What about now, what about today?

Today got away from me a bit. It started out good, with Aimee and me walking 2 miles in preparation for our half-marathon in June. We did 3 miles yesterday, and I'm already starting to feel good from the brisk walking outdoors.

Then I met Jasmine and Sonny downtown to do some planning for local Caltech alumni events. I love me some event planning, so I couldn't resist participating, even though I handed over my official duties of Area Coordinator for Undergraduate Admissions Support in January to a much younger (and thus more in touch) alum.

I came home around 2pm and sort of ... puttered around. I have no idea what I did between 2 and 7. I took a shower. I put away some laundry. I wasn't feeling so well, so I napped for a bit. Maybe that was it - the late nap and the not feeling good threw everything off.

But one of the projects I've been meaning to tackle is cleaning out my closet. I doubt I'll ever be able to let go of the habit of keeping clothes that no longer fit me, for when I get back down to "that size". (Currently "that size" is anywhere from 8 to 14, believe it or not.) But I'm usually pretty good at weeding out what doesn't fit and at least putting it out of sight. (I'm a sucker for those big plastic storage bins.)

But here's the thing. I'm currently at my heaviest ever (sucks to say that) and thus, I have a LOT of fairly recent clothes that do not fit. And I've been really bummed out about it and have put off going through my closet again. (It's much more fun to get rid of clothes that are too big than too small!)

But it's even worse to try and decide what to wear in the morning, and realize it's too tight once I've put it on. Or worse, have things I *know* are too small staring me in the face. So a closet overhaul was due.

The other bad habit I have is shopping while bored. I think there's something about the shopping process that calms me, and I enjoy it. So I buy a lot of stuff, and I try to buy cheaper things, but that means I have clothes that don't hold up that well, that get faded quickly, or stretch out, or just don't quite fit right. I did notice that most of the stuff in the "too small" bins I wanted to keep are from Nordstrom or Ann Taylor, higher quality clothes that are more classic.

I gave away 3 Nine West purses and 2 pairs of shoes because they were tacky. If you are shopping with me, please don't let me buy anything else from Nine West. I'll just end up hating it in a year or two.

The other thing I learned, is that 100% cotton knit stuff just looks bad after a while. I got rid of 3 sweaters and countless T shirts because they were just ratty and/or shapeless. I think I need shirts with just a touch of spandex in them so they keep their shape. And 100% cotton sweaters just don't stay nice, even the ones from Nordstrom. (I think cashmere might be where it's at for sweaters...)

On the other hand, the fabulous white leather satchel purse that cost me nearly $100 (which is astronomical for me and purses) is still one of my favorites and has held up very nicely over the past 3 years. So if I shop carefully, and deliberately, for pieces I *need*, I think I do just fine. The "hey it's on sale and sort of cute" thing just isn't working for me.

I also enjoyed the trip down memory lane when I went through my old clothes. The shoes I bought in San Francisco just after a major breakup. (Yes, those were way too old and now they're going to Goodwill.) The sweater I bought in Chicago when I went to a diversity conference for Deloitte. The skirt I wore to our wedding celebration dinner in Vegas. The gorgeous jacket I wore on the first day of my meticulously-planned customer event at Microsoft. (I saved those last three!)

I didn't have the guts to go through the other 3 boxes of too-small clothes at the top of my closet. I'll save that for another evening. But now I have 4 big bags of clothes, handbags and shoes for Goodwill. And my closet is a lot sparser and it's easier to see what all I have. I even sorted everything by color. So now I'm pretty stoked to pick an outfit for work tomorrow. And quite honestly, instead of feeling bad about the stuff that doesn't fit, I'm all fired up to keep exercising and eating right. So I can revisit those cute clothes a few months down the road. Yay!