MITCHELL’S MUSINGS: Forever in blue jeans

It’s Jeans Day here at The Morning Star. Every Friday those who choose to do so can go casual for a small donation to a charity.

It’s Jeans Day here at The Morning Star. Every Friday those who choose to do so can go casual for a small donation to a charity.

I know lots of businesses do the same thing and it’s a nice way to end the work week, it’s good for staff morale to relax a little and charity benefits as well – I think they call that a win, win, win.

Anyway I am indeed wearing jeans as I write this, guilt-free.

Well, not totally.

You see these jeans have a rip in the back pocket. Not just a little one either. My stupid old-school, leather, jam-packed with loyalty cards “Costanza” wallet has again pushed a hole in the material where there’s a chance it might slip out of my jeans and end up in the slush somewhere just waiting for someone to pick up.

So, alas, I’ve been forced to carry my wallet in my coat pocket, or my other back pocket, which feels weird and uncomfortable, for a few weeks now. And that sometimes makes me paranoid,  you know when all of a sudden you check for your wallet and it’s not where it usually is so you have a millisecond-long panic attack until you realize…..

Now, I know some out there, especially those of the female persuasion, will say there’s a very simple remedy for this problem.

Go out and buy some new jeans.

Right. Well that would take actually going out and shopping for some, and did I mention that they are perfectly good jeans, other than the aforementioned tear?

Yes, I’m cheap, and lazy to boot, and there never seems to be enough time in a day to go do that task.

However, I was off last week and somewhere in those seven days I managed to get to a store and, with my wife’s help bought some jeans, on sale even, along with a couple of shirts to boot, which is a major shopping accomplishment for yours truly.

But, of course, that’s only the first part of the solution.

Now, I have to start wearing them.

I have this unwritten rule about new clothes. Well it’s more like a tradition than a rule but they always seem to take up space in my closet for a few weeks, sometimes longer, before I actually get around to taking off the tags and wearing them.

I’m not sure why. It might be a guy thing. You know reluctance to change, it’s a minor hassle so why bother when the old stuff is perfectly acceptable, don’t want the attention that sometimes comes with wearing new stuff to work, and there’s a definite lack of planning when it comes to guys getting ready for work.

I know Thursday night I had a brief flicker of a thought that I should get the new jeans ready (i.e. take them out of the bag and remove a couple of tags) for the next day but, alas, didn’t quite get around to it and, of course, it didn’t seem like a priority as I rushed to get to work on Friday morning and the old, comfortable jeans were just lying there ready to go so….

I know my wife doesn’t share my reluctance to wear new stuff, why just the other day she bought a scarf in Grand Forks (another story) and wore it to the rink a few minutes later. That just seems wrong somehow. Although it is a scarf, which is borderline clothing material, and it was a cold rink and such, but still the transition from new to not-so new seemed much too quick for my tastes.

Maybe that’s it. I just want to hang on to that new feeling for as long as possible. Why rush it?

Maybe. Then again the lazy and cheap scenario is likely closer to the truth. Which would also explain why my closet consists of a heapload of clothes that I haven’t worn for years. Ahem.

It’s on my to-do list, just ask my wife, actually maybe don’t. I won’t publicly promise to clean out my closet by next Friday, let’s be reasonable here, but I will do my utmost to wear my new duds for this coming week’s jeans day.

That gives me just enough time, I hope.

Glenn Mitchell is the managing editor for The Morning Star

 

Vernon Morning Star