The Satin Hanger Challenge: Accepted

If you read my last post you will have a better understanding of this post.  But in short: I'm getting rid of a bunch of clothes and want to get better ones that I'll actually wear.

Now that you are all caught up, here is my latest ridiculous challenge I have set up for myself that I am so excited about:  The Satin Hanger Challenge.  Oh it's a goodun...

When I was a teenager and hated clothes as much as I do now and cared much less about looking nice, one of my fashion frenzied, luxury loving aunts gave me a set of 12 satin, padded clothes hangers.  I'm sure 15 year old Heather was thrilled and I am sure my face made that fact evident.  You see, I have these two aunts who are quite comical to describe, not as comical to be around.  They are twins.  In their 70's.  Neither has ever been married or had kids.  They are not identical, but look very similar.  They could not be more opposites.  That's what is hilarious.  One is a true Gates: overbearing, bossy, annoying, crass and high strung.  The other (presumably true Rachels?): quiet, mousy, compliant and laid back.

That was quite a useless tangent...

Anywho, so I was sitting there on Christmas with these ridiculously nice hangers, assuming they'd be destroyed, lost or stolen within a year.  My overbearing aunt tells me, "Oh honey, those hangers are worth their weight in GOLD!"  She said that about everything.  Little did cranky-miss-hates-these-women know that nearly 15 years later she'd not only still have all 12 hangers, that she'd be blogging about them! (She might also find me very annoying and decide that blogging was something I had made up and not something she'd ever concern herself with.  What a skeptic).

Well, here I am, ya stupid brat with these damn hangers.  ALL OF THEM.   And just tonight I came to the realization that my loud, know-it-all aunt was absolutely right.  Because these hangers just became a part of my minimalism challenge.

I'll get to it here, I promise.  I have gone through my closet three times in as many days to clear out clothes.  I have read every blog written in English on minimalism and how that relates to wardrobe and I made my plan that works just for me.  The Satin Hanger Challenge.

I have 12 of these.  I counted just now and I have 65 items hanging up.  I have no intention of getting my wardrobe down to 12 items.  That's not realistic for me, at least not now.   So I am going to invest in more of these hangers.  I haven't come up with a number yet, but I plan to.  But I intend to have my entire wardrobe hanging on a fancy satin hanger.

The reason behind this idea is simple.  All the minimalist bloggers have different methods and ideas for how the minimalize, but the root of all of their ideas is this:  Only own what you love.  And you know what is hanging on those 12 hangers?  The clothes I love the most.  They get the fancy hangers because I love them.  So if I am going to get my wardrobe down to only things I love, then they all deserve the fancy hangers.  Make sense?  Of course it does.

I went on eBay to try and find some hangers to buy (or to put on my two week purchase list) and you know what?  I didn't find any fancy enough.  They all had this ugly plastic hook instead of the pretty gold one like mine have.  So, I am going to keep looking.  Because my new wardrobe deserves the best.

Oh, and Daniel if you are reading this, we can do the same with yours but with the fancy wooden hangers.  Let me know what you think.

So tell me kids, what do you think of this plan?  It's not worked out perfectly just yet, it still needs some tweaking, but I really think it will work for me.

Now if I can just get the issue of knowing how to shop for this presumed new wardrobe figured out, I'd be pretty well set.

Fashion and Minimalism

I have recently become kind of obsessed with the idea of minimalism.

I have always hated clothes.

So the idea of getting my wardrobe down to only a few quality, wearable items sounds like the best thing to ever happen to me.

There are few minimalist fashionistas out there kind enough to blog about the topic for me to read.  They all say to get quality items that fit you well and work for your body and lifestyle.  Great idea!  But I have a problem...I have not been able to dress myself properly my entire life.  So how is finding stuff that fits me properly going to somehow magically become a skill that I have?  It's not.

I went through my clothes tonight and separated out all the items that I actually wear because I like them, from the ones I wear because they are there and the clothes I like are dirty.  I noticed that about 90% of the ones left that I like are clothes that someone else picked out for me.   So you see my dilemma.  I cannot dress myself.  Plan and simple.

Off the top of my head I can think of quite of few of my friends who have style that I envy.  I also have quite a few friends who have gotten the minimalist/every-item-I-own-goes-with-everything-I own fashion down to a science and I envy them as well.

