Liz said I was a perfect 10

For the last 15 years I’ve been wearing Liz Claiborne jeans, dress slacks, and nice cotton black, khaki and navy blue wash pants. It has been easy shopping for them. I just headed for the size 10 rack and pulled out the colors and styles I wanted. I didn’t even have to try them on. A year or so ago the brand discontinued my favorite jeans – “Classic Fit.” I bought other size 10 Liz jeans but they had low-slung waists and when I wore them I felt as if my pants were falling off. Most of the new jeans had spandex added. They had an odd streaky appearance and didn’t look or feel like real denim.

My stock of classic jeans began wearing thin. (It was always the left knee that went first.) I was down to one decent pair without a rip last month. I hate to shop so I tried L.L. Bean mail order. They had “classic fit” jeans made of real denim. The problem was my ego. I’ve felt smug that I was a size 10 at my age. However Bean’s measuring chart let me know that I’d been fooled all these years.

I bit my tongue and ordered the gigantic size from Bean anyway. The jeans arrived Monday. I tried them on. They fit perfectly. I laid them out on top of my size 10 Claibornes. They were exactly the same size. Liz had lied to me.

You know, if Claiborne still had the classic fit jeans that I loved I would buy them instead of the perfectly fine Bean jeans because I would be a size 10 again. Oh the vanity.