It was a gorgeous day outside, warm enough to be wearing flipflops, and I felt a teensy bit guilty about spending it shopping. However, Wrentham is outside, and I would be out in the fresh air walking between stores!!
There was no traffic on 95 or any other highway getting to Wrentham until I hit the road that leads directly two. Three lanes of cars trying to merge into one and I spent 15 minutes in bumper to bumper traffic because people would get into the wrong lane and then cut back in right at the entrance. Very frustrating!
The parking lot itself was a zoo. I have never seen Wrentham this bad except for Black Friday, the first shopping day after Thanksgiving. I guess despite the warm weather and the recession, everyone preferred to use the Columbus Day Weekend sale as retail therapy. My preferred parking method is to find the first available spot in the back and walk to the shops, rather than wasting another 15 minutes circling for the perfect spot that never opens up. There weren't even spots left in the back today but I happen to catch a bunch of people leaving, and zoomed right into the spot.
The next three hours were spent blissfully shopping. My two objectives were to get work clothing and a part of Andrew's gift. Mission successful. I loaded up at the Ann Taylor Loft and and the Ann Taylor outlets (even got an additional 25% off at Ann Taylor Loft due to a scratch card promotion they were running). J Crew was mobbed and didn't have anything cute (except these adorable white peacoats that I couldn't justify spending the money on). I popped my head into Brooks Brothers to see if anything caught my eye for Andrew's birthday but everything was out of my price range or not what I was looking for. Stopped at Carters and could have spent hours and hours looking at all the cute baby clothing. Seriously, I think that's why people have kids, to be able to dress them. I picked up a cute Halloween pajama set for my friend Kelli's 9-month-old son Cody. He just had surgery last week and I wanted to get him a cute outfit to cheer up his parents. Williams-Sonoma had the potential to keep me there for days, I walked out with a mini-muffin tin but easily could have bought out their whole baking section! I browsed in the Nike outlet and some shoe stores but walked out empty handed.
I did get sucked in at Coach. I meant to window shop and just check out what they had in stock and ended up walking out with a ginormous black bag. I've never been a Coach gal or someone that flaunts big, ostentatious bags. In fact, my favorite bag is a canvas tote that I bought at TJ Maxx for $15. However, I had gotten Amy this exact bag for Christmas last year in this gorgeous cherry brown color and had been dreaming about it ever since. They still had that bag in stock but I figured black was also a great color to get it in.
It's big enough to hold a laptop and I know I can get some use out of it on business trips as well. I don't know if I've convinced you whether it was a good buy because I'm still feeling guilty about it!
Final stop was Banana Republic. I didn't even look in the ladies section. Walked in, got Andrew's gift (will disclose it on Friday, as I don't want Andrew to accidentally see what he is getting before his birthday) and the belt he requested and walked out. At that point, the lines were long and my bags were bulky enough that I was slamming into people as I walking around so it was definitely time to go. I could've hit more stores but realized that I would be back in a month for the after Thanksgiving sale.
2 comments:
Mmmm, explicit descriptions of shopping - my favorite :)
Thanks for the add on your blogroll; it might give me some incentive to update!
Definitely do keep blogging, it's a perfect place to share the highs and lows of what's going on in your life!
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