Shopping Victory (or, Plundering the Village)

I have shopped, and I am triumphant. Hear me roar about my shoes and miscellany, for in 2 and 1/2 hours I have bought it all, with no snags or dilemmas. I have pushed through crowds, pawed through jeans, and have waged war with one of those shopping carts that constantly tries to turn right. Purchased: 2 pairs of high-heeled shoes; one black and semi-casual, one bronzy metallic fancy, for the wedding and its dress rehearsal. They go with the dresses. They will let me tower over my brother one last time before he grows so tall that even high heels won't tip the scales. Purchased: 2 pairs of jeans, 2 t-shirts, and 1 terry hoodie jacket at Old Navy, because it's right next door to DSW and I felt ambitious after the shoes, and because my wardrobe has been quietly falling to pieces in the last year. Purchased: 70 dollars worth of miscellaneous stuff at Target, including but not limited to mascara, eye-makeup, 2 nail polishes, toiletry bag, cute little travel-sized thingies, and an eye-lash curler, because I lost mine somehow.

Excerpts:

1. I love Old Navy. I know it's cheap, bourgeois, and filled with teenagers and soccer moms, but I don't care. It's great for someone like me who has no money and little interest in clothing, but can't wander around naked and therefore needs somewhere to buy clothing.

2. I am "long waisted", which means that upon inspection my torso is weirdly long and my legs are short. This means that I look really weird in low-waisted pants, and in high-waisted pants. But Old Navy has something they call 'just below waist' that makes me look half-way in balance.

3. To Girls in Dressing Rooms Everywhere: the dress-size you are is not the one you can squeeeeeze yourself into, but the one that fits you the best. Nobody but you and your mom need to know what number is printed on the tag, you can even cut it off. But everybody will notice the bits and rolls of you that hang out of too-small clothing because you refuse to admit that maybe you're more of a 12 than an 8. Squeezed flesh never looks good.

4. For the first time ever I will not be travelling with all my toiletries in a Ziploc baggie. I feel very adult, having a toiletry bag, with little plastic bottles to fill with shampoo and conditioner, and a little holder for a bar of soap.

Don says that I would ABSOLUTELY LOVE Charlottesville. He pointed out numerous distinctions, including college kids with dreadlocks; anti-Bush signage; a lack of groomed front yards and a surplus of messy gardens; downtown cafes that provide water-bowls for dogs; street musicians; a lone anti-war demonstrator wearing a sandwich board; the availability of Magic Hat beer (a Vermont thing); numerous coffee shops that aren't Starbucks; a gelato place; a lack of people yabbering on cell-phones; the fact that he could wander around for 4 hours on foot. Among other things.

What can I say, he and I have unusual parameters for judging a place. I hope he gets the job. I hope he takes the job if they offer it. I'm still scared shitless.