Shopping again?!?

I’m at it again. Yes, even after my fiasco with my previous experience from Tall and All, I’ve found another new Tall Shop and I just ordered a dress!!! But first, let me relate to you my total experience from Tall and All.

I ordered the jumpsuit from my previous post on 2-21-12 however I didn’t receive the jumpsuit until 4-10-12. This was after I had emailed them twice and each time was told it would take at least 10 days. Hmmm…I know I’m not the best at math but come on!

I tried the jumpsuit on and it fits…but it’s quite possibly the poorest made piece of clothing I’ve ever purchased. Even the material itself is coarse and doesn’t lay appropriately on the body. It’s very see through, so although I’d love to take a picture and show you, I’d like to keep my private bits….private.

I’m SO disappointed. Even my friend Jane who is also 6’2″ was disappointed. I tried it on for her and we both fell into a fit of giggles. She asked what I was going to do with it and I told her it may come in handy for Halloween. I truly dislike giving a negative review but I would suggest staying away from the store Tall and All. It’s not worth the $80 I paid for a jumpsuit that’s going to sit in my closet and collect dust.

BUT…let’s get to the positive stuff. Thanks to a wonderful blog from The Junoesque Blog I found out about a new tall store located on the East Coast called Talltique.  I visited their home page and immediately fell in love with a dress worn by a 6’6″ model. It’s the 2nd one from the left below:

Courtesy of Talltique website.

I immediately emailed the website in their contact information section and asked how I could purchase this dress.  Did I mention it’s called the ‘Infinity Maxi Dress’ because you can wear the straps multiple ways?  (Holy Heaven!)  I got a response from Helen Pappas within minutes and we agreed to chat the next day (today).

She was not only delightful to talk to, she gave me a 15% discount as a new purchaser and as a member of the tall clubs!  Additionally, in the few weeks or so she expects their online shopping to be up and running so I now officially have another store that will definitely be seeing more of me.  I can’t wait to see how this dress fits!

You can ‘Like’ Talltique on Facebook or you can check out their website Talltique.

What was I thinking?

Who wears stuff like this? Apparently I think that I do.

You see this jump-suit.  I ordered it.  Yes, I did.  I know, what was I thinking?  Well, let me tell you….

It’s a Tuesday.  I worked a long day at work and I came home where I proceeded to clean, do laundry, go grocery shopping and complete a bunch of mind-numbing chores that allowed me to justify having a glass of wine.  (I did keep it to one glass)

After I completed my chores and I sat down on the couch to drink my glass o’ wine I obviously needed to do something…and shopping online seemed to be the perfect accompaniment to this activity.  I found this jump-suit at a Tall Clothing website called Tall and All.  I’ve never ordered from there and I’m hoping that this suit fits although where I’m going to wear this…I’ve no clue.

I can’t promise that I’ll post pictures because I’ve no idea what this is going to look like but in the event that anyone out there has never heard of the website Tall and All, check it out. they even have latex pants.  And no, I didn’t order those.

 

 

 

 

Tall Singles Groups

You never know who might show up at your Tall events...Prince maybe?

How cool is this?  There is a Tall Singles Meet Up Group in Portland!!!  So you know I’m a member of the Portland Skyliners which in turn is a member of Tall Clubs International (TCI).  Our Tall club hosts many events through Meet Up and we have been attracting quite a bit of attention lately particularly through our Meet Up site.  We’ve been posting our social hours, dinner events, misc. events, etc and we’ve been getting quite a few new faces showing up to socialize.  Well, there is a Tall Singles Meet Up in Portland that isn’t affiliated with our Portland Skyliners!  New faces…of course I had to join!!!!

I then did a little research on Meet Up and I found 39 different Meet Ups with the words ‘Tall and Single’ in them.  Now when I filtered through the 39 I actually came out with 23 groups that were specifically for Tall People.  Some are off-shoots of actual tall clubs but some are true tall, singles groups.  They range from FL to NY to Canada and there is a grand total of 2,370 Tall Persons joined throughout the US and Canada.

Elvis always did have a 'thing' for me....

I haven’t been to an event yet but there’s a sushi dinner tomorrow night that looks tempting…I think I’ll be brave and go.  I love meeting people!!!  And I can’t turn down sushi.

This is wonderful!!!  I’m sure many of you  have already found this information but I always enjoy passing along what I hope is useful.  I created a quick list of all the groups I found on Meet Up and pasted it below so if you see one in your area you can check it out.  I also linked them so my hopes are that you can find a fun activity in your area!  Good luck all!!

