This One's All About Socks

Seriously. Well, except for Lacey's Completely Random Picture


And therein lies the beauty of it kids. :-)




Anyway. Story time. Hop into the way,way back machine with me.
*insert cheesy sitcom dream/flashback wavy lines and wavy music here*

So when I was a kid my socks always had to match my outfit. Precisely. Not my doing, mind you. It was one of the things my mom was insanely particular about. We'd go back-to-school-clothes shopping and after getting a few outfits we'd go looking for a pack of socks in the appropriate colors. And if there was a color in the pack that didn't match anything I already had, sometimes we'd go looking for an outfit specifically to match the socks.

I didn't really care either way, beyond wondering why it mattered so much that my socks were the exact same puke-ish shade of plum as my shirt (gotta admit, I picked out some weird clothes as a kid sometimes too). I vaguely remembering asking why it mattered once . . . I think the answer I got was "it just does." Or something like that.

By high school I was wearing white socks. All white socks, all the time. I figured it didn't really matter what my socks looked like - I mean, it's not like anybody really sees them all that much. That said, there is a picture of me at the last dance of my high school career dancing in super-dark blue jeans and white socks. And I guess I do look kind of silly. (and yes, it's on facebook if you're that curious.)

Summer after my senior year I bought some great pink socks. They said "glitter girl" on them, so I had to buy them. That probably makes me sound very ditzy and shallow and whatever, but there was actually some very special significance to that phrase that led me to buy them, but that's another whole long back story that I'll have to save for another time because this is already shaping up to be one of those marathon posts . . . so I'll just say in advance, mad props if you finish this one.

Anyway. Fast forward to my sophomore year of college. I had some pretty freaking awesome roommates that year, for a plethora of reasons. One of them being socks. Two of my roommates were cousins (still are, last time I checked, lol) and one's mom had this tradition of buying all the females in the family socks for every holiday. And for that year, my other roommate and I were included in "family." Which was awesome, because I kid you not - every. Holiday. I got New Year's socks that year! Sweet!!

Mom tended to send me holiday packages too, even though I went home for, you know, every major holiday. But that was okay because 1) CANDY CANDY CANDY CANDY!!!!! and 2) getting packages in the mail is just so much fun! And when I went home, she saw my awesome socks. (and they were AWESOME. My Halloween socks were purple with witches riding on vacuums. Awe. Some.) I suppose she felt she was being upstaged in the care package department, because starting the next year there was a pair of socks in every package. Granted, only a pair for me - not all my roommates too - but still . . . I got more awesome socks!!! Woot!!!

Random brief tangent - sadly, all the socks I got that year have long since worn out, because I wore them all the time. Because funky socks rock. All I have left (sadly) is one green St. Patrick's Day sock with white clovers, which I have paired with a blue sock with a kiwi bird on it my parents brought back from their first trip to NZ (which was that same year, actually) because they've both lost their original mates . . . either from death-by-wearing-out or abduction-by-evil-sock-eating-dryer. (seriously, what is up with dryers eating socks?!)

Anyway. Awesome socks. I'm loving them. And they keep coming to me. By this point they've become standard stocking stuffer fare at our house. (This is probably also the about the time Shay started wearing mismatched socks deliberately. The deliberately mismatched earring came later.) And I'm buying a pair hear and there, so by the time I graduated from college I had enough awesome socks that they were all I had and all I ever wore. And it was good.

So then I went to Florida. And was confronted with the most terrifying thing for a sock junkie: the Disney Look. The Look being - if you wear pants you wear black socks. If you wear shorts you wear white socks. (with black shoes. Feel free to make jokes, heaven knows they've all been made before.) And since the last time I wore shorts I still lived in Idaho . . . well, black socks it is!

You know what? Black socks suck. I don't know what it is about plain socks, but they shed lint like a . . . I don't know, whatever it is in the world that sheds most ridiculously. Other than plain socks. My awesome socks always come off clean, but I would pull of those icky black socks after a ten hour day and my toenails would be black. With sock lint. Ew. Not cool. I kinda really hated it. And then I started working at the water tank. And I discovered that I only thought my feet were getting sweaty and gross in the humidity before. Double ew. No, triple ew. NOT. COOL. I really hate plain black socks.

Confession: at the time I had a pair of black socks with slightly sparkly silver hershey kisses on them. Sometimes, especially when I was still a CP, and especially during holiday times when they've got everyone on mandatory overtime working 7 days a week, 12 hour days (ok, that might be a slight exaggeration) you just don't have time to do laundry . . . or if you do, you just don't have the energy. Especially when you think about how not only is there not a washer in your apartment, there isn't even one in your building - you have to walk halfway across the complex (okay, okay . . . it was across the street and down about half a block. But when you're that tired the laundry might as well be in Tahiti . . . which would have been nice, actually) there's just no way you're going to get up the motivation to do laundry. Even if you're out of socks. A couple of times I bought more socks to put off doing laundry. Sometimes I wore my awesome hershey kisses socks. Technically it was a gross violation of the rules, but in actuality . . . well, the pants I was wearing generally dragged a few inches on the ground since Costuming is completely incapable of labeling their costumes accurately. So I totally got away with it. I was careful when I was out in front of people, and my fellow cast members who saw either weren't in any position of authority to lecture/discipline me, or were practical enough to realize they had more important things to care about.

