Conspicuous consumption and brand whoring

[ophy]

Wow, I think it says something about our general pandemic depression that nobody has posted in here in three years.

(I do still loooove my Lume deodorant, though!)

I hate my clothes. I hate every single piece of clothing in my closet except for one pair of plaid pajama pants which I love. I think it's time to refresh my wardrobe even if that just means nicer comfy thinks to lounge around in and so mr.o is gifting me a subscription to one of those stylist box services as a birthday prezzie.

Do any of y'all use one? I was thinking Stitchfix, but then I spotted one for hobbits like me called Short Story Box, but I dunno. I have a hard time committing to filling out the insanely long profile questions only to have them eventually send me a bunch of things I can't possibly wear unless I also wear a bra and heels (which I will nevah do!). I'm just no good at this stuff.

[LaaLaa]

”Short Story Box”! Hah! I have a fellow shorty friend who looooves Stitch Fix. But there are loungewear subscriptions out there too!

I‘ve reached my final pandemic WFH form and now shop only for my kids’ clothes. Seriously considering selling my business-lady wear on Poshmark, because I’m not wearing pencil skirts to eat takeout tacos in the living room with the Mr.

[ophy]

I'm thinking about shipping all my stuff out to Thredup, but I don't know that anybody would actually want any of it. When I gained the weight, my style went bonkers because I could not mentally adjust to being a size 12/14 instead of a size 2/4 anymore, so now my whole thing just screams "She Gave Up". I mostly wear yoga pants that don't fit right and baggy tshirts from Old Navy that I got for free because of points on mr.o's credit card. I'm clueless on how to dress myself anymore.

I took the plunge on Short Story Box but I do not have high hopes for it at all. After I listed out all the things I did NOT want for my stylist, I was like . . . this person is going to HATE me. I mean, my number one thing is that I do not want to deal with buttons or zippers anymore because life is too short to deal with buttons and zippers anymore and I also don't want anything sleeveless or strappy because then I would have to shave and I don't want anything sheer or see thru because I don't wear a bra and I will only wear sandals or sneakers and I can't wear black because I have a white dog and I can just picture the stylist being all . . .

[isadora]

I saw someone posted in this thread and I got SO excited because nobody brags about their purchases anymore!

I am also in the SHE GAVE UP fashion camp right now. I'm wearing blue exercise/yoga pants (I rarely exercise) and a thin black sweater that is also meant for people who actually sweat. My hair is washed but uncombed. And I have thick socks on because it's always cold in my family room. I have 4 things I can wear when I go to the office and that is on the rotation of "OUTSIDE" clothes. It's soooo sad. I hate it.

I hate everything about pandemic life, honestly. For as many years as I've spent sitting in front of my computer and talking to my faceless friends, I LOVE being in the world, seeing new places, etc. I hate being home all the time. I hate winter. I hate having nothing to look forward to because everything keeps getting canceled bc of COVID!

*ahem*

So, speaking of purchases! We remodeled our kitchen and it's 90% done and that was fun! I got two appliances I'm particularly fond of (and I splurged in the sense that I can't cook and I don't like to and so why wouldn't I just buy the cheapest and be done with it? IDK).

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/lg-6-9-...?skuId=6192303
I'm very consumed with the interiors of the ovens:
https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/...92303cv14d.jpg

I also got the bougiest refrigerator!
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/lg-23-5...?skuId=6395328
WITH CRAFT ICE! It has three different kinds of ice. It's ridiculous.

I will say that I grew up poor and have always had middle class/ok apartment appliances, at best! This has been a massive, confusing upgrade for me. I've never had water come out of a refrigerator door before. That sounds so insane, but it's true (the refrigerator I bought before didn't have that because I read it just breaks and will lead to repair costs, which I am CERTAIN is true).

The other thing I've never had before is the bougie stove with raised grates. It's VERY annoying to clean compared to simply wiping off a regular ceramic stove top.

In other news, I'm trying to care about cooking and still don't. But I do love cocktail ice!

[ophy]

I'm jealous of that refrigerator in particular! Ours broke down last summer during a really bad supply-chain moment and we only had like three stainless refrigerators to choose from so I didn't get one I really wanted and I'm still bittah about it!


