Unrelated, but a rant:
I fucking hate UPS. They deliver a package. I'm not home. I call the number and reschedule for Friday. They redeliver it on Thursday and call it the final attempt. (Yes, it was two of three.) So now I have to find a car to borrow and drive ten fucking miles because UPS FUCKING SUCKS.
Why are all the package delivery systems in the U.S. designed for people who have stay-at-home-wives?
Oh, and packing lightly involves picking one or two pairs of shoes that can work at multiple types of occasions, and building the wardrobe around that.
But you will still wear only half of it no matter what.
This conversation has invoked several seemingly nonsensical combinations of words:
clothes that... don't match each other outfits two pairs of shoes
UPS does, however, suck.
Why are all the package delivery systems in the U.S. designed for people who have stay-at-home-wives?
I was thinking precisely the same thing yesterday. They will return today
[ ] 8-10:30 [X] 10:30-2 [X] 2-5 [X] After 5
Phbbbt. Reader, please pretend that there are line breaks wherever they would be most funny.
Also, I was carrying my suitcase through the subway this morning when a guy offered to carry it up the stairs for me. Feeling very self-reliant today, I said, "no thanks, I've got it" and he nicely hung back to see if I really was able going to manage it up the stairs. I did so easily and he said "Damn, woman. Wouldn’t ever want to get in a fight with you."
Oh, and when I called to complain HA do they care and redeliver it today? NO! Does their e-mail complaint system work? NO!
BAHHHHHHH.
I once basically bitch-slapped via phone a UPS customer service rep into pulling a regular truck off its route and coming to get the boxes I was shipping. Basically, when I placed my order they said I should choose a time for pick up. But it turned out what that meant was that I should choose a time before which pickup should occur, so even though I picked 6:00, they came at two. I was leaving the country and my sublet, and needed the boxes out, so I told them they totally misrepresented the service and I demanded that they pull a driver off his route to come to my house and that the entire delivery be free. They got the driver to come to my house to split the difference and be rid of me.
Where's SCMTim been? Tim - check your email.
Having packages delivered to your office can take care of this problem. A decent chunk of the stuff I distribute at work is personal.
One of my coworkers got totally busted for having personal packages delivered to work. Letter in HR file and everything for misuse of company resources (the time of the mail delivery people). I'd be careful with that.
It wouldn't be a problem here, I don't think. Our 'mail delivery system' means 'put it on the table in the secretary's office.' EVEN SO.
One of my coworkers got totally busted for having personal packages delivered to work.
What idiocy!
I'm my roommates' stay-at-home grad student (they presume a little too damned much, mind). The UPS guy pronounces himself devastated that none of the packages are for me, and I'm considering ordering something online to make him happy.
I *am* a stay-at-home grad student who occasionally has things like meetings, office hours, and dinners WHICH IS WHY I SAID DON'T ATTEMPT TO DELIVER THE PACKAGE ON THURSDAY. And somehow, my roommate's packages always arrive when I am here, and mine arrive at weirdass hours.
Sorry.
Also, my personal favorite item to travel with is a black-and-white printed cotton wrap-around skirt (circa 1973, I think). It can be treated as shorts (for hiking or beaches or even sports), or it can be worn semi-formally with heels and a cute top. Very handy.
Otherwise, Cala's advice to start with shoes is excellent.
Or you can do what I do: pack four pairs of shoes, a random sampling of clothes, and forget that you've arranged to have a friend ship you a box of clothes she's getting rid of. But refuse to pack a coat, because it's "spring." Woot!
You go the Salvation Army and buy a full set of used clothes for the opposite sex and frame - 50 bucks. Get your luggage insured. When your luggage arrives, say that the bag looks exactly like your bag, but that the contents isn't yours.
Buy new clothes as you need them, and get the insurance company to reimburse you for them. Keep your receipts people.
I am off to Andalucia in a couple of weeks for a week's break.
My packing will consist of trying to find something in which I won't feel like I am about to die of heat asphyxiation while also not looking like a fat foreigner in inappropriate clothes ... and failing miserably.
