OK, Steve likes my idea of taking posts from my old blog and putting them here on Tuesdays so I’m going with it. We’ll call this weekly feature “Tuesday’s takeback”. Oddly enough, this entry was from August 21, 2005 (2 years ago today guys) and it just so happens that we went school shopping today.
Clothes shopping, take one …
Why did I think I would have this wrapped up in one shot? It was off to the mall today for the dreaded back to school clothes shopping. We didn’t have a physical list, after all we’ve been through this before. There was an unspoken understanding of what was deemed appropriate. Why then is it so difficult to get this task done in a timely manner?
First stop, JC Penney’s. There are many items to choose from, perhaps this is the first problem. It’s also hard to place yourself in jeans and long sleeve shirts when it’s hot and humid out. We do our first walk through, there’s nothing that catches her eye. Out of the dozens of jeans that sparkle, flare, are faded, are dark, that stretch, that are embroidered, are studded and have fancy belts, none of these are acceptable. Of course I found several nice pairs but was give the thumbs down. Then she wanders off to the next section over and finds a pair to her liking. I said “that’s great but they’re plus size” …she’s not. Then she goes to another rack and asks “what’s slim fit”. To which I have to reply “not you” …she’s regular. There are all sizes available but they don’t make the same jeans in each size. If they do we couldn’t find them. Finally, she finds a couple pairs and now it’s off to find tops that match. Same deal, we do the once over and nothing. Really, I don’t know what the problem was. There were many more shirts to choose from than pants …maybe that was it!! Sadly, we only left Penney’s with 2 complete outfits.
At this point I needed a break and my daughter needed to refuel. We went to get some pretzels and a drink. When our rest was over it was back to the grind. This time our mission was sneakers. Before we even left home I won the battle of the appropriate gym sneaker, thanks to the letter that was sent home. Now we knew what we were looking for and I wasn’t spending over X amount of $$’s on a pair of sneakers that she’ll grow out of in a month or two. Notice I didn’t give a specific amount, this is partially because I wasn’t sure what range she would be looking in. This was worse than trying to find jeans. She found a pair she liked and they we’re too unreasonably priced but they didn’t have her size. They did have a size that would fit her now but wouldn’t in a month so I had to put my foot down. At that point I turned into my mom and began saying “I’m not spending that kind of money on something you’re just going to out grow”. OY! I tried convince her that all the stores sell just about the same thing so we would find them elsewhere. As it turns out I was wrong and I heard about it too. Ok, so it used to be that way, what do I know. She finally found a pair that she was happy with and in her size. Oh and X = $60.00 …she had her eye on a pair that were $100.00 …I think not!
Here is where it ends for now. We’re no where near finished. There are more outfits to be found as well as underware, socks, hair accessories and a backpack. Take two …
*taken from my former blog “There goes my pen“
We’re still not done, we have to go back to get shoes and sneakers. That’s all I got …I still don’t want to go back to work …or shop!
