Dress. Buy. Repeat.

I was falling into a vicious cycle; get dressed, buy something, then go out wearing the new item. Lather, rinse, repeat, or rather dress, buy, repeat.

My last time at Nordstrom I had bought a new dress, so that meant I needed to wear it sometime and somewhere. I had a free Sunday afternoon, and with an empty house, the coast was clear to get out and wear my new dress. I also had the time to do a selfie looking out our bay window to the great outdoors.

My first stop was the local Savers. These days their dressing rooms are closed so it’s less fun and more of a hassle to figure out if something fits and then return it if it doesn’t. There’s always a chance I will find something I can’t say no to, but I didn’t find a keeper (or at least one to consider, and then come back on Tuesday when it’s Senior Day and buy it for 30% off).

Stop two was the Nordstrom Rack near the Galleria Nordstrom that is nearly my second home. Their dressing rooms were open and they have generally shoes in my size (size 11, preferably 11 wide). I found and tried on a few dresses, but the two I liked the most didn’t fit, so they were out.

Stop three was Nordstrom at the Galleria where new favorite sales angel Hannah was working (we had previously met by accident when she went under the door to the dressing room I was in, not knowing I was in there, and surprising the both of us). I usually try on dresses, but on a whim I decided to try some summer tops (think spaghetti straps) and various bottoms (jeans, pants, shorts). I gathered up my collection and tried them on.

As I like to do, I would pop out of the dressing room to get Hannah’s opinion. Usually we don’t have girlfriends to shop with, so the Nordstrom sales angels provide me the girlfriend experience. I used to be able to tell their reaction before they said anything; smile = good, any other reaction means “I don’t  think so”. However, that’s not possible given these days everyone is (and should be) wearing masks, so I can’t read smiles OR frowns.

The winner was an orange top with spaghetti straps. Probably aimed at a younger demographic than me, but I liked the look and so did Hannah. It does work with jeans, either the torn jeans in the dressing room or with my own jeans later at home.

My last stop was a local grocery store. I have been challenging myself to be braver about going places dressed; last week Costco, this week the grocery store (I had been in the chain before in one of their St. Louis stores, but not often in the local store where I often shop in guy mode). Once again, no issues, in part because they have self checkout lanes.

Of course, with a new top, I now had a new reason to get out.

Like I said, lather, rinse, repeat.