We did not redo our whole kitchen like y'all, but my xmas present was new countertops. I went with a gray and white dolomite and I LOVE THEM SO MUCH. I didn't even know dolomite was a thing, but I recommend them if anyone is looking. Harder than marble, but not quite as hard as granite. So far, zero complaints.

https://innovativestonesrq.com/blog/...right-for-you/



Ours are a bit whiter than this:








Our actual biggest pandemic purchase was a swim spa for the back yard (we decided we couldn't splurge on a real pool) and I am also very much in lurve with it as well. It's not a pool, but it's also not a hot tub, it's like a combo thing. We keep it at 98 degrees and we can swim year round and have jets on if we want to and it's just super nice to have. I had promised my kids a real pool when we moved though . . . personally I think the spa is better, but I'm not sure that the kids do. It's not really a 'have-your-friends-over-for-a-party' kind of thing. More of a grown up thing, but still!

[vanessa]

I will say that I grew up poor and have always had middle class/ok apartment appliances, at best! This has been a massive, confusing upgrade for me.

I feel that all the time when I buy bougie appliances (which I do). I still can’t believe I had a Toto toilet in my old condo. So very very bougie. But this is why you work! So just enjoy!

Our actual biggest pandemic purchase was a swim spa for the back yard (we decided we couldn't splurge on a real pool) and I am also very much in lurve with it as well. It's not a pool, but it's also not a hot tub, it's like a combo thing.

I am very intrigued by this. When I was in California every house we went to had a pool and it filled me with envy, but a pool in Pittsburgh is a vastly different proposition.

[isadora]

I didn't mention counters because they have been a stressor! We got this med-dark gray marbled caesarstone. It cost almost as much as the cabinets. Anyway, they told us it would be backordered for weeks/months and did we want another color (no, thank you, as I picked out everything to coordinate how I wanted it) but then called us back in a week and said they "found" some (this was a week before we were to have a bunch of folks over for a holiday gathering, so we were thrilled we'd have actual counters). So they brought the counters, but they were a mess. You could see huge buff marks on the tops, the sides were seemingly unfinished, the seam was in a weird place and there were chips all over it, every panel!

So the installer was very sympathetic and immediately understood he'd been asked to install something that wasn't up to snuff. They leave the bad counters as a temporary measure, but don't formally install them. that was the week after Thanksgiving. We have it in email/writing that they understand the counters sucked, it's their fault. We called him this week and now they've completely changed their story. They want to "formally" install the counters and THEN have us filed a complaint with the rep we purchased them from. And we were like: HELL NO. So now it's a big fight and annoying and I can't do backsplashes or anything else until we finally resolve this dumb issue.

[ophy]

Holy Beek, is . . . that is nightmarish! I guess we got super lucky, then. We went to a stone place, pointed at the slab we liked, some dude came out to do laser measurements, and it was installed a week later. Mr.o has to caulk the back himself*, because he didn't like the color of caulk they had, but otherwise it was easy**.



* which means it will probably stay uncaulked until the cows come marching home.


** We started feeling sick just a couple of days after the guys came to do the install . . . they were in our house 4 hours and none of them were wearing masks so . . .




I am so sorry it didn't go as easy for y'all!

I am very intrigued by this. When I was in California every house we went to had a pool and it filled me with envy, but a pool in Pittsburgh is a vastly different proposition.

So if we had a regular pool here, we could swim about 4.5 months out of the year. If we had a heated pool, we might be able to swim 6 or so months of the year. But we've had our swim spa now for almost18 months and there's not been a single month yet that we couldn't use it. I mean, sometimes you have to kinda dash into the house freezing after you get out, but it's really nice when you are actually in the water no matter how cold the air is. It is January, and I literally just went swimming in it half an hour ago.

If anybody is actually interested, I did a ton of research (duh) before buying and we ended up with a PDC Synergy FX19:


https://www.pdcspas.com/swim-spas/synergy-series/fx19


Looks kinda like this one, only ours is longer I think:






Ours is about 4 ft deep or so, which is perfect for me.



Some other tips if anyone is thinking about getting one of these . . . (tldr: we were Not Prepared for the realities of the Ginormous Not Hottub)


1) It takes awhiiiiile to actually get it and have it installed. Someone has to come and level off a spot for it and then pour a concrete pad the right size, then you order it and it takes months and months to come to the local distributor and then when they finally bring it, they have to use a big ass crane to lift it over your house and down onto the concrete pad. An ordinary hot tub would be helluva lot easier. Once it is set up, you fill it with a regular garden hose but it takes like a whole day to fill and another whole day to warm up.

