Shopping!

Like most girls I know, I love to shop. I have gotten myself into some trouble because of my shopping addiction. Not any financial trouble, just a scolding from my mom about the fact that I need to spend my money wisely especially because of the current state of the economy. It's so hard for me to see a cute shirt or pair of pants and not buy it. I was recently reprimanded for trying to expand my wardrobe yet again to compensate for my style change. I have taken to wearing button downs and ties. I have two button downs and four ties as of now. I tried to increase the number of my button downs to three this weekend but was unsuccessful because I was caught before I could find one that I liked. It also didn't help that I was shopping with my parents at the time. I did get to buy three more ties bringing my total up to four. I now have more variety to choose from and I can mix and match but eventually my button downs need to go in the wash. They don't get dirty because I am very careful when I wear them. The weather also makes sweating in them even less likely. I can get away with wearing them twice each and then washing them. Now I'm completely off the shopping topic and I need to get back on.

Recently I have had a few entertaining shopping trips with my mother. The first one was Saturday the 14th of November. Sears was having a sale on elipticals. My mom has wanted an eliptical since she used one at the gym she used to go to. An eliptical is beneficial to both of us becuase treadmills give my mom shin-splints and they also aggravate mine too. I have shin-splints from 6 years of track and cross-country, I don't know what her excuse is. We found the eliptical that my mom wanted and of course we couldn't find a sales associate anywhere. When you want them they disappear but when you don't they flock around you. Finally we found somebody to help us and it took forever to ring the purchase through because there was a special deal that went along with the sale of the eliptical that my mother picked out. A free exercise ball and a 75 dollar gift certificate were included with our purchase. Eventually we were all checked out and had the eliptical loaded into the back of mom's minivan. We still had the gift certificate to spend. I was adament about getting shoes because those of you who know me know that I am obsessed with shoes. I have a fetish for sensible shoes and I have since I can remember. I literally swoon over a pair of athletic shoes. That fact right there should have alerted me to the fact I'm a lesbian alot sooner than it did. It was so obvious in highschool now that I look back on it. I wore my keys on my belt with a carribeaner, I love jeans and refuse to wear a skirt, I have a large collection of sensible shoes, if that doesn't scream lesbian I don't know what does! Now it is way more obvious especially because I wear ties almost everyday of the week. That's not to mention all of the rainbows that adorn my backpack, body and car. Any way back to the shopping topic.

After picking out a very cool pair of pink converse. Yes, I'm a lesbian and I like pink. I'm am in no way a stereotype. My mom and I were ready to check out with our purchases. My mom had a pair of flip-flops and a red purse. My not so subtle timing of when I stopped carrying a purse should have alerted my mother that something was up. It took all summer and two posters of scantily clad women on my bedroom wall for her to finally ask me. I keep going off topic but I'm okay with it now. We were standing in line at the check out and the woman running the register obviously wasn't a regular cashier. She was having more trouble than usual with sacking items. She was quite entertaining. It was only entertaining because of her attitude. She just laughed at everything she did. When it was finally our turn she was still giggly from the previous customer. Apparently our shoes boxes didn't want to cooperate with her and go into the bag like they should have. Her struggle and the fact that she laughed at herself made checking out very entertaining. While we were walking away I commented to my mom that she reminded me of an older version of Mimi from RENT. There was something about that woman that reminded me of Mimi or maybe it was because this happened the day before I was due to see RENT on tour.

The next shopping trip was a trip to Bed, Bath and Beyond this past Saturday. Before we headed
to West Des Moines we stopped and got our haircut. I've been begging my mom to cut my hair for me because it was way too long and I'm a broke college student who has a mother who will cut my hair for free. She doesn't like cutting my hair because it is so thick. I completely understand. I hated everything about my long hair. It was way too long and so thick that brushing and washing it was becoming difficult. I am now sporting Kate Walsh's signature bob. I make it my own though. I knew what I wanted but I needed a picture of it so the stylist knew exactly what I wanted. I have come home with hair cuts that aren't quite what I wanted too many times in my life. The only person who I knew of that has the cut that I wanted is Kate Walsh. I made it very easy for my stylist. I told her that she was going to have a lot of hair on the floor because I was going short and then I handed her the picture. She was really easy to talk to and she also reminded me a little of my highschool spanish teacher. The pretty one, not the loony old lady who made boys sing spanish love songs to her. The pretty one got hit on at least every day by one or more guys in my class. I really felt bad for her having to deal with that everyday. I kept my mouth shut, and that's as much as I am telling you because my former English teacher reads my blog and she knows the woman I am talking about. I also was suppressing my sexual attraction towards women in highschool so obviously I kept my thoughts to myself. Now, it is a whole different story. I've been likened to a horny teenage boy stuck in a girl's body. I don't know if that came out of my mouth and my friends agreed or it came out of one of their mouths and I agreed but anyway it's a fact so it doesn't really matter who said it first. Back to the topic at hand...

