Lately, for say, the past two weeks, I've been dressing more business like. I've been really getting into it. It makes me feel a little more respectable and it is actually a bit more comfortable than street clothes, in my opinion. Dressing nice is something I've been wanting to do for a while, but really couldn't find any good motivation to. With the new job and location, I figured it would be a good time to start.

I've got a few dress shirts from over the past few years that I wear. I'm a tall guy, with abnormally long arms. I'm also pretty thin compared to most. Seems every shirt I have or have tried on does not fit quite right. It's like they are designed in a way that says I need to gain 30lbs. This also includes most fitted shirts. The back of these shirts puff out like a boat sail. I can't necessarily get a smaller size, either, since the smaller shirts don't have the correct arm length.

How is it, that I am more or less a healthy size and nothing fits? This may be laughable, but I actually did some Googling on the subject of how to find a decent fitted dress shirt, and most places I came across would forward a concern that America in whole is a bigger country than it was 50 years ago. The average American shirt size is a bit larger than it used to be and is also tailored baggier as more men find that comfortable. It only makes sense to tailor shirts based on an average demographic, but it leaves me with few options.

From what I read, these are a few routes I could go: I could get my shirts tailored at $8-10 a pop, or I could buy $80 Italian dress shirts. Both sound much less appealing than throwing $20 on the table for a shirt at JC Penny. I should have been alive in the earlier half of the 20th century, I guess.

   Alright, so maybe it's more than a hobby lately, but I've really been enjoying my time baking. As I write this blog, I have some delicious wheat bread rising in the kithcen. I had made some last week, and it was amazing. If you've experienced anything that has been home-made, doesn't it maike you wonder why people don't make their own breads, pastries, candiesm, etc. etc,. etc.? Especially when you take the bread right out of the oven, it's soft, warm... ugh, I can't wait.

   It's really a shame that cooking and baking in America is, for the most part, a lost art. We easily give up the home-made goods for something a little more preserved and processed in order to save a bit of time. We have machines do the work, and in the process, we are missing almost an entire page in the history of man. Sounds sappy, maybe, but it's true. There is no meaning behind buying a loaf of Sara Lee. There is no aroma to be remembered fifty years down the road when your children are talking about their home experiences.

Also, I cut my finger in the process of making the loaves that are rising (don't worry, no blood is in the bread). Ended up cutting my finger on a hidden knife when trying to reach for a spatula. Ah the war stories of a baker.