Sunday, April 23, 2006

Apparently I'd need a British explorer just to help me find such a thing...

I chickened out on the whole topsoil thing. It was pouring rain here this morning, so although I went to Home Depot, I did not feel like going out into the pouring rain with my daughter, loading wet (ergo heavier & slipprier) bags of topsoil into my orange cart, then loading them again into the car, then unloading them back at the house. Not in that rain. So, I'll either do it at the beginning of the week, or it won't happen, and that'll be fine too. I did, however, get some painting supplies and turf builder and japanese beetle killer and grass seed at the big HD. I looked at light fixtures since there are a couple I want to replace, but didn't buy any of those.
Then, since I was in an errand-running mood (which I rarely am - a fault I acknowledge), and since my daughter was having fun & totally behaving herself, we decided to go to a few more stores. I stopped by Mens Wearhouse, Old Navy, Banana Republic and Gap (all near eachother) to inquire about a linen suit (or at least a blazer) but no luck. I have a linen suit, which is awesome and I love being the only guy I know who actually has one, but its probably 10 years old now. I actually got it at Old Navy back in the day, and it has served me well, but it is time to replace it. So, a fruitless search on that front. Gap.com has one online only, but I'd rather try one on before buying, and I'd like pants that are precisely the same shade, which (stupidly) gap.com fails to offer.
Why a linen suit? I guess there's just something about the sort of Victorian era british explorer mythos that I really dig. (You should know, for purposes of this conversation, that I also own my own pith helmet.) Weird, yeah maybe. I also like morning coats and would be totally fine with it if they came back into men's fashion. More on that another time. My linen suit is what we're talking about here. Seriously, every time I wear it a different guy comes up to me and tells me he wishes he had a linen suit too. Its possible I suppose that some of these guys are mocking me to my face, but that's not the impression I get. But, it is surprisingly hard to get a linen suit, at least affordably. The guy in Men's Wearhouse was like "No, sorry, I don't have one, but I know Neiman Marcus and Saks both have them." uh, yeah, thanks but no thanks. Do I look like I want to spend $1000 on my linen suit? Furthermore, both of theirs are full-on white, and that's not what I'm going for. Natural linen. Is that so hard? A number of places (notably Banana Republic) have khaki-colored twill suits or blazers this year, and while that's probably just as functional (plus can be worn as a suit with any khakis I suppose) that just doesn't quite get there for me. Ah well. probably I'll just order the gap one and then look around independently for the matching pants. Then I'll be ready for my trip to find the headwaters of the Nile...

2 comments:

Maren said...

Have you tried hemp? There seem to be a few more options out there, but they may not be any more affordable.

Anonymous said...

Hi there. You don't know me but we have a mutual friend in common whose 30th birthday is coming up June 9th. (Jeff) I'd like to plan a little something so if you'd be interested send an email to eehlinger@hotmail.com (I hope this post is far enough back not to draw attention & that you still get it)