Refresh(ing)

I have returned from my ten week sojourn to Oz, but my wife hasn’t (her return is still TBD, but not likely until early June), so I have unsupervised time. We do have an adult son that lives with us, but he works nights and sleeps during the day, so I can usually work around him (no, I haven’t told him about my other side). 

Unfortunately, given the sixteen-hour time difference between my two residences, my sleep patterns have yet to normalize. The Saturday after my return I found out early (around 6:15 AM) that my scheduling conflict was rained out, so I decided to sleep a little longer and attend a group exercise class at my local Y. My body decided differently, and I slept past both the beginning and ending of the class. To assuage my conscience–and to work on my waistline–I did 45 minutes on my basement exercise bike before getting on with my day (trying to lose 25 pounds, about halfway there).

Plan B for the day was a shopping trip to Refresh, a thrift store located in St. Louis, which also includes a second floor of second hand formal wear, including some wedding dresses and lots of prom dresses. For those outside the US, high school proms, a/k/a senior proms, are a big thing in US high schools. They are usually held in mid-to-late April to early May (at least around here). 

Being a Saturday afternoon just before prom season, a ton of high school girls were perusing the formals on the second floor, so I limited my time in the formal section of the store. I don’t have a real need for formal dresses, but I do like trying them on. I’ll just have to make a return visit during school hours, not there are a ton of formals that fit me anyway (I don’t exactly have a high school girl’s physique).

Given the rainy conditions, I wore a more casual combo of a floral top and red pants, as I eventually planned to (and did) end up at Costco for a different type of shopping. And before I left, I had a chance to try on my new White House Black Market bikini, which arrived while I was down under.

I found a few things to try on, including a long formal that was fun but way too small.

I eventually found and bought a clingy tight one shoulder dress, which at 60% off was $6. It got the seal of approval from Ms. Dee-ism, a GG friend of mine. It’s a bit tight, but further motivation to lose the 13 more pounds I want to lose. 

Afterwards I went to Nordstrom, tried on a funky top and (Tina Turner short) skirt and a clingy polka dot dress.were at Nordstrom. Both were kind of fun, but the top would have created a bra problem and the polka dot dress was too clingy (read small).

After Nordstrom, I bought lots to fill the freezer from Costco and then headed home.

A fun afternoon followed by a really fun night…. stay tuned.