My mom is redoing my room for me for Christmas. She does have one present that is already bought and I have no idea what it is. She says it's something that I want but I haven't asked for it. I'm hoping it's Portia de Rossi but she's married to Ellen Degeneres so that would make it highly unlikely that she is my Christmas present. Besides the mystery present which I'm still trying to guess, Mom doesn't know what to get me this year so redoing my room is the perfect present. It needs a more grown up look. I've been sporting Little Mermaid bedsheets for a while. I picked out a bedset at Bed, Bath and Beyond that is purple and tan stripes. This will go very well with my room because my walls are already tan and I plan on painting two of them purple when we can finally get the basement painted after having to tear out the bottom 18 inches of the drywall due to flood damage and the installation of a new drainage system. There are so many different options for bedding at B,B&B that it is overwhelming. The whole store is overwhelming. There is stuff everywhere. Honestly, if you spend too much time in there I think it is possible to die of sensory overload. I think I was almost there, but luckily we got out before there was any real damage.

The last shopping trip was this past Sunday. Yes, two shopping trips in one weekend. Sundays are usually the grocery shopping days. My mom and I go every week. Usually I don't take my wallet because if I don't have money with me I am less likely to feed my shopping addiction and if I see something that I like, I've forgotten about it by the time we check out so I probably didn't want it that much anyway. This Sunday's shopping trip was different. My dad went with us because he needed new boots and a new coat. We let him wander around in Men's wear while we shopped for groceries on the other side of Wal-mart. When we caught back up with Dad we found him in the shoes looking for a pair of steel-toed boots that he actually likes. Surprisingly, I did not purchase a pair of shoes. I saw a few pairs but I didn't really like any of them enough to spend my precious money on them. I'm still in love with my converse. When we were done in the shoes we made our way to Men's wear so Dad could pick out a coat. I used this distraction to sneak away to the women's clothing to find some button downs that I liked but I was caught and summoned back to Men's wear. On my way back I set my eyes upon the biggest tie collection in a store that I have ever seen besides a Department store. I had hit the mother load of ties in Wal-mart of all places. I don't really care where my ties come from as long as I like the design or color. To my great pleasure there was even a clearance rack. I got two of my ties for a whole six dollars and fifty cents, the other tie cost me a total of eight dollars and fifty cents for a grand total of twenty dollars and seventy three cents including tax. My math may be wrong because I am going from memory. The tie collection was not the most rewarding part of the trip although what was is related to it. My mom actually looked through all of the ties with me and helped me select the two that I got off the clearance rack. What mother would ever imagine shopping for ties with her daughter? My mom is so supportive of me and I am very grateful for her. There are way too many kids who have close minded parents and I am very thankful that my aren't. My mom went back to where my dad was and I stayed still looking through the ties. On another rack I found a beautiful lavender silk tie, that I am wearing right now actually. It is definitely worth every penny of that eight dollars and fifty cents. I would have paid the eighteen dollars that I paid for my first purple striped tie from Target for this beautiful silk creation. I think this tie might be my new love. Look out pink converse!

So, since it's the day before Thanksgiving I thought I would make a list of things that I am thankful for.
1. My open minded family who accepts me for who I am. They love me and I am still who they raised me to be.
2. My open minded mother who will shop for ties with her daughter.
3. This one sounds kind of silly but I am thankful for Shonda Rhimes. She created the characters of Calliope Torres, Erica Hahn and Arizona Robbins. Through these characters' storylines and Callie's journey of figuring out her sexuality, I finally realized that what I was feeling towards other women was attraction. Without them I would still be a very confused straight girl trying to find something attractive in men.
4. I am thankful that I figured out that I'm gay early in life so I have the rest of my life to enjoy true happiness and I have all the time in the world to find that special girl that I will spend the rest of my life with.
5. Last but definitely not least I am thankful for the lesbians in this world who have paved the way for the younger generation. Without you there would be so many of us still in the closet trying our hardest to be straight so we don't end up as lonely cat ladies.

Sorry there are no pictures of my ties, shoes or bedset. My RENT blog has enough pictures to last me for awhile.
Happy Thanksgiving!!