Yesterday or day before Kate had mentioned that she would like to go shopping for clothes. I told her this morning that we could do that after lunch. As it turned out, this morning Kate had a hang nail that she asked me to clip. When I did, I noticed that her nails had gotten longer. I knew that it had been a long time since she had been to have her nails done; so I suggested we do that. She was pleased. This is one of those times I could kick myself for not thinking of this sooner. In the past year or so I had mentioned having her nails done, but she wasn’t interested because she was wearing her nails down from working outside. For the past 2-3 months, however, she has done that much less frequently and for shorter time periods. At any rate, we went to lunch at Panera and then walked a few doors down to the nails shop where I left her to have a manicure and a pedicure. When I picked her up an hour later, she was so pleased to have had her nails done. I only wish I had thought about it earlier. I suggested that we do this regularly from now on. She agreed and said she was going to suggest that herself.
From there we went to Belk’s for slacks, hose, and bras. I thought it was a great idea to be looking for slacks at Belk because it would be much less expensive than the shop where we usually go. I helped pick out some slacks for her to try on, 1 khaki, 1 brown, and 1 black. She went into the dressing room and came out wearing the khakis. While she was in the room, I got another style of khaki and brown slacks for her to try on. When she went back to the room in which she had changed, the door was locked. She tried two other doors, and they were locked. She couldn’t remember which room she had been in. For the time being she went into another room with the new khakis I had brought to her. She came out in a few minutes wearing the same slacks that she was wearing when she went in. She didn’t realize it. When I told her, she said, “Well, where are the other ones?” I went into the room and found them hanging over the top of the partition separating her room from the one beside it. I took them to her for her to change into.
She liked the ones she had just tried on better than the first ones, and we decided on 3 pair of slacks to buy. Then all we had to do was get a sales person to let her into the room in which she originally put on the first pair of slacks so that she could change into the slacks she had been wearing when we arrived. When the sales person opened the first door, Kate saw the clothes she had left. She wanted me to come in the room with her. Then I started to leave because I didn’t think she meant for me to remain with her. She stopped me and asked me to stay with her which I did. She was confused about which slacks were the ones she already owned vs. the ones that she had tried on. I told her which ones were hers, and she put them on.
From that department we went to the lingerie departmentto buy bras. I remembered her size from our most recent trip to Belk about 3 weeks ago. She readily accepted my lead in this process. I picked out a bra that was like the 2 we had bought before. She liked it. I got two. She also wanted a black bra; so I went through the selection to find the right size. Then we went to buy hose. Once again, she let me take the lead. I found her size. The only thing she did was tell me the colors, black and a flesh color. I got 2 blacks and 3 flesh. At the end, she felt good about our purchases and thanked me. I felt good as well. I felt good as well for two reasons. I was glad it had been a good experience. In addition, we bought 3 pair of slacks for half the price we have been paying at her regular shop. I recognize that the ones we bought today are not of the same quality, but for her everyday needs these will be just fine.
So I am getting more experience shopping for women’s clothes. I felt a little self-conscious being in the fitting room with her, but it worked out all right. I know this may happen again. I might as well get used to it.