I need help.  Seriously.  I have many talents, but dressing well is not one of them, nor is buying quality clothes.  I tend to buy poor quality stuff that usually doesn't fit great and I wear it for the sake of not wearing the same thing all the time.  But I KNOW there are girls out there who manage a small wardrobe who look amazing every day and don't look like they wear the same thing all the time.  I need those girls to help me.

Okay, it's midnight and I took a Vicodin 2 hours ago (fell down the stairs yesterday) so I really need to be sleeping.

If you are one of those girls, please reach out to me.  I will worship you and buy you presents.

Time of Your Life

One decade ago, I bought a one way plane ticket on Vanguard airlines from AUS to MCI for $65.  I was 19.  I had recently purchased and was wearing the warmest coat I could find and was carrying my white Stetson hat.  I didn't want the folks in KC to forget that I was a Texan.

 If you can do simple math you will remember that this was just months after 9/11 and security was pretty tight.  I had only flown a few times before this so I wasn't exactly steeped in TSA protocol or airport procedures.  My two checked bags and one carry on were packed as tight as I could get them.  I was, after all, moving taking all my possessions with me on this flight save a few items (mostly shoes and the last two LOTR books [more math will tell you that LOTR Fellowship had come out recently and I had become obsessed {not much has changed in that respect}]).  I was "randomly selected" to have my bags searched.   For what they were searching, I couldn't tell you.  Bombs I presumed.  None were found, of course, but this was learned after all my jam-packed belongings were spread about all over creation (aka the table at the airport).  After my things were shoved back into my bulging carry-on bag and given back to me, I took a seat in the boarding area.  They had just recently implemented the rule (law?) that only ticketed passengers were allowed beyond security so I'd already said goodbye to my parents and they were on their way back to SA.

As I sat down feeling violated and lonely, I started to cry.  Probably having more to do with the loneliness than the violation.  This was not the first time I'd left home, but I think I knew then that it was the last time I'd leave home.  I was right.

There was not much else that I was right about, sitting there staring out the window of the airport, straining to see if I could see my mom's Corolla as they left the airport parking lot.  I had this plan, a dream, if you will about what was going to go down in KCMO.  I think moving there was about the only thing I had planned that actually occurred.

The day I got there was in early February (the first I believe) and KC was coming off one of the worst ice storms in its history.  When I arrived, I was shocked at how dead everything was.  Not sure why since I had lived in Southern MO for a year before this and had seen what real winter looks like.  I guess I had forgotten.

But this year was especially grim because so many tree limbs had broken off from the weight of the ice and there were piles of dead branches alongside the road in front of houses and businesses.  The atmosphere matched my mood.  Dreary.

I wanted to be excited, but other than just doing something different, I had little to look forward to.  For one, it was friggin cold.  I had no car, no job and barely a place to live.  My first order of business was to find a job.  Second, find a car.  Third, find a long term place to live.

I can't say I ever really found much of a legitimate job the entire 4 years I lived there.  But I eventually got work, then a car very shortly after and then a few months later, a place to live.  The job lasted only a month or two.  The car lasted 7 short months (may that green Ford Ranger "Brother Joe" RIP), but the place to live lasted nearly 3 years right up until I went on my honeymoon.

But I'm skipping ahead here.  See, those few months before I found a place to live I played a constant game of yo-yoing with myself.  I shared an apartment with my best friend and her brand new husband.  Newlyweds.  Yuck.  Oh and I forgot to mention the other tenant....their Great Dane puppy Caesar.  With whom I shared a room.  Along with all the storage items of the couple I lived with.  All my items were stored in milk crates which I kept by the day bed I slept on.  Every night, without fail, Caesar would wake up having to go outside and pee.  He would whine plenty loud enough for me to hear, but somehow never loud enough for his owners to hear.  So I'd have to take him down three flights of stairs into the snow for him to pee.  Then  back upstairs where inevitably, said owner would be standing there sleepily saying, "oh you didn't have to do that."  Actually, I did.

Every night that happened.  Among other annoyances of dealing with a poorly trained horse-sized dog.  But there were other things going on each night during those two months.  I had trouble finding a job, finding a car I could afford, making friends but most importantly figuring out just why in the hell I was there.  And for those two months around 3AM when I was trying to get back to sleep after Caesar's potty break, I would lay there feeling dejected and told myself that tomorrow, I was going to call my parents and ask them to buy me a one way ticket back home.   I was out of money, no one liked me, my job was a joke and that dumb dog just pooped in his cage...again.

