to the internet!

I've become a lot more, um, substantial since I first started out in environmental consulting. I had an old pair of carhartts for ages, and at first they were way too big, and they hung off my hips and I had to roll them up. Now they sit at my natural waist (just barely) and they leave angry red lines across my stomach if I have to sit for any length of time. And they don't need to be rolled up anymore.

I ran into another short geologist the other day, and she greeted me with, "Your pants! They're short!"

There is a special kind of bond between ladies who can't find the right size. So I just laughed and said, "you gotta use the internet!". Because you just can't find field pants in short lengths in the store. Same thing with my epic adventures trying to find small enough steel-toe boots. And specialty boots, like steel-toe rubber boots for the really messy jobs? Forget it!

And about those pants... besides the carhartts, there's also red ant and duluth trading co for the more heavy duty stuff and then REI/EMS/other outdoors places for lighter-duty (and warmer weather) stuff. Now, if I can only remember to order something ahead of time, and not right after I've destroyed my last good pair by kneeling in a puddle of corrosives or getting stuck on a barbed-wire fence...