Mall Crawl

I gave myself the privilege and pleasure of having a real weekend. Very little work, two hockey games, lots of relaxing on the couch and reading/watching TV/doing word puzzles, and...the mall.
I haven't been to the mall in Toledo for a while. The last couple of times were associated with doctor's appointments, since my gastrodoc is right next to the Franklin Park mall, and my mood wasn't exactly the best. But I'd planned for a week and a half to take this chance, since I know this week is going to be bat-crazy, and future weekends are tied up.
I dressed simply--dark jeans, basic ivory sweater, ivory and pink scarf from London, pink and gold bracelet, brown boots, hair in a top knot. I wanted to look smart but not too smart, sort of svelte but in a lithe, carefree way.
I had a blast. Three and a half hours or so of madcap shopping. I started as I have recently always started, by buying a chai latte to carry around with me. This at least stops me from picking up too many things initially. I took myself off to Victoria's Secret and had a browse, settling on some cotton undies. I then stopped in to New York & Company, and here I had a surprise. In the past, I've found things there, but lately, not so much. The colors just weren't right. But their fall stuff is really great for someone like me, craving soft, feminine, but practical career clothes. I bought a great pair of wide-leg trousers in a sort of dark denim color, a blouse with sparkling pinstripes, a wonderfully soft acrylic (how is it possible?) baby blue cardigan with a ruffle front, and, lo and behold, a brown cardigan--People, brown cardigans are NOT easy to find right now, and I really needed one, in a pure brown color. And there it was--on the sale rack! I could not have been more delighted with my purchases, and probably could have gotten more, except that I was so in love with what I'd already gotten.
I hit up all my usual stores (Charlotte Russe, H & M, Forever 21) and came away with a gray cardigan, a burgundy cardigan, a black zip cardigan (my sister will laugh--I'm a cardigan addict! And two out of three or those are ruffled), a beige sweater dress, a blue pinstripe shirtdress (a bit of a gamble), some lounge pants with owls, some tights, and goodness knows if I'm forgetting something. I also popped into Sephora and bought a couple of Philosophy things to round out my bath and shower options for a while. Wet Seal was a bit of a disappointment this time, and I failed for once to find anything at Love 21, the accessories store (although that was probably because it was my last stop of the day).
I also had a hilarious encounter with some gentlemen at Ticknors. They had a long, black frock coat that had been made for the wife of a customer, though evidently she changed her mind. It was very small, and I'm sure I was the first customer to come in that it would fit, so they absolutely had to put it on me. I duly walked it for them for a few minutes, until I was so roasting hot I had to take it off. "Only" $350, and the sleeves were a bit short so they'd need to be let out, but the length of the coat itself was, in the words of their leader, "perfect."
The hardest part of the trip was part of my mission for being there: brown boots. For some reason, there are all kinds of black boots in the shape I wanted, but no suitable replacement for my brown ones. Finally, I hit up JC Penney, and I was sorry I hadn't tried them earlier, because I found boots that were about as close to the ones I have, which are shredding, as I could get. I got a $100 pair of boots for $40! I'm really hard on boots, so it's important that I don't pay too much. If I get an expensive pair that will last forever, they're going to look awful and I'll get tired of them, so I like to keep it cheap. I was so excited to cross that off my list.
By this point, I was carrying seven shopping bags, the boots themselves being quite a large item, so I hit up the last few spots and carried myself on out, after a brief twirl around Dillard's dresses.
I admittedly looked like a train wreck. A top knot is not the best idea when you're going to be trying on clothes, and I somewhere lost two bobby pins, probably when I almost got stuck in a dress at Forever 21 (small really meant small). But who cares? I had a blast, and birthday amnesty month (in which I can buy whatever my little heart desires, within reason) has been a smashing success!