Black Friday

A,
I tried black Friday shopping for the first time today. I took about two steps into Walmart and then turned around and left. I forgot I don't like holiday shoppers.

The mall, however, was empty. I was surprised by this, but after some consideration, I surmised that our town's entire population must be at Walmart today, leaving the mall essentially free from shoppers. I bought a pair of shoes.

I don't usually shop at our mall, because it has very few stores in it that you would recognize, and mostly it's full of poor-fitting teenage fashions. The last time I was at the mall, I was trying to find a pair of jeans. I think I stopped at every single store that sold jeans (we have a small mall), and ended up leaving empty-handed. It occurred to me later that every pair of jeans I tried on were not really jeans. They were stretch jeans, which in my opinion are not really jeans at all.

One store I stopped at today was full of wild sweaters with fascinating shapes and cables. I spent some time looking at them and wondering about their construction. What interested me about this store is that it was full of synthetic, plastick-y fabrics (which, whatever. That's fine, I have worn plenty of acrylic sweaters). But the weird thing was that it was also selling one lone cashmere sweater along with everything else.

Is this a testament to the recent availability of cheap cashmere? Or maybe. Maybe the average person wouldn't recognize that most other materials in this store were cheaply-produced. Mostly, I just like the juxtaposition of cashmere surrounded by synthetic.

PS. I hope you had a great Thanksgiving and are enjoying the leftovers.

PPS. The BEST place to shop on the day after Thanksgiving is the grocery store. No crowds. Best time to shop ever.

PPPS. I had to rip back my sweater already. Waaay too many increases in the pattern. If I had continued, it would have swallowed me whole.

K