Shopping with Ma

I have the most amazing mother in the world! I love her so much and I am so lucky to have her. My mother would do anything in the world for any one of her children. She stopped buying things for herself when she realized the wants (not needs) of her children would prove to exceed any fathomable amount of money in her mind. But she and my father have worked hard to give us (my brothers and sisters and me) as much of what we wanted as they could. We were quite simple when we were children--perhaps I should just write for myself--I was quite simple as a child. The things I wanted pretty much came from the toy isle, more specifically the Barbi isle, and that was it.

Since I've grown up my mother has a very difficult time shopping for me. She still tries, bless her heart, but this just leaves my closet with items I will NEVER wear and hate having in there. But because it's from her I have a hard time parting with it. Well, that's how it used to be. I finally have worked up the courage to tell her as sweetly as I can, that I am not EVER going to wear that!! I hate to have her spend money on things I would never use, wear, or appreciate. Which brings me to my conversation this morning.



My mother LOVES JCPenny. This is probably because they have Talls and then she can buy me lots and lots of wonderful things that will be long enough. (my mother thinks I would look SO lovely in something a little bit longer than what I usually wear. I tell her that I have nothing against wearing something a little longer as long as I like it. I just don't find a lot of skirts I like that hit me mid-calf, one reason being that what's mid-calf on one person hits me just barely below the knee.) This morning she busts out the JCPenny catalogue and shows me all the things she thought I might like. This times it's skirts. Let me be clear. I really have nothing against JCPenny. The skirts she likes look lovely. Really.
My big thing is that I've grown into somewhat of a fabric snob. If JCPenny had a lovely wool twill or tweed charcoal heather skirt, I'd probably really like it. Oh, and if it was lined. But my problem comes in that each skirt was a polyester/rayon/spandex blend. Again I found myself telling my mom, "I'd love the skirt if it is was just polyester or rayon (not spandex) [maybe] but the blend stuff ends up a really harsh, stiff, uncomfortable fabric. I'm just not a fan." I then pulled up JCrew.com (a favorite for it ALSO has talls). My mother seemed skeptical. I showed her a few ditty's as examples of what I like. My mother, "well how long is it?" Me, "this one hits mid-calf, this one just below the knee." My mother, "it doesn't look that way on the model. I like JCPenny because it tells me exactly in inches how long the skirt is." Me, "...(blank stare)..." She got me. I cannot argue with that. JCrew does not tell me in inches anything. Shoot.

I showed her some other sites for examples of other things I like and ended up emphasizing my love affair with dresses. I am always on the hunt for dresses that I like (fabric, style, length, season, PRICE, etc.) My collection is very small. I'm picky (and poor). We ended our discussion with a few things in agreement. 1. It's great that I know what I like. 2. It's good that I don't like to buy things I won't wear. 3. It's really great that I don't like spending what I think is too much for something. 4. We both like to look nice. 5. Dresses are great when they work.