Sheryl's mom had offered to take me to their mall for clothes shopping but Jerry wasn't able to get me up there, so he had to bring us to the mall today in Chattanooga.
We had to get clothes for Court so we planned a trip to the mall today. We only go to the mall once a year and that's for Christmas shopping. If we need anything else, our options are limited so it's Walmart or nothing because I have driving issues on the interstate.
It's a good thing that Jerry and Dan both happened to have new suits to wear to the funeral, but I didn't have a thing. I ended up wearing an old long skirt and knit top that belonged to my mom that I dug out, and shoes that were so old, they literally broke off of my feet at the cemetery. I knew shopping for me was going to be a project. Dan wore his typical huge nasty jeans with tee shirt hanging out like a bum and I wore stretch shorts that I stole from Jerry with a tee shirt and Michael's sandals so we arrived looking like we just fell off the turnip truck. We brought Josh, Dan's best friend who always looks gross too. We looked like quite a pitiful group, except for Jerry who had decent clothes on.
The mall was filled with tons of teenagers everywhere,.and lots of stores geared just for them like the Gap and Hot Topic. Seems like those stores took over in the mall. Who knew? When did that happen?
We headed to JCPenney for clothes for Dan and we actually got waited on. Dad took off to look at tools. While I was standing around in the young men's department I thought of our last family trip there with Michael and I got upset but tried not to let it show.
The lady was trying to measure Dan for a shirt and he was wiggling and twisting all around because he was so ticklish and he was giving her fits and wouldn't stand still and wouldn't quit laughing. We tried to get him fitted in decent pants but Dan only knows how to wear crappy jeans three sizes too big falling down his butt crack so he was a handful saying all those casual dress slacks look stupid and he wasn't going to wear them. He kept pulling them all down to his hips, sneaking sizes that were way too big, and drove me nuts and was making the sales lady laugh her head off. I finally punched him in the arm and told him to behave himself because I was having a hard day and here came the sniffles which he couldn't stand. Once I got it through his head that we had to look nice to represent Michael, that sunk in and Dan bought the exact same khaki pants that Michael loved to wear, and two of the same kind of shirts that he wore too. He looked so cute. Success.
He quit fussing after that and said he was going to find Dad but I knew that wasn't true. They were going to hang out in front of Victoria's Secret to pick up girls, while I attempted to buy some clothing for me. Jerry was very persistent that we were not coming back until Christmas so now was the time I had to get clothes and he said we were not leaving there until I bought something decent. He told me to get a lot so that I wouldn't run around looking like I do like a slop. So I went to the ladies departments but I was so confused between "ladies" "women's" and "misses" and "today's woman" that I didn't know where I should look so I just looked at everything but I couldn't find my size anywhere. I began to sniffle again, but not because of that. Of course I didn't know my real size, just that everything looked like it wouldn't fit. I just go by what the boys say I am "short and stumpy."
If I were in Walmart, I would have known where to look, But these department stores are really big and there was no lady available asking "May I Help You" so I just left and sat in the mall on a bench and gave up and thought of our last trip there that was so much fun with Michael at Christmas time. Jerry comes along sees me sitting there wih no bags and tells me to try another store while he waited in the mall. I did.
Same thing. Too many departments, all spread out all over the place and I got mixed up, and no one to ask except a cashier that had a big line and I didn't want to bother her. I wandered around and all I could find that might fit me were "granny clothes" that I didn't want. I felt like screaming "Does anyone know where they keep the short and stumpy sizes?"
Michael was always very well dressed. He never went in for that bum look and on several occasions he threatened to report me to the fashion police of TV's What Not To Wear and he was serious. He always made me watch that show and now I know why. I would have loved to run into the people from that show because I got nowhere except very frustrated. This was no fun. I hate shopping. I had no idea how badly I dressed going off the mountain, but apparently everyone else did.
By this time, I was frazzled and knew I was going to have a crying spell so I went outside of the mall to get some air and I was leaning up against the building and here comes a mall security cop. She thinks I'm drunk and I start sniffleing again. I tell her that I am not drunk that I just upset because I can't find any clothes to wear to court and Jerry said I can't go home without any. She says people don't cry over shopping, and wants to know what I have been charged with and why I got arrested to have to go to court, so I told her that I didn't do anything and she wants to see my driver's license. She finally lets me go and tells me to have a nice day, but that I looked suspicious. This day just goes from bad to plain stupid.
