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P is for Polka Dots


The Pokamobile

In the Encyclopedia of Me, P is most certainly for Polka Dots, and I’ll tell you story of how that came to be:

Fifteen or sixteen years ago, when I was a college student, I spent my summer working as a teller in the local bank where my dad was (and still is) the manager. One of the other tellers had just bought these simple black canvas shoes that were decorated with white polka dots. I thought they were nifty, but being a poor student, I couldn’t afford to buy a pair for myself. So, I went to Woolworth, got myself the $2 white canvas shoes they had, and put my own red, green, blue and yellow polka dots on them with fabric markers. I wore those shoes for the rest of the summer and well beyond that (in fact, I only managed to discard them last year, though they had been threadbare and the soles had worn through many years earlier). When I returned to school that autumn, I went back to my job working at the Computer Aide Station, wearing those shoes. Unfortunately for me, there was also somebody who worked there at the same time who was fond of plaid pants. The proliferation of polka dots and plaid in the Aide Station caused the mean, grumpy boss (who himself generally wore gray, brown, and blue solids and nothing in the least bit adventurous) banned plaid and polka dots from the computer center. I was forbidden to wear my shoes again as long as I was working there. Of course, it was all in good fun and I didn’t pay any attention. In fact, I later bought myself a funky polka-dot bucket hat and matching shorts and made sure I wore them to work as often as possible icon_smile-flickr

There’s a lot more to the Polka Dot story, but that’s how the whole thing started. After the banning of polka dots from the computer center, I guess I ended up on a polka dot crusade. I created a Vax Notes group called “The Polka Dot Palace” (Tina, remember that?) which was the precursor to my BBS of the same name. I later changed the name of the BBS to the Polka Dot Cottage, which I resurrected nine years later on the Internet. Somewhere in there I bought a car, got a POKADOT license plate, and started a business. Polka Dots and I go waaaaay back, although I rarely wear them myself these days.

P is for Polka Dots. And actually it’s also for Party, which brings me to my next topic…

A+E's 3rd Annual Water Party Extravaganza

It poured on us! We were supposed to have AE3AWPE on Thursday, but it had been cloudy all morning and by Noon it was raining and three different weather forecasts were calling for severe thunder storms all afternoon. So I called everybody and told them to come Friday instead. Fast forward to 2pm, when the party would have started had I not postponed it, and the clouds parted, leaving behind a gloriously sunny day. And I mean gloriously. It was beautiful, perfect water party weather. And I had told everybody to stay home. Darn.

Friday dawned, sunny and warm, with a favorable forecast. We set up snack stations and water toys, I put out the dye buckets for the Moms to do some tie-dying, and friends began to arrive. About an hour into the party, that storm that never came on Thursday decided to drop by. It rained buckets. Being a water party, it wouldn’t have been that big of a deal were it not for the accompanying thunder and lightning. We spent the remainder of the party indoors.

Had I just stuck it out on Thursday and not postponed the party, we’d have had a long, lovely day in the back yard with a dozen of the boys’ friends running through the sprinkler. Instead, we had an hour of backyard play with 6 of the boys’ friends (several couldn’t make the rain date) and a few hours cooped up inside. We all had a nice time anyway, but it’s somewhat frustrating that everything would have gone exactly according to plan if I’d ignored the threatening clouds and the inaccurate forecast! Ah, well. There’s always next year icon_smile-flickr

New skirt

I lied the other day. I made two more skirts: the one above with the gorgeous Amy Butler print that I’ve been dying to use for ages, and another one which is from Joel Dewberry’s Aviary collection (what’s with me and the birds lately, I wonder?). That brings the total to 11. I also made another one of those shirts. I have obviously been enjoying the Summer of the Elastic-Waist Skirt, but there has been one drawback – I haven’t had a built-in indicator (aka pants getting too tight) that I am overdoing it on the munching. These skirts have been waaaay too forgiving. So comfy, but so dangerous for the waistline.

So I have come to a decision. I stepped on the scale this morning, knowing I had put on a little weight, only to find that I was a mere 2lbs shy of my all-time non-pregnancy-weight high. Oh, dear. Last time I weighed this much was 1998, and I remember hating it then. Nine years later, I’m not as miserable about it. No offense to my parents or anything, but “skinny” is just not in my genes. Little by little I am giving in in to heredity and just accepting that I’m meant to have some pudge around the middle. I’m not at the point of total surrender yet, though icon_wink-flickr-8

So, starting today I am on a diet. Well, sort of. It’s more of a “pay more attention to what I am eating, eat a little less of it, and try to slim down somewhat” challenge. Heh. I took a set of “before” pictures and uploaded them to flickr (I set them to private – I’m not insane enough just yet to show you the least flattering images of me ever) . I recorded all of my vital measurements with the images. Periodically, I’ll take more pictures and take more measurements, and if I ever see a decent amount of success with this, then I’ll make the pictures public. I am not a believer in starving myself, and frankly I have no intention of being miserable from giving up all of the foods I enjoy. I’m just going try and improve my ability to practice moderation. Wish me luck. I thoroughly enjoyed being 130lbs a few years ago, but I’ll take 140 at this point and like it icon_smile-flickr

Favorites week of August 13

I hope you enjoy this week’s Flickr favorites. I’m looking forward to seeing how the prominent colors in my favorites change when the seasons change. I anticipate a turn towards warmer hues in the coming months…

It’s a beautiful open-window day, with a breeze blowing in. Any moment now, I’m going to crank up some tunes and do a bit of cleaning. Happy Saturday!

Lisa

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Posted on 3 Comments

3 thoughts on “P is for Polka Dots

  1. Heh…I do remember the Palace (in both forms) — and also those shoes that started it all. 🙂

  2. […] that I need a pair of those polka dot shoes (second image in the mosaic).  They are so much like the pair of shoes that started it all.  Before blogging, I hadn’t thought about those old shoes in ages, but now I’m […]

  3. […] it was my car, replacing the old Pokamobile. But once we found ourselves with a minivan a few years later, I eventually transitioned to driving […]

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