Tales from the Dressing Room

I consider myself lucky to be able to wear blue jeans to work.  I work in an office, but at night the dress code is much more relaxed than during the day. Since I wear jeans on my days off, too, I only need to maintain one wardrobe, rather than the separate "professional", "business casual", and "casual" wardrobes that I had during my years at the bank.  When I decided the time had come to get serious about losing weight, I decided no more clothes shopping until I had dropped at least one size.  It didn't matter that I only had two pair of jeans in my closet, since everybody knows ten pounds is a size and I could do that in a month.

Except I didn't.  I lost eight pounds the first month, and four the second.  My clothes are loose, but I haven't dropped a size.  I thought, okay, maybe fifteen pounds.  Well, I'm down thirteen and not even close to a smaller size.  So on Wednesday, when I tore one of my two pair of jeans, I knew I had to bite the bullet and go shopping.

I decided to go to Kohl's, because they carry the jeans I like (Lee Comfort Waist) and they have pretty good prices.  Kohl's is close to my office, so I went during my dinner break on Friday.  I tried on all kinds of jeans, not just the ones I usually get, and some of the brands were too big in my size.  But when I tried the same ones in a smaller size, I could not get them zipped up.  I don't mean they were uncomfortable, I mean I literally could not get them zipped up.  They were that much too small.  Heaven help me when these pants get looser, as it will be a long time until I can fit into anything smaller.  In the end, I got one pair of jeans that were identical to the ones I tore.  I also got a pair of Capri pants that are a perfect fit and a couple of $6 tee shirts for our trip to Florida.  Originally I was planning to just wear what I have, but honestly?  I got the clothes out and the tops have seen better days.  I realized that I bought them when I had the ginormous fibroid tumor, and that was a couple years ago.  I don't feel bad about picking up some new tops, especially at that price. 

On the subject of Kohl's, I just want to mention, I have been in many, many dressing rooms over the years but the mess I saw at Kohl's on Friday was easily the worst I have ever seen.  The dressing rooms were dirty.  Not just cluttered, but dirty.  Dirty mirrors, dust bunnies that were more like dust kangaroos all over the floor.  I was trying on pants, but I hated to take my shoes off on that filthy floor.  My socks got grimy in the fifteen minutes I was hopping around in there.   And dust wads weren't the only problem.  There were hangers and pins on the floor.  The first dressing room I went in had a pile of clothes on the floor that could double as a crash pad.  The second room wasn't so bad, only maybe a dozen pieces on the hooks and the floor.  I cleaned it out before I tried my stuff on.  The "back on the rack" rack, where you're supposed to put the things you don't want to purchase, was crammed full.  I had to put my rejects into a wire basket on the floor. I feel bad about that.  I'm sure they got dirty.  But I was on my lunch break and couldn't go around the store trying to figure out where I found all those pants.

After work I stopped at Walmart, and a really cute top that I've had my eye on was marked down to $3.  Score!  I was so happy to find my size that I picked up a much smaller one for Diva.  She was thrilled beyond words to be "shirt twins".