Urspo gets dressed.

Every evening before I retire I put out next day’s attire. This way I don’t have think about which top goes with which socks etc. all in the wee hours of the morning before I’ve had any tea.  I pack three ensembles:

1 – 5AM dog walk attire

2 – Clothes for the office

3  – Gym clothes for the gym bag.

I am not a fashion plate; I tend to buy the same things over and over and wear them out until I begin resemble a charity case.  My clothes are neither expensive nor fashionable. Wearing the same thing day in and day out has a sort of ‘uniform’ to it – and it doesn’t require much thinking.
Dog walk attire is hardly the height of fashion. The tatterdemalion look suffices for no one sees me in the dark at this hour. Indeed, most of the time dog walk-ware is merely a continuation of what I wore to bed last night. For propriety sake I stop to put on some trousers.  If last night’s slumber-ware is too gamey I change in the morning in to a fresh T-shirt and undergarment. In the closet there is a shelf for ‘gently used’ attire worn for the shorter walks. These can be worn a few times before putting them into the Biz-bag.

For work it is always the same choice between ‘proper doctor garb’ and Spo-ware. The former consists of a pressed white shirt, (bow)tie, and dress slacks. The latter consists of khaki pants and a Spo-shirt. I used to worry about wearing bright Hawaiian-style shirts to work viz. the APA Secret Police coming to arrest me for failing to dress to contemporary professional standards but after 15 year this hasn’t happened. My bosses don’t seem to give a damn and the patients like it. In summer my office feels like an Easy-bake oven so dressing down is more comfortable. I tend to keep the more ‘wild’ shirts at home lest I am seeing a new patient that day who might have apoplexy at the sight of a shrink in kelly green and cherry red looking ready for the beach.

Gym clothes depend on what I plan to do that day. I look loathsome in a tank top so T-shirts are essential, but not too tight.  Mine come in a variety of bold colors in contrast to all the other men who dress in black, gray, black, or black.  While I am not for bringing back the short-shorts from the 70s (oh the embarrassment!) I am tired of the pantaloons-style shorts that go down past the knee making an ersatz dress.  This is a good as time as any I seem to be the only person at the gym who wears a sweatband anymore.  I find these essential for any sort of aerobic activity. I guess the other men are too cool to sweat.

I have to be a bit indecorous now: the subject of undergarments. Walking the dog or using the elliptical necessitates some sort of snug and supportive attire lest I get what Father calls “Bellman’s curse” (oh the pain).  At the office I am a 100% boxer man. At the gym if I am lifting weights I keep’em on – except if squats are on the agenda. Once upon a time this fashion-faux-pas led to great embarrassment and near arrest.