A Wedding to Attend/Part One

I don't do weddings.
But family ties and a free ticket to Arizona made it next to impossible to come up with any sort of reason to NOT go. After all it WAS my nephews wedding. And being the Auntie that I am, any trepetitions on going would need to be set aside. This was going to be a good thing I told myself. I just needed to get through the ordeal of finding a dress to wear. (I felt bad about the poor guy at Urban Outfitters who didn't know what to tell me as I emerged from the fitting room in tears to look at some silly floral frock that I would never wear again under ANY circumstance) Now I am getting off track but I bet you can tell where this is going. I don't like shopping. For clothes anyway. I own TWO dresses and TWO skirts. I need (or at least feel the need) to lose AT LEAST 10 to 15 lbs to justify spending any sort of cash on this body, and to be honest the cash was not as abundant as my waistline was. I am aware that I need to work on my "Hello I Love Myself No Matter What Attitude", however that was not in functioning mode when I went shopping.
I did get some good advice from the checkout girl at the Whole Foods Market. She said she simplifies her wardrobe by wearing nothing but black (the Johnny Cash look) and coloring her hair fushia pink to off set the dark look.
Nice. And she gets all of her clothes from second hand stores as she claims there always is a huge selection of black articles of clothing.
I respond that that is excellent advice HOWEVER my HUGE problem with procrastination had left me searching for something to wear to the wedding the day before I was scheduled to leave. Throw in compulsive need to CLEAN and COOK and leave EVERYTHING taken care of for my guy and well, I guess that's where they get the expression of running around like a"chicken with it's head cut off." (not a pretty picture by the way)
Back to my quest for a dress. In the past when I, (as I refer to it) lived on the other side of the fence, I would do all of my clothes shopping at Nordstroms, and not at their "Rack" store either. Their customer service always rocked, so I decided to roll the dice and see FIRST if I could find a parking spot in downtown Portland near Nordstroms during commute home time. I did. Hmmm, my angels must of taken pity on me as it was RIGHT NEAR the entrance. I zoomed by the doorman and decided to skip the fancy older ladies department and go to the Junior zone. I know, am I a total gluton for punishment? The sweet little sales girl asked if I needed some help. (having been a sales person before if I saw a tear-stained, wearing what I was wearing "older" lady zoom into my department that would of been my signal to go straighten up the dressing rooms or something)
She smiled. Oh boy she was going to earn her minimum wage with me!
I told her I had 20 minutes to find a dress, that did NOT make me look fat, that would be worn in 100+ degree weather AND would need to cost less than fifty dollars.
She didn't bat an eye.
She led me to not one but TWO racks of flow-ey (not flowery...FLOW-Y)dresses out of cotton. The price worked within my meager budget, then came the true test of trying it on. Would I cry?
One worked! Bless the patient salesgirl, I was going to say bless the maufacturers of the inexpensive dress, however I can't go down THAT road or I would have to veto the dress as I imagine someone working 80 hour weeks at $1 an hour to sew it. For the moment I had found a dress.
Done and done.

Not So Different...

The Seedy Cafe is open seven days a week. The feathered, furry customers come EARLY each morning ready for their breakfast of peanut butter suet cakes, seeds, peanuts, fresh water and sometimes an apple or two. The cafe is hopping (no pun intended) for the whole day. As evening approaches the feathered customers like to perch and generally hang out in the branches before heading home to their respective nests. They aren't eating (because they have been at it ALL DAY), but seem to enjoy the quiet comradery of just chilling on the branches. It reminds me of going to a favorite coffee house where they don't shoo you and your computer away once your cup of joe is gone.
Evening arrives, and the night inhabitants emerge.
The rat holes that lead under the cottage that had been filled in during the day get re-opened. Owls work the evening-all night shift as they realize that their most scrumptious meals are on that same nocturnal schedule. Morning comes, the day customers show up and the cycle begins again.
Except on Sunday.
The squirrels especially like to sleep in, sometimes taking the whole day off.
If you have ever worked an evening shift you will notice that there is a whole different society out there that does what they need to do while some of us are sleeping. And vice-versa.
Once again I am reminded of how we (feathered, furry, human and plants) are all really
not so different....