Clothes shopping is the absolute pits. I hate. hate. hate it.
Let me tell you a little story. First, I have to preface it with the facts that 1) I dress in teacher clothes during the school year and 2) in the summer, my personal dress code is a little more relaxed. No shorts, but capris and t-shirts. Remember, though, that all my shirts come from Target and pants from Kohls due to their practicality and price.
Anyway, at work I notice when the young moms come in wearing their beautiful blouses, dresses, skirts and other clothes that won’t have play-dough stuck on the butt by the end of the day. I like to complement them on their lovely attire. This summer one of the moms looked so pretty – like a little girl but ‘all grown up’. Pink dress, little black cardigan and high-heeled mary jane shoes. Just lovely. I exclaimed how cute her outfit was and she said, “Well, I’d love to have a job where I could dress like you ladies.”
Ouch.
Ouch.
Ouch.
Soooooooo…… while I can’t do the dress and heels, I’ve decided that maybe it might be time to make more of an effort. The total downside of that is that to obtain nicer clothes you have to shop for them.
Today I made a concerted effort. I have to shop alone because I need to be able to wander about at my own pace and argue with myself without distraction. I was in Kohls for over an hour and actually tried things on, but only bought one measly shirt. Their pants – which I have counted on in past years – did not fit. (Granted, I haven’t bought new pants in three years.) Back to Target, where I only bought one standby t-shirt (but with stripes!) and three other non-t shirts. At ShopKo I tried on some pants that are neeeeeaaarrrrrly like jeans, but I think they’ll work. Do dress pants made of denim count as jeans? I’m going to try it. (Friday is jeans day, but if I can wear these on Wednesday…….woo-hoo!)