Household Division of Labor and Foundations

Iris and Mark went to see the Simpson's movie without me as a "Daddy and Me" outing. No amount of entreaties from Mark to include me convinced her to let me join them. When he told her that my feelings were hurt, she had an answer. She planned a similar "Mommy and Me" outing to see the Bratz movie. Why do I always draw the short end of the stick when the household duties are divided up?

I went with them to the mall because we were all going together to the UCLA Fowler museum afterwards. (See the El Anatsui Gawu post from two weeks ago.) I had an hour and a half to kill so I decided to see what was new at the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale. Nothing really screamed, "Buy me, take me home." That's a good thing because I took another Wardrobe Refashion Pledge.

However, the Wardrobe Refashion rules allow purchases of underwear and Nordstrom does have the best trained staff of any department store that I frequent. My back and hips were aching since my last relapse and I heard that some doctors were recommending, ahem, foundation garments for back pain relief.

I stared at a pair of Spanx that were on sale ('Hide and Seek') and asked a saleslady what size I should try on. She tried to get me to try on a M when a L looked more fitting to my untrained eye. I took both into the dressing room with me.

For a frame of reference, I asked her which ones she wore. She said they were not on the sales floor at the moment because they sold so fast, they hardly get a chance to put them out on the sales floor. She offered to get some of those in both M and L to me in the dressing room. Really? More expensive, not even on the sales floor and yet flying out of the store?

So I tried on the ones made from a double layer of nylon and spandex. They were about what I expected, except that the elastic did not bind at the top or bottom. However, the 'Slim Cognito' she brought to the dressing room was amazing. It is so much better than the other ones, damn the price difference. As Jane Russell used to say, "It lifts, it separates." It defies gravity. It made me look like one of Phillip Roth's peaches in Portnoy's Complaint.

I am ready to knit Annie's Butt Skirt.


Errata:

Iris gives the Simpson's movie 5 stars--high praise indeed. She is a tough critic.

We have yet to see the Bratz movie. I just have a psychological barrier against seeing yet another movie in which the Asian (or is that hapa?) character is a science whiz. I abhor racial stereotyping and stereotyping of scientists in pop culture. The Bratz movie, and Charlie's Angels, packs a double whammy.

FYI, I avoid Madame Butterfly stories like the plague. I also won't see movies about math or mathematicians. I made an exception to see Proof on stage and it was OK. I went to see Copenhagen, a play about Bohr and Heisenberg, and managed not to squirm too much. In fact, both of those plays had a meaningful message about the the nature of truth. But, those authors worked really hard with scientists and mathematicians to get their representations right.

Just don't mention Matt Damon in our household.