dynamic elf

Whenever someone gives me a compliment on a specific article of clothing, I have a very strong desire to tell a little story about it. Usually, I do this before I even have the chance to think. A sampling of things I've blurted out before thinking:

"Thanks! It was only $15 at Target!"

"I thought I'd lost them until I found them in the back of my closet and was like YAAAAAY!"

"Yeah, I borrowed it from a friend!"

"I got this at a resale shop in Paris!"

"My car broke down, so I bought this at Bean's at 2 in the morning to console myself once it was fixed and I could keep driving!"

"I got these at a yard sale when I was 16 and they're still great!"

"I couldn't resist the jacket that was both fuzzy AND shiny!"

"I'd always wanted one of these and then I gave up hope until one day I found it in HOT PINK!"

These little storylets inevitably end with exclamation points; generally, I keep the origin story of a piece of clothing in my head until I retire it, and I buy clothing infrequently enough that the origin is usually interesting to me in some way. I am beginning to realize just how often I do this, and also realize that perhaps people just want to tell me something looks nice without hearing that I picked it up off the side of the road one day. Is it rude? I have no idea.

Anyway, so, several people have recently remarked to me how well-dressed N is. I generally just say "thanks!" and leave it at that, because I really can take absolutely no credit for this little girl's crazy revolving wardrobe. We have received SO MANY amazing loads of hand-me-down clothes as well as alarmingly cute gifts from friends that there is always something in her pile that I'm delighted to put on her. When you remember that the hand-me-downs come not only from my own extended circle, but also from ceelove's, then it becomes clear how we ended up with precisely So Much Stuff. Skim off the best of it, and poof, cute baby. I am incredibly thankful for this phenomenon; I know it won't last forever, but it will certainly last us through the initial rapid-growth phases.

I have to say, though, so much stuff has passed through my hands now that I only remember the origins of a few of the bits of clothing. It makes me feel insufficiently grateful: I'm so accustomed to each item having a backstory that I'm not sure how to deal with not being able to thank the universe in a specific way each time I get a compliment (even if I manage to suppress telling the story itself). Not a big deal. I'll get used to it. I just hadn't realized how very ingrained this was.

By far the coolest origin story of any of N's clothes belongs to some stuff for slightly older babies that she hasn't grown into yet. The incomparable water_childe^[1] actually found two large bags full of brand-new clothes put out on trash day. I just went through these: 1/3 to 1/4 of the items still had the tags on them. Nearly all of the items that didn't have tags on looked crisp and brand-new, and many of them were from expensive brands. Lots of it was totally cute and exciting. And someone had put it all out for the trash. Bah! People are crazy! Anyway, water_childe rescued the bags and just delivered them to our doorstep on Friday. The world is pretty cool.

[1] No, really. I have a very hard time comparing her to things.