I Went Clothes Shopping Today

After 3 days of medical appointments, John & I left home again this morning just to run a few errands in Lexington.  One of my personal quests was to find some new t-shirts to wear.  Unless you've tried to shop for them yourself, you can't imagine how difficult it is to find plain t-shirts (no designs, logos, pictures, beads, or studs) made with quality fabric & crew necks.

Even though it was early on a Thursday morning, the mall was a hub of activity. Everywhere I looked I saw happy ladies gleefully looking at & purchasing lovely things. I was pretty excited seeing their happy faces & their bags crammed full of new clothes!  I just knew I was going to have bags crammed full of new t-shirts & maybe even more!  Some of the ladies were kind enough to stop for a moment so I could take a photo of them.  

Doesn't La-Teesha look happy?  She found some great bargains!

Carmen, Ruth, & Deidre were taking their purchases to their car & then heading straight to O'Malley's for a round of drinks to celebrate their finds!   

Naomi, Krissa, Brandi, & Madelyn could hardly believe their good fortune!  Their bags were filled with lovely things! 

Let me tell you, I was pretty excited!  The fact that the first 2 stores I visited had nothing for me did not dampen my spirits.  I moved on to the third store.  Remember, all I wanted were a few plain crew neck t-shirts of good quality, but alas, Store #3 did not have t-shirts like these.  They did, however, have some pretty short sleeved peasant blouses.  Memories of the past flooded my mind.  I used to wear peasant blouses when I was a teenager & I looked rather nice in them back then.  I grabbed a few off the rack, & as I walked to the fitting room I pictured myself looking quite pretty wearing them & thought "won't John be surprised to see me wearing something feminine!"  I went into the fitting room, closed the door, took off my bulky winter coat (temps were in the 30s here this morning!), took off my bulky sweater, put on one of the peasant blouses, turned around, & looked in the mirror.

I did my best to regain my composure, telling myself that surely it was just this one particular style of peasant blouse that was making me look like I had glued a few dozen water balloons to my body before I tried it on.  I placed it back on its hanger, chose a different peasant blouse, put it on, turned around, & looked in the mirror again. 

On & on it went.  I finally took off the last blouse, placed it on its hanger, hung all the blouses on the restocking rack, & asked directions to the ladies room where I reflected on the passage of time & "a thousand & one Snickers too many."  

When I was finally able to leave the bowl, I caught up with John.  I decided to look for safe purchases ... something that wouldn't kick my already fragile self image in the gut. I need a new purse.  Sadly I could not find any I liked.  John found himself a watch though, & then we made our way to the car & ran a few more errands.  

There is a happy ending to this story.  I used to love wearing Birkenstocks but I wore out my last pair, which were bought when we lived in Tennessee, & I've not been able to find any Birks sellers here.  Due to the fact that my feet have been killing me since our trip to NYC, I somehow got the inspiration last night to look on the Birkenstocks website for a possible retailer nearby, & there one was, in Lexington!  They didn't have a huge selection, but they did have just the pair I was looking for.  This summer I may not be as fashionable as La-Teesha, Carmen, Ruth, Deidre, Naomi, Krissa, Brandi, & Madelyn, but by golly, I'm going to have comfy feet!