“I assumed that Burberry was some type of fruit…”

This post is actually kind of long, and it has really nothing to do with health, Weight Watchers, or fitness, other than the fact that it was a day when I got to reap some of the rewards of my weight loss.  It was a fun day, because not only did I get to celebrate the 25 pounds I’ve lost since November (75 lbs since I started!), but, even better, I got do it with my long-time best friend (and one of her friends, too!).  My friend Amy and I have known each other for 19 years, and much hilarity, insanity, and usage of multi-syllabic words have ensued in that time.

Amy is great at coming up with funny words and/or phrases that I like to call “Amy-isms.”  One of them is what she calls an “Amy Day.”  Since Amy is a stay-at-home mom, she treasures her “me time,” and many years ago she decided she deserved a periodic day without kids or household duties to just have fun.  She christened it an “Amy Day,” and it is a name that has stuck with many of her friends.  Whenever I get a day to myself, even I call it an Amy Day. :p Today was my Amy Day…complete with an honest-to-goodness genu-wine Amy. 😉  (And actually, there was a Stacy involved, too…)

Several weeks ago, Amy and I made plans to go shopping, since I am in desperate need of summer clothes now that I’ve lost so much weight.  We decided to make an afternoon of it, with shopping and food.  Stacy is another of Amy’s close friends, and since she was in the neighborhood this morning, she joined us for “Amy Day”.   Of course, you know that anything involving me has to have pictures, so there’s plenty of photographic evidence of the day.  (Some photos had to be burned, however, to protect the innocent and keep us out of jail.)

Before I could start Amy Day, first…I had to get to Amy.  Amy actually lives over an hour from me.  I always joke that when I go to visit her, I have to pack a lunch.  Well, today, I actually did!  Okay, it wasn’t really lunch, but it was snacks, good healthy ones to keep me on program and make sure I wasn’t starving when we hit the mall.  And it actually worked! (Well, okay, there was an incident outside Cinnabon at about 4pm, but luckily, I sustained no injuries when Stacy and Amy dragged guided me away kicking and screaming from the counter).

When I arrived, Stacy and Amy were lamenting (<–Amy word) over the fact that we didn’t have anyone to take a picture of the three of us.  Ha!  They forgot who they were dealing with. 😉  Because I had just come from a hockey game, I had both my Canon and my tripod in the car.  What followed was about 20 minutes of picture-taking, using the self-timer, in which it seemed impossible to get all three of us looking at the camera and smiling nicely at the same time.

Thankfully, we did finally managed a shot in which everyone was looking at the camera without a goofy look on their face, and finally we were able to head to the mall!

As I have mentioned before, I am not big into shopping, a fact which I’m pretty sure makes Amy crazy, but she and Stacy were very patient with me while also being very enthusiastic  about finding clothes for me, which I thought was very nice of them.  They really seemed to have a good time finding clothes for me, and I tried sort of hard not to be too picky. 😉  (“No pink! No yellow! Nothing too short! Nothing too long!”)  They convinced me to go out of my comfort zone a bit and try on several things I never would have looked at, such as this outfit which included *gasp* a pink shirt.  I loved the shorts, and I must admit that I liked the blue plaid shirt even with the pink one underneath (the plaid one has pink accents).  I sincerely doubt I’ll ever wear the pink one alone, but I definitely liked the ensemble.  We also found a cute navy shirt to go with the shorts, and I think it was Stacy who found a crocheted top to go over it. It looked pretty good together, but when I went to check out, I found out the crocheted top was just a bit too expensive for my tastes (yeah, I’m cheap, but I have never made it a secret that I hate to spend money on clothes when technology is so much more fun to buy).  I ended up getting the blue top, the plaid top, the pink top, and the tan shorts, which felt to me like a success. While we were searching, Amy found herself a skirt she simply adored.

Yes, those are pink sequins you see.  Stacy and I were successfully able to talk her down from that ledge, though she did lament about it a few more times during the day.  (Ahh…see how I used that word “lament” again? Amy loves that word.)  In the end, Amy did buy a lovely white sundress that she will no doubt get much more use out of than the pink sequined nightmare skirt.

 After that store (I honestly cannot even remember what it was called…), we headed to Penny’s.  Penny’s was…interesting.  Amy and Stacy were quite enthusiastic about having me try on anything that tickled their fancy.  Because they were being so nice, I begrudgingly took all that they gave me (including two shorts in Juniors sizes–WTH?!) and went to the fitting room…where I discovered a line 5 people deep! Over her shoulder Amy said, “Just go to the fitting room over in that area, and we’ll meet you there,” as she combed through more racks.  I did as ordered, and discovered yet another line for the fitting room.  I didn’t want to wait, but Amy made me.  You can see my joy in the picture.  Eventually I got to try things on, and I started with the shorts from the Juniors section.  There were no pictures taken of this particular fitting, but I can assure you that the conversation Amy and I had through the fitting room door was highly entertaining for all the other ladies waiting in line.  Then I tried on a dress that both Amy and Stacy thought was perfect for me.  It was black-and-white polka dot, and when Amy picked it up she handed it to me and said, “Put this on and you’ll look just like my daughter’s kindergarten teacher!”  Wow, that made me want to just rush right to the fitting room and try it on!! :p  I humored her, but I can tell you that it was just not a dress for me, which I think is evidenced in the attached picture.

After Penny’s, we decided we’d had enough of the mall and made our way back to the car.  On the way out, Amy lagged behind while Stacy and I went down the escalator.  Eventually she caught back up and I was able to get a picture of Stacy and Amy riding the escalator.  (Because escalators are cool, darn it.)  I don’t think they were as excited about the escalator as I was, though.

On the way to the car, Amy explained that she’d been delayed by the perfume people at Macy’s.  She sniffed a few perfume cards, and after finding one she liked, she had them spritz one on her.  She said it was “burberry,” and Stacy and I were required to sniff her wrist and give judgment.  I thought it was okay, but not a kind I’d choose for myself. I asked her what burberry was exactly, she and Stacy both looked at me like I was crazy.  “You don’t know what burberry is?” they asked.  When I said no, Amy went into an indepth explanation of plaids and scarves and little girls’ dresses that completely confused me. In fact, I’m sure I’m probably getting the explanation wrong here, too. Whatever, I don’t care. At any rate, Amy saw I was totally lost and said, “Well, what were you expecting?”  I shrugged and answered honestly, “I assumed that burberry was some type of fruit.”  I’m pretty sure people on the other end of the mall heard Stacy and Amy laughing.  But come on–she was asking me to smell “Burberry” on her wrist–why would I think of plaids and scarves when smelling something?!

Eventually we went to another store and had some great success with two more pairs of shorts that I really liked.  We weren’t so lucky with tops, but there was one item we found, courtesy of Amy the bargain shopper, that was completely not on my list but just too awesome not to buy.  I have absolutely no need for the red coat you see in the picture shown, but I bought it anyway, because it was $30 and it was red!!!!  I also bought it because I’m pretty sure Amy was going to buy it herself if I didn’t, and I don’t think I could have handled the envy if I ever had to see her wearing it. :p  Stacy also managed to find an adorable black top that she is showing off here, but it’s hard to see just how cute it is in this picture.  At any rate, Stacy had a great bargain day, as did Amy, while I spent pretty much all the money I had budgeted and then some, but it was well worth it.  I not only got some cute clothes, but I had a great time hanging out on my own personal “Amy Day!” 🙂

Thanks for reading this very long post.  I hope you got a chuckle or two. 🙂  And thank you to Stacy and Amy for providing me with such a fun day!