The Mall

I hate, hate, hate going to shopping malls. The parking lots are always too big, and all that white-hot concrete facing up at you when the temperature is 100 degrees or over makes for a broiling walk from your car to the mall's entrance. The floors of mostly every mall I've ever been in has been made of granite, marble, or some other harder-than-hard surface. Not easy to walk on, and maybe that's what they had in mind when they designed the malls--- the hard marble floors going around the mall might keep you inside all the stores for a longer time.

The only shopping mall I've been in that I have truly loved (and enjoyed shopping in) was a Victorian-styled shopping plaza in Sydney, Australia. Located on George Street in Sydney, this shopping "mall" was called The Queen Victoria Building. It was constructed in 1898, and was originally used for the produce markets for the city of Sydney. The building's interior was updated in the 1930s, and then it was fully renovated in 1986. The result is a spectacularly beautiful "mall" which gives you a very unique shopping experience. We had gone to Sydney because my husband had a business conference there. While he was busy with his meetings, I took a taxi to The Queen Victoria and walked from one end to the other, from the bottom level to the top. I had lunch in one of the cafes and it felt like I was in another world, which of course, I was. I don't remember buying all that much... I was more enthralled with the beauty of the building than I was with the merchandise.

Underneath this ornately domed architectural masterpiece of a building sits at least 200 small shops, surrounded by wood floors, stained glass windows, carpeted hallways, and an extremely large vintage clock hanging down in the center of the four-story atrium. The signs for each of the shops are ornate within reason, not screaming-out with neon colors and bright lights. I don't remember the Queen Victoria Building being overly loud with screaming kids and adults yelling after them. Even the little cafes were somewhat quiet, with a low murmur of voices instead of high-pitched noise.

Whenever I find myself in a super-busy American shopping mall, I remember that beautiful building in Sydney and I try and conjure all of that up in my mind and block out the blessedly crazy mall I'm in at the moment.

Like last night.... I went to our local mall here, searching for a bathing suit to bring to Hawaii. I figured if I didn't get out for a suit soon, I'd be finding precious little on the racks. Last night seemed to be the perfect time, and off I went at dinner-time, hoping to find a less-than-crowded mall.

My timing was perfect. While everyone was either driving home from work or eating dinner, I was trying on bathing suits. Not my favorite thing in the world to do. I went into Foley's first, for the simple reason that I parked outside their door at the mall. I don't know if they're still calling it Foley's anymore, since they were recently bought out by Macy's. I didn't even bother to look at the signs, to see if they had been changed.

I went straight to the bathing suits, and found about a dozen to take into the dressing room. Not a soul in the dressing room but me, and that was just fine also. I tried on all of the suits... this one was too large, that one too tight, that one too revealing, that one too busy, the other one too plain. The last one I tried on was a black one-piece, with a gathered piece of fabric criss-crossed at the waist and a gold design across the top near the straps. It fit just fine, and looked fine, and the fabric was soft and comfortable. But I stood there in front of the mirror and in my mind, all I saw was a black one-piece bathing suit. And I thought of all the middle-aged women on all the beaches I've ever been on.... all of them wearing a black one-piece bathing suit.

Give unto me a blessed break. I am 54 years old. I guess I'm a middle-aged woman. One question: just when did that happen?

I bought the bathing suit. I didn't even go further into the mall to Dillard's, to see if they had anything better or different. The black one-piece at Foley's was $86.00, marked down to $48.00, and then further discounted to $24.00..... for less than twenty-five dollars, I wasn't going to try on any more bathing suits and find a middle-aged woman looking back at me in the mirror of another dressing room.

I left Foley's after paying for the bathing suit and walked to the Coldwater Creek store. They were arranging their new Fall clothes. I had coupons for that store... $90.00 worth of coupons that had been sitting in my purse all summer, and due to expire at the end of September. Far be it from me to let good coupons get tossed into the trash. I bought a beautiful long skirt which floats nearly to my ankles, with lots of different colors and ribbons and sparkles running through the soft fabric. When I tried it on, standing there in my high-heeled sandals and that gorgeous skirt, I thought of my Aunt Dolly's recent comment to me: "That husband of yours is turning you into a gypsy." Indeed, that skirt looked like a gypsy's skirt.... romantic and flamboyant and colorful and intensely happy. Plus, when I looked into the mirror wearing that skirt, I didn't see a middle-aged woman, I saw me: romantic, flamboyant, colorful, and intensely happy.

I bought the skirt. Plus two tops, a pair of beige capris, and a pair of beige slacks..... and used my ninety-dollars-worth of coupons to get a very nice discount on the final price. I felt much better about buying all of those clothes than I did about finding a great bargain on the black bathing suit. And the thought has crossed my mind that I should just wear the colorful gypsy skirt and my sandals on the beaches of Hawaii, instead of that black bathing suit. I might look ridiculous, but at least I won't feel like a middle-aged woman.