Your Everyday Girl

I have no wrong side of the bed. The only way I can get out of my bed is from the left side, so I never truly know what kind of day I’ll be facing.

Today I faced disappointment.

It wasn’t the day that hurt me and It wasn’t my coffee. Nespresso has my back with Nola, a new iced coffee blend in collaboration with Blue Bottle. It was in stock today and I think Nespresso is trying it’s best to ensure my happiness. I don’t think I’ve had any issues with stock since my last post when I complained about the disappearance of the Sunny Almond Vanilla pods.

Alright, enough of that, let’s continue on to my beef with Simons.

Not even the gang of crows that have daily recurring 6:00am meetings outside my window bothered me today. This morning I actually got to sleep in without having to hear any of their cawing.

There is this one crow that has this real gutteral caw, it sounds like something from a nightmare, and I wouldn’t dream of confronting it. I know those birds have impressive memory and I saw one of the gang attack a semi-bald man about a week ago. I can’t risk that, I need my hair, I’ve already lost enough to iron deficiency.

Not even the heat was able to phase me. I let the sun warm me until I got sunburnt. I turn as red as a Coca-Cola can.

I wasn’t planning on being robbed of my needs today. The goal was to work, go on a walk, and go about my day the way I usually do. But instead I decided to cave in to my mom’s request of going to…the mall.

Today wasn’t the day for a fight, but Simons asked for a quarrel.

Yes, I chose to go to the mall today of all days. The one day where everything was going perfectly, I decided to leave the summer sun behind and enter the air conditioned-yet-somehow-stuffy mall.

The mall isn’t for the weak. I’ve decided I’m weak because of this previous statement. Allow me to explain why the mall isn’t for a girl like me.

The mall, the great concrete giant with a plethora of options to shop from, isn’t designed for consumerists like me, it is designed as a test: the shopper must go through trial and error to find something that closely aligns with what they are searching for.

This is truly a test that I fail nine times out of ten. Okay, maybe I’ll say eight out of ten. I have a slim thick fit, more so teetering towards the thick part so finding clothes that “fit like a glove” is not easy.

I had already told my mom that I do not have the patience for Simons today. But of course, a daughter can’t win a fight with her mom so I didn’t press further on the topic and we found ourselves headed towards the store of disillusionment.

Most of our shopping today was spent in Simons perusing a variety of clothing impatiently waiting to be picked out from the racks. So much of the store was heavily discounted today so the items were screaming to be bought.

I magically came across an army green button up Ralph Lauren shirt dress, the only item I spent time assessing. It was everything I’ve ever wanted in a dress: comfort, style, and color. And it was also on sale for $29.99! A HIGH quality Ralph Lauren dress for a measly 30 bucks?

Here’s a photo of the dress below for reference.

I glided over to the fitting room for the final step of the shopping trials. I had a good feeling about this one. None of the clothes before this dress had compelled me to grab from the rack.

I know I always say perfection doesn’t exist, but this dress was it. I was officially on cloud nine. I had envisioned myself wearing it out all throughout the summer and even fall too. I’m in no rush for fall, but I would embrace it with this perfect season friendly addition to my dress-less and blazer-full closet.

I thought to myself, but what if it’s too much to wear this dress every day? Will anyone wonder if I have anything else in my closet? Will I get tired of it if I constantly wear it? And how could I possibly share weekly selfies with the same dress on?

I took one more look in the mirror with my perfect dress and all my self doubt had vanished, I’ll take as many photos as I want because I have hit the jackpot with this dress.

I stepped outside of the fitting room like a winner. My head held high, shoulders back, and my path to the cash was clear. All that was missing was the red carpet to compliment my confident stride.

My hands were holding on to the best deal ever found in Simon’s history. A dress that was originally priced at $450 was now $29.99. I watched all the other women try so hard to find their outfits before the clock runs out, and there I was about to approach the finish line without breaking a sweat.

“Sara, this is $299.99, not $29.99.”

No, I didn’t hear that, I couldn’t have, not after the test I was about to pass, not after nearly securing what I know to be the summer dress of my dreams. I lost my balance and it didn’t help that I was wearing heels.

I made an audible gulp, my stomach started to grumble, and I just remembered I was hungry. I wasn’t even holding on to the dress at this point, my mom was. When did that even happen?

All I could do was reluctantly direct my eyes to look at the price tag. I stared for a solid ten seconds. Ten seconds is a long time to stare at such an extremely small rectangular piece of paper. I held on to it and blinked a few times just to be sure I was looking at the right numbers.

$299.99. Is red the devil’s color or is that just a Western cultural construct I’ve been sold? In capitalism, red is the color that signifies a final sale. The finality of this sale and this race was not meant to be completed by me, not today at least.

I could not justify purchasing this dress for $300 (not including tax) even though it was the perfect dress – it’s a matter of principle. My eyes saw $29.99 and I was already sold on that, and if my vision had been re-adjusted to see $99.99 then I would have surely bought it, but $299.99 isn’t reasonable to me. There are just some lines I cannot cross.

Simons had me daydreaming about this dress in a matter of minutes. I was ready to walk out with it and text everyone to visit the store immediately because you could be a winner like me, you could leave with your own perfect dress (or suit or whatever you wear). But I didn’t text a soul.

This message is for every store that uses red color font for discounted prices. Don’t do it. Don’t toy with our feelings, don’t take advantage of our bad eyesight, and don’t set us up for failure.

I think I’ll need a few days to recover from this. My trust in Simons has wavered and we may need some time apart before I can give it another chance.

At least I don’t have any beef with Nespresso.

Your everyday girl,

Sara

P.S It saddened me to have to look up the image of my (almost) dress on the Ralph Lauren site. The things we do for art.