2 buttons or 3, that is the question

I think this weekend I was a American as I could possibly be.

(btw , the was no change in my legal status)

 This was a shopping weekend, Saturday at the mall and Sunday at an outlet mall- this activity has long passed baseball as the American favorite sport.

 

We started our Saturday morning with an oil change for racers’s car, followed by new tags for my car (you must do it once a year if you have a new car. Racer is paying once every 2 years (double price, no discounts)

If you have an older car and get an ECheck (checking that your car doesn’t pollute a lot and that the check that you pay for the ecehck doesn’t bounce). You can get tags for 2 years, it’s some incentive to avoid going to the bmv every year. But if you have a newer car, which means it Esafe and you don’t need an echeck, then you cannot get a 2 year tag. The BMV lady kept explaining that its because you don’t have an echeck, but you don’t neeeeeed and echeck, silly rules everywhere.

One anti gil rule is that ,if you get your tags after the due time (your birthday) then you pay a late fee, so of course I paid a late fee, and I will probably pay again next year. I can avoid paying a late fee if I had 2 year tags, but I need an ecehck for that, but I don’t need an echeck….

 

We stopped at the bank to deposit and I stopped in a jewelry store to discover my 1^st shock of the day. The salesguy says that what I can get online for rings is crap and I don’t know what I am getting, which is so much different than the store, since I am experienced gold ring spotter and can tell the different between 14 karat to 10, NOT. I didn’t get anything there.

 

After that we went to the mall. This weekend’s mission is a wedding suit for me and a ring also for me.

1^st stop at dilards, than back to the car to find a closer parking places (god, I am getting spoiled). The suits guy named Mustafa, he Is from morocco.

I never had a real suit before, I did have a cheap suit (which is not cheap, just cheap in the world of suits). But my knowledge of suites was less then ziltch.

Now I know some. Apparently there is this whole suit fashion that I knew nothing about. The 3 button suit is no longer in style, only the 2 button suit. The new thing is a double vent, the rest is up to personal choice (lapel, stitching, color). I tried a few on and one of them was very good (but expensive). So now we had a potential suit, we went on to get shoes, dilards had a wide selection, but I needed formal dancing shoes , and didn’t find anything I liked.

After a much needed charlee’s subs break (this shopping takes a long time), we stopped at a another jewelry store and found that I am a ring size 9. At the next store we finally struck gold, so to speak. Actually I didn’t like the gold shine on my finger, so I went with another option. You must wait for the wedding for the ring unveiling.

So 1^st mission accomplished we returned to the suits.

 

When I first heard the tuxedo option, I  thought of a 3 piece suit with tails. I was clue less. Yes those are tuxedos, but its usually just a regular suite, but it’s a bit shinier in some area. 1 line on the pants, a shiny lapel, a puffy shirt. I actually surprised myself and I tried the whole thing on, with the tie. It looks ok, but its warmer. I didn’t take this option in the end. A tux you can only wear to weddings, a suite you can reuse. The good thing that we had photos of the whole thing.

 

Still no suit, we stopped at Godiva for treats, and went to Nordstrom, where they showed us a better fitting suit, which was more expensive, this is a wedding , so this was now our number 1 suit, but we still didn’t get it. They do not discount, so we went back to dilards and sneaky alla go us an extra shirt and tie for the same price. But we still didn’t take it. On the way we picked up gifts for some people.

This whole thing took about 7 hours.

After that we went house hunting, looked around, there are many houses to sell, this was our 1^st serious look at new possible homes. Tired, we went home for eggless chicken flied lice and few episodes of weeds (we are addicted).

 

Today was the outlet mall day , which is just by my work, but I never went there. Going quickly through the stores, we found that shoes will not be found here, but I got a few shirts at Haggar, which had polyester suits, not what I need. Polyester is warmer, but I did like the price…

Brooks brothers store came next, they had also wool suits, cheaper (but not cheap), after very longs debate, we passed on this option. A quick gap break (unfortunately  Gap break takes an hour and you leave with lots of bags) later and we were about to leave the outlet mall, till we spotted a Saks 5^th (actually Saks off 5^th) store. And finally- a suit that suited me just fine (also pricewise). We also got a dress for Alla’s bachelorette party, white shirt for me, a spare. And cufflinks! Me in cufflinks! I am still In shock. We were kind of dehydrated after that and drank 4 bottles of water (both of us on the way to red robin for lunch (We like their burgers). We proceeded to DSW and found shoes with leather soles that are nice looking and I can dance with (the leather makes them slide on the floor), than we returned to Dillard’s and got the tie.

 

So we now have suit, shoes, shirts, tie, dress, cufflinks and the ring. now all I need Is a belt- which is easy- mission accomplished.

I don’t know how American shop all the time, after this weekend I need a vacation