Saturday, October 16, 2010

Gratitude And Socks

You guys, let me be honest for a minute: the past month has been tough.

I gave up my apartment in San Antonio to go to China, and just before leaving I moved all my stuff to my mom’s. So that’s where I am while I job search, at my mom’s. This is not a bad thing at all; I’m closer to my brother and sister and extended family, and my mom is easy to live with. BUT, it’s certainly not where I want or expected to be. I’ve had to change my attitude the past week or so; I’m choosing to be grateful for gifts and opportunities I have in my life right now, rather than focus on what (I think) I lack. One of the great things is that my mom lives in a colder climate than San Antonio, so I get to indulge my love of socks.

I LOVE socks—cute and versatile and less expensive than buying shoes and purses. In San Antonio I hardly ever got to wear socks because it’s just too warm most of the year; I had an extensive collection of chanclas, but hardly any socks.

In Chongqing, I wore tall socks all winter long because it was so bitingly wet and cold and I didn’t have indoor heat. My sister sent me some great thigh-high gray socks, and I had a nice collection of argyle over-the-knee socks. It was popular in Chongqing to wear thick ‘skin colored’ (meaning, Han skin coloring) footless tights with socks over the top; I did this look with skirts and chunky heels mostly:

argyles

I wore through most of my socks and threw them away when I was packing to come back. Now, with winter approaching, I get to replace them!

Some of my favorite socks I get at REI; Smartwool socks are very warm and long-lasting—these were the only socks I took with me to China that made it back with me. I highly recommend them, and they come in both cute and functional. This pair is now on my wish list:

reiarabicasocks

You can see some more here.

The Joy of Socks and Amazon also carry great over-the-knee and knee-high socks. Target, too, but I couldn’t find any online today.

Happy socking!

7 comments:

  1. Other then my dress socks, Smart Wool ones are the only ones I've worn for the last decade.

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  2. Drats! I can't wear wool!
    I dated a guy who always wore wildly mismatched socks. A black and white like your pirate strip on one foot, STOP red on the other. I thought it was totally funky and cool. Until I gave him a pair of carefully coordinated mismatched socks and he got mad at me that I wouldn't give him the other two. Not a fun guy after all.

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  3. You are so darn cute. Really. :)
    I have these orange and purple striped socks that I LOVE... they are terribly goofy looking, but SO soft and so comfortable... so yes, I totally "get" your love of socks.

    It's finally getting chilly here... putting flannel sheets on the beds this weekend. LOVE IT! :)

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  4. I love your love for socks!!!
    They are so cute.
    I do hope you find some work soon...and you enjoy whatever you do!!!

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  5. I am a Smartwool junkie! How come we never knew this about each other?

    After all this time...another reason I heart our friendship. No regrets, China brought us together!

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  6. Ive got compliments on my socks more than a few times. Funny I went sock shopping at REI for Grand Canyon. You cant wear cotton socks when hiking. Cool sock collection.

    Hope you can find a good situation soon.

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  7. Okay now i want some super long socks!~ I live n Canada, I'm sure I could pull it off:)
    Good luck in the job hunt!

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