Tuesday, September 29, 2009

One Advantage

The days are rapidly becoming VERY short now.

It used to be light when the alarm goes off (6:15 the first time . . . then I swat the snooze button until 6:30). By "It used to be," I mean "When school started at the beginning of September."

Now it is dark outside when I get up. And today it was still dark during breakfast. Skittles, ever observant, noticed, "It's like night!"

Soon it will still be dark when they arrive at school at 8:00 a.m. It will certainly soon be dark when they get home from school, since most days that happens around 5:00 p.m.

You may think that all this darkness is depressing. And there is something to be said for the buzz one gets while lying in the sunshine, preferably on a beach. But there is a coziness to the short days, too.

And one BIG advantage. I say this because I am writing this entry while taking a break from cleaning the apartment. Because we are having a dinner guest tonight.

It occurred to me that since Said Guest won't cross my threshold until 8:30 this evening, he won't be able to see the details of my squalor. Hooray!

It's true: as much as I like a sunny day, specifically a sunny day in Moscow, the late afternoon sun comes pouring in my windows, magnifying every cat hair, garlic clove paper, litter box sand grain, and Kinder Egg wrapper.

I doubt it will be dark enough to obscure the laundry drying on the rack in the living room. I might actually have to put that away.

Weird Thing I Observed Yesterday: Woman in the gym locker room next to me, getting dressed to work out leaves ON her black knee-high nylons. Over them she adds a pair of black gym socks and her workout pants.

Why?

She left to do her workout, leaving me staring at her street shoes: the Monte Carlo Loafer in Grained Calf Leather from the Louis Vuitton Summer 2009 collection. An understated and practical shoe for only $635 US.

I am way too obsessed with other people's footwear.

13 comments:

elektrokuhinja said...

The shoes are ugly to me. Maybe if someone payed me a lot of money, I would wear them.

The Expatresse said...

Oh, I agree. I was just sort of staring into space, loosely focused on her shoes, when I realized the brand. I knew they must cost a fortune. Can they possibly be worth that much money? Can ANY shoe? And, as you said, these aren't even cute.

Tina in CT said...

Absolutely absurd to spend that much money on shoes! Anything over $100 is crazy. But then I am a Merrill and Born shoe wearer.

katbat said...

wow - leo has wittnessed, on 3 occasions, a man in the locker room at the gym who wears nylons. we can't figure it out. The first time he told me, I thought, maybe they were some kind of compression nylons for veins or something, but no, they apparently are regular womens nylons, thigh high, lacy top. The man goes in, takes of his pants and nylons, puts on workout pants, does his thing, and after, takes a shower, puts the nylons back on (a great visual, huh? a man carefully putting on nylons in the mens locker room) then pants etc and leaves. hmmmm. Leo also saw same guy pull up to the gym in one of the black cars with the blue lights- and a body guard briskly walked him in. so he is "somebody" as we say.

The Expatresse said...

Shoes should cost $60 max. Purses $40. Yeah, I know . . . I live in a fantasy world.

My first thought on the woman was cankles. She's trying to sweat down her cankles. But the VIP in his wife's Victoria's Secret thigh-highs? Ew.

I need a shower now.

VC said...

Well, those shoes can be easily be fakes, you know, "made in China".

The Expatresse said...

VC: I sure hope so.

Sandy said...

Yikes! That's a whole lot of dough to spend on shoes!

Welcome to SITS!

said...

Well those are some pretty smooth looking shoes although they're not my own personal style.

Welcome to the SITS community, it's great to have you join us!

Lani said...

625 $$ holy crackers, for those??


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Ian said...

I am not being sexist or anything like that. But I really think nothing highlights the difference between men and women more than shoes. Even my three year old daughter gets excited about shoes. She has more shoes at three than I have owned for the past 10 years. I am completely puzzled by the whole thing.

Melissa B. said...

I'd love to visit the top of the world, just to experience the 24-hour nite in the winter and the 24-hour daytime in the summer...

Carma Sez said...

Ah...yes...very understated indeed. Wonder if she got them on clearance ;-)

Stopping by from SITS to say hi and welcome. I know that you will enjoy being a part of this vibrant community of bloggers :-)