Do you ever feel like you’ve accomplished something SO GREAT that you’d like to celebrate it in some huge way but, in the scheme of life, you know it’s really so unimportant that it would be ridiculous to even acknowledge it?
Long ago I gave up the thought of looking beautiful in the state of which I was born. That ship has sailed. In fact, it’s lost at sea. I am now in a state in which I find contentment in appearing remotely passable IN clothing but even that, as of late, has become more of a challenge.
We haven’t been able to party in the past year so I did the next best thing and had a year-long “party” in my mouth, so to speak, and this has sadly caused only one pair of my summer pants to fit properly.
I do not enjoy shopping, on a good day, so I couldn’t have been more impressed, after filling up my cart, to learn that the change rooms were closed and I wouldn’t be allowed to try on even one pair of the things I so desperately needed.
“Are you kidding me?” I asked the innocent clerk. “What am I supposed to do? Change right here? In front of everyone?”
She looked at me as though I was daft and said, “No. You buy them … take them home … try them on there … and return what doesn’t fit you.”
My jaw dropped at the absurdity of that directive.
“So …” I began, grasping to understand. “You’d rather I take twenty two pairs of pants out of this store, to my home which could be teaming with germs, Covid among them, and then bring back the twenty one that don’t fit? Does it not make more sense to simply wipe down a small cubicle between customers?”
I wanted to ramble on, telling her that I feel my time is more valuable than that as well, but rules are rules and she didn’t make them. But - think about it! Max out the credit card, transport, try on, take back (because you know you’ll have to!) and then wait in a long line with all the other saps who are returning their ill-fitting clothing? That did not sound like common sense to me.
So … I left them there. All twenty two.
This did not fix my no-pants dilemma, however, so at the next stores I first asked if I could try their clothing on. Four stores later I finally found one that would let me use their change room and, with no more time wasted, I tried on everything that held promise and was thankful to leave with two pairs for my effort.
Immediately upon exiting the store I reached to the skies and yelled “YES!” in celebration of my success. If anyone thought me crazy, my guess is they haven’t needed to shop for clothing recently. That, in itself, should be a HUGE cause for celebration!
