this post goes under Style and You Just Made That Up So You Could Talk About Clothes

Do you ever get dressed in the morning or for an event and think about the clothes you wish you owned? Today I bought two of those.

I saw a commercial this week for Old Navy Cardi Coats, and I thought about how almost every single day (for eight or nine months every year) I wish I had long sweaters. And today I bought some. That almost never happens – me buying clothes. Let alone the very clothes I saw on a commercial only days before.

I’ve already given Michael the, “I’ll wear them with everything” speech. Not that I needed to, because they were so on sale, and it was all Michael’s idea that I go shopping in the first place. I just think it’s noteworthy that we girls say that about things, and I did indeed say it about these sweaters. But I also remembered something as I imagined wearing them (with jeans! with dresses! on cool, summer nights with shorts or capris!). A friend of mine once described this kind of clothing as an extender. Bustles were extenders, trains on dresses, tails on a tux. I don’t remember the fashion science of it, but the understanding I gathered is that extenders stretch out the ahhh factor. And I definitely have that expectation for my new sweaters.

And now that I’ve put some extenders in my closet, I’ve been thinking about extenders that happen in life. Laughter, for instance. Any moment is more memorable if filled with genuine, could-not-stop-it-laughter. Dancing, children in just about any size or shape, music, good smells – they’re all extenders too. They are the parts of an experience that make it even better.

Our kids jumped in a lake today with their clothes on. Their cousins joined them as well, and Michael’s cousin said to us, “They will never forget this day.” They were laughing and excited and completely thrilled by that coloring-outside-the-lines feeling. But I don’t think I was fully in the moment until Jill said that. She extended it. So now, I’ll never forget it either.

I’ve always been kind of a moment extender. Both the exciting stuff and the traumatic ones were just a little bit bigger than they needed to be. But now I have a word for it. And that should help me extend them even more.