Antoinette's Alterations-ish and other things

Ok, I just realized, this sign says "Antoniette's Alterations" and not "Antoinette's Alterations"...

Tailoring
When I visited the dentist on May 19, I saw this shop and made a mental note to bring my camera with me to the dentist next time so I could get a snapshot for Antoinette. Today was that day!! But now I realize there is a reversal of letters!!

Anyway, a few months back a coworker of mine asked if I wanted to accompany her on a visit to her tailor in Princeton (not Antoniette's, that's in Matawan) to pick up some shirts. It was like looking into a life I could have as a tailor. The seamstress has a little tiny shop, not much bigger than my bedroom, where one of the closets serves as the dressing room! One wall was lined with garments to be altered or picked up. Pictures of the seamstress with brides hung on the wall. The sewing machine was on a desk, and her chair was a stiff wooden chair without any lumbar support! The seamstress was wearing black pants, and all these different colored threads were clinging on to her just like me when I sew!

Anyway, my coworker had purchased some shirts that were too big, and asked the tailor to, well, tailor them. She charged $30 for one shirt and $25 for the other, to bring the shirt in on the sides and add or take the back darts in further. My coworker said that was actually more than what she paid for the shirts!! But I'm sure it's hard to make a living as a tailor in Princeton, especially paying Princeton rates, even for a shop as small as hers. I recently started tailoring purchased clothing for myself (beyond hemming long pants, but actually bringing in the sides too), and have a small pile of it to attend to! But the whole experience got me thinking about what it would be like to be a seamstress for a living.

Mistaken Identity
Twice within one week, a stranger has said that they thought they knew me from somewhere. First was at Lucy's Kitchen last week, where a woman asked if I work at Tyco. Second was today. I stopped at a consignment shop on the way back from the dentist. I've always thought about stopping there but never did. I bought a jacket. The store owner asked for my name for her mailing list. I wasn't on her list, which wasn't suprising to me but she said, "you've been here before, haven't you?" and I said no...and she said she could have sworn I had been there before.

So just who is this mystery Tyco employee who shops consignment and looks like fabulous me??

Dentist
Yeah, so he thinks my sensitive tooth is an infected gum or maybe mild gingivitis but not gum recession (yippee!). Now I get to use a special prescription mouthwash for the next 16 days. I can't eat or drink for 2 hours after using the mouthwash, which is annoying. I know from past experience that it will stain my teeth a lovely shade of brown...but at least that comes off with the next hygenist cleaning.

Back
I suffered what I thought was a huge setback with my back on Sunday afternoon, when I decided to finally clean the gunk out of the bottom of my dishwasher. That was the first time since Mar 5 that something I did clearly hurt my back as it immediately went into spasm and pain was at a 6. Other setbacks didn't have an apparent cause (like the 3am screaming back issue almost 3 weeks ago). I wound up taking a lot of Aleeve Sun and Mon. Saw Len last night and he seems to have restored my back to where it was last week. That man is a magician and I wish I had visited him back in January. The Active Release Technique for overused muscles is amazing. I didn't take Aleeve at all today. Pain is back to a 3 I'd say. Sometimes a 2 and even a 1.

Tech support
It was funny that I became techsupport for my own blog! It was asking for a username/password for one of the blogs on my blog roll! Workaround was to click cancel to view my blog. But I decided tonight to remove that person's blog from my blog roll, problem solved. The author of that blog is on vacay, and I don't have any way to report to her what her blog is doing since I can't access it and I don't have her email.

Good night!!