Balancing the Scales - Fashion vs. Land

Cen's post on freebies, took me in another direction. It's why I don't spend as much on fashion

After I logged on for the first time, I spent a couple of months homeless. Trying to find a quiet spot to change clothing and edit appearance was not comfortable for me. I finally ended up at the bottom of a small lake (less lag-crashing a lot in those days). Occasionally a boat would go overhead - probably wondering "what the __?".

I then rented a skybox for the next seven months. I liked my place, had a wonderful time furnishing it, and decorating for the holidays was a blast. I did a LOT of shopping both for my home and my wardrobe. Every change of seasons would reveal wardrobe needs.

Then on New Year's Eve I came home from work to discover that while I was away Santa paid a late visit and I had land!! Absolutely perfect land - a beach lot with a view of both the sunset and sunrise over water!! Whoot!! WindLight equals a double WHOOOT!!

My carefully selected oriental decor for the skybox just didn't work at all in a old fashioned beach house. So I went shopping again. My major problem is that I am 5'8" in game (my RL height), so most of what is available is way too big for me! I look like a child sitting at a table. It took me months to decorate and I'm still waiting for my living room furniture to magically appear. Cas has always been on a budget, and land required a larger linden purchase each month. I cut her spending money to half causing her fashion belt to be tightened.

One major difference in my SL life is that I now feel much more grounded. It's not just that I know more people, have wonderful friends, new activities and challenges. I own land! I didn't realize that part of why I spent so much time shopping wasn't that quest for the perfect jeans and hair that looks like mine. It's because as much as I liked my skybox, it wasn't really a home. I have to have land to have a home!! Maybe it's because I'm an uprooted farm girl. Not the typical one you might think of, dad didn't farm. But I grew up walking the land, listening to the coyotes every night, staring at the milky way, loving the wide open skies and the sunset. In RL/FL I'm displaced. I'm in a metro and although the beach is a mile away and I go there frequently for a walk, it's not a beach I'm comfortable hanging out at.

I now have my sunset back. I don't hang around the house as perfect as it is, I hang around the land! I spend my time outdoors on the private deck or sitting on the side of the hot tub, or lying on Sai's platform bed under the palm trees gazing at the stars.

He's never said anything about it, but although my SL boy friend certainly visited me in the skybox, he is really comfortable hanging out at the place on the beach.

Me? I'm off to the beach...mustn't forget the sun screen!