On Experiencing the State of Flooredness

[gfish]

Back in 1996, during my final summer living at home, on the way to a family reunion, we stopped at an Eddie Bauer outlet store. There I bought (or had bought for me, I guess) a bright orange button-up shirt made from soft cotton with a very obvious weave visible. It ended up as a standard overshirt of mine. For several years I wore it so much that it became rather emblematic of me. I was the guy in the weird orange shirt. It was comfortable and went (for certain values of went) with a surprising number of my tshirts. Unfortunately entropy took its toll and the shirt slowly degraded. It wore thin, the hems became threadbare, it acquired stains and bleach spots. For the last year or so I have only worn it on special occasions, willing to neither give up on it nor condemn it to death from frequent wash cycles.

Today I went to REI to buy a new gore-tex jacket. Of a similar vintage to the orange shirt, my old jacket is getting quite ratty, and I thought it would be nice to have a shiny new one for the honeymoon coming up in UNDER TWO WEEKS. A nice symbolic gesture and as good of an excuse as any. (I did buy one, for far more than I planned on spending, but that's a different and even less interesting story.)

I walked up to the men's wear sections and saw some orange on the far wall.

'Naw,' I said to myself. 'Don't be silly, it can't be.'

But I'm a silly creature, so I went over to look. And there, hanging among all the earth-toned REI shirts and shorts, was my orange shirt. But new.

I bought it, of course. On closer examination there are a variety of minor differences from the old one. But everything important is exactly the same. Same fabric, same color (allowing for fading), same style. Here they are both together, old on the left. Just amazing. I'm seriously thinking about going back to buy another, so I'll have a backup. After all, what are the chances of finding this shirt a third time in 2010?

In summary, I have an orange overshirt again! All is right with the world!

Comments

[kablooey.livejournal.com]

i love the pumpkin color! :)

[pandora233.livejournal.com]

Yay for you! :)
Gorgeous colour, btw.

[xiadyn.livejournal.com]

Heh, that's cool.

memories..

[talamh-sidhe.livejournal.com]

okay, kinda off topic, but this reminds me so much of high school, when I could see you in a crowd just by looking for your hat... glad to see you still have it! :)

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

You all see why I love this man, right? :)

[shadowblue.livejournal.com]

That's bizarre. And cool.

I don't think you should buy a third one. I think you should just let the fates conspire to provide you with the third one when you need it.

Go orange shirt!