But you know what?  I never did call my parents and ask for that plane ticket.  I never bought one myself either.  I think deep down I knew I was supposed to be there, freezing my ass off, I just couldn't see why.  It would be years before I figured out why that's where I needed to be.  It was of course for completely different reasons that I had thought and I am so glad.  What I had planned was so lame in comparison to what happened.

It's pretty normal for your 20's to be the time of most change in your life.  Mine was no different.  I am drastically different now than that girl crying at the airport 10 years ago.  And I like who I am now, but 10 years from now, when I am 39 I hope I am drastically different then than I am now.  I hope I can look back and think about how much I've learned and grown and changed.


But I hope I never get too old to cry at the airport when life sticks another fork in the road.

Tradition Can Wait

The last two years on New Year's Eve I wrote notes on Facebook.  One was incredibly sad, one was incredibly angry.  Well, I am doing things different this time.  First off, I have a blog now to ramble on, second this will not be sad or angry and most importantly, this is written after New Year's Eve because I was off enjoying my New Year's Eve this time around instead of sitting around stewing over what a horrible year it had been.

Because it was a GREAT year.  I wrote a cheesy little list at the beginning of 2011.  Not a resolution really, but a list of all the things I was NOT going to be this year.  I made it a point to stop focusing on all the shit that was thrown around during 2009 and 2010.  I decided I was due to have a great year.  And you know what?  I nailed it.

Nothing amazing happened this year.  Not any one thing anyway.
In January I formulated a plan to pay off our student loan debt and in 12 months I have gotten half way through.  This was no small (or cheap) feat, let me tell you.
I decided I was done with hating my job and found a new one in early February.  It's not a perfect job, but it beats the hell out of the ridiculous place I was working for the 4 years prior.
After a random co-worker inquired about the Miss Sweeties entry on my LinkedIn profile, I decided to revive it.  I am now running a very small chocolate business on the side.  Mostly for my own entertainment.
I got to meet my niece for the first time in April and got to join in celebrating her first birthday in December.
I told Daniel early on that I was tired of saying I wanted to go on more trips and actually wanted to go on some.  So we did.  :)
Daniel and I spent our anniversary weekend at the Hyatt Lost Pines.
I got to go to Missouri to see Daniel's family in April and July.
We had our first Texas Mile at the new track in May.  My first time dealing with animal carcasses blowing past me with 40 MPH winds.  HA!
I got to see one of the only 4th of July firework displays in the Austin area in my car on the side of I-35 on my way back from Missouri.  
I took a trip with Daniel and one of my oldest friends Jay to Vegas in August.  Granted, I was sick as a dog the whole time and ended up with a severe ear infection because of it, but it was worth it.
In September I drove over to MS to hang out with my brother, sister in law and niece.  It was the most ironic trip weather wise I've ever taken.  I had to cancel my plans to visit Natchez because of flooding in MS and LA and that same day I drove through Bastrop on my way home and, as I'm sure many of you remember, got stuck in the traffic of the wildfire evacuees.
Later in September I joined Daniel in Florida while he was there for training and I got to see the Atlantic for the first time from the US.  While there we took an airboat tour through the Everglades looking for gators.
Early in November I took Daniel along to California while I was there for training.  I got to see the Pacific for the first time ever (and successfully visited all three American coasts within 2 months) and we enjoyed the Bay Area so much we are ready to go back again.
Later in November after a mildly hectic mini kitchen remodel we had Daniel's parents over for Thanksgiving weekend and enjoyed the company of more family plus soon to be even more family.
Christmas was a fun and simple day spent with friends that treat me like family.
For New Year's weekend, Daniel and I got a hotel high above Canal Street, over looking the Mississippi River in New Orleans.  We got to enjoy more time with my brother and his wife and then rang in the New Year in Jackson Square.  It was the perfect end to such a great year.


I can honestly say it was the best year I've ever had.  I made a few decisions to change the way I see things and to change the things that I had control over.   Amazing what a little perspective will do for ya.

2012 is already shaping up to be another crazy adventure filled year and I am stoked to see what it brings me.

I know I am a couple days late for my end of year recap, and I am glad I am.  Life's too short to always have time for tradition. ;)

Happy New Year!!!

PS ~ I have for the last 5 or so years joked that I had a new year's resolution to learn the meaning behind the song "Loser" by Beck.  I finally got around to looking it up on Wikipedia this year. ;)