The other day, I was at an antique store with my young daughter when she pointed at a strange instrument with letter keys. She asked, "Mommy, what is that?" To which I answered, "Sweetie, that's a typewriter. That's what we used to type letters, before computers." But now our lives are so much better, right?
Aside from making me feel ancient, the incident reminded me how much I yearn for the simpler days of yore when we weren't tethered to our computers, smart phones, DVRs and other devices that are supposed to make our lives easy.
While many of my friends pride themselves on being early adopters of technology, I actually like being as fashionably late as possible to the gadget party. Friends and holiday gift guides are always promising me that "this" gadget will change my life. And yes, some gadgets have, but not always for the better.
Take the DVR.
What was promised: "This will change the way you watch TV. You'll never miss your favorite shows. You can skip all of the commercials and watch your shows whenever you want."
The Reality: Yes, it has changed the way I watch TV - it has made TV watching more stressful. I have to make sure all of my favorite shows are recorded and then constantly check to make sure the DVR isn't full. When I add new shows, I reorder my priority list. And then I have to find time in my busy schedule to actually watch the shows. I end up deleting most of what I record because I don't have time to watch. And that makes me sad.
How about the flat screen TV?
What was promised: "Stellar sound and picture quality - once you see TV in high definition, you won't go back to regular TV."
The Reality: I held out for as long as I could on this one. I had a tube TV up until the beginning of 2008. I'm not kidding. In my mind, nothing was wrong with it but apparently, I didn't know what I was missing. Well, I guess I still don't know. I never really cared much for quality of picture and sound so much as the content of what I'm watching. I don't care to see how people's faces really look like up close, or to hear high quality sounding gun shots and special effects with crystal clear picture quality. This stuff just doesn't matter to me. But that's just me.
So all of this is to simply to say I've just learned something about myself - apparently my interest in vintage things also extends to vintage technology. Can't help it - I'm just a girl who lives in the present, plans for the future, but still yearns for a little bit of the past. I guess there are worse things in life. I could be missing my favorite shows and watching them with inferior picture and sound quality. :)
Labor Day weekend, I happened to be in Camarillo, which so happens to be the home of the Camarillo Premium Outlets. I'm not one to let an outlet center shopping opportunity pass me by. Especially during a holiday weekend. So I found myself in an American Apparel outlet store where I met the dress of my dreams (at least for now): American Apparel's "Le Sac Dress." It doesn't look like much on a hanger. It's a basic drape dress. The cool factor: long, versatile straps that you can wrap around in at least a dozen ways to create at least a dozen different looks. I am amazed at how easy it is to change the look of the dress simply by changing the way the straps are wrapped around. Even better - the dress was 30% off due to the Labor Day sale. Major score! It regularly retails for $38 which may seem a lot to some people for a basic cotton dress. But just think if you had to buy 12 different dresses instead of buying 12-in-1! Two days later I purchased a different color strap to further increase my look options. The other bonus: the drape aspect of the dress pleasantly hides any "trouble spots" one might have. Hope my hubby doesn't get sick of the Le Sac Dress. I may be wearing it more than a dozen times the next few weeks. 
