Grasping at Grace (and Growth)

Fashion - One Day You're In, The Next You're Stupid
I used to love Project Runway, back when it was on Bravo. Yes, I wear jeans and untucked old shirts more often than I ever wear stylish clothes - hello, middle-aged spread - but fashion fascinates me. And Project Runway is the only competition-based reality show that seemed to put at least as much emphasis on real talent as it did on carefully maneuvered and edited drama. (No, Top Chef doesn't count. I can't judge food that's only pixels to me.)

In fact, I loved Project Runway enough that I tuned out the last couple of seasons more because of scheduling conflicts than any unhappiness with it, or its move to Lifetime. Hey, as long as Tim Gunn still presided, gentle, elegant and brilliant, over the workroom and the designers' hearts, souls, and taste levels, I was happy. I'd even learned to deal with Michael Kors' bitchiness, Nina Garcia's capricious standards and Heidi Klum's occasionally cold-eyed world view. So I was pleased this season, when I was able to catch at least a third of the episodes.

That included the last two before the two-part finale, and, of course, Thursday night's finale.

• The plumbers are gone, their deeds of heroism done, their rodding and sewer caps having comforted me and mine.
  
• I've put all the rags used to hold back the waters last night through the wash, and the next step is to clean the floors tomorrow.   And these plumbers? Oh, about nine gazillion times better than the last ones, I'm thinking. Hell, they even gave us a free jacket. No, really. One of them left their Official Plumbing Company hoodie jacket here. When we called the office to alert someone, they asked if there were any things in the pockets. No ... and hey, presto, it was bequeathed to us.
  
• Also, they revised their initially worrisome (she said, with astonishing understatement) "This. Is. Raw. Sewage." analysis. It wasn't raw sewage. It's just that regular waste water that has aged grease and unidentified biocrud marinating in it - rather like our own lower g.i. tract biocrud marination system - well, let's just say the resemblance between the two products is breathtaking. No. Really. It got hard to breathe in here. But, technically speaking, while it may have walked like a duck, it wasn't duck shit.
  
• I have had a shower. Let me say that again, because it was so good to think about. I have had a shower.