Monday, July 18, 2011

My new skirt, a passive-aggressive conflict at the store, and a bit of flash! + a question

First of all, I hope everybody is feeling sorry for us poor folks in Minnesota - It was like 100 today, but the heat index was 120!!!

Okay, please wipe your tears now, because otherwise you won't be able to admire my awesome new woodland scene skirt!!! I so love it.  I got it at the used clothing store today. Somebody handmade it...I'm thinking out of curtains. It just feels like that.

I totally think the heat is affecting people. Today at that store...okay, I'll set the stage: it is pretty cramped in there, with racks all along the very long walls and the middle. There was this woman looking through the racks, making her way right to left, and I was going  the opposite way, left to right. Granted, I started looking after her, but there was a good deal of tundra between us when I started. Maybe ten feet!

Then, I'm, you know, riffling through the racks, making my way down, and I notice her just to my right, standing still as a statue, and sort of a step back from the rack. And I feel her eyes on me, burning into my neck, and I'm like, is something wrong? And she goes, You're looking right where I was going to look! And she was super mad. Usually at this store, you just swap positions, but she seemed really to think I was messing with her. So I said, look, I'll skip down. And she said, No, you can look there, and  I'll just wait here. That didn't sound very fun to me, so I skipped this whole section of rack.

So later, she's disappeared, and I revisit the section I skipped, and just then, she comes around a circular dress rack right behind it, and we're yet again on a collision course. I was completely in her way again. It was sort of funny, because, she really did think I was messing with her. I do think it's the heat!! 

My skirt is quite flash, don't you think? 
I don't know if I'm using that word right. I am reading Meredith Duran's amazing, glorious and riveting A Lady's Lesson in Scandal right now. I am richly enjoying every aspect of it. Especially the details of the working girl life, and the working girl slang. I love when the heroine says a thing is 'flash' like, oh this is a bit of flash, or, that skirt is real flash.

I was thinking that use of flash belonged specifically to that time period, but then yesterday DH and I were working out to Adam and the Ants and Adam used the word flash just like that in a song. Was Adam using it as an older word, or is it a modern UK usage? Do people walk around calling things flash? I think the song was about pirates, one of Adam's main obsessions. Maybe he was using the word flash as pirate lingo. Is this a word of pirates and guttersnipes of old, or what? UK friends, please advise.

20 comments:

KT Grant said...

Bows down to your use of Adam Ant in a blog post.

Carolyn Crane said...

Thanks sweetie! Isn't that an awesome photo?

KT Grant said...

I'm a child of the 80's, so rock on!

Marg said...

Flash... you're using it right! It was certainly a word that was used quite a lot not all that long ago, but I can't remember the last time I heard it recently.

Carolyn Crane said...

Marg: Thank you! So, not too long ago, as in, maybe in the 80's, but not so much now? Which would be too bad, really.

Tez Miller said...

That skirt is adorable :-)

Anonymous said...

Statistically, crime always goes up in heat waves so you are not far off base. But in her case she just sounds like a freak!
I can't believe a woodland scene skirt even exists LOL

Carolyn Crane said...

Tez: Thank you!

Pam: Good point. Yes, right. Fuses are just shorter.

Chris said...

Wow. That skirt is... wow. O.o

What store were you at?!

GlamKitty said...

LUH that skirt. Totally flash, as well as- in the words of pretty much the entire cast of the *insert big sniffles* sadly-defunct "Firefly"- SHINY! :D

lisabea said...

I'm surprised she didn't battle you for that skirt!

tori aka ggs_closet said...

LOVE the skirt!

Actually, that is a common occurrence in thrift stores. It's called staking your territory. lol Some people who frequent a certain store will get pretty dang bitchy if they think you are encroaching on their territory. I am a master at standing my grd and have pissed off many a thriftier who thought their death star laser eyes would scare me into leaving their rack.

Carolyn Crane said...

Chris: Everyday people!

Glamkitty - oooh, right. Shiny. Sob.

lisabea: she would have GONE DOWN!

Tori - hah! The expert weighs in! That is so funny - staking her territory. Maybe I will rethink my policy on caving to the death star stare!

Joanna Chambers said...

The skirt is wonderful and very you.

Flash is absolutely a word of that precise meaning. Not terribly common but often used in a sort of grudging-admiration way ("You flash bastard!" e.g. to one spending a lot of money on fripperies, woodland-scene skirts, par example)

Anonymous said...

I totally heart the skirt Carolyn. Regarding the usage of 'flash'. Although not english I do live in the UK and don't think it is anything other than part of Adam Ant's wacky 80's persona.

kylie said...

That skirt of yours is sure to be a hit at parties - what a conversation starter.

And I really think the heat is affecting all of us in an angry and paranoid way. We've experienced the high 90s here. Pair this with a combo of air/noise pollution, humidity and peeps with an already bad attitude, well, it's been nightmarish here. Today, I was patiently waiting in line to give a tip to a service person, and the woman in front of me took umbrage that I chose to stand behind her! Um, that's what a line is supposed to look like!

Carolyn Crane said...

Jo: So, it would be flash? I thought flash would denote something more upscale. Very interesting!

tvted: A dissenter! Well, all I know is that ever since I put their picture up there, an Adam Ant song has been running through my head.

Kylie: I had to laugh at that. Standing behind somebody in a line!! :P Yikes.

Penny Watson said...

Don't be alarmed, but I think your skirt is a scene from the TV game Big Buck Hunter Pro. Nice!

orannia said...

That Adam and the Ants photo is awesome!

woolydaisy said...

OMG! i so want that skirt!!!!! if you EVER decide to get rid of it- you must- i repeat you must-send it to me. the curtains probably hung in someones cabin. love it! possible trade for some hand knitted fingerless mitts- perfect for typing with this winter when your apartment is no longer hot:)