Shopping: A Curse and a Blessing

Like most members of the female sex, I enjoy shopping. I love just taking a whole afternoon and going out with my mom to browse racks and try on clothes and have a lot of fun spending money and cooing over cute clothes and making fun of ugly ones. And then we go out for fast food afterwards (usually Arby's) and have shakes and share fries and tell dorky stories about what happened at school. Then we go home, listening to a Disney CD and singing along occasionally. (Well, mostly my mom.)

I also hate shopping though. The store never has my size. The size I'm supposed to be isn't what I can fit in. The thing I really like is expensive. I can't find what I'm looking for. My mom thinks a completely hideous outfit is "adorable." The salespeople mob me, smiling plastically and asking if I'm looking for anything, to which I always reply with a slightly annoyed, "Just looking, thank you." If I actually need a salesperson, one will never be around. While I show Mom how a shirt fits, someone will steal my dressing room, with my purse and street clothes still in it. My hair will get messed up. I'll never find what I'm looking for.

Case in Point: Last Friday, Mom and I went shopping for a shirt for me to wear to our fine arts meet we had yesterday and a dress for me to wear for graduation, as the black dress in the picture on my blog needs a jacket and since it's vintage we're having a hard time finding a wrap to go with it. (And it's ripped.)

I was very excited, because one of my best friends had told me she'd found her graduation dress at Dress Barn (why they named it that I will never understand; who wants to go shopping for a formal dress in a place with a name evocative of cows?) and they had just restocked the day before and they had some great stuff.

So we went, leaving right after school. We hit Dress Barn, where I tried on a cute sheath the color of a mushroom. (Nixed: sheaths aren't supposed to be worn with a jacket, and it didn't look that great on me anyway.) Mom found a completely adorable brown dress on the clearance rack. (Also nixed: while it was exceptionally cute and a gorgeous brown color and great fabric and a cool hem, it had a VERY low back.) I tried on a fancy red velvet shirt. (Rejected: too tight and it shed sparkles all over my black pants.) A white ruffly blouse. (Denied: I came out to show Mom and she started laughing hysterically; I still don't know why.) The rest of the dresses were weird colors, or not checkable, or in ridiculously large sizes, so we left.

Then, after dinner, we went to Kohl's. I tried on clothes for forty-five minutes. I tried on a cute brown sundress that I just ADORED. It was even on sale!!! But it was a few inches too short, and my mom's sharp eyes found poorly-done seams, so back to the rack it went. Blouse after blouse was rejected: too tight, too loose, too low, unflattering, weirdly colored. FINALLY, I found a black shirt that would work for the fine arts meet. It was on sale, so we bought it for a reasonably good price and left at around nine.

I'm still looking for that graduation dress. If you have any places to recommend where I could find a stylish, modest dress, I'd appreciate if you'd leave it in the comments.