2) you have to use test strips to test it regularly and you have to add chlorine, PH balancer and shock to it occasionally. The chlorine evaporates pretty quick, so you have to chlorine-it every couple of days. So you'll need a place to store all the chemicals and whatnot. We didn't realize how much space we would need, so we had to build a cabinet in our screened in porch.

3) you gotta know where you can drain it eventually, because it needs to be fully drained once or twice a year. We didn't think through that issue and uh . . . yeah, it was tricky. Helps if you have a manhole into a sewer right by your house you can feed the hose into, but we do not. We have a strict HOA and didn't want to get any calls so we ended up waiting until a torrential downpour and then we let the hose drain down our driveway into the regular street drainage while it was raining and so nobody noticed the extra water. But it didn't rain long enough, so for the next three days we just kept moving the hose around the yard, letting it water the grass and plants. Nothing died, so I guess that was fine? We tested to make sure all the chlorine was gone from the water, obvs, before we started draining it.

4) Lids are a pain in the ass. The spa has to be kept covered when not in use, otherwise all the heat goes bye bye. The top it comes with is terrible . . . really heavy and bulky and it gets waterlogged and mildewey over time. The only person in the house who could physically open the spa was mr.o, and as it became more and more waterlogged even he was struggling to do it. And it meant that we could only use it when he was home, which was not ideal at all. We ended up getting an End2End roll-up cover a couple of weeks ago and that made a huuuuge difference. I'm too short to roll it all the way open by myself, but I can get it open half way, and that's good enough for me to exercise in and use the hot tub jets if I want to. If I could do it all over again I would have gotten the End2End cover right away . . . but it's hella expensive so I kept putting it off. Definitely worth it, though.



For realz, if any of y'all are thinking about it, I have loads more to say, just let me know. They cost twice what a hot tub costs and half of what an inground pool costs, so they could be that just right option for people who have the space/inclination to do it. And I swim in it at least four times a week so!

[isadora]

It sounds too big and like too much work, but I'm glad it's what you want. I would enjoy a pool that I didn't have to maintain at all. But I live in suburban Chicago and the weather and real estate plot sizes in general are not conducive to such outdoor luxuries.

[LaaLaa]

Really considering making a hot tub our next purchase now!

is, wait, they want you to install this countertop just to prove it sucks and then rip it out again?! Word on the fancy appliances, though. I remember being very impressed by my friends with fridges that made ice, like, whoa, this bitch is rich! I WANT to redo our kitchen, but I have zero energy to sand and paint our hella oak cabinets, and I don’t want to let people into our house. I don’t even have the energy to paint a wall, tbh. I painted a 12x12 swatch across from our peninsula in April 2020 and it stares at me every day.

Guys, I miss wearing “outfits” so much. WFH is fabulous but also kinda killed a part of me! Looking at fashion IGs is like envy + I wish I could dress up for a brunch without worrying about infecting my whole family.

So I‘ve been buying cute baby clothes from a company whose business model and subculture FASCINATE me. It’s not Beanie Babies level bonkers or LulaRoe pyramid scheming or anything, but the brand drops a super small collection of items every single week, things sell out in literal seconds, and then baby blankets get flipped for HUNDREDS of dollars. And then the whole “drop” aspect is addicting because it’s like a game/gambling/eBay bidding, so people end up panic buying too much and the company always makes bank, even on things that they know are pretty ugly. I know at the beginning of the pandemic “scoring” something become a weird hobby for me because it was a really great distraction from, you know, potential death.

In short, yes, OMB, please tell me all your purchases.

[isadora]

I miss outfits and I'm not even a clothes person!

I really don't like working from home 24/7. I did it years ago when I was self-employed and it was incredible for awhile but also very isolating for me. I loved my pre-pandemic work-life balance -- office 3 days a week, home 2 days a week. Mr. Is at work 5 days a Week (LOL) and so I had a nice mix of social, personal space and downtime. I had a cleaning lady (she moved during the pandemic) so I didn't have the drudgery of cleaning up after my husband whose mom and grandma waited on him hand and foot so it doesn't even OCCUR to him to pick up after himself. So this pandemic has been me harping at him constantly because he's basically a one-man disaster area of chaos, isolation and doomscrolling. No travel, novelty or adventure of any kind. And cleaning my own toilets. I reallllly hate it.

