Shopping.

I never used to think I liked shopping very much. 

Last night I was going to go get my hair cut.  Mark promised to watch the boys and
I was going to take MJ with me.  But at the last minute I thought of how for Sundays and restaurants, the last three months or so, I’ve been wistfully spit-shining the scuff marks on my seven-year-old black heels (bought to go with the new black suit I wore at my preliminary oral examination, before I had my first son) and how I’ve got two new nursing dresses with no shoes to match.  And I said, "Darn it!  I’m not going to get my hair cut.  I am going SHOPPING."   

Mark recoiled in shock.  But didn’t object.

So I took MaryJane with me in the sling and went to the mall — not the Mall of America, because the department stores are too far apart for efficient shoe shopping — and bought 3 pairs of shoes.

One pair was on deep discount at Marshalls, the others full price at Macy’s, I’m sad to say.

Now that I have children, I’m beginning
to understand what a luxury it is to be able to go shopping, occasionally, with the freedom to try things on and walk from store to store to compare choices.  It’s really not fair to kids to try to take them with you for this kind of thing.

The trip inspired me to drop an email to my best friend from high school, with whom I used to wander the malls of suburban Ohio for want of anything better to do.  I attached copies of pictures of cute Mary Janes.

Over coffee this morning I thanked Mark for taking care of the boys for four hours (and cleaning up the dinner and doing the laundry too).  I said, "I guess I always took ‘shopping’ for granted."  He said, "Hmph.  I guess  I married a girl after all."

Then he related a conversation he had at the company offsite meeting, where he was seated at a table with several other men and no women. 

ONE GUY:  I guess this is the "shopping table."  Ha ha.

MARK:  Hey, that’s not fair.  I’m the one to do the grocery shopping in our family. 

ANOTHER GUY:  That’s not shopping.

FIRST GUY:  "Shopping" is for anything under $1000.  Above that, it’s called "buying."

MARK:  Hey Jim, you go shopping for tools, don’t you?

JIM:  I make sure never to spend less than $1000.

I don’t know if my new shoes qualify as super fantastic, but I like them, especially the high heeled Mary Janes (was going to buy something much more boring that looked exactly like my old black heels, but was inspired by new baby daughter to buy more stylish shoe), and I think the Manolo would approve.