February 29, 2004
An Outlet for Addicts
It was a sunny Sunday afternoon here in Charlotte, the remains of a winter storm melting in the sunshine, when my husband asked "What would you like to do today?". Well let's see hmm I know let's go to the outlet mall in Gaffney, SC. Sean had finally gotten around to going through his closet on one of our recent snow days and been persuaded to discard a few of his older (read dated) items of clothing, and I thought perhaps we could look for a couple of inexpensive replacements for him out there since his comparison pricing is always done against Wal-mart items. Ok, those of you who know the wife in this story also know she is thinking "and maybe I might look for a pair of shoes". I am an addict. I don't remember when I became an addict but somewhere along the line my predilection for red shoes, which began as early as I could point, became a desire for shoes of varying colours and styles. These days they don't need to be red per se but I still find myself strangely drawn to them.
We got Sean's shopping out of the way, I wandered breezily through many a shoe store just looking for a new pair of loafers and then just about ready to leave I said to Sean "oh just one last store, they may have some loafers here". After surveying the men's side of the store Sean found me where I started in Ladies shoes with one caramel and one charcoal loafer on either foot. "Whatcha doin'?", he asked. "Trying to decide which colour I like more," I answered. "Well they are buy one get 1/2 off the second pair so why don't you get both?," he asked. Well what he didn't realize of course is that I had already scoped out a pair of red shoes I wanted and was now trying to decide on the second pair. I decided on the creamy caramel loafers and the red mules and made my way to the register still yearning for the charcoal loafers I'd left behind. Of course the cashier tells me the red mules are not elligible for the half-price offer. When asked why she tells me it's because they are already discounted to 15.99. "What?!" I made her repeat that twice because I really couldn't believe what I heard. For 15.99 these ones were practically free already so that solved my other dilemma, I quickly retrieved the charcoal loafers and bought 3 pairs of shoes for 72 dollars. Yes the grin on my face lasted all the way home.
An outlet for addicts is what I call those malls, they are dangerous places for people like me, but you have to admit my new shoes sure are purdy.
Sean used them as a subject for some photography and here is a picture. Have I mentioned I love my husband? :)
