Confession

I admit it: I love shopping.

     My definition of "shopping" might not be the same as yours; to me, a gun show or a hamfest is shopping.  Feast of the Hunter's Moon?  Shopping, huge shopping: cloaks and pottery and knives and books, just plain wonderful stuff of all sorts and usually good value for the price, too.

     Big-box stores, not so much, though Tar-zhey often wins me over with the chain's sense of fun and style.

     Department stores?  Malls? It varies.  There are a lot of wondrous things -- Godiva chocolates, delightful rugs and furniture, housewares of a quality one rarely finds elsewhere but I find large enclosed spaces disorienting[1] and tend, therefore, to stick to a few I know.

     And then there's shopping for "nice" clothing.  Shoes aren't so bad as long as I avoid trendy places that sneer at size nine-and-a-half and bear in mind that most shoes simply don't fit the shape of my feet[2] but finding clothing at an upscale place can be a challenge: Most women my size and age are, well, not in shape, while most women who are in shape are significantly smaller and/or younger and thus trendier.[3]  For work, I wear jeans and basic tops -- T-shirts Summer, long-sleeved knits Winter -- and add a zip-up, hooded sweat-shirt.  This is, if you were wondering, not the thing to wear while shopping for  holiday-evening attire at a high-end department store or mall shoppe, especially if the jeans show signs of actual work-wear.  It results in either being completely ignored by the sales staff ("Maybe she'll just go away!") or the kind of nervous hovering that implies I'm about to Track Mud on all their Nice Things.

     I usually end up at the vintage/retro/consignment places.  They're no more likely to have my size but at least I don't get treated like poor relations.  And that makes for fun shopping!

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1. I can't figure it: I'm comfortable in wide-open spaces, I actually like small enclosed spaces (and would go caving if I could find the time and equipment), I don't mind the city or the woods....but get me in a large, enclosed space and I get the creeps.  Sports stadiums?  Scary empty and a nightmare full.  Mega-malls?  Walking Hell.  Ghastly.  I couldn't even explain how bad it was until I found this.

2. Foot-shaped: wide of toe, narrow-heeled and with very high arches and insteps.  Most people appear to have feet the approximate shape of a submarine.  How can they even balance?

3. There are, gentleman readers, styles and "looks" that are rillyrilly cute at 20 which fall way worse than flat at 40.  Ew.