the joys of shopping

today, on my list of things what must be done, i encountered two items i most did not want to accomplish. or rather, i wanted them accomplished, but i didn't want to actually go do them.

1. buy some sort of foundation garment for the bridesmaid's dress
2. buy some sort of shoes for the bridesmaid's dress

oh boy, doesn't this sound like a fun morning? i'll start with the buying of fancy underwear, since this is what i did first.

i walked into this lingerie store [not the one where i get my bras, since i've already checked and they don't have the kind of foundation garment i'm looking for). the bell on the door sounds, and one of the young ladies comes to the door to help me. i notice at this point that one of the other young ladies (the one behind the counter) is vaguely familiar. well, dirt town is relatively small. no big deal.

i locate the sought for item, verify the size, and go to purchase it. and this is the point when i remember why this young lady is vaguely familiar. i taught her composition. i can't remember which section, but i know it was the first semester. the good Lord was smiling on me (while laughing, i'm sure), and this clicked for me before she asked me whether i remembered her. i was able to be bright and perky while i assured her that i did indeed remember her. now, don't ask me this young lady's name. i won't be able to tell you.

so, after buying fancy underwear from a former student (hence why God was laughing at me), i resigned myself to go shoe shopping.

i typically enjoy shopping for shoes. i like finding pretty shoes and mocking fashionable ones. i get a kick out of bringing home a new pair of shoes. i really do. ams will vouch for that, as will ems, km, or anyone from cua. but i hate looking for shoes meant to fulfill a specific purpose. i'm miserable looking for dress shoes to go with an easter dress as sr will testify. i loath finding the perfect pair of shoes to go with a single outfit for a single day.

in fact, i remember a miserable time a few years ago when i tried to find a pair of shoes for a different bridesmaid's dress for the wedding of rem (now rek). the one i ended up not going to. yeah. my mother and i tried to find shoes. no luck. dr and tried to find shoes. no luck. finally, my then-boyfriend and i found some shoes that were... at least suitable. actually, the outing with tw was vastly more fun than the others, if still painful.

those shoes were purchased and stored. i wore them twice. once to a play when a bunch of us decided to dress sexy for the hell of it, and once for a dinner outing when we decided to do much the same thing. that second time, i ended up removing the shoes halfway through dinner and leaving the restaurant barefoot. i even drove home barefoot. the next day, the shoes went to goodwill. shoes that do that to one's feet should not coexist with the feet in question. it's like a medieval torture victim keeping those thumbscrews for old time's sake.

so i took my mother's advice [very sage advice, i might add. she's good at that], and entered the mall. even on a good day, i'm terribly unfond of the mall. i don't like crowds, i hate the twisty maze of stores, i really detest the perfume section that plagues the department stores, and then there's the walking all over creation because the two items you need are at opposite ends of the earth. nevertheless, after buying underwear from a former student, i subjected myself to the mall.

and let me say, i was pleasantly surprised. one of the circulating shoe sharks sales representatives pounced on me offered her assistance immediately. and do you know what? i abandoned all prior habits, and said 'yes, please. i'm looking for a sandal of some kind, white or silver, with a low, thick, or nonexistent heel, that will go with a cocktail length, pale blue bridesmaid's dress, and that is preferably affordable.'

well let me tell you. this lady took me around the dillard's shoe department and picked out about seven sandals that fit the requirement. she vetoed about a dozen others because she knows about that vague and fuzzy casual/dressy divide that i can never quite understand. she was cool when i said that some of her choices looked painful, and we settled on four that i would try on.

she was even cool when i was trying them on. she didn't obsequiously offer to get a larger size if i seemed dissatisfied with the cut of a shoe. she even recommended that i remove one of the pairs from my list because it didn't look right. i ended up with a pair of white, kitten heel mules that don't strangle my toes and that are just on the divide between casual and dressy. meaning i can wear them elsewhere at some other time during some other occasion with some other outfit. and they're kind of cute.

the surprising bit: under 50 dollars. every single requirement was taken care of, and i didn't spend an hour looking at shoe after shoe. it was an in-and-out trip, one stop shopping. i entered the mall right by dillards, tried the first shoe department i came to, accepted assistance [something i see myself doing again in the future], tried on a shoe, purchased it, and left the mall. it was unlike every other mall experience i've had in my life. it was glorious.

and now items 1 and 2 on my list for today have been taken care of. in fact, i've already completed 3 [outline the researched essay for memoir] and 4 [clean the bathroom and rewrite the mirror's to-do list]. now there's just:

5. sort laundry, wash two loads, dry them, put them away
6. buy some groceries at united
7. revise multigenre essay for memoir
8. sketch out policy sheet for TCL

i may actually sleep at a decent hour tonight. i thought i'd still be running around looking for shoes about right now. but i'm way ahead of schedule. it's a novel feeling.

well, that's it for now.

love and peace