Average Jane Goes A’ Borrowing

Tomorrow and Thursday I have meetings that will require me to dress like a professional woman in lieu of the “beach bum” look I usually go for. Luckily, I have a sister with great taste in clothes who ordinarily wears the same size as I do, except that she’s pregnant right now. That means she has a huge, walk-in closet full of fashiony goodness just sitting idle.

The dress I wore to that wedding on Saturday? Hers. In fact, I borrowed the same dress and wore it to a wedding last November. I don’t remember the sleeves being quite so snug back then. Perhaps the dress shrank a bit in the meantime…

I went to my sister’s house for dinner last night, which gave me the opportunity to borrow yet another outfit (I’m keeping the dress through the weekend because I’m attending a conference and might need it for Saturday night’s dinner). That means I still have one day this week when I’ll have to come up with clothes on my own. Aaagh, the pressure!

You’d think I’d be able to take the lessons in fit and style I’ve learned from wearing my sister’s clothes and apply them when I go shopping. Unfortunately, my attention span for shopping is almost nil. Once I’ve tried on three or four items, I’ve had more than enough views of my pasty, doughy skin under the greenish florescent lights. By then I’ve realized I don’t wear the size I thought I did, I hate myself and all of the available clothing, and I really need some caffeine or maybe an ice cream cone, but NO!, not an ice cream cone because that’s the kind of thing that got me into this mess! So I go home without any new clothes and continue the “I have nothing to wear cycle” the next morning, ad infinitum.

The solution? I don’t know, maybe a patient friend with a good eye for style who can dissuade me from bolting from the store the minute I start to tire of the whole operation. Any volunteers?