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What: #93 Shop with the assistance of a personal shopper 

When: November 10th
Where: Somerset Collection

Better than trick-or-treating!

Why: Shopping is not my favorite thing. It is the combination of the effort involved in sorting through racks and racks of articles of clothing along with the actual high price of fashion. I tend to stick with a couple stores where I can walk in and pick out essential pieces. This, however, lends itself to creating a wardrobe of predictable attire, and at this point in my life, I'd like to be a little less predictable. When I spoke with the personal shopper at Nordstrom to set up this appointment, she asked basic questions: shirt and pant size, color preferences, general style, reason for wanting to update my wardrobe, etc. If any of you have spoken to me on the phone, as this individual did, would you peg me to be an 80-year-old woman who craves to dress just like any member of the Golden Girls clan? Well, this is apparently the vibe I put out in my description of my dream clothes. I'm not uber-trendy, but I keep up with my Glamour magazines and watch TV shows from this decade and so I'm quite certain I knew what style I was describing, and yet, there I was, faced with a room filled with Bea Arthur's wardrobe. 

Definitely a "don't" in my book!

Weirder yet, even after the shopping assistant met me and saw how these clothes looked on me, she continued to bring me more of the same! Eventually, we both had to get a little more direct in our requests ("less long weird sweater tunics, please" and "more things with coral colors, less things with accessories sewn onto them"). The whole process started to click and we worked up a sweat trying on these new clothes! Then the reality set in and we had to start asking how much something was before putting it on, because believe me, you do not want to find out the best pair of boots that you've ever put on in your life costs $1,000. Luckily, she was pretty good about sticking to the price point she was given for articles of clothing, even boots. Still, there was some rationalizing to be done before making the final purchase. We looked at individual pieces and said things like "If I keep this for 5 years and wear it once a week, that's only like $1 each time!" or "Well, I could have spent this on a plane ticket and have nothing to show for it; this I'll get to wear as long as I want!" or my favorite "If I clean off my bookshelves and sell 100 books on Amazon, it'll definitely pay for this!" Despite our reservations about the sums of money we spent, our personal shopping assistant informed us that most customers spend an average of $2,500 up to $20,000 on a typical spending spree. Jaws dropped. I assure you, neither of us spent that much, not even combined, but we'll still look like a million bucks!