• Mood: accomplished
• Music: rain outside

Presents for Me from Me

I had a moderately successful clothes-shopping excursion today! My goal, which I knew was not realistic, was to find myself a purple purse, black shoes, a purple or turquoise winter coat that's warmer than my current one, some blue and red and purple shirts, and some skirts of any colors that might appeal to me. I did not obtain all of these, but I did obtain the purple purse, black shoes, and four skirts (red, pink, blue, and purple). I've pretty much resigned myself to making do with my current winter coat for another year, so all I really still want to find now is some shirts.

I found the four skirts today at the same shop in Old Sacramento that I went to a year and a half ago when I bought these four skirts. The store is called "Jewels Unique" and sells only imports from India; apparently my taste in skirts is very Indian, since I always like practically everything in the store there, and nothing in any other stores anywhere else. Unfortunately, however, three of those four skirts I bought last time (all but the purple one) have since fallen apart. Which is a pretty good indicator that they probably weren't very well made in the first place. But how much can you really complain about skirts falling apart when they only cost $10 each? Not very much. Anyway, I think (hope) the ones I bought there today will last longer. At least, the fabric looks much less flimsy this time, and the skirts cost three times as much this time. Which still isn't really a normal skirt price, so I guess I should still be wary. But there aren't any other stores that sell any skirts I like! And surely it's better to have clothes I like that don't last long than to not have any clothes I like at all.

(Except that I also have to wonder what kind of sweatshops they must make these things in, and whether the wages have tripled along with the price. Well, at least I supported a small-business store owner and a clothing label I've never heard of, instead of a department store chain and standard multinational corporate brands. Does that count for anything?)

I had given up on finding anything else I wanted and was heading back to the parking garage, when I happened to glance through a doorway of another shop in Old Sacramento, and caught sight of a purple purse of an appropriate size for carrying books to work, so I immediately bought that too. Then I returned to my usual suburb and bought shoes and chocolate (it would be terribly wrong to allow myself to be chocolateless on December 26th), and then I went home. And took a photograph of my loot so I could show it off to you. Since Stardust was unwilling to believe that any photograph could possibly be complete without her in it, you get to see her, too.