A writing buddy and I were talking the other day, and I discovered a wonderful thing about her—she’s as shopping-impaired as I am. I’ve known her for years, and yet I didn’t know this. We feel like oddities in a world of shopaholics. While other woman can’t wait to go to the mall, she and I postpone shopping trips until we absolutely can’t stand wearing the same clothes for, um, sometimes 6 years.
Usually, the only time I do any major clothes shopping is right before a conference. Once I start the shopping, don’t get me wrong, I enjoy it. It’s just finding the motivation to hit the stores that’s so damn hard.
What hit this home to me is that I’ve been meaning to go clothes-shopping since around, oh, January. I was running out of jeans. Well, eventually, the weather caught up to me, and now it doesn’t matter. I don’t need jeans. I need shorts and skorts. The zippers on two skorts I bought for a trip to NYC with My Liege before the last NYC RWA conference finally gave out! What? Those skorts were only 6 years old! They still fit. They were in great shape. WTF? Then, two days later, the sash tie on a favorite pair of shorts split apart as I was tying it. Now I’m down 3 pairs of shorts/skorts. I must go shopping.
My birthday is in January, and my parents winter down south, so I usually get money that the Little Pisser is very good about hiding from me until my birthday. When I opened the card this year, I knew exactly what I wanted to buy with my birthday money—a new purse. I’m addicted to Derek Alexander purses. They’re excellent quality, easily last for two years, and help keep me organized. So I finally bought my new purse, um, at the end of May, 4.5 months past my birthday. I’m still meaning to put leftover birthday money from my in-laws toward a new camera bag. Yeah, that might happen sometime in the next two centuries. Unless I break down and order one on-line. On-line shopping, I could get into.
As a kid, my older sister and a good friend and I used to go shopping sometimes on Saturdays. It was a great expedition. For them. They’d try on dozens of clothes while I sat in a chair reading comics or begging them To. Please. Stop.
So, I thought I’d do a survey. Are my friend and I the odd women out? Do you love to shop, or do you dread it? Do you dread it until you get there, and then you go crazy (this does happen to me from time to time)? Or do you just dread it period?
I’m missing the shopping gene, too! I’ve always zipped through stores. Shoes are the worst for me, because I have a small size. And I don’t like those cushy slippers they have out. They deflate as you walk on them, and it feels odd. So I’m wearing icky worn out slippers. I really need new ones.
I’m very particular about shoe shopping, Edie. That’s where I spend my most time shopping. I have finicky feet, and I’ve discovered through the years that if I scrimp on footwear, my feet suffer. I don’t buy shoes often, but when I do I try to get the best quality I can afford. They last longer (less shopping) and my feet don’t hurt.
You’re not odd in my books. 🙂 I dislike shopping. It takes too much time even with a ‘get in, get what you need, and get out’ mentality. 🙂
Unfortunately, the family is leaving on a trip shortly and I must face several stores today. *gulp*
Good luck to all who have to stop today!
Gail, another uneasy shopper 🙂
Gail, I have to go across town today to replace a stove element–talk about aggravating. That’s one of the things I don’t like about shopping. The clothes store I like (that are within my budget) are a 15 minute drive away. Horrors! Sounds like nothing to someone who lives in a big city, but to me I have to drive **all the way across town** to go clothes shopping. It makes it feel like a huge expedition, LOL.
I think I missed the shopping gene too. Don’t get me wrong, when the mood strikes, it strikes hard, but also very rarely.
OTOH, if Stacey and Clinton showed up with that magic VISA card, I’d gladly surrender my wardrobe to them and go to NYC *g*.
LOL, Teresa, I’ve watched Stacy and Clinton a few times, and yes it would be hard to resist a shopping spree. However, I, um, don’t always approve of Stacy’s wardrobe. If I’m not assured that she knows what she’s talking about, do I really want her in charge of my outfits? 😉
Well, most of the time they do seem to get it right with those who appear on the show. AND I would also hope that in NYC there would be more stores where I could find clothes that fit me – I have a really tough time with that, hence my reluctance to bother with shopping at all as nine times out of ten I end up frustrated and return home empty handed. And considering I need to take a ferry to shop properly, it’s a real pita to not get what I want.
Yes, you’re right, they get it right with the contestants/clients/guests, whatever you’d call ’em. And taking a ferry to shop, then winding up with what you want, would be very aggravating.
The shopping gene is alive and well in my mother and my daughter, but it missed me. With a couple of exceptions. I could live in a bookstore (if there’s a coffee bar nearby, even better); I adore food stores (especially funky ethnic ones but even supermarkets in other cities); and I like browsing at garden centres too. But shopping for clothes is exhausting, painful and just not fun. I have been known to spend my Christmas gift money in July. I’ve learned to ‘buy in bulk’ – the way some people buy groceries. If I find a pair of jeans I like, I buy three pair. Two hemmed low and one for heels. Ditto for bras (not the hemming part!) I write down style numbers on jeans, bras, basics and try and find them again. By phone if I can! Oh, and I don’t ‘shop well with others.’ I can’t think of anything more boring than cruising through stores with friends.
BUT – I do like What Not To Wear and I love to see them dress everybody. I wish I could hire Clinton to outfit me every year! (Stacy scares me)
Ah, Laura, bookstore shopping! Yes, that is the kind of shopping I adore. My dad is the same way. Take him to a huge Chapters, and he’ll get lost for hours. I like your idea of buying clothes in bulk. I do that, too, out of necessity, because I don’t go clothes shopping that often. I’ve done the write down the bra style thing, then not been able to find the same style again, though, LOL.
The not shopping well with others thing – I like to clothes shop on my own. I can get the job over and done with much faster that way. It’s fun to go with a friend every once in a while, but if I need a couple of items and I have specific ideas in mind, I’d honestly just rather go on my own.
A very good friend used to live in my town, and we’d go shopping together a couple times a year. It was fun watching her go crazy. She always bought more than she should and then had to return half the stuff the next week.
Count me in! I like buying, but hate shopping. I’m not one to ever just go to the mall and wander. (Books are the ultimate exception, of course.)
PLUS, when it comes to clothes shopping, I’m not only of an unfavored size, I’m shaped weird. Of course, whenever I find something that fits well and looks decent…it’s the only one in the entire store. So no bulk shopping for me.
Even for stuff that’s not clothes, I much prefer knowing what I want, finding it, and being done asap.
Hi Cindy-
This was a fun post. I hate shopping- clothes always disappoint, accuse and mock me. And the lighting in dressing rooms… omg don’t get me started…LOL – yeah… not much new in my closet, either. cheers!
Hi, Natalie and Nancy. Weird, WP didn’t send me notification of your comments. Bad WP.
Hmmmmm, I wonder if it’s a writer thing. Are we too impatient to shop? Would we really rather be writing?
I used to sew. Not very well (as in I’d finish and then realize I’d sewn on half the blouse backward). But it was so aggravating to get an idea in my head for what I wanted to make, then I’d go to the fabric store and not be able to find ANY of the fabrics in my head and none of the patterns in my head, either.
This is what I like about writing. I don’t have to go to the store to get down what’s in my head. I just have to trust in my muse a whole lot!