Retail Therapy

Note that we were supposed to be in West Virginia right now. There was some scheduling confusion, so the trip got postponed. Unfortunately, that included my stopover in Pigeon Forge, so and that torpedoed my day of outlet shopping there.

When I called Mom to tell her that the trip had been postponed, she called back a little later with the suggestion that all of us go over to Dawsonville, GA, where there's a perfectly adequate outlet mall, and spend the night and engage in a little retail therapy. So, this past Friday evening, Richard, Oscar and I headed to Rome, spent the night with my Mom, and on Saturday morning we went to Dawsonville for a day of shopping.

Oscar is a professional shopper. He rides around in his stroller (or his "Royal Carriage" as DF Jill terms it), and basks in the attention he attracts. This time, he determined that stroller time was quality nap time, so he curled up and went to sleep while we were shopping. I'm always amused by the double takes we get from people who see the stroller, assume it's a baby, then realize it's a dog. :)

Mom has a hard time finding clothes to fit, considering a size 2 is too large (!). (Yes, I obviously took after my father's side of the family, where we're all built like fireplugs.) Problem is, the clothing companies figure if you wear a size that is small, you obviously want to have a skirt cut so short that it barely covers your rear. My mother is nearly 80, and that's just not her style. Heck, I'm only 50, and it's not mine either. So when we can find clothes (and she prefers suits to wear to church), chances are the skirts are too short for her.

She did score a few things at one of the outlets, but it was a bit of a frustrating shopping trip for her, clothes-wise. She did much better buying tops and t-shirts to wear with her existing outfits. Plus, she scored kitchen gadgets at Williams Sonoma (where they had a really kewl ice crusher, but Richard has declared a kitchen-gadget moratorium in this house so I couldn't get it).

I managed to find a couple of Vera Bradley Pink Elephant pieces on sale to help round out my collection. Woo Hoo! Talked to another girl who was pawing through the boxes at the Mori outlet with me. Richard rather snarkily asked if I had converted her to my "cult" of Vera Bradley, and I told him that she was already firmly in before we even spoke. Hmmmph.

But the big thing was that we spent the weekend together and had a good time. On Sunday we dropped Oscar off at our house (since we pretty much passed it on the way back to Rome) and took Mom to one of the malls here. She had a little better luck with some clothes there (or at least I hope she did -- she took them home to try on, and I'll bring back what doesn't fit when I go up there this week).

Took Mom back home and then returned to Kennesaw. Geez, I was tired! I don't think I've done that much walking in awhile. I think the exercise was good for me...even if it wasn't for my wallet. :)

Just a reminder... We're still taking donations for the Race for Research. You can link to our donations page here, and we appreciate your help!