2/17/20 Finally A Reason To Play Dress-Up?

    I will admit I have allowed myself to be a bit of a slob, running around 90% of the time in shorts, like I was a middle schooler.  By joining the orchestra, I assured myself I would have to dress up at least once a month for the performance.  Yesterday, I was told that for the performance I would need to go all black.  It could be a Polo shirt with black jeans, but all black is the preferred look.  He then followed that for their spring gala they do go fancy and wear black slacks and button-down long sleeve shirts.
    Since Wife has Monday off, she suggested after rehearsal, to go to the Casual Male at the Outlet Mall.  This is where my music career woke up, so why not come back to it.  It is really nice to have a store focused on us big boys.  I was able to try on a couple of different slacks and chose one that was comfortable.  I even found a couple jeans I could wear regularly.  While I was at it, I also got a long sleeved black shirt, a new black belt, shoes, and three different ties that add a little color to the basic black I am wearing.
    If I ever start caring about dressing up, I will definitely start coming here more often.  They have clothing for everything, from casual relaxed T-shirts with Star Wars logos, to jeans and slacks and even fancy warm-ups for wearing out of the house, to actual basketball shorts, if my knees ever heal.  They have a decent selection of shoes, and I was surprised the first pair slid on and felt comfortable, even with the thick socks I like to wear.
    The way the orchestra works is that they perform only 4-5 times a year.  They only get together the three weekends before each performance.  This will line up with leaving us alone come March.  Spring break will be a little messy with Wife having hers a week after we have ours.  The best way to handle this is to just go with her for a couple days and hang out in Crystal City and then she said she would take maybe Thursday and Friday off and then we can go do something.  The good thing is I won't have to be worried about learning new music until April.
    EIther way, I now have the bulk of my ensemble to wear for these events.  If I want to add a better shirt, I can, or more comfortable pants, I can. but I have something that will work and I won't be stressing about what to wear going into next weekend.  The clothes did cost me a good amount at $290, but really, I never buy clothes because I don't ever get in front of people.  I have mostly lived in the shadows and worked at night alone.  I am a little excited to be a part of something, right now.