One of my mom’s favorite nicknames for my brother when he was little was “Baggy Britches.”  I don’t remember his britches being particularly baggy, but they must have been.  I’m sure she even used the nickname for me from time to time.

But this is the phrase that kept running through my head all night at work.  However, this time, my britches were indeed baggy.  In fact, I think I’m going to have to retire them.  All night long, they felt like they were going to fall off - and that would not have been a pleasant experience (either for me or any unfortunate witnesses).

I climbed the stairs again tonight (first time since last Wednesday) from 13 to 25 and then back down to 3 (in 10 minutes), and with every turn I was sure that it would be the time that my pants would be coming down to trip me and send me crashing to my death (beautiful image).  They didn’t, thank God, as I’m obviously still alive.

They’re fantastic khakis that I got at Wal-Mart last fall.  I adore them and would love to get them in a smaller size, however, there are two reasons that I don’t believe I can.

1. It’s summer and Wal-Mart doesn’t sell many pants that aren’t capris.
2. I think they were the smallest size they carry of this particular style.

Ack!  What am I going to do?  I know that at least in pants/jeans sizes, I’m very close to taking the plunge from the Women’s Plus Section to the regular clothing section (and probably could have made the switch a while ago), but the thought brings panic into my mind.

I don’t know how to shop in regular clothes sizes!  I’ve read comments from so many others who have lost a lot of weight like I have about their journey down into regular sizes and the struggle/frustration that they have.  They say that those sizes just aren’t cut for bodies like ours.  I haven’t shopped in those sizes since um, elementary school - like 3rd grade?   In fact, if I go down to the next smaller pants size, I will be in the size that I wore in elementary school when my grandma informed me that I didn’t have a waist.  Of course, I’m sure there’s a wide difference between that size then and now.  Anyway, I wouldn’t even know where to start.  I guess just start at the largest size and work my way down (if I can)?

Maybe one of these days I’ll get the guts to try.  Although, the couple of times I’ve allowed myself to wander through there, I’ve felt this intense feeling of expectation and I finally realized what it was.  I keep expecting someone to come up to me and tell me that I’m looking in the wrong department.  I wonder if I’ll ever get over that.