Weekend Wrap-Up From Ann Arbor, MI and Romulus, MI - Part ONE.

2nd DAY OFF!!!!!  Woo Hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can't complain.  It's nice to have time to decompress.......and SLEEP.  

I spent Friday (1st Day off) trying to kill time.  We had to check out of the hotel at noon, but we were staying in Grand Rapids, and the next hotel's check-in didn't start til 3pm.  So I spent the majority of the day in Woodland Mall, a mall that contains every single store you've ever entered in your life. Best Buy, TJ Maxx, Old Navy, DSW, Marhsalls, Nordstrom, etc., the list goes on.  There were plenty of restaurants around as well, so stopped at the Red Robin for lunch.  

After checking into the hotel, I returned to the mall to get myself into trouble.  I've always gotten great deals on clothing at TJ Maxx, so I thought I'd check out the selection and make some bad decisions. 

TJ Maxx was disappointing - although I did a couple of $5 DVDs - so I decided to head over to DSW.  

Worst (Best?) Decision Ever.

Katherine Heigl:  What's wrong with comfort and efficiency?

Gerard Butler:  Nobody wants to f*ck it.

I must preface this story by saying that I do not like to shop in general.  You may recognize the above quote from the worst film of 2009, The Ugly Truth - if not, you dodged a bullet there.  But I guffawed at those lines. I'm the girl that dresses for comfort - not cuteness.  If I can wear jeans, I'm going to.  Me in a dress is a rare occurrence.  

And shoes.  I'm not gonna buy a pair of shoes unless they're gonna be comfortable, and I'll be able to wear them with a large percentage of my wardrobe.  I'm not into buying shoes that match just one or two outfits.

Once every few years, I'll see a piece of clothing that speaks to me - that truly captures my essence.  And that happened on Valentine's Day.  I was in Ross shopping for a dress - I'm singing at a wedding in April and I wanted to attempt to look nice - and my mom came across this blue cocktail dress that fits me like a glove.  AND it has POCKETS!!!!!  Love.It.

My mom promised to keep a lookout for shoes that would go with it.  Fast forward to me in the DSW.  I called my mom to ask her what kind of shoes I should be looking for; I was hoping that she wouldn't say blue.  She did, of course.  Blue or silver.  Um, okay, silver?  SERIOUSLY?  I expressed my concerns that I would wear these shoes once and then they'd collect dust in my closet, but my mom reassured me that if I bought a cute pair, I could wear them to dress up jeans and skirts - should I ever decide to put one on.

Touche', Mom, Touche'.

So off I went.  I really despise the trying on part of shopping more than anything else (except maybe the "surrendering money" part), so I only picked up shoes that I actually thought I would wear.  I would take a picture and send it to my mom (finally, a useful purpose for a camera phone) and then she would yay or nay.

These are the shoes I viewed:

Shiny.  First shoe I saw - and the only one I tried on that wasn't from the clearance rack.

Ugly.

I kept trying to convince my mom that beige would work, but she was right.  Nice shoe, though.

Still not sure how I feel about this one.  (Not a good sign.)

The runner up.

The WINNER.  (They're actually a little big, but I bought cushy insoles!)

I bought these, too.  Same brand.  (Bandolino - check out bandolino.com.)

I spent more than I planned, but I got both pairs for $60!!!!!  Check out the SAVINGS!!!!!

SCORE.

And that was my shopping Friday.  Lord have mercy.  My mom is such a bad influence.  When I go to the Tonys, she will have picked out my outfit; it'll be one less thing I'll have to worry about.  The thing about shopping is that once you start, it's hard to stop.  I found myself trying on shoes I didn't even want.  However, I do know what I'll buy if I ever let myself enter a DSW again:

WORD.  :)