Sticker Shock

And I thought I liked to shop. My cousin is the queen of all shoppers. We went from noon until 6:30pm and only sat down for about 15 minutes to grab a late lunch. We went into and out of every store (it seemed) at the Natick Mall which used to be called Shoppers' World and now has expanded to Shoppers' Universe. Nordstrom's and Neiman Marcus and European stores galore were in the new expanded glory of the mall. A pea coat, remember those? A pea coat in Neiman Marcus was a steal for 1800 dollars. My blood pressure was in roller coaster mode. I kept grabbing tags and going crazy. How on earth do you justify spending 1200 dollars for a white blouse? Please someone tell me. I'm fantasizing that I might actually have that much money and it's not needed for anything at all and if I spent it there would be plenty more where that came from but seriously, my fantasy hits a wall when I think about the shopping and the tags.

I am still a little jarred from the whole thing. My cousin pooh poohed my out bursts and said that only a fool would buy at retail (she used to be a buyer for some large stores). But even on a sale....what would that be marked down to?

In the same vein, a talk show host had spent the weekend in NYC and found an article in the Sunday Times about a young couple settling into a co-op in the city. They had bought the co-op for 6 million and had to spend 3 million to renovate. He was sputtering about the idea that having spent all that money for the co-op it wasn't good enough for them. He wanted very much to have them on his show so that he could find out what they were really made of. Besides money that is.

Well - I must run. I have a date with my rheumatologist and can't be late. He will definitely be the doctor to use that take two aspirin line. The way I feel today I should take four. Later