old dog - new tricks

[susandennis]

There are things that just puzzle me - silly, inconsequential things. Most of them I assume are because I'm old and times have changed and I didn't get the memo.

Putting your shirt/top/blouse on and then putting on your deodorant. Making zero effort to conceal underwear - bra straps, boxers, thongs. I still kind of cling to the concept of underwear belong under, i.e. out of sight.

Twitter just killed another one Elevator etiquette in Japan: "If you are the first to enter an empty elevator, you are the new elevator captain." It has always annoyed the crap out of me to follow someone into an elevator and have them grill me 'what floor?'. Do I look like I'm incapable of pressing the button???? I assure you, I am not. I had no clue about this captain thing. Makes sense, tho, I guess.

A while back, I picked up some fabric at Goodwill. It's a really nice, thick, knit but it has a pattern that is anti-me... pink with white polka dots and butterflies and little pink hearts. But, it was 2.5 yards for $2. A steal. Yesterday, I used it for a new pattern. Great use of Goodwill. The pattern turns out to be not fabulous. It's perfectly fine for $2 fabric but had I used it on pricey goods, I'd be bummed.

I just got a text from Goodwill that they are doing 30% off linens today. This swizzles my calendar. Instead of going to Goodwill tomorrow while the house cleaner's here, I'll go today in hopes of snagging more cool deals. Then, tomorrow, I think I'll make a sojourn to Walmart to see about pants fabric. Turns out what I have on hand won't work for a test.

Oh Zoey just hopped up here for a selfy so you can see this fabric.



Seattle Restaurant Week starts now. It's actually now three weeks. A lot of the major restaurants in town participate. They offer a prix fixe menu of $33 for dinner and $18 for lunch and showcase their wares to people who might not otherwise pop in for a meal. It's a down time for them and so a way to fill in between now and the holidays.

The Seattle Times, this morning, listed what they considered the top 10 restaurants to try during Restaurant Week. Their list sucked. It's all reputation restaurants. Reputation, not good food or good service or good ambience. We have lots of excellent places to dine in this town. And those 10 are not even close to the top of my list. So weird.

This morning's swim was weird. From the first lap, it felt like a slog. Like I was swimming at half my normal speed. I spent some concentrating on speeding up but never really felt like I was a full normal speed. Then, when I got home, I sync'd my tracker. I swam about the same amount of time as usual. And a few laps fewer than usual and got way more points than usual with a higher calorie count. Not that I trust the tracker but, still. Weird. And I'm ok with that. I'm using up way more gas with the longer commute. I sure hope the new neighborhood gym/pool turns out to be as good a deal as I hope it will be!

Comments

[sweetmeow]

That is such a sweet pic of you and Zoey. He loves you. <3

Blouse, then deodorant? What? Ewww! Never heard of such a custom. Strange. But - I have seen way too much underwear lately and ... agreed ... how it's to be worn is stated in the word itself.

EDIT: After reading comments - I misunderstood what you said. I interpreted what you said - wrongly - that you were putting the deodorant actually on the blouse! Now I get it. It's not as I do it, and I'd probably be more likely to touch the blouse with the deodorant if the blouse was on me already, but it's not weird or "eww"

Never heard any of that elevator etiquette before, either. I suppose it makes sense because if there are numerous people there, it's sometimes difficult to reach over or between people to press the button yourself.

[susandennis]

haha got it. and understand your confusion!

[lostincandyrain.livejournal.com]

I got really excited to discover that El Cerrito has a restaurant week next week! However, when I looked into it, I discovered that it's not a normal city's restaurant week, (San Francisco and Oakland both have good ones) with prix fixe menus, it just means restaurants will give you a discount, and then they're supposed to stamp this thing for you, and whoever gets the most restaurant week stamps, can win a prize.

I love prix fixe menus, and just going somewhere, and having them give me a sample of what they think they're best at without my having to try and figure out what that might be from the menu, so this modified restaurant week is pretty disappointing. But I guess it's nice that they're trying anyway...



I started putting my deodorant on after my shirt because I had one that would leave really bad white marks, and when I put the deodorant on before my shirt, pulling the shirt over my head would make some of the outside of the shirt get in my armpits, and then I'd get white stripes on the outside from pulling it down...

I have a much better deodorant now, but it's still a habit.

