I haven't found any prefixes, yet), but I don't want to be duplicating work that's already been done.  Also, it would be great to understand how other place names work, as well.  I have the darnedest time thinking of place names when I'm writing because I'm from Maine and therefore what sounds right to me is like Passagasawaukeag, Mooselookmeguntook, Chikawaukee and that sort of thing, which really doesn't work if the colony I'm writing about is founded by people who pretend to be English and are not dealing with any natives.  (But of course the key, and my ever present back-door excuse in this writing endeavor, is that their first generation was only trying to pretend to be Victorian English.)


(edited to get rid of the Tilley links that wouldn't work right. They won't let me link directly to the pictures of the hats I want. Bah! That was half of my point with making this post. http://www.tilley.com/ They have different colors (or colours) available on the sites for different countries. How dumb is that?)