I get what you're saying Meg but I'm an elementary school teacher and I can assure you that everyone in the room knew what each group meant before first recess.

You're right, Denise. Sigh. I guess humans will turn anything into a competition?

Baffled cracked me up so much by calling me a Pixie Woman that I added it to my signature line!

This morning I ordered my first fall clothing, a thigh lengthed sweater with a ribbed gathering at the waist. I think it will be very flattering. It's lime green, which I can't seem to get enough of. I've got a lime green purse, wallet, fleece jacket, t-shirt, t-shirt dress, 2 long sleeved shirts, a scarf, a shear dressy poncho like scarf to go over a spaghetti strap t-shirt that I haven't gotten yet, 3 bracelets, and 2 pendants. I'm hoping the PXS will actually be the right size. It's always a gamble for me when I mail order.

http://www.shopthebay.com/pagebuilde...=SEARCHRESULTS

Since some of you have mentioned your meassurements, it got me to thinking what are mine now. So I pulled out DH's metal meassuring tape and found out I'm now 29/24/32 and I know I have a 28 in seam. I remember a time in high school when Levy's still had waist numbers on then leather labels (and the normal weight girls aways penned them out thinking they were fat. Then, I was a perfect 28 28 because the waist hit at my hips. It's the only time in my life were I didn't have to hem pants. Even petites are too long. But better to be too long then some of you who are so long legged that you have trouble finding pants to go down to your ankles.

Accessories?

Well no wonder. Until 6 years ago I wasn't a petite. I wore regulars and petites were seriously high water on me. Then they decided to make all the petites longer. Now even petites are a shade long on me. I'm 5'3 3/4 and I have long legs for my height. What is next - ultra petite for those 00's?

Oh and while I am on a vanity sizing rant. Medela - probably the largest supplier of breastfeeding supplies and products - is discontinuing the 32 band for many of its bras. What is next?

Thin people are just going to be naked soon I tell ya.

Ennay - I just ordered new jeans from Land's End, and they offer petites in 3 lengths. It's wonderful, because I find that most petites are just right or a little short for me, though I need them because I have a short rise. These jeans fit me like they were custommade - length just right and I can button and zip them without effort.

I have a slightly annoying time with pant lengths. My inseam is 33", which I think is the length of most regular length pants. The trouble is that while they are fine in length as long as I wear very flat shoes (ie, flip flops) and don't shrink in the wash (which happens 50% of the time), they are too short if I want to wear heels or non-completely-flat shoes. Most of you probably haven't noticed that while they sell petites in stores, Longs have to be ordered online--almost no one carries them in the stores. It's a little bit annoying.

And since we're discussing it, my measurements are currently 34/27.5/38. I don't know how my hips have come to be bigger than my chest--I've always been top heavy. Even though I lost somewhere between 12 and 15 pounds this year, hardly any of it has come off my hips and thighs. It's confusing. I have never been even a little bit pear shaped before--even as a slim teen and 20-something, I was top heavy.

Carolyn, I've always had a love/hate relationship with pixie women. I'm slightly jealous of how tiny you all can be, but by comparison, I always feel like a giant oaf, so I hate you a little bit too

Since I'm at work I can't whip out my measuring tape.....but I have to commiserate with baffled. Those of us that are on the tallish side (I'm 5'8") do have a hard time getting pants the right length. I can't buy anything from Coldwater Creek because they're too short (even with flat shoes). I could get the skirts, but I don't wear skirts....At the Gap, I can get regular jeans and wear them with flats and if I pick out the longs, well, they're so long I'd need to wear stilettos (and then DH would look like a shrimp next to me). Can't they get something in between? DD was lamenting the other day that it looks like she won't grow any taller (she's 5'6" and seems to have inherited most of her genes from DH's family who are all on the short side rather than from me where none of us are shorter than me--in fact I'm the shortest except for my sister who is all of 1/4" shorter than me!). Frankly, at 5'6" she has no problem with the length of pants. I envy her just a little for that. But I like being tall!

I read somewhere here about someone's DH or BF who went shopping and came away to find that either he had gained weight (which he didn't think he had) or the men's sizes had changed. He was wondering how on earth a 34" waist could be anything other than 34" (or something like that).

I know that when buying clothes for my DS, who is 12 years old, he wears size 12. He's always worn clothes that match his age. How weird is that? DD was similar but she was always "a couple years older" in clothes (she'd be 10 and wearing a 12).When I was little, all I ever remember was going shopping with my Mom and her telling me that I was a 6X. Oh, how I hated being 6X. All the cute clothes were 5's! What was 6X anyway?

I meant to go to Talbots this weekend, but DD decided a movie was in store for the family. Perhaps I'll get there this weekend.

My bf is 6'2, so I can wear the highest heels I want and he's still taller. It's great!

But don't forget, there's always tailoring. I often buy the long pants and take them with my shoes to the seamstress. She hems them to the right length for about $3.

You're right about 5'6. It's probably the perfect height. But I think that if I woke up tomorrow 3 inches shorter, I'd be terribly distressed. Kinda the same way I am with my breasts: I *****ed and moaned for years about being a D and a DD and all the trouble that causes with clothing and bras, and now that I'm a C and can wear bras with thin straps and can button shirts over my chest, I feel absolutely bereft!

It's tough being chronically dissatisfied

Kery - Not a maintainer obviously but I have a feeling I would entirely like to raid your closet.

Last time I put on black/red striped tights (they actually come in plus sizes now) I THOUGHT I looked cute until I saw a picture of myself! Eeek!

We're our own worst critics!

Ain't that the truth!

Unlike Baffled, I'd love to be a C cup, years of D/DD have left permanent grooves in my shoulders.

And at 5'4" (when I stand up straight) I am taller than my DH. But he was taller before he had cancer. Lost over 5" from compression fractures in his back. Now he's a little pixie guy (Not, you understand, that he was ever a big guy - 5'9" and skinny) My 5'3" sister is the one you tall gals hate - her DH is 6'7"

LOL. In my family, we firmly believe that short women should not steal all the tall men!

Nah, wait until Christmas, that way I'll have more clothes for you to raid.

(And same with the stripes when I was heavier. Or, worse, stockings that stop in the middle of the thigh; things are starting to get better now that my thighs are more muscular, but at the time, with all the fat and cellulite... Eeew.)

Allison, I'm 5'7 and I buy the long in all my jeans. My legs are so long they seem awkward compared to my upper body. Last fall I bought some new boots (that I love) and when I wear them, I'm as tall as DH.

Carolyn, I remember the Levis with the size tag on the hip. I wore them all the time when I was a teen. When I went to college and the 29" waist got too small, I quit wearing them. I do still see men in them with the size tag showing sometimes. (I don't know if they were just really old jeans , or if Levi's still make them this way).

I don't think I'll ever have to worrry about wearing negative sizes. Right now, I'm just happy if my new clothes fit right.

My dh is 5'3 so I am about 1/2 inch taller than him. I finally could wear his jeans, but they are too short...seriously high water. He has I think a 28 inch inseam and I have a 31

Allison - that was me...dh has always worn 30W 28L - VERY hard to find and his mom was so excited because she found some since we cant find a tailor for jeans that doesnt charge as much as the jeans cost. He put them on and they were neither a 30W or a 28L...they were HUGE.