In Search of Slacks

It is 11am. I am just back from shopping.

I decided I didn't want to be locked into leaving the house on Black Friday, and if I could find deals ahead of time, I would take advantage.

This morning J.C. Penney had a doorbuster sale starting at 7am, and since that's where I've been buying my slacks of late -- and I had a coupon plus a gift card -- I decided to go.

I left the apartment at 6:45 am, arrived at the mall at 7:05 am, and avoided the petite section (because I am not 5 ft 4 in tall like I thought but rather 5 ft 5.5 in), and braved the rest of the store. Unfortunately I am not very knowledgeable about the rest of the store, and my wandering took me from petites directly to women's sizes. I thought, hm, maybe sizes just jump? One day you're proportionately wee and the next you have womanly curves? So I tried on some smaller women's sizes but they didn't hug the right parts of me. I didn't dare go back to Juniors so I sucked it up and kept walking. Could it be that there are no clothes for people in between?

Part of the problem here -- and maybe why you are wondering why I didn't know about regular sizes -- is that I have been a larger size for a very long time. I pretty much went from a Junior size to a full-figured size. And then stopped buying clothes. I allowed zippers to bust and buttons to crack before I'd bother tossing an item. At one point I owned one pair of stretch black pants that I wore everyday, because the thought of going shopping and looking at my fat in those horrible three-way mirrors was more than I could handle. And the kicker is, I'm not that fat.

Eventually I found the regular women's apparel and dove in. It was awesome. It was exciting. I am going DOWN in sizes rather than up, consistently, and over the longest range of time in my life. I am doing this by making healthier choices, not dieting exactly, and working out. And the small changes are continually yielding tangible results. Three sizes I've dropped...

I bought more workout pants -- the old ones are one tug away from mooning people -- I bought a few shirts (need more), slacks for a week, 1 pair of Isotoner gloves, 2 dresses... and 6 pairs of black socks. Quite a haul.

I did have to skip spinning this morning to catch the sale, but I will make up the workout -- as soon as the rain lets up and I get done with my well-deserved nap. Three hours at the mall and all I got was this awesome bag of clothes...

Not too shabby for my first day of vacation.