Shopping For Fun & Profit

Friday afternoon, before her boyfriend's graduation from high school, Em and I went shopping.

Just a bit.

Just a teensy-weensy little bit.

I'm a chick, and a fairly normal chick, so I have long had a love-hate relationship with shopping. On the one hand, I adore acquiring cute new stuff. On the other hand, depending on how much I weigh or what turn fashion has recently taken, I might have a very bad time looking for clothes that both fit and satisfy my inherent need for cuteness.

I love it when a shopping cart comes together.

Emily, of course, has long been a source of stress when shopping. See, I am the mother, and it is my job to play dress-up with my kid, right? I mean, it's only fair. It's the only reason I ever had a daughter in the first place -- did you ever see such adorable things as baby girl clothes? Toddler clothes? Adorable little apple-appliqued smock dresses for first grade? I mean, come on, surely there is no greater gift a daughter can give a mother than to let her dress her for the first 21 years of her life!

Emily has not always been so accommodating. Oh, no. Emily rebelled somewhere around third grade. The darling little dresses were wrecked upon their first trip out of the closet. The cute matching outfits were dragged through mud; the embroidered sweaters were lost. Emily started preferring black. She wanted long pants, long-sleeved shirts, the scruffier the better, and she absolutely refused to play with make-up or hair.

It's almost enough to make a mother give up.

This year we've seen a shift in Emily's priorities, though, and suddenly -- suddenly -- she actually says things like "cute" and "ooooOOOOooo" when she sees a darling little rhinestone-encrusted pair of capris.

Now she's gone an extra step further -- she actually asked me to help her pick out a purse. A purse!!!!! Just like.... every other chick on the face of the earth!!!!!!

So Friday afternoon, we had a marvelous time shopping for and finding some darling silver sandals, a purse, a scarf -- a scarf, y'all, with a lovely little scalloped edge and some eyelet embroidery! -- and a pair of earrings. All of these things are undeniably feminine! And not one of them is black!

So enthralled were we with our booty that we went back Saturday afternoon and got Emily an It's Happy Bunny tee. (If you're unfamiliar with It's Happy Bunny and the incredibly saucy bad attitude it exudes, check out artist Jim Benton's website.)

Em's new t-shirt says, "Give me your number. Like I would ever call you."

And... yeah, I got some cute stuff for me, too. Capris with painted, beaded flowers and a couple of shirts... stuff I can wear with my Crocs, of course, and be the height of old fat lady fashion! I don't mind getting older; I don't mind getting fatter, just as long as I can still find cute stuff in my size, I'm perfectly happy.

As long as Emily's shopping with me!