Y'all remember that way back in early October, I went shopping with Mr-Mama. As you know, I am not much of a shopper, and I keep my wardrobe fairly limited as a philosophical preference. This was not a shopping trip for a bored rich woman to while away a morning: I needed those clothes to wear to work. Mr-Mama offered to hem or shorten sleeves on several items, most notably a brown pantsuit, a black skirt-suit, and a black dress. It is more than 2 months later, and I have not seen a scrap of my new clothes.
I tried to tactfully mention at the Mr-Family brunch that I knew she was awfully busy during the holidays, but it would be really great if I had my new things to wear, especially that brown suit ... what with the very cold weather lately, and a lot of my old things not fitting anymore (hence the shopping trip). She promised me that she would at least have the brown suit finished before she and Mr-Papa head off for ten days in Florida, leaving tomorrow.
I should have known better, I really should have. But I was so looking forward to my new brown suit! I decided this morning that I would wear it tomorrow on my birthday, so I called her a few minutes ago to ask if Marc and I could stop to pick it up tonight on our way home from my mom's. "It's not ready," she said, "but I promise I will work on it the minute I step back in the door from Florida."
I couldn't help it. I asked her if she could just pack up all my things that she hasn't had time to work on so that I can hem them myself or take them somewhere to pay a tailor to finish them. She got mortally offended, and huffed about how she did make me an entire dress at Thanksgiving - and she did! and I thanked her! And I realize that she is doing all of this as a favor to me, and I don't want to be ungrateful ... but y'all, I need my clothes! I really do! So even though she kept pushing the offended meme, I kept asking her to gather my clothes so I can come and get them, do what I can myself and take the rest to a tailor. She finally huffed not to stop by tonight, she will bring them over tomorrow.
She has had the dress my mother gave me as a birthday gift last year for a whole year - and all it needs is a hem. She didn't do it all last winter, and then it was warm weather and I stopped asking about it, and she found it again this fall - I had forgotten all about it, what with never having worn it even once. I told her how great it would be to have for when Mr. J and I went to Seattle. Nope. Here it is a full year since I took that dress over and she still hasn't hemmed it. I can't afford to wait a year for my work clothes. I need to wear them; I don't have piles and piles of nearly-identical clothes to browse through and select from every morning. I need those clothes, or I wouldn't have bought them in the first place!
I am really sorry that I hurt her feelings, but if you don't have time to do me a favor, don't offer. And don't promise to have my suit hemmed before my birthday when what you really mean is, I'll get around to it sometime in the next decade.
UPDATE: Mr-Mama having left town for her vacation, I went by her house to collect my things. She had finished the work on the brown suit and the birthday dress before she left, which I appreciated. I took the other suit and the black dress to the tailor tout de suite.
CON: "That will be $45." PRO: "You can pick them up next Friday, ma'am."
Definitely worth the money.
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