A little shopping inspiration

Last night I went out to dinner with a girlfriend of mine....and afterward we strolled along Robson St in Vancouver - a MECCA for clothing stores....everything from the Gap to Mexx, Guess, Tommy Hilfiger, LuluLemon, Zara, Bebe.... you get the idea.... and you might also appreciate that I never go in these stores because I cant wear their clothes... MY mecca consists of Old Navy (can get into an XXL if it's stretchy and can also wear some of their maternity clothes (GOD that's so sad!)), Penningtons, Additionelle, Cotton Ginny Plus and sometimes Walmart (but I hardly ever go there). I never go into other stores - I mean, why would I want to depress myself!?

Anyway, my friend, who is slim size 8-10, wanted to check out some of the sales at these stores and so I tagged along.

Now, I feel uncomfortable even walking into these stores because I feel like everyone's looking at me and wondering why I'm in there, and then I feel funny even looking at the clothes, because hey, who am I kidding?! So in the first couple of stores I didn't even look, I just sorta loitered around the front area pretending to look at things while my friend browsed. And then a funny thing happened.... we spent quite a while in a store called Zara, which I'd never gone into, and she was trying on coats and I started to actually LOOK and feel the clothes, and I started to feel excited! They were so beautiful, so fashionable, so cute, so sexy, nothing like how I would describe my current wardrobe. For my clothes, I'd use descriptors like Functional, Frumpy and Shapeless. Gee how fun and inspiring - no wonder I find it hard to feel good about myself!

Anyway, I actually had fun, but I also found myself thinking 'I would get this, oh and this, ohhhh and THIS'.... in fact I would have bought everything in there. And I couldn't believe that my friend wasn't buying everything - I mean SHE could FIT in all these clothes and she walked out with nothing. I had an overwhelming feeling that I would buy anything and everything I could fit into, and I guess it's because that's how it is right now - when I find something that I actually like, or that looks pretty or that fits well, I'm ecstatic, and I buy it because it's so RARE due to my limited choices.

I was surprised at how inspired I felt when I left... not depressed, but instead excited for the day that I will hopefully be able to shop in these fun *normal* stores and have thousands of beautiful, cute and sexy things to choose from. I won't know what to do with myself!!

I almost consider this a NSV as instead of going into a *I'm NEVER going to be thin enough to shop here* funk like I would in the past, my excitement showed me that I DO believe that I will reach my goals and I will be a fashionista one day :)

Hmmm.................I'd better start saving my pennies now!