Archive for May 11th, 2008

When reality smacks you in the face

I have been on the job hunt for 6 months. What looked like a promising career as a Financial Advisor turned sour when I could not pass the Series 7 exam…twice. Since then I have been temping at various offices in Nashville. All of the resumes, interviews and prayers payed off on May 1st when I was offered a job as a Fraud Investigator. Of course my wife and I were extremely happy when we got this news and went out to celebrate with some friends of ours. With my job starting this Monday my wife asked if I needed clothes, I of course said no and left it that. While putting the clothes away one night she noticed that some of the pants I had been wearing seemed a little ragged. One pair had a rip in the pocket, another had a pin sized hole in the butt and another had some faded ink stains. She felt this was unacceptable and after celebrating Mother’s Day with her parents we were headed to the mall.

Our first stop was Men’s Wearhouse and getting some shirts that did not say Nebraska on them. I had a couple of giftcards my Dad got me and got 4 shirts and it was painless. The only thing that raised any eyebrows was when I got my waist measured and the salesman told me I was a 42, I did not think this was possible since I had always been a 38 even at my heftiest when I came home from college. With the dread that I may have cracked the 40 waist barrier we went to Eddie Bauer were I also had a few giftcards. I picked up pants in size 38 and 40. I did not even try to button the size 38 pants for fear of breaking them, the 40s fit but my wife felt they were to snug. This meant that I had skipped size 40 and went straight to 42. They did have some 42s left but they had an inseam of 30 and that was not going to work for a 6′3 guy like me. I was able to place an order at Eddie Bauer for some pants and then it was on to the next store the Gap. I am happy to say that the Gap had 42 x 34 sized pants and was able to get 2 pair which was good. What was not good was being slapped across the face that I am not as svelte as I thought I was.

Despite finding out my physique is not what I thought it was, I had a great day because I got to spend it with my wife. We spent a majority of the day laughing at my expense and my new found worries about weight. I could not have asked for a better way to spend a Sunday.