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Update from today:
- The phrase "Robbins 8th and Walnut" has been stuck in my brain since my childhood. It's a diamond jewelry store that advertises on the radio all the time and has since forever. They do TV spots, too, featuring one of the jewelers/owners who wears a diamond in his beard. All this time, though, it never really occurred to me that "Robbins 8th and Walnut" denoted an actual location. Today, however, I drove down 8th Street, which has jewelry stores up one side and down the other between Chestnut and Walnut, culminating in the Robbins store on the corner of (you guessed it) 8th and Walnut. Wow, revelation.
- Today I tried on a corset. No, a serious corset. A corset made according to old Victorian patterns, and actually boned and stuff. A corset that costs several hundred dollars. I'm actually not quite sure how I feel about it. I couldn't breathe kind of at all, but I knew that. It was also hard to tell how it would really look on the top because I had to try it on over my shirt. I don't think I've had a 24 inch waist since puberty, though. The girl who laced me into it really knew what she was doing. I don't know, for some reason the whole experience kind of made me feel like crying, and I don't know why. Because here's this lovely thing and I so totally and completely should not be buying it? Maybe a little, but that wasn't entirely it. Because I couldn't breathe and was feeling lightheaded? Partly. Because a corset is a thing that both celebrates my womanly body and also shapes and restricts it to an uncomfortable ideal form? Because I was supposed to feel beautiful?
- I spent a small chunk of the afternoon playing Scrabble with the old Muslim guy who owns the Alhambra Cafe on 3rd right off of South Street. He was persuasive. We are now friends on Facebook and are playing Scrabulous there. If you want to get your ass kicked, go friend him and play a game.
- The phrase "Robbins 8th and Walnut" has been stuck in my brain since my childhood. It's a diamond jewelry store that advertises on the radio all the time and has since forever. They do TV spots, too, featuring one of the jewelers/owners who wears a diamond in his beard. All this time, though, it never really occurred to me that "Robbins 8th and Walnut" denoted an actual location. Today, however, I drove down 8th Street, which has jewelry stores up one side and down the other between Chestnut and Walnut, culminating in the Robbins store on the corner of (you guessed it) 8th and Walnut. Wow, revelation.
- Today I tried on a corset. No, a serious corset. A corset made according to old Victorian patterns, and actually boned and stuff. A corset that costs several hundred dollars. I'm actually not quite sure how I feel about it. I couldn't breathe kind of at all, but I knew that. It was also hard to tell how it would really look on the top because I had to try it on over my shirt. I don't think I've had a 24 inch waist since puberty, though. The girl who laced me into it really knew what she was doing. I don't know, for some reason the whole experience kind of made me feel like crying, and I don't know why. Because here's this lovely thing and I so totally and completely should not be buying it? Maybe a little, but that wasn't entirely it. Because I couldn't breathe and was feeling lightheaded? Partly. Because a corset is a thing that both celebrates my womanly body and also shapes and restricts it to an uncomfortable ideal form? Because I was supposed to feel beautiful?
- I spent a small chunk of the afternoon playing Scrabble with the old Muslim guy who owns the Alhambra Cafe on 3rd right off of South Street. He was persuasive. We are now friends on Facebook and are playing Scrabulous there. If you want to get your ass kicked, go friend him and play a game.