I was on my way to try one more store, still sniffleing and teary eyed and now I'm out of tissues when I realize that there are no clothes in the mall that will fit me, so I give up and turn back around and try to compose myself. All of a sudden I look up and there was the most beautiful sight I had seen in a long time. It was Whitney, one of Michael's most treasured best friends in the world, standing before me with open arms wanting a hug. I take one look and realize it's her, and here we both go blubbering . We find a bench and got to sit down for a visit while she waits for her friend in another store. She offered to help me shop but by that time I was tired and wanted to find Jerry and Dan and get out of there. Seeing Whitney made my day. She's leaving for college soon but promises to stay in touch.
Here comes Jerry, Dan and Josh and Jerry is giving me the eye because he sees that I still have not made a purchase and I tell him that I want to please leave that place. On the way out, we passed by a book store and in the window was a book by Sylvia Browne called "If You Can See What I see" and Jerry let me get it.
The fun part finally came when we went to Outback Steak House for the first time. Keep in mind that if it doesn't involve a drive-thru window, we aren't familiar with it. We didn't know there was a bar and a tv in there either. It's a noisy place. We ordered a little dinner and Jerry and I head to the bathroom and when we come back Dan and Josh said that they ordered us an appetizer. They didn't realize that one appetizer there feeds a whole table and before we knew it, the table was covered with so many plates of appetizers that there was no room on the table for dinner. The appetizers kept coming and coming and Jerry said "what have you boys done?" He rolled his eyes and giggled a little bit and so did I. This is the kind of stuff that Michael would have pulled. And who invented cheese fries? I never heard of them. We're going to need more dental floss.
It was really funny and we couldn't eat hardly any of it; there was way too much food, but Dan and Josh were shoveling like pigs and then began to turn green. This is the first time that Jerry ever got a dinner bill that was the same amount as our grocery bill for a week, and his eyes about popped out of his head and he said next time, it's back to Arbys.
Somewhere in there I manged to knock off my cheap $2.99 hoop earing so the boys were scrounging around under the table trying to find it but couldn't. It finally showed up later. It had fallen down my shirt....sigh.
On the way home we stopped at Walmart thank goodness it felt so good in there.......for bird food and cat food and I got some Alka Seltzer just in case for Dan and Josh. On the way home, they were punching eachother in the back seat and wrestling around like a couple of two year olds, just like Michael would have been doing with them if he had been with us today.
I still don't have any clothes for court but I'll make due with something I already have, even if it's wrong. It was quite an experience to shop at the mall but I don't like it and it was nicer to get back to the mountain and pet a bunch of critters.
Dan's baggy pants.
I wonder why he was posing himself in front of that fancy car that we don't own.........
Sweet Whitney
We had to get clothes for Court so we planned a trip to the mall today. We only go to the mall once a year and that's for Christmas shopping. If we need anything else, our options are limited so it's Walmart or nothing because I have driving issues on the interstate.
It's a good thing that Jerry and Dan both happened to have new suits to wear to the funeral, but I didn't have a thing. I ended up wearing an old long skirt and knit top that belonged to my mom that I dug out, and shoes that were so old, they literally broke off of my feet at the cemetery. I knew shopping for me was going to be a project. Dan wore his typical huge nasty jeans with tee shirt hanging out like a bum and I wore stretch shorts that I stole from Jerry with a tee shirt and Michael's sandals so we arrived looking like we just fell off the turnip truck. We brought Josh, Dan's best friend who always looks gross too. We looked like quite a pitiful group, except for Jerry who had decent clothes on.
The mall was filled with tons of teenagers everywhere,.and lots of stores geared just for them like the Gap and Hot Topic. Seems like those stores took over in the mall. Who knew? When did that happen?
We headed to JCPenney for clothes for Dan and we actually got waited on. Dad took off to look at tools. While I was standing around in the young men's department I thought of our last family trip there with Michael and I got upset but tried not to let it show.
The lady was trying to measure Dan for a shirt and he was wiggling and twisting all around because he was so ticklish and he was giving her fits and wouldn't stand still and wouldn't quit laughing. We tried to get him fitted in decent pants but Dan only knows how to wear crappy jeans three sizes too big falling down his butt crack so he was a handful saying all those casual dress slacks look stupid and he wasn't going to wear them. He kept pulling them all down to his hips, sneaking sizes that were way too big, and drove me nuts and was making the sales lady laugh her head off. I finally punched him in the arm and told him to behave himself because I was having a hard day and here came the sniffles which he couldn't stand. Once I got it through his head that we had to look nice to represent Michael, that sunk in and Dan bought the exact same khaki pants that Michael loved to wear, and two of the same kind of shirts that he wore too. He looked so cute. Success.
