Eccentric Flower:199911/Looking for leotards

I have come home early to try to do some housecleaning, seeing as how we're going to have a guest staying with us this weekend. Have I actually done any cleaning yet today, though? No. I have been on the web, trying to buy a leotard.

The problem is that I want a specific type of leotard. Very specific. I want a Danskin #9090 leotard, size large, all-nylon, scoop neck, short sleeves.

I have found one site that has them, and they have them only in black (not surprising). I already have a black one. Even so, I may go back to them and order a few - the price is good - but what I really want is an actual Danskin site, not some vendor reselling Danskin merchandise. Unfortunately Danskin apparently hasn't discovered the joys of direct-to-customer web sales. Bah.

I figured the active wear sites were a good bet, but leotards are apparently not considered "active wear." To get the basic, no-frills leotard, you have to go to the places that specialize in dancewear - and they tend to have only a few items, or won't let you order online; they're mostly web fronts to get you to visit the store (which is usually a little one-woman shop somewhere). It's at times like these I forget that I should be supporting small merchants and am heard to mutter, "Give me someplace big enough to actually be able to keep a decent selection of stock on hand!"

One site, Active Body, looked like a good prospect. Wide line of merchandise, online ordering, et cetera. Unfortunately they have just about everything Danskin makes except the #9090 leotard. Bah. I don't want straps, I want short sleeves. Long sleeves get in the way; straps cut my shoulders. And I don't want the empire neck. I want the scoop neck. I have a very specific objective here; I have found what I like and I want more of it.

You may wonder what I'm doing looking for leotards at all, given that I am incapable of even tossing my body around in a rhythmic fashion, let alone doing something like ballet.

Well, it started at Hallowe'en. As I related, I went into the Danskin store and bought two leotards as possible underpinnings for my costume. The silvery leotard with the straps eventually won, but the basic black leotard with the short sleeves has the longevity.

You see, my basic outfit is a T-shirt and jeans with a looser shirt over that. I have discovered that if I wear the leotard underneath instead of a T-shirt, it's more comfortable and I like the cut of the neck better. If I button a few buttons of the overshirt, as I generally do, no one can see what's underneath - except for the neck.

Men's T-shirts and other casual pull-over shirts are never cut with a scoop neck. Just buy women's shirts, then? Well, it's harder to get a woman's knit shirt to fit me than a leotard. Just trust me on this.

You may also be asking why I don't just go back to the Danskin store. I did. Not a single large. In fact, I think there were only a handful of mediums. I'm not sure if this is because the large leotards are the only ones which fit humans and are therefore all taken, or because the store, like so many stores, seems to have a yen to carry clothes which only fit ten-year-olds.

What I really need to do is go to the Danskin outlet store, but that requires a drive up to Maine, and that's certainly not going to happen this weekend, not with houseguest and Thanksgiving and all that.

Oh, well. It'll keep, I suppose.

While looking for leotards, I noticed a lot of vintage clothing stores have web sites. Now, having a web presence isn't so striking - some of the names were even stores I've been to, like The Wasteland - but when I see one that actually lets you buy online, I have to wonder. Vintage stores don't generally have a lot of any given item; one or two at most. How can they sell online? Do they just change the site an awful lot? ("Ooops, we sold the polka-dot dress, go take it off the site!") Or do they only offer things on the site which they have a generous quantity of?

I also found this little quiz, which amused me. (I scored 1 "professional" answer, 3 "funky"s, and 1 "casual.")

I was going to write a little about movies and music, but I haven't had anything to eat yet today and I've still got a lot of housecleaning to do. I'm terrorized enough by Thanksgiving as it is (other people began adding guests without my consent, and so I am going to a dinner with way too many people present for my comfort) without adding procrastination to the mix.

Maybe I'll write again later.