Abigail M. Schilling

Almost a year ago, I bought some very nice, very cute shirts at Ann Taylor Loft on sale. They were a great find because they were the kind of shirt that both me and my mother would like. In other words, I could wear them to work or to all the slutty convention my mother is sure I attend in my free time with all my inappropriate clothing.

When I buy new clothes I don't usually wear them right away. I like to save them for the moment I feel is RIGHT for the maiden voyage. So, I didn't get around to wearing any of the shirts until last summer when we were making a trip to San Diego to visit Jeni and see The Last Kiss. Before we even left my house I got chocolate on the shirt. We worked on scrubbing it out but I still felt sad and alone. Incidents involving my clothes really break my heart for some reason.

I have worn that shirt of any of the others since that. I see them in my drawer and I think, "now is not the right time. It's been so long I should make it really special." Finally, today I had some extra time and I was staring at one of the shirts and I was thinking, "Abigail, this is ridiculous. Just wear the shirt." I justified it because we have a party at work today and that is special.

So I made a cute little outfit (there was a pink cardigan involved), got an empty coffee mug and headed out the door. I was going into town to drop off our rent check and pick up some bananas before going to work.

It was a pleasant walk; birds were chirping, the sun was shining, I had a fistful of cash burning a hole in my pocket. I was taking pictures left and right because I cannot get over the charm of our city. I stopped at Mimo's (best.coffee.ever.) and had them fill up my travel mug and continued on my merry way.

Ahoy! A cute vintage shop! I declared. And started to change the settings on my camera to properly capture the cuteness of the clothing. Since changing the settings takes two hands I thought it would be a good idea to hold the mug against my body with my elbow. The open mug. Full of coffee. Against my body.

I got coffee straight down the whole shirt. The white shirt. The maiden voyage shirt. Discouraged and broken-hearted, I buttoned up the cardigan and headed to the farmer's market where I spent too much money on flowers because spending money is what I do with my emotions.