I’ve been playing Sims again, and MY GOODNESS I would like to re-recommend this game to anyone anticipating a baby, because it was one of the reasons I survived post-partum: it gets you in the mindset of improving overall mood by doing whatever is possible (e.g., even just PEEING helps considerably), and it reinforces the drops IN the bucket idea. I’ve found it useful even now, when I’m not post-partum but HAVE been in a bit of a MOOD. Playing Sims again has made me start thinking in terms of “little things that will make me feel overall better.” If I’m starting to kick the cats (NOTE: I do not really kick the cats) or yell at the children (NOTE: Er…), I have a little snack and then I clean up one small thing and then I get a drink of water and then I spend a little time reading a magazine, and gradually the diamond over my head is greening up.
Speaking of buckets (it was like mid-paragraph), I’m so glad to see the summer toys back in stock at Target, because we needed a new Barf Bucket and those are hard to find off-season. I got a nice colorful pail for I think two dollars, and this time I put it up high so no one would use it upside-down as a step stool -slash- launching platform, which is what happened to our previous Barf Bucket. These beach-toy pails also make good Easter baskets or egg-hunt buckets: they’re several times sturdier than the plastic Easter pails sold one section over.
Yesterday my mom and I were out and I decided I needed a new shirt, so I tried on a dozen. I found one I liked, but it had a hole in it and there weren’t any others. I found another I liked, but it was cotton weave and it was belted, and I don’t know if I would wear a belted shirt after living through the 1980s. All the rest were depressing: why are SO MANY plus-sized shirts designed for OLDER LADIES? I am aware of the whole “gaining weight with age” idea, but surely we are all also aware of “being that weight to begin with”? So shouldn’t there be a RANGE of shirts, some designed for old ladies and some designed for…I guess “young” wouldn’t be quite the word anymore, but YOUNGER ladies? Being plumpish doesn’t mean I want sequins and big distracting patterns and those drapey little sleeves and everything in rayon. And some of them were even “juniors plus” so they were INTENDED for young fashionable girls and yet they STILL looked like Golden Girls. What I wanted was the cute shirts I saw in the “misses” sizes, but LARGER.
I think Target’s plus size section (at least in my local store) is way too small and also way too ugly.
Great idea about the barf bucket. I might have to pick up a couple, because i have one child who gets carsick and one who has sympathy barfing.
I’m a decade older than you, and I am not going to be wearing sequins unless I find myself on “Dancing with the Obscure Suburbanites.” So never. (My mother has never worn a sequin, to my knowledge. Maybe on an evening cardigan thingie, before I was born. Otherwise, there’s no call for that sort of folderol.)
Alas, it seems that the Boca Raton Retirement Community Look is a Fashion Thing at the moment. I look at the undergrads around here and think, why are you all wearing Old Lady Clothes?!
I don’t think Target considered how this trend would specifically play to their Plus Size shoppers, where Old Lady Clothes have been the bane of everyone’s existence for years and years and years.
Ugh. The Target plus size section. This is why I always end up with about three v-neck solid tee shirts in different colors that I wear all the time. But even the color palettes are weird. Some of the colors are too Easter eggy. Anytime I go for a pattern the first photograph of me in it designates it to the donate pile. Especially if a friend has tagged me on facebook wearing it.
I feel the same way about the petite section. Just because I’m short doesn’t mean I’m also 82 years old. Most of the stuff available to me looks like something my grandmother would wear. Ugh.
I do hate that about plus size, but I am a plain long sleeved shirt kind of person and I HATE that every shirt I bought this year at Target has shrunk up and stretched wide. Seriously?? Grrrrr.
I used to think I was nuts and we may both be nuts – you play the Sims, and I have always said that playing Animal Crossing on the wii has relaxed me. It’s just so simple and stupid and “living a life” type game and I can’t explain to people why I like it so much so it was nice to hear someone else say something along those lines.
It’s true I am pretty much ALWAYS at Target, but that wasn’t where I was shirt-shopping. I’ve given up on Target’s plus-size shirts: always way too short.
Jen(Melty)- YES, and WIDE. What is WITH that? All the Target shirts end up like too-big crop tops!
Maurices plus section. Yes, they are expensive (no Target or Wal-Mart prices) but if I go in just looking for something here and there I can usually justify it. Plus, they have an awesome clearance rack. Everything is cute and fashionable and there is a good variety.
