Worse Than A Woman Gone Shopping

“Worse than a woman gone shopping.”  This is one of my Dad’s great expressions.  Obviously making fun of the way the women in his life can not seem to focus on the task at hand.  If we tell him we are shopping for shoes, well by golly, we better just enter the mall and walk directly to shoes.

I’m not sure why he qualifies this expression for women when he has never gone to the grocery store and actually brought home the item my Mom asked him to get.

Which brings me to my search for a simple, long sleeve, black cardigan.  You would think this a relatively easy task when the mall is virtually packed with women’s sweaters.  Styles come and go… sometimes I like the style and sometimes I can do without.  Well, cardigans are in style baby!  Seriously, there are sweaters everywhere. 

My first run at finding the black cardigan and I brought home the most perfect red purse you’ve ever seen!  The second outing and I found earrings that will be perfect for my daughter’s wedding.  By the third try I brought home a cardigan!  Sure, it was a leopard print with funky zipper up the front, but it was in the category.  Yesterday, I still didn’t find the sweater, but the box of See’s I bought was fabulous!

Yeah, yeah, my Dad’s right.  “Worse than a woman gone shopping.”  And I love it!

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A Shallow Use of Time?

I just spent the evening shopping with my daughter.  To those who brush off shopping as a shallow use of one’s time, I say that there’s a lot more to shopping than spending money.  I know this, because we have just as much fun whether we have money or not. 

This feeling goes back to when I would shop with my Mom.  We would talk about anything and everything as we walked through the mall.  We would giggle and laugh at outrageous fashions and ridiculous prices.  We would try to guess how much an item would cost.  We would gasp with excitement at an incredibly reduced clearance item.  But it was all of the in between that made it such a special time.  Talking about friends, boys, school, music, and whatever was happening in our life.  I shared more with my Mom trying clothes on in the dressing room, than I ever did at home.  Occasionally, there would be a goal such as a new pair of jeans, or a dress for a dance, but for the most part we were just spending time together.  And we loved it.

Now, with having raised five daughters, I realize we have spent and still spend, a lot of time shopping.  Again, people might say it is a petty or worldly waste of time… but I disagree.  We walk together smiling, locked arm in arm talking… and talking… and talking.  I have hurt myself laughing several times, when one of us tried on something that although it looked nice on the hanger, looked positively ridiculous on a real person.  Two new granddaughters have already added to our shopping memories.  We now know that despite the guarantees of a diapers leak proof barrier, these promises do not hold true while in the mall.  I could go on and on, but the point is that when my daughter said “Hey let’s go shopping!” it meant that she wanted to spend time with me.  She wanted to hang out with me.

Sure, we all do have our weaknesses.  No jacket within a five mile radius of my daughter is safe.  She will find it.  I, on the other hand, can name every mall with a See’s Chocolates location in the state of Utah.  And shoes… well… shoes are a universal weakness that runs deep in us all.  It’s genetic. 

Jackets and shoes are the things that are petty and worldly… and probably the chocolates… but the shopping?  It’s somuchmore.