My first big hit.

Well, I've now experienced the first inconvenience of The Stuff Stand-off. As you may or may not remember from my first blog entry, one of the rules of our Stand-off was that anything in motion can stay in motion. This rule was put in place primarily for Jonathan's magazines and my, recently purchased, North Face fleece jacket that I bought off of ebay just before we brought in the new year.

I was really excited about this jacket, not only because I love North Face, but also because I haven't had just the right winter jacket since I got to North Carolina. The winters are cold here, but not too cold, so the ski jacket I wore in the winter further north is hardly appropriate. But it still gets chilly, so the pretty spring and fall jacket that I wear isn't quite warm enough on the brisk days. I do have my work coat that suffices, but I don't have a casual coat that keeps me warm enough but doesn't make me look like a misplaced ski bunny.

So this is why I had decided on the fleece. Just the right kind of coat to get me happily through the winter (or what's left of it). And to be honest with you, part of the reason I felt okay about beginning this experiment is because I knew the coat was coming.

I've been waiting eagerly from the coat's arrival, and today when I got home from work and it still wasn't there, I decided to jump on-line and check out what the delay was. You can imagine my dismay when I had a message from ebay telling me that I still needed to provide feedback on my purchase (HELLO? I haven't gotten it!) but worse, that my seller was no longer registered on ebay. In short: I was scammed.

I know I should be most upset about the lost money, but all I can really think about is not having that coat for the duration of this winter or for the beginning of the next one. Thankfully our cold front is leaving town and warmer weather is on it's way, but this still comes as a blow.

So now I keep telling myself - I already have more than I need. I can make due with the coats in my closet, and I can be grateful that I have a coat to wear at all.

But man - I was really looking forward to that North Face...