[susandennis]

I'm a big fan of pick a restaurant/chef and let them decide. In fact, most of the time when I go out to brunch, I pick a few things or, like last week, 'anything in that first column' and ask the server to surprise me. It's always a fun surprise and I think the servers get a kick out of it, too.

Really interesting about the deodorant. In the gym locker room, I'd say 90% of the women are deodorant after shirt people.

Your rational makes a ton of sense. I never considered that. Thanks!!

[laura davidson (from livejournal.com)]

In the locker room, I bet some of them are "hide myself from others even though they have the same parts" people - they want the shirt on as fast as possible, even if that means deodorant after.

[susandennis]

You are probably 100% right. The older ones - like me - don't even think about naked (and also normally deodorant up before dressing). It's the younger ones who also are big on covering up.

[fauxklore]

In addition to the underwear thing (visible bra straps, ugh) I firmly believe that if it is cold enough to wear boots with a skirt, you need to be wearing tights or hose of some sort.

If you ever really feel like freaking someone out on an elevator, enter it and stand facing the back.

[susandennis]

omg yes on the boots/skirt thing. Also big here in Seattle is down (puffy) vests with shorts on women. And big coats with shorts on men who, at the same time, also wear sandals with socks.

I do not believe the majority of people in Seattle have mirrors in their homes. Or know how to use them.

[fauxklore]

Sandals with socks is a very New England thing, alas.

[jwg.livejournal.com]

The several apartment buildings I lived in as a kid in NYC had elevator men in the elevators who always asked what floor was wanted unless they recognized you, and then they'd speak the floor number just in case you were going to visit someone on another floor.

[susandennis]

Paid elevator captain makes total sense. I wouldn't dare touch a button with one of them on board :)

When we lived in Manhattan we had a door man and an elevator man. I always made sure to be on my very best behavior because I was sure they would tattle if I wasn't.

[kristy.livejournal.com]

Such a pretty kitty. Meow!

[blues-kun.livejournal.com]

I'll bite. What are your top 10 Seattle restaurants?

[susandennis]

hmmm kinda asked for that, didn't I?

Ok so here's my OffTheTopOfMyHead list.

1. 13 Coins
2. Smith
3. Lark
4. Luc
5. Bastille
6. Skillet
7. Mashiko
8. Seven Beef

Those are my top picks... the 9 and 10 slots I'm leaving open for whatever two favorites I forgot :)

[laura davidson (from livejournal.com)]

Yeah, it's not *under*wear if it's *over*. And I don't want to see it. It's not cool or sassy or attractive, it just looks like you don't know how to pick the right size clothes or the right undergarment for your outfit. :P

But the elevator - I've never heard about unofficial captains, but if someone enters after me, as I'm pressing my button I ask, because I'm occupying most of the space in front of the buttons at that moment. A log-jam to press buttons is no fun, and I'll step back in a moment, but shuffling through so everyone can reach them could be nuisancy in large crowds.

[laura davidson (from livejournal.com)]

(And I don't like being crowded, so if I ask them, they can move into the elevator and not hover next to me, too. Heh.)

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

I play elevator captain sometimes. At other times I push my button and walk to the back and slouch.

[howeird]

The elevator thing made me think "If I'm elevator captain, they need to give me a uniform" which made me remember that once upon a time, the Smith Tower had an elderly elevator with an almost as elderly uniformed operator.

[susandennis]

The Smith Tower elevator is now way older but the uniformed operators are now much younger.

[susandennis]

And I just saw this in twitter

https://seattle.curbed.com/2017/10/11/16460198/smith-tower-manual-elevators-automated

[howeird]

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

[restoman.livejournal.com]

I love the picture of you and Zoey! Very sweet!
:-)
Yeah, I agree with you. I think exposed underwear or bra straps just looks slovenly even though some people think it looks sexy.

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

My husband does the deodorant thing, baffles me. The only time I'd do that would be on the very rare occasion I get to work and realise I have forgotten and I have an emergency roll on in my drawer. I also like to keep my underwear hidden

[badrobot68.livejournal.com]

You can probably blame Madonna for the underwear-becoming-outerwear thing!

As someone above noted, some deodorants can leave a stain on your shirt when you pull it on over fresh deodorant. I've had it happen before. Most of the time it's like 3 hours later when I look down and see white marks on the bottom of my t-shirts and think "What the hell is that?"