Update on the Skirt Scenario

--Today, despite the fact that the weather is anything but warm, I am wearing my last warm weather skirt; I needed to finish compiling my "To Take In/Not To Take In" list.  It is the black flowered cotton.  The flowers are in rainbow colors, so naturally, I am wearing my gay pride kippah.  I wrote last night that I haven't accepted myself enough to wear this kippah in public, and I haven't, but I'm not going anywhere today, and I consider this skirt and kippah to be a set; that is to say, wearing one obligates me to wear the other.

--My new-but-already-close synagogue friend, Sami, runs an art gallery and makes all his own clothes.  He had offered to take the skirts/skorts in for me, free of charge.  I had said no, because I felt guilty, and also because I would have to bring them to him on the Sabbath, which is doing business, which I thought isn't allowed.  My father told me just now that I should take Sami up on his offer, while suggesting that I pay him whatever he would like to charge as long as it's less than, or the same as, what I would pay to have the work done at a "real" place.  (Not that Sami isn't real, I just don't have another word for what I mean.)  The cheapest "real" place I had found would have charged a total of 100 dollars (20 dollars an item for five items); I will pay Sami anything up to that, and I'm almost sure he won't ask for that much.

--I apparently have 13 warm weather skirts/skorts.  (For those who don't know--and Sami didn't, so maybe some of you don't either--a skort is a skirt with shorts inside.  Because I got mine from a religious Christian site, the shorts part is almost as long as the skirt part, and by today's standards, the skirts are long, though they are shorter than my normal skirts from that site.  I have two skorts, one light gray with dark gray shorts, and one teal with very slightly darker teal shorts, and they are very useful for modesty.)  Eight of them, including all my fancy Sabbath-and-holiday ones, still fit; five need taking in.  Here is a list of the ones that still fit, in the order that I wore them to test them out:

1. Short denim (bought at Covered Girl Clothing, about a half hour walk from my college, an Orthodox Jewish clothing store)
2. "Modesty trainer" (very tight in waistband and form, hence the name; one-size-fits-all from China)
3. long brown poplin (bought from myculottes.com, where I also got the skorts described above)
4. long fancy blue (very tight in waistband, but I adore the look, one-size-fits-all from China)
5. long pink print cotton (bought from myculottes.com; yes, I have a lot of their stuff, because it is pretty, modest yet easy to move in, and cheap [skirts are 20 dollars for cotton and poplin, 23 dollars for twill and denim; skorts are 25 dollars for cotton and poplin, probably 28 dollars or so for twill and denim])
6. White flouncy (I've had this one for years, so no idea where I got it, sorry)
7. Purple flowered fancy (Again, had it for years, so no idea where I got it; I wore this, with the matching orange-and-purple flowered blouse, for the first time for the Jewish New Year my freshman year of college [2011])
8. Long black flowered cotton (bought from myculottes.com)

--Here is a list of the five that need taking in.  This list is not in the order I wore them, but rather in the order that I need them adjusted, so that I can have them back.

1. Gray skort (bought from myculottes.com)
2. Teal skort (bought from myculottes.com)
3. Medium denim (really I should call this my long denim, since I no longer have three denims [my original long denim was from myculottes.com, and got lost either when I moved from college to my parents' home, or when I moved from there to NYC]; bought from Covered Girl Clothing, which has a wonderful selection of denims if you're willing to spend some money)
4. Coral pink stretchy (also from Covered Girl Clothing; cheaper than the denims; not sure what the material is, but I love the feel!)
5. Royal blue stretchy (exactly the same as the coral pink stretchy, but in blue)

--I have decided that if my parents are OK with it, I would like one new clothing item this Spring/Summer.  Originally I wanted to replace my long denim, but I still have two other denim skirts, and they're serving me well.  Rather, what I want is a denim or twill skort...something really rugged for clambering around in creeks and woods, because yes, at age 23, I still do that.

--Now, I am introducing "JUSTINE," aging out NEXT JUNE.  "Justine's" diagnoses are rather complex: congenital microcephaly, autism, and facial features of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, though no one knows that last one for sure.  Still, please, please, please, someone SEE her!