ARGGGGG!!!

and i proved to myself again!!!! it is hard to like (or even tolerate) the suburbs and the drivin to/from when one lives in the middle of a big city and actually enjoys living in the city.

as carol has already heard a million times: wednesday was my day off and i decided to drive out to aurora to the premium outlet mall. sucks my ass. i didnt think i would get stuck in traffic in mid-afternoon, and of course i DID!!! it took me 1.5 hrs to get there and for such impatient, angry driver like me, that was completely unacceptable.

and as i have proven to myself repeatedly, outlet mall shopping SUCKS, most of the time. wednes was one of these sad days.

i needed to find a dress for kate's wedding, so i most importantly wanted to go to BCBGMaxAzria. well, i looked there; i looked at banana, jcrew, max mara, ann taylor factory store, theory, ellen tracey, polo, calvin klein. everything sucks. things i pseudo liked had none in my size or were broken; everything else i didnt like enough or didnt find appropriate to buy for wedding. and i am too poor to buy freely.

then i stopped by oak brook center on my way home. still nothing!!! their marshall field's sucks!! i love LAUNDRY by SHELLI SEGAL but i didnt see any sales and i have never paid pull price for my closetful of LAUNDRY's!!! :(

at first i want to find a dress, but now it looks like i may have to consider other options like a cute top plus a floaty skirt. there are plenty of cute things at arden b and the limited, but i just dont wanna look too showy or "sexy" for what i think would be a "conservative" wedding in freakin' downstate peoria. the mix-match is more difficult too. and i also wanna wear my metallic green shoes, so... YIKES!!!! although i can always wear other shoes, its no biggie!!

the moral of the story is that the suburbs suck!! it took me so long to drive out there; it actually made me waste $$ rather than save $$ for this supposedly-cheap-shopping. i swear, city living is great. everything is within 10-15 min. i have designer stores, local boutiques, regular national chains... all very close by. yeah, i pay more, but seriously-- i get better service, i find what i want (most of the time), and i avoid teeny boppers. and none of this 10:1 ice cream parlor : clothing store ratio and watching people grow larger as they shop and eat away.

well, i guess at least i bought a pair of tri shorts to wear for the races in my triathlon in july. i forgot that there's a pearl izumi store out there, too bad i am not hardcore enough to wanna have more cycling outfits. and speak of which, NIKE outlet sucks too!!!

tomorrow i am giving city shopping a chance to prove itself supreme.