Theme of the Day? Waste of Time!

Today started out well enough. I was out of bed around 8:15, rip-roaring ready to start the day. Tired of messing with my skirt, I wanted to go shopping. I had plans to hit up TJMaxx, Macys, Dillards, Kohls, and maybe JCP all before hitting Walmart for groceries. But first Alex and I went to lunch at Applebee's and then went our separate ways. Him to hang out. Me to shop.

Since Shoe Carnival is in the same shopping plaza as TJMaxx, I hit there first. I was having a grand time trying on shoes. And then my phone rang, and it was Alex calling to tell me there was a problem with the mustang. What seemed to be a HUGE problem, since water was pouring into the passenger's footbed area *inside* the car. Well, I already had 2 pairs of shoes picked out (buy 1 get 1 half off), so I bought those and then drove to meet Alex.

Yep. Hot, rusty water pouring in. But absolutely NO water leaking under the hood or under the car. Weird, right? The car has no A/C, but I forgot about the heater. A 1965 heater, with a little mini radiator inside the car above the passenger's feet. Which was now leaking like nobody's business.

Luckily, Alex's friend's dad came to the rescue and fixed it up by simply disconnecting the hoses to the heater and re-routing them onto themselves to close the system. A 1965 heater doesn't provide much heat anyway, so it won't really be missed. If it ever even worked since we got the car. I distinctly remember freezing my butt off in the car on the drive with Tyler to bring it home to Florida from New Jersey in the middle of winter the year we bought it.

While I'm eternally grateful for the free and quick-turnaround fix, it did kind of put a damper in my shopping plans. But I headed back out after we were done dealing with the car around 4 PM.

First stop, TJMaxx. I was in and out of there in 5 minutes. I decided I wanted a real department store with pretty racks and organized clothes not a scavenger hunt. So THAT was a waste of time.

Next, Macys at the mall. Where I found absolutely NOTHING I liked enough to try on. It was all either too casual or too dressy. I didn't find career clothes. Waste of time #2.

Back in the car and around to the other side of the mall, to Dillards. (It's not that I'm lazy, but I didn't want to walk from one end of the mall to the other. I hate malls.) I always find things at Dillards, and I did today. I tried on a lot. But again, nothing really did it for me. I'm kind of in between size ranges right now. Not quite all the way plus anymore, but not NOT plus, if you know what I mean. So everything was either too big or too small. Waste of time #3. By this time, it was after 6 PM and I still had the groceries to get. So, clothes shopping was done and I was off to Walmart and then back home to unload.

Discouraged by my shopping failures, I decided to have another go at my skirt. Waste of time #4. While I fixed the tummy pooching problem by ripping off the waist facing and taking an inch off the top of the skirt front, I royally screwed up how the facing would fit by doing that. So now it's all puckered and weird. ARghhhh. I knew better but tried it anyway. Here is its present state:

Since walking away, I've decided that I can probably save it by using petersham for the waist (almost typed waste — hah!) facing. I think I have some. I'll look later. In the meantime and as soon as I finish typing this, I'll rip off the now-understitched facing one more time while watching some TV before calling it a night.

To end on a good note, my new shoes. I'm going a little crazy in the shoe department, but I love it. The last time I worked outside my home I was also a shoe fiend. Looks like old habits die hard (or not at all).

Aren't these GORGEOUS?? This is the way for me to do Mary Janes. And that color -- oooo, I've died and gone to heaven Oz. (There's no place like home, there's no place like home!!)

And one casual pair, since all I have is either flip flops or 15 years old. Not that I need an excuse to buy shoes. But I do need to clear out some of the 15-year old dust collectors.