Dude, if I go to the Sally Army and pay fifty bucks, those will be MY clothes.
Well, if you don't have the fifty bucks, you're probably not traveling. But if you are, and you don't have the fifty bucks: you might be able to get cloths from various non-profits. Worse case scenario: steal somebody's luggage at the airport.
How twisted is that? Stealing someone's luggage just so you can get it insured, so you can buy new clothes, so you don't have to think about what to pack. If that doesn't scream Western excess, I don't know what does.
May in Andalucia? It's all about shoes that won't give you blisters when your feet swell.
You aren't happening to hit Rota are you, MM? It's a tiny little beach town and the hallowed ground of Tia's birth.
Fuck to oboe, the first line of "Spanish Bombs" is "Spanish songs in Andalucia" (my emphasis). There's no reason to avoid those.
hey matt, it's also all about linen. nice loose linen pants, and you're set!
speaking of packing, i just packed most of my apartment into 2 suitcases, 1 box, and a few shopping bags...to hop in a taxi with. moving brings out pathological urges to winnow and get rid of everything i have...or mail it to the place i will be living in 6 months, not now...yarg.
after all, if i owned more than that, it would be Frivolous. maybe even Embarassing. god, i can't wait to own a house.
Feh. You're all talking to a woman who tried to pack for four days of wearing suits in carryon luggage. I did -- a little wrinkled, but I did -- and today they tell us that we should feel free to go ahead and change before the end-of-program dinner tomorrow. Who had space in a bag for casual clothes?
Who had space in a bag for casual clothes?
You're a rich lawyer--go buy some. You are going to want to wear something comfortable to fly home in anyway.
There probably is a firm admin person there who can FEDEX things. Put some of your suits in a document box and FEDEX them back to your office, so that your bag is lighter on the return trip.
We're not at a firm office -- the program is off-site at a conference center. We really don't have that kind of support.
And I'm a rich lawyer who's paying off debt -- I'm not going to buy clothes just to avoid wearing a suit on the plane.
Idealist, you're good.
11: Becks, I can't believe that. The content of our departmental out-box seems to be mostly netflix envelopes and credit card bills. everybody's amazon orders come here. because by the time we got down to the mailbox and back, valuable worktime would have been lost, I guess.
or in my case, invaluable unfogged lurk-time.
26 addressed to me? Pants are not an issue -- if I'm going away for a long time, I pack a pair of jeans besides the ones I'm wearing. Maybe khakis if I have to dress up.
mcmc, I'm halfway through "The Eastern Cottage." The end is in sight! That is, I may finish before I have to return the book to the university library!
You should be able to roll up a couple of suits and put them in a carryon with a change of shoes, etc. If you roll, and don't fold, you won't get creases. If the suit is made of quality wool, that is. Cheap suits will look terrible. Obvs. this is a no-go with linen.
Renew! Renew!
(From the library's return... carousel.)
Isn't it an excellent (that is, excellently readable) translation?
I haven't started the Tyler yet, but in reading his intro I get a sinking feeling there are going to be a lot of pronouns.
Isn't it an excellent (that is, excellently readable) translation?
Yes, but I still find it slow reading... as the timestamps will tell you. Lot of detail to pay attention to. (For instance, footnote to "And just look at me, if you will, picking up a princess without a by-your-leave": "Yugiri's remark is very unkind. See Chapters 37 and 39. Dude, it's chapter 49, I don't remember what happened back then.)
Refreshingly light on the pronouns, though.
34: It would be lame not to finish it by the end of the semester. So maybe I should read the second half of "The Eastern Cottage" now.
As is probably obvious, there should be a close-quote before "Dude."
