Saturday, October 13, 2007

There's always a first for everything...

My mother despises everything about shopping: fighting mall traffic, walking around on tired feet searching, wasting an entire afternoon, and then ultimately handing over the Visa card. I like shopping, something I must not have inherited from her. I like browsing. I like trying things on (granted I'm not shopping with a two-year old). I like being impulsive. I like that I usually only go shopping when I know what I'm looking for and know how much I can afford to spend on it.

With that said, it is usually a frustrating experience for me to find pants that fit me right, particularly jeans. I'm tall (and prefer not to be high-water) and don't like super tight stretchy denim that shrinks around the leg or doesn't keep me covered at the waist. I know, picky, picky me. I've usually had good luck finding jeans at Old Navy. But then I had Leah and never found the right size of anything for the year and a half that my maternity clothes were stashed away in storage. Usually, I don't have a problem shopping for anything else.

(Side note: I just discovered buying kid's clothes at Shopko--they have really cute coordinating tops and bottoms at good prices and they always ring up sale!)

I had a very strange experience this past week. I went shopping (sans toddler, mind you) with a definite vision: shoes for myself and Leah and comfortable non-work maternity pants (since last time I was pregnant I was working and had to look nice every day). I determinedly walked into the mall and straight into Payless. I found Leah's shoes right away. I spent a total of 10 minutes and $40 in Motherhood Maternity and came out with a pair of jeans and a pair of black yoga pants, both of which I needed only try on once before knowing they were the perfect fit. It was so nice to try on pants that were actually comfortable! (The jeans even have pockets!--a rarity for maternity pants, don't ask me why...) Never before have I purchased the first pair of jeans I tried on--this was just too easy!

So now I'm back at Payless to find comfortable shoes that match my new pants. Never before that moment had I stood and stared at a wall of shoes and felt completely at a loss. I didn't know exactly what I wanted, but I knew exactly what I didn't want. I didn't want any of the shoes I was looking at. Sure, there were some pretty nice shoes. Stuff that's really in style nowadays just isn't my style (does that mean my style is out of date?). I don't want the kind with a flower on the toe, I don't want heels, I don't want those goofy-looking Airwalk clog shoes people wear interchangeably with and without socks, and I don't want tennis shoes with someone's signature on the side, either. I just want comfortable shoes I can wear with black pants or jeans on days when I don't want to wear flip-flops or Doc Martens. I have no idea what I want. Is it allowed to wear white tennis shoes with black pants? I don't even know! Anyway, I came out empty handed (empty footed? I mean, I was wearing the shoes I came in with...). What a disappointment! This has never happened to me before! Is this why my mom hates shopping?

2 comments:

Nancy Sabina said...

I definitely feel your woes about shopping for pants - and how much easier it is when you're pregnant. I don't know why this phenomenon happens - but I always struggle to find pants that fit - unless I'm prego. I am way more stylin when Im pregnant too. Those maternity fashions just seem to be more my style. But don't make me start thinking about baby #4! Not quite yet anyway.

Anonymous said...

You are right about the shopping. I will shop for two hours and collect an armload of stuff which I then put back one piece at a time. Then I walk out having found nothing that really fits or makes me look 24 and thin. (If I followed your lead and looked at maternity clothes, maybe I'd find something stylish that fit me, but somehow that doesn't seem quite right.) Fortunately, lately I've been too busy to shop, so I wear the same old stuff over and over again. Mom