Sunday was a simple day and to some it may seem ordinary, but it was the kind of day I’d wished for for a while.
I spent the whole day yesterday with my friend Emily shopping in Rockville, Maryland. I know, it sounds lame. Why am I writing a post about this?
Because it was wonderful.
Our husbands were playing golf and had an 11:30 tee time so we hit the stores while they hit the links. We stopped for Starbucks before starting at Michael’s and then heading to Ulta, Child’s Play, Buy Buy Baby, World Market, H&M, Target, and Ikea. Ikea?? I know, right?? We were on a roll.
Reasons this was amazing:
- We were shopping for about 6 hours. We got everything done we wanted to do: supplies for a party I’m having this weekend, a gift for a friend’s baby, hair products and clothes for Em’s upcoming vacation, and a new piece of furniture for our kitchen.
- We were together one-on-one for 6 hours, just galavanting around. As an adult how often does that happen? And because we were together for so long, we were able to talk and talk and talk about topics both big and small—you know, girl talk.
- Being in the suburbs is a beautiful thing. We went to more stores yesterday than I’ve been in the last 2 months. I’m not kidding you. Part of the reason our apartment isn’t decorated after almost a full year is because getting to stores to buy things for my apartment seems like such a to-do. I know it’s not. But it feels like such a production.
- Emily knew exactly where everything was and I was pretty much just along for the ride. I said, I want to go here, here, and here and she took me there! One reason shopping seems like such a production is because I don’t know where any of the stores are and if I’m going to go shopping in the suburbs I feel like I have go to at least 3 stores or it’s not worth the drive. But I would have to map out every stop beforehand and figure out the best route and that totally deters me from the whole thing. It’s like when you go into a grocery store that’s not your usual store and you feel totally uncomfortable and lost.
- Shopping with a girlfriend is a wonderful thing. So different than shopping with my husband. When shopping with girlfriends, the conversation just continues as you move through the stores. You get actual opinions and pros and cons on your potential purchases. When I shop with my husband he pretty much becomes a mute when we walk into a store and I feel immense pressure to get out of the store as soon as possible.
After our shopping marathon, we went back to Emily and Zach‘s for dinner. We sat outside with a glass of wine while we waited for Mike and Zach to get back from golf and then Zach fired up the grill. It was a great end to a great day.