The Power of Shopping

I have been a little grumpy lately.  My friends have commented on the mood of my latest posts and asked if everything's okay.  Yes.  I'm fine, thanks.  I just had a bad week and used my blog as a place to rant.  Which was the original purpose of the blog!  I'm feeling a hundred times better now, and I'll tell you why.  My recovery from my bad mood was instigated by 2 occurences:  1) the amount of kindness friends showed me after I vented to them about my week, and 2) a super fun shopping trip with a friend. 

I have a love/hate relationship with clothes shopping.  Mostly it's a hate relationship, because it is hard to feel cute in anything I try on when most clothes are intended for a 6 foot tall woman with a long waist.  However, I love the feeling that you get when you put on an article of clothing, look in the mirror, and it's a match made in heaven.  Or at least, that's how it feels after you've tried on 30 other things that looked terrible.  I found out something great on Friday, and that is that if you go with a good friend and you're both in need of some retail therapy, even the stuff that looks terrible is tolerable, because then you can laugh your heads off together after trying on something that looks ridiculous.  It's much better than being in a dressing room, no friends in sight, trying on shirt after shirt, feeling fatter with every attempt.  So, after trying on at least 30 items, I found a shirt I love, a cute little jacket, and some work-out clothes that will help me feel cute as I toil on my elliptical and sweat like a pig. 

The best find, however, was the shoes.  Oh, the shoes.  I have always loved shoes.  I never feel like crying after shoe shopping, like I do after trying on jeans.  The only problem I have with shoe shopping is that most stores don't carry grown-up shoes in my size.  My feet are just small enough that I can buy kids' shoes with no problem, but have a very hard time finding a cute pair of heels to wear to church (I own a pair of Power Puff Girls shoes, and wear them with pride--my next ones will be light up princess shoes).  So the shoes I found at Ross on Friday must have been destined for me.  The shiny, black, Mary Jane heels beckoned me from rows away, and, despite the knowledge that they wouldn't be in my size, tempted me to try them on.  Magically, they fit.  Either the shoes magically shrank to fit my feet, or my feet have just gotten a little bigger in my old age.  I'm guessing it's the latter, but all I know is, those shoes were meant for me at the end of a difficult week.  They worked perfectly with the new shirt I bought, and weren't even painful as I stood and lead the music in church today. 

Retail therapy isn't just an excuse to spend money.  It's real.  I have experienced it firsthand this week.  I felt cute at church today, and I feel motivated to work out in my new spandex.  (In the privacy of my own home, of course, because, let's be honest, skin-tight spandex shouldn't be worn in public on my body just yet.  Give me a few months.)  I am extremely grateful for my friend and the afternoon we had laughing and trying on cute clothes.  For just a little bit of money, I bought a little bit of confidence.