Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Short-Sighted

Buying shorts is not usually something about which I get overly excited. In fact, until Monday evening, I had not bought shorts in years (with the exception of running gear). The thought of buying shorts makes me embarrassed.
Will the saleswoman think I ought to be trying on a larger size?
Will the itty bitty teenie-bopper in the fitting room next door be judging my cellulite?
Will I constantly be tugging at the hem of the shorts, trying to pull them out of my butt and make them look an appropriate length?
What will I tell the fitting room associate when she asks how everything fit?
Will the button pop off the first time I sit down, making me look like one of these unfortunate souls?
Ian and I were shopping at the Tanger Outlets in OBX on Monday, and I hadn't had any luck at several stores. I optimistically tried on the size I hoped to be able to wear, and I tried on the size I normally wear. Nada. I was starting to get discouraged, feeling as though not a single one of the thirty pounds I've shed came from my waist. I was trying to bear in mind one of my mom's shopping mantras, that the same size can fit differently in two different stores, or even in two different items of the same size in the same store.

Our last stop was Gap, which happened to be having a fantastic sale -- all shorts on sale for $14.99! I was stoked about the price but skeptical about the fit. Nevertheless, I tentatively brought a few pairs into the dressing room and casually slipped them on. One... by... one... they ALL fit! And I loved the way they looked on me! That's not often something I say about a piece of clothing, especially one that hasn't yet been "broken in."
For the rest of the night, I couldn't stop talking about how my week had been made. Not only had I successfully bought shorts for the first time in years, I found five adorable, classy, work-appropriate shorts for under $75!! I'm pretty sure everyone's sick of hearing about my joyous success, but I'm still glowing.

Oh, and I think Ian deserves a shout-out for happily lugging around my prospective purchases, providing me with second opinions outside the dressing room, and calculating costs on his phone ;) He's one of the good ones!

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