A few months back I went out to buy a pair of Levi's and found myself at the new "Levi's Store" inside JCPenney. All I wanted was a pair of relaxed-fit, dark indigo blue jeans. (I like to have them fade naturally and don't necessarily need a head start.) Well, good luck with that.

Apparently skinny jeans are the in thing for men now, too, or pre-ripped, sand-papered, dyed to a weird greenish hue, or made large enough for Barney the Dinosaur. I'm not quite as big as Barney, but I finally ended up with a pair of the latter--I call them my "big boy pants"--after trying on half-a-dozen other pairs of jeans with enough different numbers in the 500 range that I was starting to feel like I was trapped in a word problem in math. None of the others even came close to fitting.

The search went on. The new Levi's Denizen brand at Target were just more skinny jeans and faded jeans, and while the Levi's Signature brand at Walmart actually does fit me, but they don't seem to make them in unfaded indigo blue, and they never have them in a 34 length (which I wear with boots).

So done looking at Levi's. Went to Amazon and searched for men's jeans in my size, these came up. Since they were unfaded indigo, 14 ounce denim (like the classic Levi's 501) had the rivets, and since they cost half as much as the Levi's and got good reviews, I ordered a pair. I like how they look, I like how they fit, and I like the price. Guess I'll be shopping for jeans online now, too.