I'm not going to simply throw the clothes away. I will donate some clothes to the material donation truck that has now moved to Union Square (I spotted it today on my way to the CoinStar at Food Emporium) and others I will clean and donate to Housing Works.
I also have a bunch of t-shirts sitting in a corner which will be attacked by material scissors tomorrow. I don't like the t-shirts, but I love the patterns and images on the t-shirt, so I'm going to cut them out and make them into a quilt of sorts... or maybe a banner... or maybe a pillow cover - I don't know just yet, but I don't want to part with them completely because some of the shirts instantly transport me back to a moment in my life so clearly and we all know how special that moments feels. So I feel like I'm making a compromise. I'm half-hoarding? I'm recycling?
So. Let's do inventory, shall we?
Underwear: 16 pairs (Oh, you need to know)
Socks: Err... Well I'd like to have 14 pairs of socks. That's the goal. I have more than that but most are crazy wide-eyed loner socks on a doomed space mission to Venus.
Bras: 7
Sleep Wear: 4 PJ bottoms, 1 PJ Top (I'm a bit grumpy at myself because I purchased a slinky garment to sleep in and now have noticed that the zipper is all misshaped. Waste of money. I sighed and muttered to myself, "You keep doing stupid things over and over again!" Drama.)
Tights/Stockings: 7
Scarves: 6
Gloves: 4 pairs
Hats: 1 Beanie
Jackets/Coats: 4 plus a Waistcoat.
Belts: 4
Ties: 2
Pants/Jeans: 7
Shorts: 4
Skirts: 3
T-shirts: 11
Shirts: 7
Dress Tops: 7
"Under" Tops (for wearing under sheer clothes or for layering): 6
Dresses: 13
Cardigans/Sweaters: 10
I like that all my clothes can now easily fit on my bed in neat piles. Small piles too, which means I could probably squeeze my whole wardrobe into a suitcase, which has been a dream of mine for a while. I can only imagine that I will get rid of more things once it gets colder and I know what I really need.
I hope that after a while of getting some "wear n tear," I can purchase some items that I feel closer resemble where I'm at in my head... because that is important and also not important at all but should still be acquired and shouldn't be at all.
OK. Great. All the clothes are now folded neatly or are hanging in my wardrobe. I don't have enough space for the cardigans and sweaters, so I'm just going to hang the hangers on top of the hook on the door.
Clothes: Done.
I can now calmly move on to getting through the newspapers, magazines, books and "things to post" that are taking up most of the space here in The Land of Caitlin. The books will be a problem, but I'm confident that I can tackle a sizable amount of magazines before the end of November.
Weekend Update: Luke gave me a jar of US coins to cash in at CoinStar because he had not done it yet and would have no use for them. It totaled to $16.00 but the CoinStar didn't say the usual, "Chi-Ching!" I was disappointed at the lack of chi-ching.
I then went to Cosi for a quick sandwich and was seated by a waitress and everything, which was really strange. My Mum called and we spoke briefly before I had to hurry on to the N train to get up to 59th St and 5th Avenue to see Mao's Last Dancer at the Paris Theater.
As I rushed around the Plaza Hotel, there was a crowd surrounding a line of official looking cars, but I didn't care, I just huffed and pushed my way through, wanting to make it on time to see the film. I was also really excited to be going to the Paris Theater for the first time.
I'm looking forward to seeing Morning Glory, the film has a great cast and it looks like it'll be a lot of laughs. Rachel McAdams and Harrison Ford on screen together??? It just has to be amazing.
Mao's Last Dancer was quite beautiful. I have the book back at home because my dance teachers during my first (and only) year at QDSE told us all to read it. I hadn't read it, which was good because I'm sure I would have enjoyed the film less. I loved Bruce Greenwood's performance and his awesome accent in this film, he was a delight. The ballet dancers also did a good job at acting, which is usually awkward to watch, so props to the director, Bruce Beresford. I especially enjoyed the subtle comedy, which was often delightfully awkward.
One line stuck with me, "Sometimes you just have to be strong." I need to tell myself that often.
Some of the people watching in the theatre were really loud, one lady was almost a heckler, she kept telling the Chinese characters to put their "papers" up... somewhere. One guy also annoyed me by whispering, "It's a flashback" to his partner during a flashback. Like you couldn't tell by the slow-crossfade? Come on, man.
It's always a pleasure to see Amanda Schull, because I absolutely adored her when I was a young wannabe ballerina and I really liked her and Chi Cao's chemistry on screen.
I was pleased to see, during the very fast-credits, that part of this film was produced in Australia and financed by Screen Australia, so that made me very happy because it seems like a good year for Aussie cinema, what with that and Animal Kingdom both out and doing pretty well here. Maybe Aussie cinema isn't as damned as I thought it was.
Afterwards I took some photos of the lovely window displays at Bergdorf Goodman and then headed down to Union Square to see Catfish with Molly, which was pretty darn incredible. I found myself recognizing so many moments that the main guy is faced with. It's just incredible what the Internet and that perfect block to hide behind called Texting can do to a relationship.
It made me once again just want to shut the whole thing down. I don't like how open my life is to people sometimes. Someone commented on one of my old blogs saying that I do this because I "love" the audience... err, that isn't true. Let's just leave that there.
