life, liberty, and the pursuit of perfection
In late 2005, I bought this hoodie in Washington at a Burlington Coat Factory. Angelbiscuit and Isasauce had specifically taken me there to get something warmer than t-shirts for the Puget Sound autumn and winter. The photo above was taken in April 2006 (when the red, raised areas still had their nap) at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park; it's probably my favorite photo of myself.
I wore that, my one and only hoodie, for ten years. In 2015, I was stressed and distracted when I accidentally left it in a Mexican taxi, never to be seen again. I was surprisingly devastated. That summer we moved to Memphis, and I haven't needed to consider a replacement because hot. However, I'm visiting Hatman in St. Louis for a couple of weeks, and it's currently colder there than it ever gets in Memphis. This, coupled with a hopefulness of living somewhere better someday, has me considering my first new hoodie in 16 years.
Angelbiscuit recommended this City Museum hoodie, but I don't particularly want to rep for anywhere. I'm considering this CGP Grey hoodie, and while I trust DFTBA, I nonetheless wonder about its quality, longevity, and significance to 'me'. Years ago I read wonderful things about the quality of American Giant, but I don't know if those standards have remained exactingly high, and they're pretty bland-looking and kinda uninteresting. l've searched for Trek hoodies, but they're either too on-the-nose or of dubious quality in appearance or construction. I even found a Wikipedia zip-up hoodie, but—damn—if that isn't the most-boring, low-effort product.
The problem is: I can't find my old hoodie; the hoodie with memories, the hoodie that carried with it good times, the hoodie that had worn and changed with me, the hoodie that I knew and loved. I'm sitting here fighting back tears about a mass-produced, worn-out piece of clothing with a broken zipper-pull and I can't help it.
So then, what is the taxonomy of the perfect hoodie? It honors my old hoodie, is of the very best quality, is aesthetically appealing (without being too on-the-nose about anything or garish or boring), that I will love and cherish, and that will produce future all-time favorite photos of myself? Anybody have a roughed-out process that I can use for finding that white whale of an outergarment?
Then I apply this same level of rigor, importance, emotion, devotion, time, analysis, and intensity to every single decision that comes my way from wake to sleep. If I don't, and I obviously cannot, that's one more spoon on the wrong side of the scales of my mental health. The alternative, the middle-ground, is to put it off for another day: that cognitive and psychological heavy lifting will ‘get done later’, and that hurts me far less than not doing it at all.
When I go see Eternals today, I'll just be chilly to-and-from the car, thank you. We'll worry about this problem… later.
