Retail Therapy, Part 1

About every six months or so my GG friend Michelle and I get together for some retail therapy. Our most recent get-together was the Saturday before Thanksgiving. I drove to her house to pick her up and the plan was we would figure out to do what to do. We chose to go to the St. Louis Galleria, something we do about once a year. It’s a ton of fun. I obviously enjoy it, but I honestly think Michelle enjoys it more than I do.

I have a GG friend Renee, who often adds a nice comment to my posts, and I often text her pictures that I hope amuse or entertain her. She often replies by adding emoticons to the picture and texting them back to me. I shot a picture of me getting ready and texted it to Renee, and as it turned out nicely I’m sharing it here.

As it was chilly, I wore a top and slacks, figuring Michelle would also (the top and slacks were a Hand-Dee-Down from Marie, a friend of Michelle’s). When I arrived at Michelle’s house she was wearing a jungle dress (and looking fabulous, as usual). I had brought two dresses to change into, to wear one of them for my dinner meeting that night. I asked Michelle if she wanted me to wear a dress too? She said yes, but she didn’t have to twist my arm much, because my general preferences is to wear a dress–plus the dress I chose was one Michelle had previously given me.

Michelle’s older daughter recently turned 16, and to celebrate her birthday Michelle and her two daughters went shopping at Nordstrom Rack. One of the daughter’s presents was a black wide-rimmed hat. Michelle texted her daughter and got her permission to take it along, but before we left we took some photos with it. Always fun to have a different look.

After photos and a few other delays, we headed to the Galleria. On our walk in, I was trying to take a dual selfie with the Christmas tree in the background. A fellow shopper saw us and volunteered to take pictures for us, and we gladly accepted. The volunteer photographer was getting creative taking pictures, and her friend was making comments. I guessed correctly they were sisters. It was a nice start to our outing.

First up was Nordstrom, my favorite store. The staff is friendly and accepting, and they have a range of clothing choices. We each searched the discount racks for things to try on, and Michelle found a few more things than me. Our routine is to have separate rooms, try something on, and compare notes. It’s what I call “the girlfriend experience.”

I saw some cute fake leather spaghetti strap dresses, a 10 for Michelle and a 12 for me. FWIW, I’m generally a size larger than Michelle (especially after a three week trip to Hawaii and Phoenix), although I do fit in some of her stuff, and she borrows my stuff from time to time. We’re not exactly twinsies but it’s fun. Yeah, one of us is a former model and “Miss Carlyle” and the other one wasn’t–I’ll let you decide who was who. 

While we were changing, a couple of dudes walked into the last of the changing rooms with a handful of women’s clothes. I had a pretty good idea of their intent, and saw them walk out with only shopping bags. 

I walked out and told a sales agent–Chloe, who remembered me from a previous shopping trip over the summer–and told her she might want to contact their inventory control guys. She thanked me–and then I showed her my pictures out wearing the stuff I bought that she helped me pick out, and she liked them all.

After Michelle purchased a few items, a denim skirt and a couple of tops, I saw my friend Karla walking by and I had a chance to introduce Michelle and Karla. Earlier this year, Karla and I went to see the musical Hairspray together, and we had a nice time.

I previously gave Karla a gift card to Michelle’s salon, and have encouraged Karla to get a mani or pedi. We talked for a few minutes–they have common experience of issues with men in their lives (quoting Karla, “Men are assholes”, and my response was “True dat”)–and then we let Karla get back to work, while Michelle and I had another shopping destination, which you can read about next Sun-Dee.