That said, I'm DONE after this omicron mess fades back a bit (pretty much everyone we know has gotten it or been exposed and didn't get it in the last 2 months, so we figured we'd lay low for from mid-December to end of January and see who was left standing. Heh. Nearly every plan we've made with people this winter has been canceled due to someone getting COVID. It's been NUTS.

So I started plotting spring/summer plans (I'm bad at planning trips!) but I scheduled us to go to Minneapolis for Memorial weekend to go to Paisley Park! Staying at a cute hotel, they have a good restaurant scene so I'm planning to eat at some fun places and in general it seemed like a nice low-key way to rejoin the world. Heh.

[IssieCol]

ophy, does your spa take one of those floating dispensers that pools do? My parents have one that just floats in the pool all day and releases chlorine by itself. And would a pool maintenance company do the drainage for you?

Guys, I miss wearing “outfits” so much.

Pre-Covid, I LOVED clothes, but I haven't missed wearing outfits yet. My work clothes are usually scrubs, but every once in awhile I'll wear real pants and half way through the day, I'll wish I was back in scrubs. I still like shopping online, but I mostly buy athleisure now and should probs stop since I definitely have enough. And I don't even remember the last time I wore skinny jeans. Apparently, they're not trendy anymore anyway so I guess that's good?

We've taken a couple of trips since 2020 but they've all been hiking/outdoorsy type of vacations where we don't interact much with people outside of our family and we don't do indoor restaurants either. The last one we took was pre-Delta though so hopefully, it'll be safe to go somewhere this summer.
.

[vanessa]

I wear outfits and have throughout the pandemic. I decided when we went home for work that I needed to dress like it was a workday every day for my own mental state. Sure, many days nobody saw my cute sweater dress and tights thing here in my condo, but I don’t care.

Ever since I got my second vaccine shot, I have been going places and doing things. I am a bit more careful now in dining out, but I don’t have any immunocompromised family or small children, so I am willing to take on a slight amount of risk. I even flew on airplanes to CA and have a trip in March to Las Vegas, though mostly it’s been long weekend roadtrips. I am not being fatalistic “everyone is going to get it anyway” yet, but I have decided I need to do things.

[ophy]

ophy, does your spa take one of those floating dispensers that pools do? My parents have one that just floats in the pool all day and releases chlorine by itself. And would a pool maintenance company do the drainage for you?

I think the spa is too small for one of those dispensers, but it's something I should consider. We would have to fish it out every time we used the spa, though, because we'd be bumping into it all the time otherwise. But it might be worth it.


I'd be on board with paying somebody to siphon it off into a tank or whatever if they could do it in a few hours with no muss or fuss, but I doubt I could get mr.o to hire a maintenance company, tbh, since he now knows he can just hook up a hose and let it drain into the yard. I don't think he minds that it takes furrrrehver to do it.

but I don’t have any immunocompromised family or small children, so I am willing to take on a slight amount of risk.

I totally hear that. We have to be careful because of mr.o's elderly parents and 100 yr old grandmother. Also, at this point given my asthma and my spinny spinny boat thing, I think I'm probably pretty much at risk, maybe? I'm still dealing with the effects of that damn mono from 2020, dunno what an unfettered case of the 'rona would add to that.

We'd like to go see my folks in the spring because we haven't seen them since 2019 (the oboy has grown almost 6 inches since they saw him last!) but I'm still in wait and see mode. Both of my parents are considered immunocompromised and have made it this far without catching covid at all, so it would be suck if we were the ones who brought it right to them.

[dada_teacher]

Well, I had to continue working this year so I had to buy clothes. Last year was the yoga pants year for me, but since September schools are open so I had to go to work every day and for a while (before Omicron and when the weather was mild) we did pretty much everything we would normally do except travelling abroad, getting in planes etc. So, I actually did the opposite from you guys. After a year of not buying pretty much anything, I had to buy outfits for work. What I realised though, is that local boutiques really struggle, and even though I tried buying a lot of stuff from them, they just did not have a lot of things, especially in my size. It's a vicious circle, Since a lot of people buy on line now, they don't bring a variety of stuff, especially in small cities like mine, and since people don't find what they want they end up buying on line and so on. I do believe the pandemic will have long term consequences in a lot of ways we behave even after (or if) we get out of it.