Hideous in Nordstrom

"Maybe I'd better go home and change first. I look hideous." I had walked 7.4 miles out to the house, and was wearing huge black walking shoes along with other bag-lady varieties of clothes.

"You don't look hideous, you look wonderful. No need," said my kindly sister.

"But my shoes.." I said, peering down at the offending appendages. 

"No one will notice your shoes," she said. And thus, we decided. I was glad and didn't want to go home to change first. We were going shopping with Mother, and wanted no detours.

So we took Mother in the car, and headed in the direction of the one and only department store deserving to exist on this earth. Nordstrom. We had gone there for so long and shopped there so much that at least one of the store ladies used to know us by sight - and probably even by name. She was almost certainly familiar with our charge cards. 

"So glad to see you again! May I help?" she would beam.

But today would be different. We were no longer in what you might call the acquisition mode. For a variety of reasons we did not automatically pull out the Visa upon glimpsing a smashing dress: "Oh! You have to try this on! It is so cute." And... "This one is just your style. I'm sure he won't mind the ENORMOUS PRICE TAG!" 

And so on.

This day, as we walked into the hallowed halls of Nordstrom I had a sudden odd feeling. My feet were dragging along the floor as if a weight were on both. Why? you ask. It was because I had accidentally glanced into a mirror, and there saw - my SHOES! And they were, almost certainly, hideous.

Other shoppers glided by in pretty spikes and swishing dresses. Stylish mannikins mocked me from their silent posts, all of them dressed fit to kill. My own mother and sister looked lovely and not like they had walked 7.5 miles down an asphalt highway already that morning. Oh, the poor SconeLady!

I quickly recognized the sudden reoccurrence of Acquisition Fever. Have you ever had that? My breath came in short stabs as I passed by a pair of heels I just KNEW had been on Keira Knightly at the last Golden Globes.. surely I could use ... such a lovely pair...

We headed on through the shoe department and into the mall. My breathing became slowly calm; pulse slowed; Nordstrom faded away, into the hall behind us. 

That was a close one. (But - I couldn't help but wonder if they would take ApplePay..)



See you along the way!
the SconeLady







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