SteinMart....

I went to Marshall's bright and early this morning, to return the three skirts that I bought there yesterday. I found more skirts, which I tried on after I took care of the returns, but I didn't buy them, even though I thought they looked okay. The thing about those "cute little skirts," as my sister calls them, is that they're cute.... and I'm not trying to look cute at my age. I'm trying to dress appropriately, without looking like someone's mother.

My sister can get away with looking cute...... she looks like she's still in her late 20s, even though she's in her mid-40s. At my best, when the cats don't wake me up in the middle of the night, I can pass for being in my mid-40s, even though I'm nearly to the magic number of 55. (Jeez.... what a number. How did that happen?) So...... cute clothes are just that--- too cute for me now, because they'll make me look older, not younger.

I shall stick with capris for the summer, and forget about the cute little skirts. So off to SteinMart I went, searching for capris without any sort of beading, sequins, embroidery, or embellishments of any kind. SteinMart is the embellishment-capital of the southeast Texas shopping market. I found one pair of black capris.... didn't need black ones, but I bought them anyway, for the simple reason that when I do need black ones, I won't be able to find them. What I was looking for were white capris.... plain old white cotton. Couldn't find one pair, unless of course I wanted a pair with purple bugle-beads spiraling up the left leg in a fleur-de-lis pattern.

SteinMart also has thousands of tops...... blouses, sweaters, shells, button-down, short-sleeves, half-sleeves, long-sleeves, no-sleeves, in every color of the rainbow and every combination thereof. I don't think I've ever gone into SteinMart and not walked out with at least one top. I found a pretty green one today, with just a tiny bit of beading around the scoop-necked collar. I bought that, since of course the green will go with the black capris, and will also go with the white capris, should I ever find them.

When I got home from SteinMart, I remembered that I had put a pair of white capris into the box I keep for donations to the local charities. Those white capris were put into that box because the metal zipper got so washed-out and worn-out from the washing machine that it was getting hard to zip up and down without breaking a nail. I figured I would just replace the white capris, rather than take them to the local seamstress and have her put on a new zipper. (I can do buttons and hems, but I can't do zippers.)

Silly me.... I thought that finding a new pair of white capris would be easier than having a new zipper put on. So there I was this afternoon, looking through my own donation box for those white capris. And there they were... carefully wrapped in a white plastic bag.... one very nice pair of white cotton capris, absolutely fine except for the broken zipper. They are no longer in the donation box.... I will be taking them to the seamstress for a new zipper (nylon, not metal) and I will stop my search for white capris. But I know I'll find them at some point-- when I'm not looking for them, of course.

I spoke to my cousin R yesterday morning.... the same cousin who visited me last year and spent most of her three days here in SteinMart. She has found a SteinMart up on Long Island, but she says that the prices up there are more expensive than those down here. "Well.... all the more reason to get yourself on a plane and come down and visist again," said I. She shopped so much in the SteinMart here last year that she got to know half of the sales-clerks by name. I asked her what she was looking for in SteinMart.... "White slacks or white capris," said she. (Must be something in the air...)