Pretty Woman

I was in Nashville recently and needed to do some shopping. Wait, where should this story logically begin? Okay, I blogged a while back about my fear of hurtling uncontrollably toward the earth in a plane flying and the decision we were making regarding flying or driving to a friend's wedding approximately 3 gazillion miles away. Although I was open to flying, for a variety of reasons we ended up driving.

In the days just before we left, we got a contract on our house (Yippee!) and my mind was all consumed with offers, counter-offers, searching for a new house, etc. When it came time to leave I still didn't have a dress for the wedding. I took a couple of dresses that would suffice if absolutely necessary, but really didn't feel like they fit the bill of semi-formal/summer classy (I think that's what the invite said). Anywho, I figured I would have some time to look once we got to our destination.

We stayed over in Nashville on our way and I thought it would surely hold a lot of promise for my shopping expedition. It turned out perfectly that the boys both fell asleep after we had been to the zoo so Mike happily agreed to stay in the van and play BrickBreaker on my phone while they slept and I shopped.

Let me back up at this point, to say that I was dressed for walking around the zoo comfortably. While we were at the zoo we got caught in a downpour. Without an umbrella. Suffice it to say I was not a pretty sight by the time I arrived at the mall. I was a makeover waiting to happen. When I was pushing a stroller around the zoo I didn't exactly feel confident in my appearance, but I didn't feel like my sloppiness was drawing attention. However, walking around a ritzy mall by myself I suddenly had no apparent excuse for looking as frightening as I felt. I can only imagine what the salespeople were thinking as I rushed around and in and out of stores, trying to shop as quickly as possible knowing the boys may wake up at any minute and this was my one opportunity to find a dress. It may have just been my self-consciousness, but I didn't sense that the salespeople were that excited to help me.

Eventually (after walking what seemed to be the entire perimeter of the mall five times), I managed to find a dress which also required a new bra and new shoes. As I walked through the mall with my Ann Taylor dress bag, Macy's, and Victoria's Secret bags, I thought this is so Pretty Woman-ish. I could walk back in those stores, hold my bags up and say, "You work on commission, right? Big Mistake. HUGE."

Of course I think Julia Roberts a.k.a. Vivienne spent a few thousand more than I did, but I think we felt about the same.