Popeye and his pants!!!!!!

As predicted yesterday we did not get more rain. We woke up to a beautiful day. (again the weather man was wrong, affirming my suspicion that all weather persons attend the same school).

I though maybe we would take the kids to the park and old ship museum not far off base. Popeye had other plans. He needed to "grab a new pair of jeans real quick". To do this story justice I think it's important to add some back story. So you all will find my day as exciting as I did.

Popeye and I have been a couple for almost 9 years. I still remember the first time I saw him. My heart fluttered. I know people say that, but in my case it really did. We started out as friends, hanging out with a group of people. (we worked at the same place, so we had the same friends) After a few weeks we ended up at the movies alone. He held my hand during the movie and that was all I could think about. I don't remember much of the movie, I remember his hand in mine.
About a year later Popeye was in the Navy and we were living in NJ. He has spent the better part of 8 years deployed, and working long hours. This is his career. He loves his job. He told me once there are some people meant to be in an office, some are meant to work in factories, he was meant to be on the ocean. The sea is his office. Sometimes when he is complaining about his job I let him know, he could always resign from the Navy and be a crab fisherman. I support him in whatever he does.

When we accepted orders here we knew that he would not deploy for 3 years. It took the boys and I about 6 months to adjust to him not leaving at the drop of a hat. (it took me a full year to trust that the phone ringing didn't mean he was leaving) It has been great, but somewhere in the back of my mind I have a little clock silently ticking away the time. Knowing all to soon we will be back to a life of deployments and long days. It is terribly hard when he deploys for months at a time. The boys and I always take a day or 2 to pout then we get back to life.

I have had a couple of e mails about how Popeye being gone means his kids don't know him. To that I have to say this. I know of families where dad is home by 5 everyday, and not interacting with his family. Is having Popeye gone hard on the boys? Yes, terribly so. They miss him in the house. Having e mail, phone calls, and snail mail helps. I think in a lot of ways this makes him closer to his boys. Popeye and I still have long nights where we will just stay up talking. (something we do every time he returns home). Somehow he manages to stay up all night with me and get up and hang with the boys. Running, playing, doing all the things he and the boys missed while he was away.

The point of this long back story was the say we know each other well, and love one another. Yet somehow in 9 years we have never once gone shopping for Popeye together. Sure there has been the occasional "hey do you like this shirt? yeah, k, well I'm gonna get it". Or even the " I need a new pair of khaki pants". This takes 2 min grab shirt or pants pay and we are done. Popeye doesn't own a lot of civilian clothes. Spending his days in a uniform makes dressing easy. When he is deployed there are rules for civies, so he knows what to pack. Being home he has been able to flex his proverbial wings and start to wear what he likes. That seems to be jeans. He only had 2 pair of jeans. One I bought him (guessing the size, the other has holes from age).

So off we go to "grab a pair of jeans real quick". We start off looking at all the different brands of jeans they offer. WOW! they have tons of men's jeans. Most of them look like they are for 20 year old aspiring rap artists. Not gonna work for Popeye. We make our way over to the Levis section. " OK, now these are my jeans, I just need to find my size and we are ready". I said " Well what kind do you want"? "Kind, what kind, I just want jeans". " Well do you want straight leg, boot cut, flair, low waits, what kind do you want"? About this time my wonderful husband looks at me and say "well shit". I decide I must take charge, get in, get out, be done. "OK, what size do you wear"? "A 33-30". Now I am not a men's jeans expert, but I know right off anything with odd numbers, not gonna be easy to find. So I start at one end and grab every style 33-30 they have. I send Popeye off the the dressing room to try them all on. After spending 5 min finding the dressing room ( we are not a dressing room family). I wonder how many men are? In the hour and a half we occupied the dressing room, I never saw anyone else use them. Next time I need to try something on I am going to the men's side.

Popeye tried on 100 different pair. After 2 hours of "grabbing a pair of jeans" that is what we walked out with 1 pair of jeans. I did sneak back and grab a pair of shoes, so the day was not a total waste. Popeye and I had lot of fun. (OK I had more fun then he did) There were there 20 something blond women that were hanging just a bit to close to the dressing room for my taste. I noticed 1 of them checking out Popeye and laughed. (as I gave them the evil eye). Or the "hell, my legs don't even fit". ( this was him trying on the straight leg style), may favorite was the look on his face when he realized this funny 2 hour shopping experience was going on my blog. He is now threatening to add his own stories to this blog. He won't, he doesn't have any. I am perfect in every way.

So, after 9 years, I now know Popeye wears Levis 559. I am writing that down in a little book for future reference.