On UPS suckage: I think that it's very much a regional thing. In the Northeast I have not had problems with them. In California they were terrible. Here's my absolute worst experience with UPS. I missed the first attempt, and they told me the hours that they would be attempting to deliver and the day they would come. I was living in one of those complexes where every apartment has an outdoor entrance--which are the only desirable kind in the Central Valley, but which don't seem liek real apartments to me. I stayed in my apartment the entire day that they were supposed to come. I didn't even go down to the office to get my mail. Finally, I decide to go out to say hello to my neighbor across the stoop in our outdoor entryway (Matt-it was just like an outdoor version of a House entryway). I look back at our door, and there was the note saying that they had made the second attempt. They hadn't even bothered to ring the DAMN door bell! I yelled at them, and they agreed to make a third attempt.
If you're going to get a lot of deliveries from the, you need to wheedle out of someone the direct number to their local distribution center, because the people who answer the phone when you call the 1-800 number don't know anything more than you could get off of the website yourself.
30 - Part of it has to do with the fact that we work out of the client's office. So we're not wasting our mailroom staff's time but the client's mailroom staff's time.
I think the other part of the reason is because my boss in particular has a bad history of people getting personal mail delivered to client site. She was on a project where some of the people on travel got their bills, magazines, etc. forwarded to the client's office since they were working in another state (like I do with the NY-DC thing) and only able to go home twice a month. One of the guys on her team got his freakin' Playboy subscription forwarded to the office and one of the client bosses intercepted it and threw it down on the conference table in the middle of a meeting while booming "Is this how your team has been keeping busy?! Is this the reason your project is running late?!"
So she's kind of touchy about mail issues.
32 - yes - i thought you were going to a hot climate?
linen is awesome for making you feel cooler in the heat, and it's often cut a little billowy so you look slimmer too. i would be careful about the jeans thing if andalucia really is hot in may, as opposed to just warm and springy...that could be miserable. but freely admit i know nothing about its climate.
linen gets wrinkly, but if you get it slightly damp and then hang it up nicely to dry it will have a cool all-over mildly wrinkly look - no excess or weird individual major wrinkles. that's probably more bother than matt wants though.
i heart linen.
I'm going nowhere except to Gradingville, in the next coupla weeks anyway.
Ah, you're thinking of McGrattan, who is going to Andalucia IIRC.
I heart linen, but I'm not a fan of the billowing look, because then I look like the Shortest Clown in the circus.
Oh and I deal with the jeans in a hot climate thing by wearing shorts. I deal with the shorts + non-sandals = jackass problem by looking like a jackass. But a relatively comfortable jackass.
Linen is teh awesomest, but you need to adjust to the idea that wrinkles (NOT creases) are not only okay, but represent certain virtues. Think Henry Fonda in 12 Angry Men.
re: linen trousers ...
My wife will be rocking the head to toe linen and floaty cotton thing as she can get away with it.
I just can't imagine wearing a pair of linen trousers, personally -- it's a look that slides into teh ghey or 'Our Man in Havana' -- not that there's anything wrong with either of 'em but those looks are not for me. It'll be shorts or jeans for me and a light cotton shirt with good sandals.
Actually, that's the look from my Unfogged/Crooked Timber Frappr photo - http://www.frappr.com/crookedtimber/photo/207235 - only less unhinged, obviously.
I think the weather is in the high-20s (centigrade) so pretty hot -- I get miserable over about 25 degrees.
There will ned to be long cool drinks in shady cafes during the hot hours of the day.
french and german men pull off linen trousers pretty well. but okay, i know what you mean.
the linen sundress, best of all possible worlds, (said pangloss)...
the linen sundress, best of all possible worlds
Obvs. depends who's in it. But, yes.
yes, i love how streets become silent and deserted at noon in towns with very hot climates...siesta with cool drinks sounds like the ideal plan.
[also, when i give out clothing advice to men i should probably admit that my past 3 or 4 boyfriends do/have all gotten attention from gay men when they're out &about and i'm not around...so if you are concerned about that my comments probably should be taken with a grain of salt!...]
I don't care about getting that kind of attention. I just look a bit odd -- it's not a look that works on me.
Slightly chunky scottish blokes don't really carry off the whole metrosexual thing too well!
I didn't think scottish people were even allowed to wear linen--I thought it was all wool all the time for you guys.