Panda Advantage: Being Big, New Clothes

When I was little my dad told me I was so trim and cut that you could see every muscle in my body twitching when I moved. Since we lived in the mountains of New York at the time I did nothing but run around outside and climb rock cliffs for fun. As I became older though and we moved to Virginia I had a whole lot less to do, no places to go, and most of my hobbies and activities became more sedentary. I became, as my mom described, very puffy. I didn't feel sick or lethargic from it though, just self conscious because my family picked at me for it. Later on I took tae kwon do as part of phys. ed. and after about two years I was slim and trim again. The bad part is that I felt sickly and always tired because I evidently didn't eat enough. After a while I just decided to eat a whole lot more and work out more vigorously doing much of the same things I learned while in tae kwon do. That same year I also bought heavier dumbells to do some basic weight training and I also started studying more physical exercises that didn't require weights, such as hindu push ups. After a couple months I noticed something disappointing...


I really liked that shirt. :(

Needless to say I was rather miffed over the fact my favorite shirt no longer fit, but I was rather impressed that I gained that much muscle mass around my arms for that to happen. I eventually went out shopping for new clothes at one of my favorite stores, Eddie Bauer. What I found out though is that because I'm short for a guy, that being 5' 8", but as broad as somebody who would generally be taller, I had a bit of difficulty finding clothes that fit the way I wanted.

I have this thing with long sleeved, button up shirts where I like to fold the arms up because the weather is fickle and can become excrutiatingly warm even though it was quite cool earlier in the day. Mom always told me it's because I'm part German and like to keep my sleeves tidy. Anyway, with short sleeved button up shirts the sleeves fly off the sides like little wings for some reason and it gets on my nerves. I eventually found that polo shirts fit me very well. I suppose this might be why rugby players wear them all the time. Later on I did find a new favorite shirt at Wal-Mart of all places. That didn't last though...

What's somewhat shocking about this is that this was an XL shirt from Wal-Mart. You know, that store that sells larger clothing, usually. I still wear this shirt, but I have to fold the sleeves up or I can't move my arms at all. This once again gave me reason to go out in search of some newer long sleeved shirts for the oncoming cooler months. I went to the Wrangler store at the Williamsburg Outlet Mall because they tend to have a lot of clothing I like on sale. I found this really nice plaid, size XL shirt that I wanted. I tried it on and found...

that I now need to buy XXL shirts to fit my chest and shoulders. Either the fashion industry has changed their standards for sizes and want people to be flat and weak looking or I've just acquired that much bulk to need bigger clothing. What's somewhat amusing is that the Big & Tall store was right across the hall from the Wrangler store. It's like it was laughing at me because it wants me to need to buy clothing from their store. I'm not quite that big, yet, so mock me all you want Big & Tall. I'm not ready for your clothes.


Time to clean out old clothes.

Since we're on the subject or large statures I'd like to mention that some cars were definitely not made for people with wider shoulders. A proper example would be my dad's car, a 1995 Geo Metro.

Dad fits fine in it as he is built like a bike racer, all legs and no upper body. Whenever I have to drive it I feel like a little kid inside a go-kart at one of those putt putt golf and games places. This issue doesn't just apply to me though. Whenever my family decides to all go somewhere together it's a dreadful(yet amusing) experience since my sisters and I will all sit in the back seat of our 2008 Scion xB. It's a wonderful car to ride in as long as you're only carrying four people or four big people and one skinny twig. But in our case it is not comfortable at all.