9:26 a.m. - 2002-10-23
Shopping At The New Mall
Anybody who can't stand malls who is reading this should just skip this entry. It's about shopping.
All of Huntsville is excited about the renovations to the Parkway City Mall. It used to be dirty and dingy and empty. Now it is sleek and elegant and has a Williams-Sonoma. Like, I had to go!
NOT!
I'm just not a mall person. The stores are always so generic that I never find anything I'm interested in, and all those crowds of zombie-esque shoppers are enough to give me a seizure. However, last night Bruce and I went to the mall. We had extenuating circumstances.
Bruce got a very formal invitation to a faculty brunch at the Dean of Science's extremely rich and fancy house. Spouses (or "Significant Others") were expressly invited. The president of the college could actually show up. Since Bruce doesn't yet have tenure, I've decided I should probably not look like a fruitbat for just these few hours of my life. I should probably look like something approaching a faculty wife.
Whatever that is.
Since 50% of my clothes are either black or were made 50 years ago (literally!) and the other 50% are covered in paint, a trip to the mall seemed appropriate.
All the hype was justified. It is very nice, as malls go. Our first stop was ....Williams-Sonoma. I confess, my mind was more on popover pans than clothes, since Bruce's brother Brooke (say that three times fast - what were their parents thinking?!) gave us a popover recipe last year and I'm dying to try it. I felt very resentful that I was at the mall to buy straight-people clothes and not that groovy popover pan.
Bruce dragged me out. He was very tolerant, but focused.
We wandered into a "Lucky Brand" store, obviously catering to the teenage crowd. Before we could beat a quick retreat I was cornered by a hyperactive young salesgirl. She was literally frothing at the mouth, and she dragged me over to see "These Really COOL scarfs! You will just go CRAZY!"
It was a difficult struggle, but we made it out alive.
The next stop was Parisian. Ohhhh, Parisian has Clark shoes. I love Clark shoes.
Sadly, I wasn't there to buy shoes.
I fell in love with a rayon peasant top in the juniors section that made me look like a 17 year old tart, but in an amazing act of self-discipline put it back on the rack. We went upstairs, to the women's section, and I immediately realised that everything cost four times as much. It also looked like it was sewn for Mrs. Potato Head, or someone whose measurements were 46-46-46.
And it was all beige. Or that hideous shade of pale salmon pink that makes me look like I've just come out of a tuberculosis sanitorium. Eventually I found a dark rust coloured merino wool mock turtleneck sweater, which I realised I could wear with a black skirt and I probably would be passable, especially if I corral my hair into a bun. Even better, the sweater was on a half price sale. At $30 it was actually a pretty good deal. Speaking as a fiber artist, it wasn't the thickest wool I've ever seen, but it was a nice grade and I think it'll last awhile. In case I have any other faculty-wife-type events.
I also came upon a green knit sweatshirt jacket type thing. It was warm and comfy, and it bore the magic words: "Made In The United Kingdom". We bought that, too.
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