I'm getting old(er)...and I LIKE IT!

I went shopping yesterday, in my eternal quest for jeans that are non-stretch, cut right, and less than my grocery bill for three months. I won't bore you (some of you, again...) with the minutia of the irritations I went through, but like many other random things in my life, it got me all philosophical and stuff.

I am, by no means, old. I am young and spry and happy about it. But there are signs to me that I'm growing up. I like Total Raisin Bran and Special K instead of Frosted Flakes for breakfast. Flossing has become important to me. I actually crave water and vegetables when I haven't had enough. And, as I look back, you couldn't pay me to be 20 again. Not that 20 wasn't fun...but I'm done with it. I look forward to my 30's with joy. No more relationship games, no more self-insecurity, just me...here I am, take me or leave me. I feel like I'm finally at an age where I can keep all the zeal and passion of my earlier years while leaving behind the instability that came with them as I tried to figure out who I was and what I wanted from life.

This does NOT mean, however, that I know what I want for the rest of my life. I hold true to my first post: that life is a search, there's always a way to improve, and it's boring if you find a place to stop permanently. But there is something to be said for finding a center, a home to which you can return when things get a little off-kilter. And I finally feel like that center is solidifying.

How does this relate to shopping? Well...I went to the Abercrombie store in our local mall yesterday in my afore-mentioned search for jeans. Abercrombie is one of those tricky stores that I still feel I can shop in...there are plenty of very nice, adult-like clothes that are appropriate but not frumpy. Just what I'm looking for. But they also happen to carry really trendy stuff as well, stuff I'm just not sure I can pull off anymore, and that stuff attracts a much younger crowd. As I worked my way through the store yesterday, the front was fairly empty. However, when I got to the middle of the store, I looked to the back half and it was TEEMING with adolescents. I had this moment where I realized that I was literally twice the age of some of those kids, and I had to leave the store immediately. I just couldn't handle trying to get to the clothes I could wear through the throngs of teenage girls fighting over the last "Aberbrombie & Fitch Cheerleading Squad" XXS tshirt. It was at this point that I decided this:

The mall should be like the pool in the summer. Remember when you were little, and you'd go to the local pool, and you'd splash around and have a good time, until the life guard blew his or her wistle and yelled "Adult Swim!" At this point you got out of the pool, and if you were lucky enough to have money on you you'd head to the snack bar and gorge yourself on candy, giving your body the sugar spike it would need for another hour spashing around in the hot sun. Does anyone else remember how happy and calm the adults looked while swimming during Adult Swim? I do. Now I understand why. And I think they should have an "Adult Shop" hour at the mall, where the kids have to hang out outside or in the food court. This way I can get to the clothes I need at Abercrombie without having to trample some poor sixth grader. We all benefit from this plan.

(This is, of course, assuming that I have the fashion sense and the money to buy adult-stylish-but-not-frumpy clothes. I don't. But in a perfect world.....)

Until this plan can be implemented, however, I suppose I'll have to continue and do the best I can with what I have. Online shopping will help a little, shopping while the kids are in school is always a great idea, and on the rare occasion that I brave the stores during a school holiday, I'll just have to embrace my new old(er)-lady self, take a deep breath as I wade through the shoppers half my age, and say to myself,"These kids today....."