Shopping Spree Gone Crazy

I had the craziest day yesterday in regard to items that I purchased recently. It started out with a good bang but ended up with the proverbial wimper. First, I received my anniversary gift to myself in the mail: a terry robe/wrap thing from The Company Store in a really fun dark orange shade. My son is getting older so I really have to curtail my stroll au natural from the bathroom to the bedroom post-shower. I love my new wrap.

Also in the mail arrived another fun purchase, this time from eBay: 4 rechargeable outdoor lanterns for our yard. I followed the directions and charged them up for hours on end ... only to find that none of them worked! I couldn't believe it! I've been getting so fed up with eBay lately, for various reasons, and this latest experience didn't help the matter. (The good news, though, is that I charged them up again, all day and then through the night, and now this morning 3 of the 4 work after all. Don's going to open up that fourth one and see if he can tweak some things on the inside).

Then came the winner of all bizarre experiences. For Mother's Day, Don gave me a $50 gift card to Old Navy, so my sister-in-law Michelle and I went shopping yesterday afternoon. We had a lot of fun enjoying our girls' afternoon out. I was in the market for some comfy dresses or skirts for the summer (my new summer clothing of choice, rather than shorts). My first realization is that my gift card wasn't going to go very far -- this wasn't WalMart in the price tag department (remember, I might be Irish but I have a frugal Dutch soul). Then I ran into trouble in another department: just what kind of woman do they make clothes for??!! A woman who has no hips, no chest, no thighs of substance, no curves of any kind. In other words, clothes that are not for me. I don't want to sound like I'm transforming into some kind of frigid, conservative old woman -- rather, I really did like the styles that I saw. But when I tried them on ... they just looked ridiculous on a "normal" -shaped woman. I am a 35-year old mother of two who can't lose all of the baby weight -- I simply cannot wear a dress that won't cover my butt. I tried on dress after dress after dress -- it was getting rather depressing. Finally -- thankfully -- I settled on two items: an aqua colored (Michelle's recommendation) tank top dress (meant to be worn bra-less, I'm sure, but that ain't happening -- it looks cute with a tank top under it), and a really pretty chocolate brown knit dress -- very flowy, extremely comfortable, a soft knit fabric, some nice brown-on-brown detailing, perfect for the summer. Those two items blew my gift card but I was happy with the results.

My family wanted to see a fashion show (I also bought some stretchy "pants" -- gauchos? Silly word -- at Target earlier in the day), so I tried on the items and won approval. But here's the ringer: I hung the brown dress on a hanger and hooked it on the light on my bedroom wall, with the label hanging at my eye level. It said "Old Navy ... MATERNITY." What the heck??!! My mouth dropped open and I thought I was going to fall on the floor. Maternity? Maternity??!! I started laughing out loud, but my emotions were whirling between hilarity and humiliation. Is this where I've come? Going back to wearing maternity dresses?! I still am in shock about it.

But you know what? I'm keeping the dress. I love it. I had absolutely no idea it was maternity when I tried it on in the store -- it had an empire waist, but so did many of the other dresses there. I still could not tell when I tried it on at home, nor could Don -- in fact, he thought it looked slimming. And I'm all for slimming! It doesn't have a lot of extra fabric hanging in the front (which makes me wonder how a pregnant woman could even wear it -- I sure couldn't!). Do I wish I was blissfully ignorant of this newly discovered fact? Perhaps -- I can't go back and un-see that label (although I could cut it out). And no, this isn't some Freudian trip, considering another baby ... I just love the dress. So! There it is! I did tell Don, though, not to buy me any more gift cards to Old Navy. I just can't shop there anymore.

Today we're hanging a ceiling fan that we purchased yesterday. I sure hope there are no tricks in store for us today with this one. A nice, straight-forward, simple installation would be just the ticket.