Group	City, State	Members
Tall Singles Portland	Portland, OR	135
Bay Area Tall Singles	San Francisco, CA	247
Seattle Tall Singles	Kirkland, WA	92
Boston Tall Singles	Boston, MA	129
SoCal Tall Singles	Los Angeles, CA	163
OKC Tall Club	Oklahoma City, OK	12
Tall Club of Toronto	Toronto, ON	133
Kansas City Tall Group	Kansas City, MO	150
Tall Club of North Carolina	Raleigh, NC	56
Silicon Valley Tall Group	San Jose, CA	108
Atlanta Tall Club	Atlanta, GA	158
Milwaukee Talls	Milwaukee, WI	24
Tall Austin Singles	Austin, TX	161
Tall Club of Las Vegas	Las Vegas, NV	36
Tall Club of New York City	New York, NY	270
Portland Skyliners Tall Club	Portland, OR	44
Tall Toronto Social Club	North York, ON	27
Denver/Boulder Tall Singles	Denver, CO	130
Boston Beanstalks Tall Club	Boston, MA	113
Tall Professionals of South Florida	Miami, FL	170
Carolina Tall Club	Greenville, SC	9
Tall Girls Group	Palm Bay, FL	3

 

 

Tall Girls-A Story of Giants (New Movie coming out)

I’m not happy. Let’s start there.

Is this really what it has come to?

I stumbled across a new TALL documentary about tall women and my thoughts are…things really need to change.  In the first 2 minutes  of the trailer I was pissed off.  From what I saw this is yet another film that makes tall women look like circus freaks.  The film shows younger girls getting medical treatments to prevent  them from growing and older women discussing how difficult it is to be tall.  Say what?!?

Arianne Cohen is in the film and although I greatly respect her for her Tall Book, I was disappointed in the comments shown of her speaking.  Where are all of the positive role models?  Can’t we be tall, happy, confident women?  Why do we have to be shown in this horrible light?

Or…did I take this wrong?  That is entirely possible because I’m overly protective of my fellow tall women and anything that could potentially throw a negative light on my height-blessed peers also throws me into a tizzy!

Comments are welcome!  I have contacted the company and have asked for some more information.  Here is the website: http://tallgirls-thefilm.com/page/

Please view the trailer and let me know your thoughts.

Found: Old Pictures!

I can't believe I'm even posting this!

Recently I sent some of my really old pictures to a company called Scan Cafe to have them digitally scanned for me in order to preserve them. Oh the gems I have found!  While I know we all tend to grow into the person we were meant to be, I didn’t realize how much I had changed.  For example take the picture to the right:  I’m about 25 years old in this picture but with my dorky mom-sunglasses (yes, I was being silly) and my mom-jeans along with the short dark hair…I look about 40.  This was taken at my 5 year class reunion to my junior college.  Notice how tall I am when standing next to the door.  I should point out that I have heels on.  I always wear heels.  Why not?  Funny stuff.  Now, let’s make fun of my older sister, Heather.

Heather--getting ready to walk the runway!

I love to do glamor shots.  You basically put a bunch of makeup on and pose near something or with something.  We did this in college all the time but one time I was able to get my sister to pose with roses, my mom’s leather jacket, my grandma’s fake diamond necklace, and my Homecoming Queen crown.  Now what makes this really, really funny is when I told Heather I had this picture she didn’t believe me.  In fact, I told her I was going to post it on the blog.  Perhaps next time she will believe me.  Heather–don’t be mad. (Okay, that one wasn’t really about anything tall but I had to do it.  You understand.)

This next picture makes me laugh the most.  The HAIR! This was taken in my college dorm and I’m wearing my b-ball jersey.  I’m not sure what more I can say….I love finding pictures because they bring back such good memories.  It’s too bad that sometimes the pictures don’t look as good as the memories in my head.  I don’t remember looking like this.

Go Warriers!

And here’s my favorite: this is my family back in 1988 or 1989. I can’t believe how young we look!  This was probably taken for a Christmas card or something.  I think I’m only about 6’2″  here.  I love looking at old pictures….

Should we all be embarrassed?

 

 

Weekends with friends

I went to Seattle recently to visit a friend of mine that I’ve known for 33 years. We started school together back in 1978 so I’ve known her a long time. As I was driving I heard my absolute favorite song in the whole world, ‘Jane Says’ by Jane’s Addiction.

