Shopping

I have a love/hate relationship with shopping.

Part of the bad side is spending money, of course. I got into this habit of not spending money unless I really needed to, and I'm still in that mode a bit. The other bad side to shopping is it's kinda hard to find decent stuff that actually fits. The shoulders and lack of a small waist turn really cute clothes into the worst thing I've ever seen.

Not to mention, I think designers want to produce something that no one has ever seen before so they skip over making something really basic that everyone would like to have.

Take for example last night and my quest for a new pair of shoes.

My work shoes are basic black shoes with a medium heel with enough width so I don't trip over curbs. They provide just enough support for my arch so it doesn't cause me issues. The pair of shoes I currently have are worn beyond what they should be. I've looked previously...twice, in fact, and couldn't find anything I liked, nor anything that fit, and fit properly (mainly in respect to either giving my toes enough space or supporting my arch).

Last night, I started in Macy's and worked my way around to a few different shoe stores. I found two pairs that seemed decent, but neither were what I really wanted. I simply bought them because I need something.

But, sheesh, how hard is it to make a simple pair of black work shoes that look good?

I was also looking for a spare pair of shoes for this upcoming Cotillion weekend, and perhaps a new pair of black boots for general usage here and there. Again, impossible. And anytime I found something close amongst the showcase of shoes, it was interesting seeing a few other women picking up the same shoes I picked up. It was as though we were all searching for something simple and basic...but it was not to be found.

OK, I actually found some nice shoes at Macy's, but out of the five shoes I liked, only 2 of them had anything close to my size. And I still fall within the size 9-10 range, so I'm not out there in total bigfoot forest land. When I tried on the 10, it was way too big, but when I tried on the 9 and a half, it felt a bit snug. Weird, I know.

I put my foot in the shoe size device, and it says 9 right on the money, but 9's are usually too small for me. It probably has something to do with the size and width of my foot that makes me jump up a half size or more.

While searching around for shoes, though, I looked over a lot of other cute outfits. Some look great on the little mannequins they have, but I know it would be drastically different with me wearing them. My eye has gotten alarmingly good at picking out anything that I have a shot at wearing, and usually when I do find something, it's always 50/50 on if my size is available.

When I was in Hawaii, I saw this really cute long sleeve t-shirt...and they totally had my size. When I checked out the price, it was $120. Wow. Supposedly it was a designer T, but still, $120 was a bit much. Another of the really nice t-shirts was $170. Talk about eyeballs flying out of their sockets.

I really need to go on a super shopping extravaganza sometime, as I need to update my work outfit and find a few new casual ones as well. Of course, before doing that, I probably need to go through all my clothes and donate those I haven't worn lately.