shoppingshoppingshoppingshopping

I have a very unhealthy relationship with shopping. It's kind of like a serial dieter's relationship with food. In order to save money, I will ban myself from all shopping establishments, other than what is absolutely necessary. I'll be doing really well for a long time, and then suddenly, BAM! I realize that since I haven't updated my wardrobe (or decor, or music/movie collection, or kitchen gadgets, etc.) in for-freaking-ever, I am in serious (imaginary) need of new things, and I'll go out and buy everything that I see. So you see, it's kind of like how a dieter deprives them self of some kind of bad-for-you food, and then one day SNAPS and does an all-day binge on that very item. And of course, in the end, I really haven't saved myself any money, and now I have a bunch of guilt on top of it.

Well, my latest shopping moratorium came to a screeching halt on Tuesday when in a fit of the wants, I went over to the mall after work. I still haven't totalled up the damages (fear!!), but let's just say that I ended up with 3 sundresses ... and I wear a dress maybe once a year. The rest of the purchases were maybe a bit more sensible (some tank tops, a pair of shoes for work, a new bathing suit), except I went to Victoria's Secret and bought two things that I only sort of needed, neither of which were in the color that I actually needed. Fail.

Yesterday after work, I decided to try everything on again that I had bought, and see if there was anything I didn't like so much the second day and I could whittle it down and return some things. Only instead I ended up falling more in love with each and every purchase. Another fail.

The highlight of the shopping trip, however, really had nothing to do with any purchases. I'd been wearing my hair up in a ponytail that day, and the combination of the ponytail and the unforgiving lights in bathrooms/dressing rooms made my gray hairs so painfully obvious that I felt about 10 years older. I resolved that very day to make an appointment asap to get my hair colored (I'm thinking a dark auburn, what do you think?). Anyway, after feeling old before my time all day long (Hmmm, I wonder if maybe that had anything to do with the sudden need for shopping?), I went up to the register at a department store for my final purchase of the day. The young girl behind the counter took my U of I Alumni Association credit card and said to me, "I like your card! Do you go to school there?" She will never ever know how happy it made me that she said "do" and not "did."