By Wendy Mihm | August 24, 2011
My birthday was July 7th and let me tell you, it was wonderful!
My husband and his parents took pity on me and both gave me generous gift cards at clothing stores where they know I love to shop.
And both insisted that I break my “No New Clothes Challenge” and freshen up my wardrobe immediately as part of the “special occasion” rule, which I thought was a bit of a stretch, but, hey, twist my arm!
Plus to be honest, I think my husband is a tad embarrassed by this whole thing. And this is a man who is willing to wear non-hats as hats in public, just to make his family laugh.
Because I have not shopped for clothes in so long, the experience of shopping and the new clothes themselves continue to buoy my spirits, even now.
Now that it’s late August and I’m settled nicely back into the rhythm of the challenge, I don’t feel much of an urge to shop or really even to thumb through catalogs the way I used to. It’s crazy. Not shopping for clothes for myself seems very normal now that it has been eight months. The clothes I bought in early July all still seem so new to me, whereas last year, something I bought would seem old within a week or two and the shopping experience would wear off immediately.
On a separate note, but perhaps somehow related, we are now deep in the process of wrapping up our lives in Pasadena, California and moving across the country to relocate to the Washington, D.C. area. It is thrilling (I love change) but sad at the same time. We will miss our LA-based friends so much. So I wonder how much of my lack of need to shop also has to do with my depth of focus on our move.
Who knows?
Stay tuned for an update from the East Coast and whether the change in scenery and season has an effect on my mood to shop.
After all, the fall is beautiful back east and the leaves will be, well, fallin’...
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