the world is so complex

That's what I decided today. The world is complex. I know, nothing new. But it's too complex. What happened to the old days?

This conversation came up b/c we were talking about those special saddle shoes some of us used to have to wear. I remember having them when I was really little because my feet both wanted to curve inward when I walked. My mom would take me to some special shoes store in downtown Streator to get them. I didn't like them, I know that much. And I think I remember them being expensive, so neither did my parents I'm sure. I remembered that said "special shoes store" was just where you went to get those. Today I wondered where people go to get those, because most likely those stores don't exist anymore. Now you probably have to search online to find the nearest shoestore that carries saddle shoes. I miss the small-town-feeling of just "knowing where to go."

And then last night, while watching the very disappointing episode of Gilmore Girls that my great roommate taped for me, I saw a commercial for some made-for-TV American Girl movie called Felicity. My initial reaction was "Is that like a reunion show for the old TV show Felicity?" Nope. It's about the American Girl character Felicity. And then I remembered how when I was little I loved those books, because they had just come out when I was in grade school. They were special. The pages had this scent of new paper that no other brand new books carried. I was so excited when they came in from my weekly Scholastic order or from a Christmas present. And now? complexity. There are like 100 American Girl characters. (Actually, 8 to be exact...I looked it up online out of curiosity.) But there were only a few when I used to get those books. Man, I miss the smell of those pages.

And I've always wondered when we went into all different lengths of clothing...a decade ago no one ever wore capris (in style, anyways...) and 3/4 length sleeved shirts. Or maybe I'm crazy. But I feel like even clothing is so complex now. What length of pants or sleeves do I want to wear today? How many layers will I wear? (because, you know, layers are the way to go...) or maybe I'm just making this all too complex.

We could carry on about options with kinds of toothpaste, shampoo & conditioner, candy bars (even look at all the different types of M&M's now!!!), etc. It just seems like decisions we have to make are more complex today, even those of the simplest kind. Don't get me wrong, I like my options. I like choosing my flavor of coffee and from several lengths of shirt sleeves and kinds of toothpaste. But, still...

I miss the old days.
I miss simple.