Day 18 - Wednesday

There are two things that I miss the most about my position as a classroom teacher. And they both have to do with wearing good old fashioned blue jeans. Jeans are the most versatile article of clothing available to mankind. They can be used to make you look clean, rugged, strong, or even weak if they are of the skinny persuasion.

For me, the beauty of jeans lies at my feet. When I was a teacher in jeans, I would wake up in the morning and open the top drawer of my dresser and pull out one pair of white socks. It didn’t matter what color my shirt was or if I was wearing a brown belt or a black belt. My shoes made no difference either. The socks were my one constant in life. (Except for the occasional day when I would wear running shoes and the short ankle socks that are ohhh sooo comfortable, but that’s another story.) Now that I am slacks-wearing fake administrator, I have go to my closet first, before I make the trip to the sock drawer. Under this altered routine I now have to pick a shirt, then determine if it will be a pleats-day or a no-pleats-day, and then pretend I know what I am doing when I try to figure out which of the 12 colors of socks that are hidden deep in the wells of the bottom drawer will match the shirt and/or pleated or non-pleated pants. (Today: No pleats, blue shirt, khaki socks.) How I long for the simplicity that my stack of identical blue jeans has to offer.

The other benefit of jeans is that they are tough. Now that I am a slacks guy, I can’t even feed my own dogs. Under my old routine, I would feed the dogs just before I headed out the door in the morning. As one of the faux suits on campus, now I don’t dare risk getting dog hair or a muddy paw on my pants as I head out the door. In jeans, who cares about hair and paws? But in slacks, I have to look sharp and dogs and sharp just don’t mix. Now my wife oversees the feeding, but she already has a long list of things on her to-do list for the day. Maybe the good thing about this is that the kids are now helping Mom with the morning feeding. Perhaps once the jeans come back, I won’t have to worry about the dogs or Mom’s busy schedule anymore.

The best news, though, is that it should only be another day or two (or twelve) before I am back in the classroom full time and my jeans can come out of retirement. I think that when that day comes, I’ll start things off with the running shoes and ankle socks just to maximize the comfort.