Month: January 2007

I went shopping for baby clothes for the first time ever tonight. I didn’t have a lot of time to be creative, so it was straight to Baby Gap. If I say so myself, I’ve been blessed with a good and classic sartorial taste, so it was in this belief that finding clothes for a three month old baby would be both easy and fun.

Upon entering the store, I realized I was the only male in there. I was surrounded by female sales staff and mommies of varying ages. I was also amazed by the myriad of choices that newborns and toddlers have in clothing. There was so much to choose from!

A sales person must have sensed my wonderment because she asked me I needed help, at which point I confessed it was my first time shopping for baby clothes. She explained the sizing structure to me, which basically separated newborns, 6 to 12 months, and so on until you got to toddlers. Actually with the inclusion of Gap Kids to normal Gap, you could be clothed by Gap Inc. for the rest of your life.

I must have gone over every piece of newborn and 6 to 12 month clothing in the store. Everything seemed so cute and tiny. There was a jean jacket like mine, except it was tiny. There were a pair of jeans like mine except it was tiny. There was a dress like mine, except…

All of the clothing seemed cute but like all clothes, some choices are better than others. I knew this, but looking at it all, I couldn’t discern what looked better on the target baby. My worst fear was buying some items in a clueless manner and then having the Mom refuse to clothe her daughter in them.

I won’t say what I bought in the end, just in case the father reads this but I think they’ll like it. I’m especially proud of one item I got. I think it’ll look really sharp on her. She’ll have to grow into it but that’s ok.

And I learned something today.

As most of you know, I’ve been working in a high-rise office building for about five months now. This is the first time I’ve worked in such a location.

After riding the office elevators day in and day out I’ve developed a new pet peeve. People who take the elevators for two floors or less really bug me. Come on people, the stairs are clearly marked on every damn floor of the building. Would it kill you to walk up a single flight of stairs?

The worst offenders are the ones who get in on the ground floor and then press the “2” button. What the hell is their problem? Are they so inconvenienced that a single flight of stairs would ruin their day?

Don’t even get me started on the people use the elevator to go down a single floor. These lazy office bums won’t even let gravity assist them down the stairs. It’s gotten to the point where I start to roll my eyes at these 1fers or 2fers. I’m afraid one day I’ll actually make a comment aloud to some of these people.

So what’s it to me? Let’s say I get on at the bottom and I’m going up to 12. Everytime one of these 1fers get on my damn elevator, that’s like 10 seconds for them to get on and then another 10 seconds for them to get off. If I get just three of these up to 12, I’m over a minute beyond my normal travel time.

Now, don’t think I paint everyone with the same broad brush. I’d like to think I have perspective on issues. Very often I see people get on the elevator with stacks of documents or boxes in theirs arms and if they do need to go up or down one floor, sure that’s very reasonable. Sometimes people have mail carts or trolleys, so yeah, the elevator is the only way to go. One lady even got on cradling several large books in her arms and she actually apologized for going up one floor. No apology was needed of course but I appreciated the sentiment. I only wish the corporate suits with nothing in their hands would be more like-minded.

And that’s what grinds my gears today.

I don’t have a lot of time to post tonight, so instead, here’s a picture of some guy dressed up in an Optimus Prime costume next to a cute girl. I wish I knew what the whole story is behind that picture.