Vacation socks....
Wednesday, June 10, 2009 at 10:56AM The kids, all of them, woke us at 5:38 this morning. They were dressed and ready to leave for vacation. To say they were excited would be a gross understatement. Buckley informed us that he made toasted bagels for everyone. We decided we better get up and join them.
Getting my husband ready for vacation starts with the outfit he selects to begin the journey. His normal, every day attire is always blue jeans, cowboy boots with a cowboy hat. This is pretty much his standard uniform for life. I’ve tried, over the years, to spiff him up a little and offer different clothing options. I used to lay out his clothes before he’d get dressed for church and he’d look at them and ask, “Where are the man clothes?” To him, any deviation from his "standard uniform" constitutes, what he calls, "girl clothes".
The day we leave for our annual vacation is one of the few days of the year that he will abandon his standard uniform for vacation clothes. I wish that I could post a picture of Vacation Dad, so you could get the actual visual. Today, when getting dressed, he asked where he could find his favorite shorts. He probably only owns three pair, and I’ve packed two, so there’s one pair left. I know this last pair well, which is why they're not packed. I admit that I first pretend not to know where they are and suggest he just wear jeans for the long drive. “I want my vacation shorts,” he demands. I open a few drawers and look surprised when I find them. I’m not even sure that they’re clean. He doesn’t care. These blue jean shorts, his "favorites", are about 15 years old, ratty and frayed. He has a habit, fueled by fear, that if he puts them into the wash I might throw them away. I've explained that's really where they belong. So, many times, he wears them and just puts them back in his drawer for next time. He claims they’re not dirty.
This morning, Vacation Dad grabs a shirt and his favorite vacation shorts. His vacation legs, which are the color of notebook paper, are walking around looking for vacation shoes. This is a giant leap from cowboy boots. He chooses a nice pair of dark brown, leather Sketchers. They look really nice with long pants, but I’ve not seen them paired with shorts. If anyone can pull this off, my husband can. Before he can put them on, he grabs his socks. The only socks my husband owns are boot socks, ones that go up over his kneecap. After getting his socks and shoes on, I tell him he needs to at least scrunch them down around the ankles. This takes a while - there's a lot of sock to scrunch.
I should stop a minute and say that my husband is a great sport about things. He does get a little sensitive about his attire when he's out of his comfort zone, so I am careful as I help him with his vacation outfit. I'm extremely grateful that he’s not in cowboy boots and blue jeans to go to the beach. He's done that before. There's nothing that turns heads like a cowboy at the beach. So, I tell him that he looks great. With this, he’s happy and grabs a baseball cap on his way out. As he walks outside, he runs into one of his friends, who immediately asks, "What's up with the socks?"
When we get home from vacation, I'm going to buy him some ankle socks. We'll just call them vacation socks.
Reader Comments (2)
Better yet, buy the ankle socks while you are on vacation. I prefer UnderArmour, black for me. If they are purchased on vacation then they must surely be the vacation socks. Maybe Wade will wear them to softball just to feel like he is on vacation. Hope you are having a great time.
Louie
Thanks, Louie, I like your advice. I'm thinking I'll go with the black vacation socks. We are having a great time at the beach and the pool. I'm cold. There were lots of sunbathers laying out around the pool today pointing at me - I had a jacket on. 64 degrees is not the pool weather I'm used to. We're loving the relaxing downtime.
Good luck at the game(s) - thanks for all you do!