He quit fussing after that and said he was going to find Dad but I knew that wasn't true. They were going to hang out in front of Victoria's Secret to pick up girls, while I attempted to buy some clothing for me. Jerry was very persistent that we were not coming back until Christmas so now was the time I had to get clothes and he said we were not leaving there until I bought something decent. He told me to get a lot so that I wouldn't run around looking like I do like a slop. So I went to the ladies departments but I was so confused between "ladies" "women's" and "misses" and "today's woman" that I didn't know where I should look so I just looked at everything but I couldn't find my size anywhere. I began to sniffle again, but not because of that. Of course I didn't know my real size, just that everything looked like it wouldn't fit. I just go by what the boys say I am "short and stumpy."
If I were in Walmart, I would have known where to look, But these department stores are really big and there was no lady available asking "May I Help You" so I just left and sat in the mall on a bench and gave up and thought of our last trip there that was so much fun with Michael at Christmas time. Jerry comes along sees me sitting there wih no bags and tells me to try another store while he waited in the mall. I did.
Same thing. Too many departments, all spread out all over the place and I got mixed up, and no one to ask except a cashier that had a big line and I didn't want to bother her. I wandered around and all I could find that might fit me were "granny clothes" that I didn't want. I felt like screaming "Does anyone know where they keep the short and stumpy sizes?"
Michael was always very well dressed. He never went in for that bum look and on several occasions he threatened to report me to the fashion police of TV's What Not To Wear and he was serious. He always made me watch that show and now I know why. I would have loved to run into the people from that show because I got nowhere except very frustrated. This was no fun. I hate shopping. I had no idea how badly I dressed going off the mountain, but apparently everyone else did.
By this time, I was frazzled and knew I was going to have a crying spell so I went outside of the mall to get some air and I was leaning up against the building and here comes a mall security cop. She thinks I'm drunk and I start sniffleing again. I tell her that I am not drunk that I just upset because I can't find any clothes to wear to court and Jerry said I can't go home without any. She says people don't cry over shopping, and wants to know what I have been charged with and why I got arrested to have to go to court, so I told her that I didn't do anything and she wants to see my driver's license. She finally lets me go and tells me to have a nice day, but that I looked suspicious. This day just goes from bad to plain stupid.
I was on my way to try one more store, still sniffleing and teary eyed and now I'm out of tissues when I realize that there are no clothes in the mall that will fit me, so I give up and turn back around and try to compose myself. All of a sudden I look up and there was the most beautiful sight I had seen in a long time. It was Whitney, one of Michael's most treasured best friends in the world, standing before me with open arms wanting a hug. I take one look and realize it's her, and here we both go blubbering . We find a bench and got to sit down for a visit while she waits for her friend in another store. She offered to help me shop but by that time I was tired and wanted to find Jerry and Dan and get out of there. Seeing Whitney made my day. She's leaving for college soon but promises to stay in touch.
Here comes Jerry, Dan and Josh and Jerry is giving me the eye because he sees that I still have not made a purchase and I tell him that I want to please leave that place. On the way out, we passed by a book store and in the window was a book by Sylvia Browne called "If You Can See What I see" and Jerry let me get it.
The fun part finally came when we went to Outback Steak House for the first time. Keep in mind that if it doesn't involve a drive-thru window, we aren't familiar with it. We didn't know there was a bar and a tv in there either. It's a noisy place. We ordered a little dinner and Jerry and I head to the bathroom and when we come back Dan and Josh said that they ordered us an appetizer. They didn't realize that one appetizer there feeds a whole table and before we knew it, the table was covered with so many plates of appetizers that there was no room on the table for dinner. The appetizers kept coming and coming and Jerry said "what have you boys done?" He rolled his eyes and giggled a little bit and so did I. This is the kind of stuff that Michael would have pulled. And who invented cheese fries? I never heard of them. We're going to need more dental floss.
It was really funny and we couldn't eat hardly any of it; there was way too much food, but Dan and Josh were shoveling like pigs and then began to turn green. This is the first time that Jerry ever got a dinner bill that was the same amount as our grocery bill for a week, and his eyes about popped out of his head and he said next time, it's back to Arbys.
Somewhere in there I manged to knock off my cheap $2.99 hoop earing so the boys were scrounging around under the table trying to find it but couldn't. It finally showed up later. It had fallen down my shirt....sigh.
On the way home we stopped at Walmart thank goodness it felt so good in there.......for bird food and cat food and I got some Alka Seltzer just in case for Dan and Josh. On the way home, they were punching eachother in the back seat and wrestling around like a couple of two year olds, just like Michael would have been doing with them if he had been with us today.
I still don't have any clothes for court but I'll make due with something I already have, even if it's wrong. It was quite an experience to shop at the mall but I don't like it and it was nicer to get back to the mountain and pet a bunch of critters.
Dan's baggy pants.
I wonder why he was posing himself in front of that fancy car that we don't own.........
Sweet Whitney
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