Super Powers, Kryptonite and Fitting In

(Blue Eyes and Noel are still blogging for me, but with the pressure off, I have found time again, so here is a post from me.)

I think everyone has at least one super power. Maybe not flying or turning invisible, but smaller things on a more every day scale, something that most people can’t do but you can handle easily. For example, I can eat the same thing for dinner five days in a row and it doesn’t bother me. I developed my powers when I was single and I would cook one thing early in the week and eat it all week long. When I hear someone say, “I’d rather not eat Mexican, I had that yesterday,” and it takes me a moment to remember that not everyone has my super power.

But, everyone also has their kryptonite. That one thing they should be able to do, given their other skills and experiences, but this one they just can’t seem to figure out, as if Lex Luther himself was holding a stick of kryptonite near by…

Luckily, the kryptonite also tends to cause smaller problems on a more everyday scale. For example, I buy clothes in the wrong size.

Strange, huh? You would think that a woman with a college degree who can raise two girls and be married, who drives a car and pays the family bills, who has been buying her own clothes for more than two decades, could figure it out.

I hit rock bottom six or seven years ago when I was still single and I decided it was OK to spend real money on clothes. The only trouble was that I decided this about the time I had friends who shopped at CP Shades and I loved the colors and textures of their clothes. And I noticed the style well enough, I guess, that all the shirts were long and boxy and loose and the mix and match pants and skirts all had elastic waist bands. The dresses were full-length, with an A-line cut and wide at the bottom.

I would include a link to the CP Shades web site, but they are out of business now. Some people still love their clothes, there are lots of them on sale on eBay. Here is one of the tops…

Oh, my, this top brings back memories! I had this top! With the matching elastic waist band pants! I wore it on Thanksgiving, when Blue Eyes and I had been dating only about a month and we decided to drive 600 miles to his parents house for the holiday. Which reminds me, Blue Eyes was pretty good about all of this. He saw past the poorly fitting clothes to see that I might be an otherwise reasonable person.

When we had been dating about six months, I asked him a question about my clothes and he paused, choosing his words very carefully. With great care and compassion, he said “This style isn’t the most flattering for you.” He has been helping me buy clothes ever since.

I thought of this the other day because some of these clothes are back in my closet. I saved a few things, because I was thinking ahead, that maybe I could wear them when I got pregnant and I’m still wearing them now, when I’m 33 weeks along and they still have room for me to grow.

And while I’ve gotten better, I still buy clothes the wrong size. Like when I got maternity jeans for Christmas that I thought were way to long so I exchanged them for a petite pair which I wore for a few hours before I realized they were way to short so I exchanged them again for the pair I had at first which fit fine. I just don’t have a good sense for how clothes fit, I return and exchange things a lot. It is strange and symbolic of some gap in my brain where the nuerons never connected or maybe a result of a few times in college when I drank too much. That or subconsciously, I’m still the awkward girl in High School who didn’t know how to dress and I go back there sometimes, out of habit. Who knows.

But overall, given more serious ways that kryptonite might affect me, this isn’t so bad, like a drug habit or credit card debt. And being able to eat the same thing all week has come in handy with the kitchen still under construction. So overall, it is working out. And I’ll be grateful for Blue Eyes in my prayers tonight, for seeing the real me and helping me fit in.