Saturday shopping:The good and the not so good

Saturdays are my days with my girl. I take Sophie to her ceramics class, which is conveniently (or not) located around of the corner from Anthropologie. You can see the problem. This time I only looked and did not buy a thing (hurray for me!), but I'm pretty sure I may need these these dishes.Click to enlarge, please. I mean, come on. They have FIGS on them. And they will go nicely with my everyday solid black dishes, which are starting to chip after years of wear. How cruel of Anthropologie to tempt with not only clothing but housewares as well.

I retrieved Sophie in time to deliver her to gymnastics. Honestly, I'm sensitive to the plight of the over-scheduled child, but she insists she has energy for all these things, so if I can limp along after her, I think we'll be ok.

After lunch, it was onward to one of our favorite destinations: Target! Look at all the stuff we got:


A smart little dress for the office (I'm not sure whether I look like Jackie O or a 1960s airline stewardess),

this cute demin dress for Sophie (unfortunately this did not come in my size),

these lovely chocolate brown ladylike shoes (cuter than the look in the picture and perfect for sitting at my desk),

and these yummy GREEN loafers, which are seriously the most comfortable things I have had on my feet in ages. And here's the kicker: We bought TWO pairs of them. One for me and one for Sophie. Indeed, at age eight she has outgrown the children's sizes and I am now buying her ADULT SHOES. We think we look plenty snappy in our matching green shoes.

This was all well and good and sort of took the sting out of an earlier shopping incident. I went into Keihl's to buy this,
the only product on earth that can de-scale my elbows. It is truly fabulous stuff. Keihl's is a funny place. I am always slightly unnerved by the pseudo-scientific atmosphere, as if the sales people are setting out to solve a medical rather than cosmetic problem. But they always give you samples, which are fun and sometimes cause me to come back to buy the product. Much better marketing than glossy ads in magazines I don't read. I like their grapefruit-scented bath products, and if they ask me what I would like, I often request these, pretending that I have never heard of them and am intensely curious about how they work for me. But the saleswoman on Saturday did not think this was a decision I should be trusted to make. She craned her head forward, squinted, pursed her lips, and handed me a sample of this:

I was fine trying a new product until I read the copy on the packet:

This lightweight moisturizing lotion helps protect skin from external damage and diminishes the effects of aging. Combining Abyssine and Corallina Extract, our formula helps minimize the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles (emphasis mine).

Well, crap. Is that what a stranger sees when they look at me? Ok, fair enough, but don't expect me to be happy about it.

She wasn't done though. Another squint revealed to her that I needed this:

Apparently, Heat-Protective Silk-Straightening Cream revealed further problems:

Formulated especially for wavy, frizzy, or curly hair in need of smoothing, our unique straightening cream contains a blend of natural ingredients to help straighten out hair and tame frizz without weighing hair down (again emphasis mine).

I wanted to shriek at her "It is FOGGY outside! My hair looked JUST FINE before I left the house! And when was the last time you got carded buying booze at Trader Joe's? Huh? HUH?"

But maybe she's got a point. I like the hair cream a lot. My hair feels smoother and not so crispy on the ends, even after beating it into submission with a blow dryer. And the fine lines? They're just fine, thank you. Maybe I need a few more samples of that face cream.