I got three (one in every color) plaid shirts at target in the plus that I really like. They are soft pastels with rolled sleeves that make them 3/4 length. They have washed well and are very light. I wear them with a long tank under them. Maybe this would be a good option? Generally I hate target plus, but these are nice!
ooh, barf buckets. What a handy idea. We are currently using the bathroom garbage can. My youngest child slept through the night for the first time ever on Saturday night (almost 2 years old!) and my middle child spent that entire night barfing.
Plus size shirts: too short, too wide and WHATS UP WITH THE ARM HOLES??? Dear God, I could put three of my arms in them. My weight generally doesn’t accumulate around my pits!
Uggg. Shirt shopping is the absolute worst. I also dislike the sequins, etc. and the old lady embroidery on the front. AND the fact that I don’t want to wear tank tops or big huge stripes. I want normal length sleeves (not cap sleeves). I want shirts that are long enough and that don’t get wider and wider and shorter and shorter with every wash, giving the shirt a wearable life of ~3 outings. WHY IS THIS SO HARD?
Also? Beach toy barf bucket? You are a GENIUS. I will be sprinting to the stores today to grab a couple. That is so smart.
Well if nothing else it is kind of nice that I’m not the only one that has trouble finding nice clothes… I agree with the old lady comments. I’m also amazed at how having to buy plus sized clothing has shifted my concepts of acceptable fashion choices. Sigh.
I don’t play Sims, but I have a Zoo Tycoo game which I think is similar and I agree it has soothing properties!
I second the suggestion of Maurices plus size section. If you haven’t been there in a couple years they have really expanded the selection, and the clothes are cute (since their target market is younger than Target’s, I think). I got a few things there at Christmas, and I wear them all at least once a week (I don’t have a lot of clothes). They are holding up very well, and I still like them. :)
Have you heard of Torrid? They are specifically plus-size (I think) and geared towards the younger generation. I know you said this particular shopping was not at Target, but if I may: I hate Target’s clothes for adults. Their childen’s clothes are great but the clothes for adults are cheap and ugly.
I am so with you on the Sims. It’s also helped me in my relationships, which is so pathetic it doesn’t bear much thinking about. But, let’s think about it anyway: I realized that to keep a friendship alive, it takes regular communication. To succeed at a party, it takes a series of escalating intimacies: conversation, joke, conversation, joke, and then maybe a hug. Ok, or not. But it’s helpful for me to imagine my Simitude when I’m socially challenged (which is always).
Interesting about Sims. My therapeutic computer-time-wasters never last — I’ve done puzzles online, word games, etc, but then I move on and I have to find something else to find my Zen happy place. And I’ve always been jealous of U.s. people for having Target, but I have a couple of nearby places that have really nice plus size clothing, so I guess there’s that. And good tip on the barf bucket — although we had this turquoise basin at home, and to me that will always be the Platonic ideal of the Barf Bucket.
Lately I’ve been thinking about reloading The Sims on my computer and playing again because I’m thinking I’d like to feel in control of at least *somebody’s* life.
I love Sims 1 and 2, but Sims 3 is laggy on my computer.
Target’s fat clothing fills me with rage. Every Target near us jams the fat clothing section in with maternity clothing (which does NOT come in larger sizes AT ALL) and regular sized Clearance clothing. There’s only, like, 4 racks of actual fat clothing. HELLO I AM SURROUNDED BY FAT PEOPLE. And I still can’t buy underpants or pyjamas at Target because they don’t make them in fat sizes. GUESS I’M SLEEPING NAKED.
Their stuff is sized oddly, too, and not consistent from clothing item to clothing item. For example, one pair of pants is slightly too large on me. Another pair of pants in the same style, brand, and size but different color is too snug. WHAT. THE. HELL.
I adore you, Swistle. Here you’re just randomly remarking about your beachy barf bucket and unknowingly sparking a BRILLIANT idea for the rest of us. Because seriously: genius.
I’m headed there tomorrow to pick one up. Very useful. Love the idea.
Brigid Keely- YES. I think of it as the “Pregnant, plus size—either way you’re fat” section. And what IS with cramming all the clearance racks in there? I think I see the 1, 2, 3, 4 sizes I’m looking for, but actually it’s the tiny sizes. Wheee! What a pleasant surprise!
Yes, I’m afraid I remember the 80s far too well to feel totally comfortable belting shirts or sweaters or whatever the heck “they” are suggesting we belt nowadays. I will be similarly uncomfortable wear neon if that ever comes back. Once around that rodeo was enough for me.
Also I can’t abide how Target groups the maternity and plus size stuff together making neither group happy because they aren’t the same thing. Bah.