Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Play Clothes


Like Trish, I too moved to an actual neighborhood recently...and so far it has been amazing. There are lots of kids for my 4 1/2 year old to play with (he has even developed a major, stalker-like crush on the 11 year old girl next door...), some very cool adults that we have started to hang out with, and we are in love with our house. Last year held such major transition for us - and now I am pinching myself, feeling so lucky to be where we are (complete with adorable new baby girl!) and feeling like I can breathe... I can now focus on living our day-to-day lives without managing some major life transition.

And yet....with all of this good, I was unprepared for some of the peripheral changes that would come with being part of this new community.

I'm talking about playclothes.

Not playclothes for the kids, but playclothes for me. In our old house when we went outside to play, it was just us and the birds and bugs. Now, going outside means that we will almost certainly strike up lengthy conversations with the aforementioned cool adults. I would find myself standing self-consciously in a ratty Patriots t-shirt and baggy shorts, having a lovely conversation with the mom across the street who was sporting hip Bermuda shorts with matching tank top and fancy flip flops. I try not to be a follower, but let's face it - it was time to invest in some casual, trendy-but-not-too-trendy, flattering playclothes. [The flattering part may be a stretch with my current post-partum-waistline, but let's not split hairs.] [And speaking of hair - I have long ago given up trying to ever look as put together as these gorgeously straight-haired ponytail-wearing women...my hair will always be curly and probably a little frizzy and sometimes inexplicably looking like I have a combover.]

My wardrobe changes on a typical work day used to be as follows:
1. Business casual work outfit (OK - more casual than business, truly)
2. On arrival home, change immediately to pajama bottoms and ratty t-shirt
3. At bedtime, lost pajama bottoms

Now I need to introduce a 4th category - playclothes.
I guess it's a small price to pay. Now I just need to convince my husband that wearing his see-through white tank top undershirt outside is no longer acceptable! Frankly, it never was...

3 comments:

Kris said...

Alicia...it sounds like you'd fit in very well in our neighborhood!!

Trish & I wear pajama bottoms on Saturday nites when we transition into "The Cosmo Twins" (as her hubby so affectionately calls us!)

And occationally, Patriots t-shirts are REQUIRED when I am cooking a turkey on a Sunday and we are feeding our faces at halftime of the football game!

Trish K said...

I own a talbots "outfit" but I don't wear it in my neighborhood. Only the nice neighborhoods....

Kris said...

real nice, Trish....

yes only when we go DRYER shopping

can you say "white trash"??!!