MY CLOTHES ARE TOO LOW CLASS FOR MY TOWN

Sing "My clothes are low class for my town" to the tune of "I'm too sexy for my clothes" and see how you feel...

I have been emptying out the closets of my now too large clothing. Most of it is well worn, scruffy, wear around the house kind of stuff. I do have a few things for occasions and holidays that are nice and barely worn and even a few things bought on sale at the end of the season which were never worn.

I took a dozen things to the Lotus consignment store in Pleasanton which does NOT call itself a "designer" or "upscale" store. I had done my research and I knew my clothes would be rejected in those stores. My most upscale label being Coldwater Creek!

Well, they turned each and every item down. They won't take elastic waistbands even in linen shorts. They won't take cotton summer dresses (too cheap). No explanation on the rejection of the sheath with beaded sweater combination (maybe because it was from Dress Barn Woman?) They would take the silk blouse from Ann Taylor except that they needed $200.00 worth of clothes to open an account. Th sales woman was trying to be nice - but boy did I feel like I have been told I am low class or something! And I have a tough hide about these things.

I said something to her about the styles and labels being known to plus size women (I had a couple of Silhouettes catalog dresses) and explained that the prices of the dresses don't tend to run very high unlike a lot of the designer clothes. She kind of pointed to a rack of clothes and said that they had a plus size section but the owner wanted to keep the prices up at a certain level.

So it seems that, once again, the plus size woman is shut out. I work really hard to dress well. To fit my body and look nice and well groomed. In this shop I felt I was being told that is not good enough. Designers and labels that they think are worthy don't even make clothes that would fit me. So that makes me unworthy, too - right? How else am I to feel?

I will donate my clothes to the American Cancer Society Discovery Shop and they will sell them and that's fine. But I tell you, I will never shop in those consignment stores no matter how small my size gets.

COUNTING DOWN TO MY TRIP

I am down to the last month before I go to my daughter's graduation. One of the motivations for my diet has been this event. First of all because I didn't want to get kicked off the plane for being too fat to fit one seat. Second because we would be walking all over town and I want to be able to keep up. Third because I want to look nice. Fourth - and most importantly, because I am tired of always worrying about all this stuff and it is time to just be healthy for the rest of my life.

So, I am doing quite well. I am losing, I am walking around and climbing stairs easily, as displayed on the college tours and I am fitting into my smaller clothes. This has not stopped me from shopping, however!

The last time I went to Philadelphia in May it was very hot and very humid. I understand that the heat was unusually high, but with high humidity, even a temperature in the 80 degree range is hot. So I am planning on wearing dresses with light cardigans to the ceremonies; both are being held outdoors, one in the morning and one in the evening.

I end up doing most of my shopping online. The stores carry such limited stock of plus size clothes that I find it frustrating to shop in person. Online the options seem limitless and I have gotten ok with returns and exchanges.

I do wonder about the people who design plus size clothes and what they are thinking sometimes - for instance, why are almost all the dresses sleeveless? Have you seen the arms on us larger women? Do you really want to see our arms? Because I don't! Some sundresses and evening dresses without sleeves - fine. But the rest of them really do need a real sleeve. Not a cap sleeve. Not a flutter sleeve. A real, cover the upper arm kind of sleeve.

So I ended up ordering a couple of dresses which are sleeveless, and I NEVER show my arms. So I am buying a few lightweight cardigans which are short sleeved and long sleeved to coordinate. The dress shown is navy and white from Land's End and I bought a yellow cardigan to go with it and navy wedge sandals.

Getting excited!