Friday, March 07, 2008

Zip It

The zipper on my warmest parka broke.

Nothing dramatic. Dog. Poop. Squat.

Fudge.

I took it to one of the my friendly, neighborhood dry cleaner / tailor.

Mr. Liu wrote the ticket, telling me to come back in a week, on Thursday.

I paid (dearly) for my parka the next week. I wore it to work the following day.

A(nother) very cold day.

Warmest parka zipped with relative ease. After walking a bit I felt a draft. I looked down. The zipper was apart.

Double Fudge.

After work I go home, change into my other parka and return to cleaner / tailor.

Mr. Liu listens to me, inspects the parka and zipper.

Words (a flurry) are exchanged between Mr. and Mrs. Liu.

I have to hope they aren’t saying things like I’m too fat for my coat. I don't understand the exchange. The looks, though, I've seen those before. Buuuut.. I feel myself wanting to defend:



I’m doing all this walking. I feel the burn.

Mr. Liu says to me, “I fix, come back Thursday." Another seven days with the other parka.

Triple fudge.



I pick up the warmest parka the next week.The parka with another new zipper.

The warmest parka has been worn for a week. The newest zipper has held.



Mr. & Mrs. Liu's exchange was likely about the defective zipper, lack of confidence in their zipper supplier and / or about my warmest parka zipper replacement being one in a series of do-overs.

Or something like that. It had to be. Mr. & Mrs. Liu friendly they are but they don't care one whit about how fat I may or not be, just about the zipper on my warmest parka. Thanks to Mr. Liu my warmest parka is back in top form.

8 comments:

  1. See you were thinking they were talking about your weight, I on the other hand would be thinking they were saying,

    "Damn lesbian broke her zipper again!"

    And I would leave sure I was justified playing the angry dyke role...

    oxox
    neen

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  2. Have you always been so paranoid???!!! :)

    I do the same thing. There is something unnerving about hearing people talk in another language around you. You immediately assume that not only are they talking about you, but of course, it must be all mean and ugly!
    Glad the coat is back.

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  3. I would have thought they were arguing about who screwed it up, and who was going to fix it.

    Your post reminded me that I've had a coat at the tailor for ages! I better get it before they send it to Goodwill.

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  4. I'm glad they got your parka fixed. You all have had a terrible winter. I fight with zippers from time to time and they seem to always win.

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  5. Bing has a "snow parka." It is so warm that she only uses it when she has to go outside to shovel and blow snow on the coldest days. Her zipper broke. She had the exact same thing happen as you did!

    I wonder if there is some sort of a zipper protest going on out there. I picture zippers meeting up underground and saying things like, "Wow. We get NO appreciation, do we? We last for years and years and no one ever thanks us and now, well...whadya say we just show them how much they need us. Is everyone in? OOOKKKAAYYY! Split!"

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  6. I'm lucky. So far this winter there have been few occasions where I've had to zip up.

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  7. It's great to have a Mr Liu - so wisely guided by Mrs. Liu.

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  8. Glad it's back in working order. :)

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