On Shoes and the World of Shopping Malls

Hello!

Yesterday my new roommate invited me to go shopping with her and her sister. I said yes, without thinking that it actually meant clothes shopping. At the mall.

Considering how I'm an introvert, I'm not entirely certain what strange tricks my mind was trying to pull on me to put me in a completely new person's company in a situation that I have absolutely no experience or confidence in. Seriously, what the heck, brain?

Anyway, since I figure I'm too scared of people to say "No shut up and leave me alone", I tagged along. I learned some very interesting things about these strange creatures called "girls".

First: she needed some of literally every article of clothing known to man. Of course she had some extenuating circumstances that I could sympathize with, but still. First we went to find shoes.

Apparently, when girls pick out shoes, they choose based on what looks cute. They literally walk through the store picking up shoes and saying, "Oh, this is cute," and proceed to pass the cash without further ado.
There are several things about this simple yet horrifying process that make me cringe. First of all, most of the shoes in the store are pieces of fabric sown together. There is no arch support, no absorbent material, no rounded toe and no tread. In fact, most of them look like they're impossible to run in. Some girls even buy high heels by choice.
I am a runner. I run all the time. My whole life has been focused on running whenever I want to. So the prospect of getting a shoe that has no business supporting a foot is insane to me. I'd rather go barefoot. At least then I wouldn't have to worry about looking like a stiff legged doll when I run and destroying my knees.
Second of all, I have spent the majority of my life choosing shoes that fit my needs. I have to have shoes that don't have a weak foam of the outside of the heel, a strong support on the arch, and a deep heel pocket thing. Why? because when I run, I need special inserts in my shoes that support my foot and push the heel out and the toes in (or something like that) to prevent me from over compensating for my 30 degree scoliosis curve in my lumbar spine.
So when I describe that to the person at the shoe store, they pull out a box, and if it works, I take it. I don't really care if it's got a cute bow on it or if it's too flashy. I can't. There aren't a lot of great shoes that fit my needs.

I do draw the line at red, however.

so after she rejected all the shoes at that store, (including the shark high heels, unfortunately) we moved on to shirts. We went to H&M. And then she commanded me to pick out at least 5 shirts to try on.
No problem. I found 8. she found 3 or 4. The stuff I got was super cute and I envisioned them looking great on me.
Trying them on was just a formality, because I know from a long time of experience that none of them would work. There simply is not any article of clothing from any top-fashion "back to school" hip cute girl with perfect proportions store that would fit me. I don't know if I just don't have the body for it or if I'm just so used to t-shirts that anything else scares me.
But I did try them on and no, none of them worked. But it was fun to dream. My roommate found 2 shirts that you would not catch me dead in.

We split up after that and I headed off to Eddie Bauer. Everything in that store is SO STINKIN CUTE and lots of it looks good on me! I got a new shirt and jeans and fantasied about buying tons of other things out of my budget range.

The reason Eddie Bauer is the only store that can sell me clothes is because it is a store devoted to outdoor recreation and activity.

End of story.

So I don't understand girls at all. Their ability to choose clothes and shoes that look great on them just by seeing what's "cute" is way beyond my mental capacity. I'm a physics major.

Aren't these GREAT??

Update

Well, well, it has been a long time. I've had quite a lot to write about, but the personal nature of the majority of it has kept me from actively pursuing my blog. Just to catch up, however:

I have graduated high school

I have been accepted into college, and

I live in Utah now.

My favorite part about the joys of university life is the incredible library. I sit in there for hours on end and write. Oh yes, and I finished my first novella, a parody of the wizard of Oz. I wrote it specifically for my best friend, purely because on a whim I promised that I could write a whole notebook about him. I wrote 81 pages and quite frankly I think it may be my greatest accomplishment. Handwrittten, of course, but if I ever get around to typing it up I will post it. I wrote a guest post on my brother's blog as well. It took me a good three minutes to write it and it is absolutely ridiculous. I had to write it in my brother's usual style, which is crazy and stupid and brilliantly  hilarious. He's 30.
I also had the good fortune to attend a sports camp, and put myself through a whole lot of pain. On the plus side, I wrote a solid five pages about literally everything I learned. I also wrote about some very difficult emotional struggles I have had.
That's all fine and dandy, but the big news is that I have started a novel.

and it sucks.

there's a lot to be said for planning ahead. I wrote my beginning and then realized I needed an awful lot more stuff in there to get the reader to connect with the situation. So I figure I'll have to go back and re-write it, but I think it's solid enough that I can continue on with the story anyway. Once I get things going far enough, I will post some of it, if not all. Maybe promising the few dozen or so stray readers (glancers, more like) a story will persuade me to finish.