This picture is from a jean shopping excursion in October. The big pile is all the jeans that didn’t fit. The small pile is the one pair of jeans that did fit me. Sad. I think it has something to do with legs being a weird body part and denim being not as friendly as, say, sweatpants. Enter: Levi’s Curve ID. You can get a custom fitting from a Levi’s specialist (aka sales associate) to determine the right type of jeans for you. Sounds great! Alas, I have two problems with this:

1. The Curve ID jean styles are named slight, demi, bold, and supreme based on how curvy you are. (I’ll let you guess which one is the most curvy.) I hear “supreme” and I think burrito supreme. (What, you don’t?) I don’t want to associate that with any of my body parts. Buying jeans sucks enough as it is. I don’t think naming my jeans “supreme” will make it any better.

2. The advertisements suck.

For jeans that are meant to be for all body types, the models they use to demonstrate that fact look pretty darn similar. Except for the one on the end. She must be wearing the buty panty. I read in this post that the ad above is actually an old ad. The new ad:

Again, I’m not seeing much variety in body size. Plus, these women are headless. Sad.

Do the Levi’s people not watch tv? There’s a great Fruit of the Loom commercial that shows women in a variety of shapes and sizes in their underwear. Underwear, I tell you!

Let’s be real, I like Levi’s. My two favorite pairs of jeans right now are both from Levi’s. Their lame advertisements and poor choice of style names won’t stop me from buying their product. I just think they need some sense knocked into them. If you are advertising to a variety of body types, show an actual variety! It’s not like we don’t notice!

What are your thoughts? Do you think the Levi’s people are dum-dums or is this all really no biggie? Do advertisements effect how you feel about a product and/or impact the likelihood that you’ll buy it?*

• A band spankin’ new PR
• A really cute T-shirt that I’ve already run in
• A SPIbelt wristband (or SPIband wristbelt? or Wrist SPI thingy. I’m not sure what it’s called!)

I couldn’t wait to test this bad boy out, so I wore it on my wrist during a 6 mile run on Tuesday. I normally wear a SPIbelt around my waist with my cell phone and my keys while I run. It can be a pain when someone calls or I try to pull my phone out to take pictures. (I’m paranoid about losing my keys!) With the wrist SPIband, I could keep my keys and phone separate. Nothing is in danger of getting lost!

The wristband fit me perfectly, not too tight or too loose. I was also able to easily fit in my car key, house key, and mail key no problem. I was worried that there might be some jingle-jangling going on (which I can’t stand!), but everything stayed in place. My wrist did get a tad sweaty, but it was a strangely warm day. (We’ve been getting weather in the 70′s lately!) That said, this might not be the best bet during the summer when it will be even warmer.

The other thing that I don’t like, I feel like I’m on an episode of Saved by the Bell with this thing on. (Buddy Bands, anyone?)

I wondered if the wristband would give me a strange tan. Surely if I wore it regularly it would. I already have a weird tan on my leg from the knee strap that a wear, and let’s be honest, no one gives a hoot about my tan lines, so that doesn’t bother me. If you care about your tan lines, it might be an issue.

I definitely see myself wearing the wristband more often. It’s just the right size and gives me peace of mind about the location of my keys. I don’t know that I’ll wear it all the time, but I like that I have the option.

What do you do with all your junk while you workout? Are you a wristband type of person or is it to Saved by the Bell for ya?*

I’ve heard rumblings that this was a possibility for months now, but like all things that are out of my control, I tried to just put it out of my mind. Now that it’s officially official, I can’t really ignore it.

So what does this mean for me:

I probably won’t be moving to Germany. (I’m going to continue with my paperwork, but families aren’t usually moved overseas unless the soldier will be there for 36 months or more.)

I don’t know where we will live or when we’ll move there. Stephen’s set to be in Germany until May 2013. He might end up living there until then or he might get PCS’ed (moved) before that date. And we don’t yet know when we’ll know that information.

I could potentially have to remain at my job another year. I had been planning to leave at the end of the school year, but now I don’t know. I want to quit (I’m burned out), but there are too many factors that are still question marks right now.

If you’re keeping score: I don’t know where I’ll be moving or when, I don’t know if I’ll keep my job or not, I don’t know when I’ll see my husband again or when we’ll get to live together again. Lame sauce.

I was really mad at first, but I’ve simmered down. What really matters to me is that my husband completes his deployment and returns to Germany safely. I’d rather have him live far away than not have him at all. We’ve been apart for so long (he went from Basic to Germany to deployment), so I’d really like to actually live with him again, but I’ll take what I can get.

Have any of you experienced unit deactivation? Is there a bright side to this that I am just not seeing right now?*