By far one of the best things about leaving Disney was tossing out all my icky black socks right before leaving. I still remembering the feeling I had when I realized I had enough clean socks to last me until my last day . . . holy euphoria!!!!! I've worn only awesome socks since. And it's been awesome. Dude, I even wore zebra-striped tights at our reception. :-)

(btw, huge shout out, mad props, and all that jazz to Aunt Sharon for buying me those rockin' tights way back in the day!)

So, at this point you're probably thinking I'll start wrapping things up. But . . . no. Actually, this whole huge back story was just a lead up to the fabulousness that was yesterday.

We tend to go the mall a lot on Luke's days off. Luke is a total technology geek, and he loves to go and geek out at the store that sells records and Atari games and VHS cassettes and super old video game consoles. And it's fun to watch him go off about how cool all this old stuff that probably doesn't work is. Yeah, total geek. Anyway, there's a new store at the mall . . . for those in the know, it's in that corner spot that was a jewelry store for forever and then had a brief stint as some clothes boutique or other last year. (side note - what is with the corner stores at malls always being jewelry stores. Always! You never see one in the middle . . . what's up with that?) But now that little spot is a marvelous little placed called . . . *drum roll* . . . All About Socks! How awesome is that?!?! How absolutely perfect?!?!?! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've known they were coming in for about a month now, and I've been SO EXCITED. So it pretty much totally made my day to see them open yesterday, and we absolutely HAD to go in. No intention of buying anything, just scoping the place out in preparation for (many) future purposes. Gotta say, super excited to see a pair of koala socks . . . yeah, totally getting those sometime soon. I mean, I have dolphin socks, I have kiwi socks (a new pair from the last trip to NZ, in plus the one surviving kiwi sock from back in '04), dolphin socks . . . I have to finish the favorite animals of all time trifecta. Still, had no intention of getting them yesterday . . . and we didn't - although I absolutely will. However, how's this for crazy? They've been open for days and they're already having a clearance sale, getting rid of some sock from the old location. (again, for those in the know - this would be the new location for the sock factory's sock outlet store) Awesome socks for A DOLLAR!!!!!!!!! ONE DOLLAR FOR AWESOME SOCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Again - day = made. So now I have red socks with teddy bears and Christmas presents, and blue socks with penguins in Santa hats. Also - I have Hanukkah socks!! Kind of the greatest thing ever. I mean, I have or have had socks for every other holiday out there, so really when you think about it I needed Hanukkah socks. And now I have them. And all is well.

And as we speak I am totally rocking my Nutcracker Ballet brand Nutcracker socks. Light blue with snowflakes and ballerinas in white and blue dancing around my ankles. These new socks might even be better than the knee-high, glow-in-the-dark, purple, black, and orange skull socks I bought at Kohl's about a month ago.

I cannot wait to go back for more. I was really worried that it was going to be a temporary store since there have been so many of those popping up in the mall in the last couple of years, but the guy who was working there said they're there to stay. YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Think about it - socks are the perfect thing to personalize. you try to be funky or non-traditional with your clothes and at least some people are going to give you funny looks . . . which for me, with my irrational need to fit in and at least pretend I'm popular would just kill me. So you go about your day looking and acting normal, but all the while knowing that you're wearing rainbow striped toe socks. (weird side note - I hate flip flops because of the toe thing, but I love toe socks. Explain that one.) Or sock with two cats sitting on top of a recycling bin surrounded by little hearts. Or pink socks with flamingos. And people would totally give you weird looks if they knew, but they don't, so for some odd reason they think you're cool or something, and all the while you are rocking the awesomest socks that ever were rocked. And that, my friends, is awesome.

Moral of the story: if you ever find yourself needing to buy me a present, get me socks. Awesome socks.



Okay, here's the reward for making all the way through this latest massive post - the latest hysterical (IMNSHO) Luke-ism:

"Haven't you seen that movie Hedgehog Day?"

Ummmmmm . . . nope . . . and I'm pretty sure you haven't either. :-) I laughed for a solid five minutes at least at this one yesterday. It was pretty great.

P. ost S. cript
Just a clip because they still show this one on TV. I'm still eagerly awaiting the commercials that will tell me when it's on this year . . . they better show up soon, dangit! Also, every year I'm a little sadder that they don't show Garfield's Halloween Special anymore.