Tom's Big Day At The Mall

We were in La Crosse today to buy a new battery for the Mac notebook, but the store was out of them so we had some extra time. Margaret suggested that we go to The Gap because she thinks my jeans are looking worn out. The idea made me squirm and I started thinking up excuses like, "I doubt I'll find anything there."

"I know that most of your clothes are purchased online" she said, "but I think you can find something." She's right, I do buy most of my clothes online. It's not that easy to buy online because, obviously, you can't try anything on. But you do benefit from a nearly endless selection. Not that a large selection automatically make things easier; there's always the carrot-on-a-stick, that enticing promise of a deal that you just haven't found yet. So I'll look for weeks to find, say, a new winter hat. But then when it comes I obsess about how the color isn't exactly what I wanted. In this manner I can stretch a shopping trip into eternity. A simple trip to the mall should be much more straightforward, so I don't know what made me panic about going to the Gap. Maybe it's something about jeans in particular.

As we stood in front of the men's jeans selection I glanced down at the jeans I was wearing and honestly, I couldn't see the difference between mine and the ones on the shelf. How do the "distressed" jeans on the shelf look different than my "worn out" ones? "It's the knees," Margaret said as she pinched the fabric on my jeans. "Yours are kinda baggy." If it's the knees that make a pair of jeans worn out, I wondered why Elizabeth had deliberately ripped holes in the knees of one of her pair. I left the store without a new pair of jeans, but with 3 new t-shirts tucked under my arm in a manly fashion. Those weren't so hard to pick out, but I did worry about how much sweat shop labor had gone into my purchase. 

When I got home I wondered what else was out there. I had seen some nice street pants made by Mountain Khaki in a couple of outdoors shops. I like the burly canvas material and the rugged construction, so I checked to see if they sell jeans. They do, and they look pretty nice online. Plus they are made of organic cotton by a company located in Jackson, Wyoming. That meets my sensibilities about buying clothes. The only trouble is the $95 price tag.

I'll just have to think about it awhile.