farewell, old friend

Now before you think something really terrible happened, let me assure you that the only person who thinks this is terrible is me. Though I am hoping that you might understand a little bit......but this might sound completely crazy and you might think I'm a lunatic. Either way, I get it.

 I know it's completely ridiculous to get attached to a piece of clothing. I know that, I really do. But sometimes it just sort of...happens, doesn't it? Without realizing it, you start to wear it more and more, sometimes days in a row and you don't even care because it's so comfortable and easy and all of a sudden you find yourself reaching for it even when you know you probably shoudn't but you just love it so much that you do it anyway until one day your husband gives you a brand new one (similar, but not exactly the same) in a different color because you've worn yours until it was ripped and frayed and faded but that's precisely why you loved it and you didn't want a new one and kept on wearing the old one anyway until one day you realized that you had a problem and needed to be your own advocate and say, "Enough already, I must stop wearing you!" (Deep breath.) I kinda got caught up there for a minute but I'm better now. Please tell me you know what I'm talking about! (Or roll your eyes and mutter "crazy lady" under your breath. I would completely understand.)

That "day you realized that you had a problem and needed to be your own advocate" happened to me this morning as I once again reached for my Boston Red Sox hat to wear to my workout. I can't remember exactly what year I bought my hat, or on which trip to Boston (was it with my family or with my brand-new-at-the-time husband?), but I do know that I've had it for a very long time. My trusty friend saw me through sun and rain and wind and hail on the Appalachian Trail, more workouts than I can count, baby drool and spit up, bad hair days, good hair but-it's-easier-to-put-on-a-hat days, sitting on the beach, swimming in the ocean, soccer/baseball/basketball/ballet practices, airplane flights, California sunshine, Maine and Vermont and North Carolina and Colorado vacations, and on and on and on. I love my hat. Love. It. But enough already, it's time to let it go. 

Now I can't promise that I won't bring it out for hiking trips or the occasional baseball game, but as for normal once-a-week-or-so wear, it's time to move on. My poor old hat won't make it much longer if it stays in regular rotation. 

And so now I must plan another trip to Boston, to the shop by Fenway Park where I bought my best hat friend all those years ago, to find myself a new hat. Hopefully sometime this summer I'll be able to make my way up there to find not a new best friend, but a second best friend. Thanks, hatty, for all the good times over the years. I hope you enjoy your honored hook on the closet wall where no other hat will ever be placed on top of you. Farewell, old friend, farewell!

Wishing you a great start to your week! Hope it's full of all your most comfortable best friends clothing :)