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new winter coat
Jan. 5th, 2008 08:17 pmIt was finals week at Iowa State. Snow was falling and stress levels were rising as students across town studied and tried to take care of Christmas travel plans and preparations. I was memorizing biochem like mad and trying to finish all of the lab reports that were due in short order. Sometime in the middle of all this wintery mess, the zipper on my coat decided to give out.
It still mostly kept the weather off me, but it no longer kept me toasty warm. Over the break, therefore, my main goal was to find a replacement coat. It needed to be long enough to cover my ass even when I had on a full backpack, warm enough to hold up to an ice storm, and have a hood with actual insulation. It also needed to be somewhat affordable for a mostly broke college student. Adding to the difficulty check is that the only reasonable shopping area was the not-so-booming metropolis of Burlington, IA, and women's fashions in the fall of 2001 were cute, not functional.
While "cute" has its place in fashion, winter coats are not a good place for it. I couldn't find a single coat that looked like it would keep me warm in even a faint breeze. When I finally despaired of finding anything suitable, my boyfriend at the time suggested that I check the men's section.
And then the clouds parted, beams of light shone down, and choirs of angels came over the intercom in J.C.Penney's.
It fit my shoulders fairly well, my waist not so much, and my hips okay. It was microfiber, ridiculously warm, and had a hood lined with actual insulation! And it was on sale! I snatched it from under the reaching fingers of another shopper and scampered for the exit.
Not only did this coat hold up to the rest of my senior year at ISU, but it served me well through the next few years as a UW student. Always warm, always sturdy, and did I mention that the hood was actually useful?
Last winter, however, things began to go wrong with my beloved coat. The zipper started sticking, then started staying not zipped together. The snaps holding the hood to the coat started to pull through and disappear. By the time spring arrived, the zipper was more of a suggestion and I knew I needed to get myself a new coat.
Sometime in March or April, I switched back to my lighter coat and told Downwood that we should hit some end-of-winter sales and get a new coat for me.
And we both completely forgot about it.
I pulled my coat out this winter and remembered my frustration with it. I thought, "Maybe the zipper isn't so bad. See, it closes...sort of...um...maybe?" I was still muddling through with it, though much more on the lookout for some sort of outerwear sale.
Last week it got butt-biting cold for the first time this winter. I finally was forced to admit that my coat wasn't so much crippled as dead, Jim. This is not good when you have a greyhound who really wants to go on very long walks please oh please pleeeeezzeee.
When Downwood came to me and said that the zipper on his coat just frayed itself into oblivion, I decided that Something Must Be Done. On my next sanity break at work, I jumped to the Land's End site and amused myself with their 3D modeling "this is how this style will look on a body with your measurements" tool. I found coats for both Downwood and me that were rated very warm, in the price range I was expecting, and fairly cute.
As I was clicking through the shopping cart process, entering addresses and such, I was practically bouncing from the excitement of having a working coat. I made a mistake in my purchasing, though: I didn't look to see exactly how long their "standard" shipping option was.
Oops. And they didn't put the expecting shipping or arriving date on any of the receipts they sent me. Crap.
So I expect to get my new coat...eventually. I'm pretty sure it will get here before February. I really hope it's here before then.
I'm not sure what I'm going to do with my old coat. I don't want to throw it out (I'm homozygous dominant for PackRat) but I know it's in no condition to go to any charity. My current theory is that I'll cut it into pieces to make a parka for the dog that will be better for the exceptionally cold days. I don't know. It sounds like a plan, but it may end up being more like a Pln than anything.
It still mostly kept the weather off me, but it no longer kept me toasty warm. Over the break, therefore, my main goal was to find a replacement coat. It needed to be long enough to cover my ass even when I had on a full backpack, warm enough to hold up to an ice storm, and have a hood with actual insulation. It also needed to be somewhat affordable for a mostly broke college student. Adding to the difficulty check is that the only reasonable shopping area was the not-so-booming metropolis of Burlington, IA, and women's fashions in the fall of 2001 were cute, not functional.
While "cute" has its place in fashion, winter coats are not a good place for it. I couldn't find a single coat that looked like it would keep me warm in even a faint breeze. When I finally despaired of finding anything suitable, my boyfriend at the time suggested that I check the men's section.
And then the clouds parted, beams of light shone down, and choirs of angels came over the intercom in J.C.Penney's.
It fit my shoulders fairly well, my waist not so much, and my hips okay. It was microfiber, ridiculously warm, and had a hood lined with actual insulation! And it was on sale! I snatched it from under the reaching fingers of another shopper and scampered for the exit.
Not only did this coat hold up to the rest of my senior year at ISU, but it served me well through the next few years as a UW student. Always warm, always sturdy, and did I mention that the hood was actually useful?
Last winter, however, things began to go wrong with my beloved coat. The zipper started sticking, then started staying not zipped together. The snaps holding the hood to the coat started to pull through and disappear. By the time spring arrived, the zipper was more of a suggestion and I knew I needed to get myself a new coat.
Sometime in March or April, I switched back to my lighter coat and told Downwood that we should hit some end-of-winter sales and get a new coat for me.
And we both completely forgot about it.
I pulled my coat out this winter and remembered my frustration with it. I thought, "Maybe the zipper isn't so bad. See, it closes...sort of...um...maybe?" I was still muddling through with it, though much more on the lookout for some sort of outerwear sale.
Last week it got butt-biting cold for the first time this winter. I finally was forced to admit that my coat wasn't so much crippled as dead, Jim. This is not good when you have a greyhound who really wants to go on very long walks please oh please pleeeeezzeee.
When Downwood came to me and said that the zipper on his coat just frayed itself into oblivion, I decided that Something Must Be Done. On my next sanity break at work, I jumped to the Land's End site and amused myself with their 3D modeling "this is how this style will look on a body with your measurements" tool. I found coats for both Downwood and me that were rated very warm, in the price range I was expecting, and fairly cute.
As I was clicking through the shopping cart process, entering addresses and such, I was practically bouncing from the excitement of having a working coat. I made a mistake in my purchasing, though: I didn't look to see exactly how long their "standard" shipping option was.
Oops. And they didn't put the expecting shipping or arriving date on any of the receipts they sent me. Crap.
So I expect to get my new coat...eventually. I'm pretty sure it will get here before February. I really hope it's here before then.
I'm not sure what I'm going to do with my old coat. I don't want to throw it out (I'm homozygous dominant for PackRat) but I know it's in no condition to go to any charity. My current theory is that I'll cut it into pieces to make a parka for the dog that will be better for the exceptionally cold days. I don't know. It sounds like a plan, but it may end up being more like a Pln than anything.
