Belted

My husband wears a belt every day.   I have a friend who has a whole collection of belts and coordinates outfits with them on a daily basis.   I’m not much of a belt person though.   I remember a time when I did wear belts a good bit but in recent years I haven’t worn a belt really at all.

Back during a different fashion time in my life I always tucked my shirts in, wore pants that were high on the waist and didn’t fit so tight to the legs that they nearly squeezed the life out of your calves.  Fashions changed, waistlines dropped and tucking in shirts went out of fashion.   Or at least that’s one of the fashion things that seemed to change.   Fashion these days is so varied you can wear almost anything and be seen as, “fashionable” to your friends provided what your wearing is flattering on you.   Or different.   Or outrageous.  

At any rate, I stopped wearing belts.   My pants never were in danger of falling down and I’m a minimalist when it comes to fashion so the fewer items I need to adorn myself with to get out the door and feel good about how I look, the better.

Then today I put on one of my favorite pair of pants and boots I recently got that go well with them.   I asked Alexa what the weather was like for the day and then looked at the shelves of sweater options I had.   There was a form-fitting grey turtleneck sweater I hadn’t thought to pair with the pants.  But it didn’t look right when I put it on, hanging down too low.

Should I tuck it in?   I hadn’t tucked a sweater in in ages but it didn’t look that bad.   Only I needed a belt.   Did I have a black belt though?   I knew I had one rather rugged-looking brown belt from memory and I thought I might have had dressy black and brown belts from my consulting days, but I’d have to check in the "Drawer of Closet Miscellany".

The things in the drawer are both varied and aged and I always go back in time when I go through it.  I pushed things aside, including the red, fleece gloves I got in 1991 in Stuttgart, Germany with a boyfriend who had come to visit me while I was doing some work for IBM.   I moved the zip-up leather vest I got for some rather risqué halloween costume I’d come up with fifteen years ago and then I saw them: three coiled up belts.  

I put on the black belt, did a “hole check” to see if I was the size today I was years ago based on which hole the belt fit best in.   And then I took my son to school.   I saw a friend a short while later and asked if I looked okay.   He said it looked nice on me.  Something about, “the belt accented my slim waist”.  

And.I did like the outfit all day long—with one exception—there is so much more to do when you go to the bathroom.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son has been given a new privilege, but with a catch.   He has a night lamp on his bed now with the explanation that as an eight-year-old, he knows when his body is tired and ready to sleep.   He also has two alarms on the Alexa in their bedroom to wake him up.   In the mornings he can coordinate himself more, but if he doesn’t get dressed, or have breakfast or put his lunchbox in his backpack, well, that’s what he gets going to school (which he knows is a requirement).   We’ll see if letting him have the control over his schedule will help.   It seems counter-intuitive since we have to remind him of everything, but his therapist and teachers think this is a good step for him.   They also know he may arrive to school in pajamas or without a jacket.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter got in trouble tonight for behavior.   I sent her to her room and told her she was done for the day and she could go to bed.   It was only about forty minutes before bedtime at the time.   She was wanting to have me read a book to her she’d been talking about.   About ten minutes later I got some pajamas, her eye drops and antibiotic and went upstairs to find her in bed, asleep with their baby music maker on.