Since when do I dislike clothes shopping?

I had to go to the mall today for new shirts since I'm down to literally three I can actually wear in public. (I'm talking everyday wear here.) I've needed to replenish my shirt wardrobe for a while, but I've put it off again and again and again.

I'm a girl. I'm supposed to love perusing the mall and trying on various styles and colors and whatnot.

But I don't.

I don't want drive in circles vying for a parking space. I don't want to spend money. I don't want to stand in line. I don't want to try on clothes in a semi-private, pin-laced changing room. I don't want to look past the ugly clothes (most everything these days) while trying to find the things that normal women actually wear.

It's no fun. At. All.

But this morning, I put my big girl panties on, got in the car and forced myself to drive the five miles to the mall.

First stop? H&M. Found three shirts and was out of there in less than 10 minutes.

Second stop? New York & Co. I don't actually like the quality of their clothes, but when you're going for inexpensive, a girl has to do what a girl has to do. I found another shirt, plus the elusive skin-colored tank top I've spent weeks searching for. Thank goodness! That key piece of Lycra will enable me to wear a sheer shirt I've had for years and never worn.

So another 10 minutes in NY&Co. and I flew out of that hole of financial and mental destruction as fast as I could.

*great shiver of horror*

Honestly, why? Why this crazy abhorrence of shopping malls?

Okay, so I've just spent several minutes staring out the window into the bushes that line our back fence. (I really ought to put some flowers out there.) And here's what I think...

1. I'd rather be reading.
2. Or writing. Or sleeping. Or doing dishes. Or scrubbing grout. (Okay, okay. I know I'm getting carried away.)
3. Our financial status of the past several years has caused me to develop a hatred of spending money. Especially on myself.
4. Crowds make me nuts. As do the saccharine employees. And quadruple that emotion for the kiosk employees that accost unwilling shoppers with samples of hand goo, electric cigarettes, flying apparatus and hermit crabs. (Hopefully those last two are not one in the same. Although that would make me laugh! In fact, I just did laugh out loud and Scott's calling down the stairs to see what's so funny. Hhmm... I might have to put that scenario in one of my books someday!)

Oh, hey! Scott's gonna take me to lunch! That'll get me to stop thinking mall insanity.

Bu-Bye for now, Delicious Readers!