this is a post about shopping

So it is not like, the mature way to deal with having a bad week, but I'm okay with that because I've been waiting for this all year: to wit, when it's almost summer and after a year of school uniforms and only a couple of extra outfits, I get to dress Child in non-uniform, non-holiday-related clothes.

This? Is the best part of my shopping year.

Parents who do not do uniforms for school get to do this a lot and so probably don't get how hugely fun this is. This is also because I save up all the money I'd use on his clothes during the year so I can do this shopping-spree style, because seriously, this is the only time I can wander into the store holding nothing but a credit card and a smile and say "Whee!" I'm a goddamn girl and I'm living the dream, man. Living the dream.



Anyway, this year we went to Old Navy, which between that and GAP are my favorite stores for clothes that don't kill me inside when he destroys, especially since these are the Years of Puberty and basically, the jeans and shorts get six months tops, and he's rough enough on his clothes that I don't flinch when he comes home covered in mud and scuffs.

We wandered around and got t-shirts and jeans and three adorable button ups, one in a godawful brilliant orange that's killing me but Child actually can carry off orange, so what the hell. One pair of jean shorts and one pair of stretchy active-wear shorts, because he really doesn't like shorts since he's, well, active, and gets scratched up a lot. Plus, I verified sizes and I can keep whatever he outgrows, which really is the best part of having a kid, to be honest. I've been stealing his long sleeve t-shirts since his height hit my chin; life is good.

This sort of stuff should be included in the parenting manual: you will be able to buy as many game consoles as you want, you can rack up more leggos and building sets that any human needs, and you will easily refresh your wardrobe regularly and everyone thinks you are either an awesome parent or you have a hideously spoiled child. No one told me this.

Then I made the mistake of walking into Nordstrom's Rack, which is the Nordstrom clearance center and well, jeans. What I am saying is, when Paige Premiums are marked down to nineteen dollars, you do not ask why, you try them on and buy them before someone realizes what they've done.

The thing is, I do have fairly specific taste in jeans, but that's because until I bought my first pair of True Religion, I'd never had a pair that fit, and trust me, I went the gamut from Wal-Mart and Target up to Dillard's and Macy's, and they failed on length or hip every goddamn time. I spent years dodging between men and women's Levi's, and one year, they either had stretched into unwearability or with guy's jeans, they just slide off the hips when one forgets one's belt, since they were not made for a female's curves. I ended up trying on seven pairs and they all fit and it was like a miracle and I kind of wanted to cry because that never happens.

I love my jeans. I love them even more when they're half priced and two pair are like, half of that. So far, True Religion, Citizens for Humanity, Seven For All Mankind, and Paige Premiums seriously work for me in sizes thirty through thirty-two depending on cut, though for Paige I am two sizes smaller and I kind of love them for that. The fourth pair I can't pronounce, but they were so perfectly long (having stupid long legs is stupid; thirty-four inseam is like, nirvana when I find it, thirty-six is where I am willing to take out a mortgage to get them) that yeah, whatever, it's Italian something.

...you know, I'll be honest here, God, who thought up those names?

All require one night of breaking in via sleep to be sure--yes, I sleep in new jeans to break them in comfortably, because that's how you get to know them and bond with them and it's a thing, okay? But yeah. Jeans. Finally. I was down to one pair that were allowed for work; the others are like, three years old and three sizes too big and trust me when I say, nothing quite motivates like having to pull your jeans up every time you sit down, and the last two pair have rips that I personally like, which are fine for everything but work.



Happy. Oh! Nordstrom's Rack has a metric ton of, I kid you not, adorable little Twilight/New Moon shirts. I almost grabbed one for svmadelyn and get us a matched set, but I worried she might strangle me in my sleep. They are a sort of loose, clingy, gauzy fabric, long sleeve, short sleeve, and tank tops, and ridiculously cute and some have quotes written in dramatic script on them and some say like, Team Wolfpack, and yeah, I wanted that one so much. But only if I could make other people at VVC wear them with me so we could achieve solidarity in people mocking us.

Oh, feel free to judge me on that one. I judge myself, totally. Because I totally have one and am wearing it. So there.

Comments

[counteragent.livejournal.com]

Lol, right? "Do whatever works and lie about it afterward" is my baby raising mantra.

[concinnity.livejournal.com]

*guh* I just spent 20 minutes torturing myself by looking at the pretty pretty shoes. Shoes that are not in any way compatible with my graduate school lifestyle. And by lifestyle, I mean budget. :( But look at 'em: Do you know how hard it is to find good boots? (http://www.fluevog.com/code/?w[0]=gender%3Awomen&w[1]=attribute%3ABoot&pp=3&view=detail&p=39&colourID=188) These red ones go with everything I own (http://www.fluevog.com/code/?w[0]=gender%3Awomen&w[1]=attribute%3AShoe&pp=1&view=detail&p=15&colourID=2690). *whimper*