For whatever reason that song is like a good punch in the stomach.  It’s as if you hear something that tastes like candy for your ears.  I love this song.  It got me to thinking what other songs are my ‘punchy’ songs.  I’ve got only a few

• “Jane Says”, Jane’s Addiction
• “Sistor”, The Nixons
• “Close my eyes Forever”, Lita Ford with Ozzy Osbourne
• “The Air That I Breathe”, The Hollies
• “Escape (The Pena Colada Song)”, Rupert Holmes

There are some really great songs out there that will stop my in my tracks, but not like “Jane Says”.  But as usual, I’m digressing from my topic.

When I got to Jaren’s we did our usual ‘catch up’ thing.  Good friends can do that.  We haven’t seen each other in months and we simply picked up where we left off.  It’s awesome.

So Jaren and I went to Carnation, WA and to the local bazaar where I proceeded to drop some cash on locally made products.  I found some amazing shawls that were too short.  And then I found the longer ones!  They were perfect for a tall girl such as myself.  What was funny, was that the second Jaren and I started looking at the shawls within 5 minutes there was a run on this lady’s merchandise!  I got my 2 and got outta there.  Beautiful hand-crafted items make me think of home.

Then we found the jewelry.  You simply cannot go wrong with jewelry.  Boy, listen to me…again, I’m digressing.  The whole reason I was writing this was to talk about how I was the tallest person (male or female) at the bazaar.

People were staring, kids were pointing, and I can’t tell you how many weird looks I got…it was awesome.  What was even better is Jaren’s reaction.  She didn’t do anything, it didn’t phase her.  She’s so used to it that I’m not sure she even noticed.  That’s what good friends do; they don’t notice how tall you are even when the rest of the world does their best to point it out.  Isn’t that great?

Jaren and me from our 'girls weekend' last January.

A new tall clothing store?

I was ‘researching’ tall shopping online as I usually do, strictly for the blog of course, and I have come across a new website for tall shopping.  Perhaps it’s always been there and I never noticed it, perhaps I didn’t look hard enough (yeah right), or perhaps the fact that they sell normal-people clothes as well caused me not to look at their clothing line closely.  Huh…  Any of these things could’ve happened but I’ve now found them and I could be in trouble.

This is my sleuthing hat I wear when I do my research!

They are a UK based company.  It seems like many of the really good tall stores are Canadian or UK based.  Yes, I know of a few stores in the US but the foreign companies have some really cool clothes!

The company’s name is “New Look“.  The one thing I noticed is that the pants and jeans are only 35 inches long.  I wear a 37 inseam so 35 is a bit short but that doesn’t mean that I can’t find clothes here.  It doesn’t always have to be about the pants.  I love finding shirts and sweaters that I can change up by layering.

I contacted the company and they immediately contacted me back.  I love that personal touch! Rebecca (the awesome contact) gave me a few links to show everyone how they could ‘rock the glitter and glam’.  (love that phrase from her)

Long-sleeve sequin dress

Slinky cape dress

Sequin collar chiffon top

Lace one-shoulder dress

Twiggy colorblock coat

I can tell you that I will be ordering this knit dress that is so cute and will be awesome with leggings and long sleeves.

Oh, one more thing.  Right now there’s a sale, 25% off of partywear.  You can’t go wrong with a deal like that.

I LOVE shopping!!!!

I’m always ‘The Tall One’ in pictures

I got tickets to go see David Sedaris speak on Friday night and I have to say I LOVE the man. He probably wouldn’t love me back so therefore I’ll continue my search for my ultimate soul-mate but until then, David Sedaris is it for me!   He. Is. Awesome.  I’d never heard him speak before and I think he’s brilliantly, funny. Humor is next to cleanliness in my book so the man is awesome.

Anyway, that’s not actually what I wanted to talk about.  I wanted to talk about why the heck I always have to look so darn tall when I take pictures.  I’ve been putting together a little photo album for a special little niece of mine so I’ve been going through my photos and I realize that unless I’m at a tall club event (or with my family), I’m huge.

Someone this huge drinks a lot of wine! Oh wait...

Okay, I know I’m not huge, just tall but sometimes I can look very large depending on who I’m standing with or even how the camera is posed.  That sucks.  Good thing I think it’s funny or else I could have a huge complex about this.  Also a good thing I’m not a celebrity with paparazzi following me all the time.  They would be forever putting me on the cover of some nasty rag-tag magazine with some horrible headline.  I’m not even going to make up a ridiculous headline because I’m sure we could all think of the awful things they would say.

Can you guess which one is ME?

