Shopping. (aka suffering...)

 A group of my jewelry lady friends got together to go stay the weekend at Edinburgh & shop at the outlet malls.  Now, I fully realize this goes against every.strand.of.dna.in.my.body, but I don't like to shop.  I know...I know.  I have no patience - so shopping for hours & hours is daunting & becomes boring to me.  I'm good for a couple of stores then I am done.  I especially hate shopping for clothes.  And it's really my fault.  I am not a regular sized gal so it's extremely difficult to find clothes that don't make me look frumpy or older than I am.  I mean, really - just because I'm a larger chick, doesn't mean I wanna wear bird houses or kitty cats on my shirts.  Just sayin'....

We hit the outlets Saturday afternoon.  I did buy 3, count 'em 3!, new pairs of shoes.  They were all those Mary Jane type shoes.  One black, one brown (so I have every outfit covered) & 1 pair of Merrill's (which are supposed to be good for you) to wear to the lake & casually.  

Then.... then..... then.... they all ganged up on me & decided to help me find what style dress looks good on me for the Red Dress Gala.  OH.THE.HUMANITY.  

I was not happy about this.  Sigh.  But it was 8 against 1.  I didn't stand a chance.  I figured I would try on a couple of their silly dresses to say I did & then sprint outta the dressing room. Uhm, no that's NOT how it worked.  They held me hostage.  And I swear they made me try on 15 dresses.  Someone save me....

My friend, Debbie, is a very sophisticated lady & she knows all about a persons shape & all that sillyness & knows what you need to look for.  She told me 9,000 times, "We're going for STYLE here, not color!"  (Alicia-you're still not off the hook...we may have to go shopping again around here.  I will get to suffer with you too.  Hmph...)

First up we tried on some of those cool pants that look like a skirt.  I LOVED them!  They were super comfy.  We found this red top on clearance (of course, it was toooooo small) but this could definitely be an option for the Gala.  (See my cute new Mary Jane's?)

 I only took pics of the dresses they thought looked the best on me so we could remember the styles.

 I didn't take pics of the little dresses with sweaters that made me look like I was 12.  (Also notice the hair got pulled away from my face & body.  I was burning up in there!)

 THIS was our favorite.  Debbie decided to pose with me on this one.  Doesn't she just look like she's having the BEST time?  Sigh.  Brenda took a pic of the tag so we could go back later online & look for red versions.  

 When I finally begged them to let me be done, we headed outta Dress Barn & visited lots of other shops.  One of our last stops was the Hanes store.  We met up with some of the other girls in there being 'sized' for bras.  The chick that sized me was on crack.  She told me 1 cup size bigger than I usually wear.  This thing was so big on me it was crazy.  This is the pile of bras I tried on.  You should be shocked that I would even take my clothes off after the dress ordeal.  But I did - it was the exhaustion setting in.  I found 2 new bras (riveting blogging, huh?) & I'm pretty happy with them.  They are different 'types' than I've ever had before.  Change is good, right?