Let me tell you a story of an almost failed engagement.
I had plans with my mom, Pete, and one of my friends to go to Old Navy for the latest
Crowdtap offer I got: a hosted party, including a free women's sweater, pants and cold-weather accessory.
My friend wasn't able to make it at the last minute, so I needed to find a replacement. My mom suggested my aunt who suggested my cousin Erica.
"Oh I have plans," Erica said. So my aunt was back in.
She came over -- as did a box of
Edible Arrangements. Nice start.
We went to the mall to see what we could get. There were so many sweaters to choose from. We each picked out five or so, and turns out, no one had the same ones.
And then, in the fitting room, we had a modeling show. We were the only four in there, so we had the entire place to ourselves. We used the fitting room as our runway, basically.
My aunt ended up trying this simple green sweater. It didn't look like anything on the rack but it was so nice on her. It really fit her well. She tried on another with a lot of holes that made her look naked, basically. I did take a picture of that, but it wasn't exactly safe to post. People might start thinking things.
My mom first tried on this white long sweater. It fit the way she likes things too: kinda baggy. She's so incredibly skinny but she has this mental block where she thinks she's fat, so she's drawn to buying clothes that have a lot of give around the middle. That's what she likes, so that's what she tried on. It fit her really well, mostly because it made her look super skinny from the waist down. And no woman I know wants to have fat legs.
My mom was somehow coerced into trying on a sweater that wasn't so balloony. And guess what? She looked beautiful! Plus, she figured out a way to actually style her scarf like a pro. I was so impressed when she came out of the fitting room. Seriously. I have no idea how to style a scarf like that. She should teach me. That's what moms are supposed to do, right?
It wasn't as easy for me to find something that fit me. I don't know what happened, but everything was fitting me so boxy. Nothing gave me any shape, so I decided to go with a sweater that didn't give me any shape -- and wasn't meant to. I don't know why I didn't upload a picture of it, but you can see it on the bench in the picture of my messy fitting room. It's the gray and black blanket sweater. I love it. I wore it to my aunt's on Christmas and she had to comment on how great it was -- and what a great price too. She meant because it was free. It retails for $55! No way am I paying that for a sweater. But for free, yes please.
We were also able to get a pair of pants, so once I selected my sweater, I went to try on pants. I didn't want to get jeans. In fact, I was adamant against jeans. So I went to look at the pants. And I didn't really like what I saw, to be honest. First, there were pants with an elastic waist. I know this is the holiday season and everyone is overeating, but we shouldn't encourage this with fake jeans that don't have a button. That's stuff you wear when you're young and potty training. So I passed.
I tried on a pair of dress pants, and, I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but they're basically clown pants. I picked up a size 2, and I was swimming in them [[okay, not literally, but they were so big. I couldn't understand why the bottoms were so extremely large, especially considering they're not skater pants]]. The top I'm wearing was a really cute kelly green sweater. The only bad part was, like everything else, it gave me the shape of an 8-year-old boy. No thanks.
So I went with jeans. That wasn't my intention, but that's what I went with anyway. My mom and my aunt too. It was kind of hard for everyone to find jeans that fit since they run really big. We kept exchanging them for smaller sizes. I ended up getting a size 0, which is just crazy because the last time I was a size0 was a long time ago.
After we finally found jeans [[which my mom actually ended up exchanging for a smaller size a few days later]], we went to look at accessories.
I found and fell in love with that hat. It's fleece-lined, furry, and has these braids coming down so I can tie the flaps over my ears. It's the warmest hat I've ever owned. I love love love it. We had uncharacteristically warm weather recently, and I went out without a jacket but wearing this hat. It kept my head really warm, so of course, I had to snatch it up.
Pete had to go ahead and try on a scarf too because, well, we couldn't let the entire day go by without him modeling something.
Checkout was easy for me, but not for everyone else. This note is more for Old Navy than for anyone else: The coupons they sent didn't automatically work to deduct the price of gloves or a scarf. It worked on the hat, but not the other cold-weather accessories, so they had to be price adjusted down to a penny.
But, oh, you're still with me, right? Failed engagement. So, while we were on line, my aunt was looking at the pants one last time. She came back and said, "Erica got engaged." We all got super excited. And then I realized, if she had come shopping with us, she wouldn't be out with her boyfriend, and the proposal wouldn't have happened.
Good thing she didn't blow him off.
The beginning of a new quarter is always a race between me and my grandma. See, I babysit her CVS card for her when she's in Florida, but she also uses it when she's down there. So I always have to call her when quarterly ecb are printing. That way, she schedules her medicine pickup for after I've printed her quaterly bucks. If not, she'll blow them instead of rolling them.