BTW, if you are still doubting what I’m saying let me get to the whole reason why I’m writing this blog.  This picture was taken on Friday night right after the David Sedaris talk (which again people…awesome!) and I felt really great in this pretty dress and I was all dressed up and then I saw this picture.  I’m huge.

This is me and my favorite waiter, Carlos. Known him since I moved to PDX!

Do you see what I mean?  *Sigh*

(BTW…HAPPY BIRTHDAY today to my OLDER sister HEATHER!!!!!)

The Ultimate TALL Guy?

Now that I’ve got all the ladies attention (and possibly a few of the fellas attention) I’d like to back up.  Do you guys remember when I blogged last April about an ‘Amazingly Funny Tall Interview‘?  In the event you don’t remember, I’m going to ask that you click the link and watch this interview in order to refresh your memory.  Take a peek at my very quick blog and listen to the YouTube video in order for this blog to make any sense.  I thank you in advance!

So now that you are caught up you recall, Chris Clapham.  The very handsome, quick-witted, tall gentleman who happened to catch my attention when I saw his YouTube video.  WELL…I was lucky enough to get to meet him.  That’s right!!  He lives near one of my sisters and when my family went on our fishing trip to MN, we got an opportunity to meet.  Lucky for me, he lives near Minneapolis/Saint Paul area.  Let me just say this:  He is awesome!

Chris and me!! Oh yeah!! He's tall.

I’ll be honest, I was so incredibly excited to meet Chris.  He’s tall, funny, athletic, good looking, did I mention funny?  He’s the real deal ladies!!!

Part of the reason why I was excited to meet Chris is because it’s not too often I see men taller than me who I think could be as funny in person as they are in a video interview.  I was intrigued because the more FUN friends you have, the better your entire life of traveling becomes especially if they live near your sister and you will have the opportunity to see them again at some point!  (also it’s kinda nice to make your boyfriend a bit jealous…..he he…that’s a terrible, yet honest confession, isn’t it?)

Holli's Angels (Heather, Chris, & Holli)

Thank you to Chris for giving me and my family the chance to get to know you.  You were great fun and we all enjoyed meeting you.  Ladies–he’s the real deal.  Great guy, down to earth, and FUNNY!!!!

Oh, and I almost forgot the most important part of the night.  You guys need to see the chili dog that I had for dinner.  Holy Moses was this thing awesome!!!!!

The Chili Cheese Dog (chili on the side)

My TALL Summer

One my most favorite things to do is take fun pictures especially while I’m traveling.  While my summer may not have been my best summer on record, I did get to take a few pretty good pictures and I got to take an awesome trip with my family.

Our trip was ‘Up North’ fishing with my family.  We rented a cabin on North Star Lake MN (about 5 hours north of Minneapolis) with 8 adults and my 4 year old niece, Baileigh, who is the most adorable little kid EVER.  (I should insert here that all my nieces and nephews are the most adorable kids EVER!)  Anyway, this cabin is truly awesome in a surprising way.  There’s no TV.  That’s right my family actually had to talk and do things together.  It was wonderful and I’m a little shocked that we all had as much fun as we did.

My niece loves to sing.  One night while she was in the shower and the rest of us were sitting in the living room area, she started to sing. “And I rock this club, and I go all night singing Aye-Oh…..let’s go!”  It was the funniest thing ever.  She got the words all wrong, but it was hilarious.   That would be our song of the weekend.  She also learned how to use the end of a jump rope as her microphone (thanks Aunt Holli!)

'And I rock this club...'

I also need to mention that I found my new favorite chair.  It was on our way to the Lake although I don’t remember which city it was in, the chair of course was dedicated to Paul Bunyan.  Anytime there is a large piece of patio furniture sitting in a parking lot it seems to beckon to me to sit back and relax.  So I did.

I think I finally found the perfect chair!

Now one other thing that we usually do when we take these family vacations is we play volleyball.  Almost everyone is over 6′ tall (with only one exception!) and I have to imagine that if we were against someone other than ourselves we could be quite intimidating.   This year it was the Jennings’ girls against the significant others.  My mom was our one and only spectator and she clapped for both teams so it didn’t exactly feel like a real game.  However, I’m very proud to say that the Jennings’ girls won!!!

Bump, Set, Spike!

We spent much of our time fishing, boating, kayaking, playing games, eating…it was a nice and relaxing.  My family is really fun.  I never did catch a fish but then, neither did my dad.  Heather was the big winner with a 45″ muskie.  We threw it back.  Muskies aren’t a good fish to eat…I learned that from the guy who helped us catch it.  Hmmm…I guess I could say I had an educational summer.