The button jar.

Tonight is the annual holiday party, and for the occasion I broke out a new shirt that I purchased a few weeks ago on sale at Express. Some time this morning I had an odd sensation in the new shirt, and realized that I still hadn't clipped the envelope with the extra button from inside the shirt.

As I stared at this extra button, neatly packaged in its envelope, I was reminded of a conversation Wes and I were a part of on our cruise this summer. Every night we were seated with the same group of couples - 2 couples were newlyweds and one had been married for a while. Each night, the couples tried to out-do each other in griping about their spouses ("she's always shopping!" "he never listens!"). For the most part Wes and I tried to ignore this bickering. One night however, one of the women described a cardinal sin of her husband's: somewhere in the "moving-in together" process he had disposed of her button jar. She told him it was unforgivable and he couldn't figure out what he had done wrong.

See this is one of the fundamental differences between men's and women's apparel. Men's clothes come with extra buttons - they are sewn to the inside of the front button band. Women's clothing comes with extra buttons and thread - however, they are usually attached in a small envelope to the clothing. Every woman I know has some box, jar or bag somewhere with a collection of these envelopes. Now I will acknowledge that I probably still have envelopes of buttons and thread for garments long past that I no longer own, but even so, this collection is essential to maintaining clothes in proper working order.

So tell me ladies... do you have a button jar?