The Moth has Flown.

Last week the Moth of Retail Bitterness had landed on my shoulder. Back when I worked in the children's bookstore in Nashville, we used to play with finger puppets a lot. We developed runnning characters with the finger puppets. Two of these characters were the Bluebird of Happiness (who would alight on the shoulder of someone feeling sad to brighten their day) and the Moth of Retail Bitterness ( who would alight on the shoulder of someone unhappy with their job). I think my moth here in Boston is about to fly away, because I'm quitting the clothing store soon.

I’m turning in my two-week notice tomorrow. I took the job to earn enough cash to buy a bunch of clothes using my employee discount – they got a month of my time, and I’m getting pants and shirts that really fit me correctly for the first time in years. The store is really a neat place. Everything in there is super long and very roomy inside, and once you find something that mostly fits you they have a seamstress who makes it fit just right for another $10. That’s why rich people look so good in whatever they wear! They have things tailored! I never knew until I took this job that lots and lots of people have their clothes fitted to them.

Tailoring kind of trips me out. I’m six feet tall and sort of square shaped, so not much clothing in the world fits me at all. The seamstress, a lady from Barbados, looked me up and down yesterday while trying to make pants fit me properly. She told me I have a long torso and a high waist, which is seamstress for: you have a very large ass, honey. I’m getting a couple of blouses – girly shirts! With sleeves that are long enough for my arms but also have a place for my breasts and then come in at the waist. I have never had shirts that have done this, ever. I have had shirts that were long enough, and shirts that fit around me properly, but mostly those were men’s shirts or hid my figure. I’m getting pants that are so long they have to be taken up a little – dress pants that don’t make me look old. These things are all miracles.

But boy, will I be glad to leave retail work again.

My student loan came in, and I bought a printer Thursday. It’s the printer of my dreams, the hp psc 750. Sadly though, my computer made out of spare parts can just barely let it work. In order to let the printer run I have to take out my modem and put a USB connection card in. So I can have my printer or my modem but not both at the same time. Every time I want to switch I have to shut down the machine, unscrew the modem, reseat the USB card and start the machine again. I can print things off the web if I save them to my desktop, shut down the machine and swap the cards out again…grrr. It might be time for me to bite the bullet and just buy a new computer. I’ve always just had these cobbled together heaps of parts, and while they work OK most of the time, they’re really a pain in the rear.

That’s pretty much it for right now. I’m working and writing and going to school. It’s all ready cold enough here in New England that I need to find my winter hat. I’m picking out my Simmons College ring. And I’m really not getting enough sleep.

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks. School is speeding up, and I’m less than 90 days away from being a Master of Library Science. After December, those letters – MLS – will always be after my name in professional circumstances. Weird.