Pre-Europe #3: The buying ends?

Well - this Saturday basically saw me break my bank account. For a person who detests shopping, worries about money, and hates buying clothes above all other things - I not only did all three pretty much ALL day - but I believe I spent the most money I've ever spent all at once.

Ok - so some of it was pre-paying future bills, setting aside taxes and making sure that our rent is paid for the month we're away - but damn if I wasn't hyperventilating at all the money I saw disappear right in front of my eyes.

Today was basically a shop till you drop kind of day - and required a LOT of trying things on - cursing the lack of good-looking, comfortable walking shoes - and watching my credit card swipe over and over and over again. I believe VISA should be calling me first thing tomorrow morning to make sure that I didn't lose the card to a thief.

Anywho - what did we end up with? Let's see - first stop was dropping Bobo-Fett at at the groomers so that she didn't shed all over the carpet of her doggie-sitters for the three weeks we're gone - aka H-Rabbit's parents'. We then went and got H-Rabbit's new glasses and sun glasses so she could actually SEE Europe when we get there rather than just the end of her nose.

From there - we then made our way to Markville - where I picked up the very necessary socks and undies from Sears. We also met H-Rabbit's mom who works there - I was told to shop at Markville without visiting when we KNEW she was there was basically being asked to be murdered - so, c'est ca. H-Rabbit also picked up a pair of skorts that were on sale.

We then ventured elsewhere in the mall which led to tons of aggravating shoe shopping until we finally settled at Coast Mountain Sports. I think the sales rep was flabbergasted as what to do with us as we took forever, changed our minds ten times, and got him to bring out a ton of shoes.

At one point I'd even settled on a pair of walking-runners from The North Face for quite awhile as H-Rabbit was thinking about walking sandals and agonizing between a pair from The North Face and the super comfortable off-white flip-flops from Columbia - when I realized I didn't really like the shoes so much as the price - and that I really didn't want to buy something I hated just because it was cheap.

So instead - I went for a fairly expensive but good quality Keen walking sandal (since I needed sandals too for the super hot Italy and Greece) and H-Rabbit finally settled on a North Face gel-bottomed pair and we were at least set with one pair each (even though I still didn't have the walking-runners that I really needed...).

See - my problem with runners lie in that I absolutely adore Skater shoes - and hate running shoes - but Skater shoes are simply way too heavy and way to non-foot conforming for walking miles and miles and miles across Europe. The thing is - they are soooo awesome looking. You would think - that in this day and age - runners would also be awesome looking - but no. They're not - and for some reason - 99.99999% of them are white or at least white-based - and I detest that in a shoe. Especially if it's a shoe you reasonably expect to wear, oh, I don't know, outside!! In the dirt!! Where white shoes become brown!!

Anywho - back to the shopping. From there we then went to the Shoe Company to see if they had any runners I'd like - no luck. So we simply picked up our now half-the-size puppy (realizing that she is actually NOT fat - just fur-fat - and we actually have a damn skinny dog) and went home for a quick bite to eat before heading off to Vaughn Mills.

Oh - I forgot to mention - that amongst all that other shopping - we had also been stopping into clothes stores - however this had been mostly for H-Rabbit since I can't fit into anything on offer at most malls. So during our break - I also quickly looked up the stores that carry MXM so I could at least look young-ish in the chubby clothes that I needed to buy.

Before heading to our final destination of Vaughan Mills, we stopped at the Colossus Centre for me - and popped into the Addition-Elle they have there. After trying on a ton of clothes - I ended up walking away with: 2 bras (which cost a million dollars... ouch), 2 tank tops, some shorts, a bathing suit tank and a pair of skorts. That little trip alone cut into my credit card at a quarter grand - ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch.

Let's just say from that point on I stopped counting - and still have yet to look at the damage. That's the task for AFTER writing this.

At Vaughan Mills - we did a lot more stops for H-Rabbit - but I DID find my running shoes!! Athlete's World finally had a pair of New Balance black running shoes that a) didn't look like a dog's breakfast, and b) I could actually see my self-proclaimed-designer-self wearing everyday without cringing at every step.

After that - I was feeling pretty good that my list was finally complete (sans some itty bitty things) that I actually walked myself into an H&M (which I hate doing) and managed to find not one, but two hats for under $20 total, so that I don't burn my head in the hot European suns.

Thankfully after that, we ended with dinner and came home. I am soooooooo dreading looking at my account. Especially since there are a few more things that we need to get - but hopefully now I can scrounge around the house and make a few "substitutions" to alleviate the wallet pressure.

Hopefully.