a minor victory, of sorts

[kareina]

Today I managed to start doing uni work promptly after finishing breakfast, accomplished several hours, then ran some errands in town, yet managed to return to doing uni work fairly promptly after returning home. This is a very pleasing achievement for me--those of you who actually follow the progress report part of my journal will have noticed a reoccurring theme wherin heading down the hill, for whatever reason, tends to be followed by several hours in which I accomplish no uni work at all. It was rather nice to *not* come home and be a slug after the errands. Particularly as the errands involved the thing I'd most like to avoid doing: shopping. I, like both of my parents before me, am not a shopper. I prefer to look at the positive side of things, but it is difficult to think positively of the experiance when, as so often happens, I have a clear idea of what it is I want/need, and it can't be found at any store. Today's goal was bra shopping. The ones I've got are old enough they wouldn't be providing proper support any more even if I hadn't lost weight recently. Sounds like a simple enough task, doesn't it? However, I insist upon natural fabrics, every time. I know that it has been possible to buy bras made mostly of cotton, with a bit of elastic used in the waist band, because that is what I'm wearing. The first store I went to did have *one* brand of bra which is mostly cotton (quite possibly the same as what I'm wearing--no way to tell, the tag has long since worn off on mine, but it looks more or less the same). However, the only ones they had in stock are for women with rib cages considerably larger than mine, and breasts much larger than mine. I know, because I tried on the smallest one available. Off I went to the next store. The name of the second store is "Cotton on Body". Sounds promising, right? Wrong! *Every* bra in the store is not only made out of synthetic fibre, it is also padded with a synthetic foam padding such that they stand up all by themselves. Why would anyone want a bra that makes them look bigger? I've been wanting less breast since the day they started growing in, and still wish there were less. Lots less. Like less enough that I didn't need a bra at all, but I digress. Off to the next store. Again, all synthetic, speak to the lady working there, she says that they are all synthetic, that no one makes cotton bras these days, but she also suggested two other stores to try. Still nothing natural in either of those, and again, only the severely padded varieties available. Even if I *wanted* padded bras, I'd want the padding to be made of natural fibres, so that I wasn't trapped in a non-breathable sweat-making plastic cocoon. Then I passed an "Eco Store". Not really expecting anything, I went in. They *do* carry a line of 100% organic cotton underwear. However, they were down to only three bras left, in a size "large". Trying them on confirmed my guess that I'm a "small" according to that manufacturer. Total time elapsed from leaving home to getting home again: two hours. Total number of bras I'd wear found: zero. And people wonder why I'm not a shopper.

Today's work involving learning a new Excel function (standard deviations), and then playing with the various spreadsheets I've got wherin it can be applied. I also did a hint of writing, only 280 new words and 1 new figure.