Hugs are not always good

One of the advantages of losing 20 pounds is fitting into old clothes. I don't have that old pair of jeans from high school or anything, but I do have clothes that I have bought, with the thought that I could fit into them; that they would look good on me. Not the case with this shirt, as shown. I didn't look good in it. Especially the day I bought it.

When I worked in an office building, the company I worked for shared space with Wilson. Not just "Wilson" the famous volleyball from the Tom Hanks movie, "Cast Away." But the whole company. Twice a year, Wilson (the company) would hold fantastic sales. The kind of events people line up for. The kind of thing people go crazy at; where they eye an item from afar, run to retrieve it, and find themselves in a tussle. They were "cash only" smorgasbords. And I gladly participated in them; shelling out cash without much thought.

"Hey look," I'd think to myself. "Tennis rackets. There's a court down the street from the house. Cyndi and I can take up tennis." I bought two rackets, two bags, and a couple sleeves of balls. I presented them as gifts. Christmas gifts. In 2006. We've used them once.

I had also bought two boxes of yellow neon colored 12" softballs, in 2005, when Frederic was in PeeWee Baseball. We used some of them for batting practice, but they were not like the balls he was getting used to. They were too big, and threw off his ability to catch and hit the smaller ball. They've been used, but mostly by Rex (our faithful friend).

I did make one good purchase. It was a red batting helmet for Frederic, purchased at the same time as the balls. He's used it every season since. This past season may have been the last time he could use it though, given the fact his head (and everything else) is getting bigger.

One good purchase out of many.

So, what about the shirt? I didn't really understand what a "compression shirt" was when I saw it on sale for $5. I liked the way it looked in the sea of black, red, blue, and white shirts. Back then, in 2006, I hovered between 172-177 pounds. I wore XL shirts mostly, but could get away with L on some shirts. I thought the compression shirt was one I could get away with. Not so much.

I put it on when I got home, after I bought it. It wasn't pretty. Compression shirts hug every part of your midsection. Cyndi was thoughtful, telling me I looked good. But I've always known my eyes are much better than hers. She's the one who has been wearing glasses since she was one. She's the one who is blind in one eye. Looked good, only to my sight challenged wife, of course.

The shirt sat in my drawer for the past three years. Looking good to no one or nothing but the other shirts in my drawer. When I came across it last week, I had a decision to make. Try it on and see if the hugs looked any better, or finally admit that I'm not a compression shirt kind of guy.

While I don't think I'm ready to put it on and model it for the world (or at least my 7 Blogger followers, and several other Facebook readers), the Governor has put in a stay of execution.