In Which I Visit Another Universe Altogether

I keep forgetting to post this picture of the plant monster in the hallway along with its shadow. I really like it, being all dramatic and everything. 

I got out of Lloyd today. Lily was off work (a rare event) and had let Ms. Magnolia June play hooky which is something I used to let my kids do sometimes. It started for me when Hank was little and had terrible tummy aches at school and always wanted to come home. I was a single mom in nursing school then and it wasn't easy to go and pick him up and I'd always talk to him about whether anything was worrying him or not and of course he'd tell me there wasn't but I'm sure he had lots of worries in that brilliant little brain of his that he didn't feel like he could share with me. Finally I came up with a plan- if he didn't go to the clinic for a certain amount of time, I would let him stay home from school for a day every month. And I did and he soon got better. Just knowing that he was going to have a day at home with mama helped, I think. 
I don't know. I sometimes look back and wonder why my kids still love me. I made so many mistakes. It's easy to say well, I did the best I could, but did I? How do we know? 
Don't ask me. 

But that's not what I came here to talk about. I came here to talk about the fact that I went to lunch with Maggie and Lily, and Jessie met us too. Lily and Maggie had just gotten pedicures and manicures and Maggie was quite proud of her shiny golden toenails and fingernails. The girl wanted a hamburger and french fries so we went to Bumpas, the place where I always get the chopped ahi salad that is so good which is what I ordered again today. Jessie and Lily made me laugh so hard. They were the tonic I needed and Maggie made me feel honored when she said she wanted to sit with her Mer on one side of the booth and that her mother and Jessie could sit next to each other because they are sisters. 
Here is the requisite photo.

Maggie was about over it at that point and Lily took her on home. 

Jessie said she needed to go to the mall to find new bras. I said that I needed to go to Joanne's fabric to buy the flannel for Levon's name blanket and she offered to go with me. I thought it about it for a second and it occurred to me that if I went to the mall with her, it would truly be something to write about. 
Yes. I shamefully took part in a visit to the mall where I have not been in so many years I can't remember, just to get some blog fodder. Also to be with Jessie, of course. 

There shouldn't be anything about going to the swiftly dying mall in Tallahassee on a Thursday early afternoon that would cause anyone a great deal of anxiety. But you know me, and dammit! Anything for the blog! For you people! 
Okay, not anything but perhaps the mall would be okay. 

And it was. 

I took that picture from the second level of the only store I went in. Dillards. Dillards is a very nice department store with lots of clothing and cosmetics and shoes and purses and menswear and jewelry and housewares too. All the stuff I used to love to look at and even better- buy.  Sometimes. 

I met Jessie in the lingerie department where she was in a large dressing room with the store bra-fitter and a woman/girl whom she was mentoring. Training. Whatever. 
It was a hoot. 
I sat down on the lovely bench and watched as Jessie tried on one bra after another with the help of the bra lady who is known, even on social media, as "Debralady". Her name is Deborah and everyone calls her the bra lady so...it makes sense. She was obviously quite comfortable with the process of bra-fitting and made it comfortable for everyone around her. Except for perhaps the trainee. I could not tell what was going on behind her face. I desperately wanted to take her picture but somehow could not manage to find the opportunity. She was thin as a rail and wore the palest make-up and had the longest false eyelashes you can imagine and she looked EXACTLY like a mannequin. Her face rarely registered an emotion and she probably spoke less than ten words the entire time. 
I was fascinated. 
Debralady was round and funny and talked a lot. She called breasts "girls" and referred to each bra as "she". As in, "How does she feel under your arm there?" Or, "Can you see how she supports you without pushing the girls up too far?" 

It was a little confusing. 
Jessie entertained us all, trying out each bra by doing a little shaking of the girls to see how she (the bra) would work if she (Jessie) were dancing. I did not raise a shy girl. 
She finally found one she liked pretty okay and was in a rush to buy it and get out of there because she had to pick up Levon to take him to a piano lesson. I actually stayed behind and walked around the clothing sections for awhile and do you know what? I enjoyed it. It was so nice looking at lovely clothes, velvets and corduroys, cottons, linens, and other fabrics unidentifiable without reading the label. I even found this...

My old boys when they were young. Keith, Mick, and Charley, right there in Dillards. The Rolling Stones are timeless, are they not? 

No. I did not buy it. 

I kept examining how I felt. Physically, that is. I realized that I was having a little heart palpitation situation but nothing too serious. Enough though to tell me that I didn't need to spend a whole lot more time there. I felt ridiculous, having that reaction to a practically empty store but I did. I went downstairs and looked at the shoes in a very brief sort of way and then I remembered the purses. 
Dillards has always had lovely purses. 
Oh dear. I discovered that they now carry one of my favorite brands of leather goods, Bedstu. Oh holy shit. My heart beat even faster but for a very different reason. 

This, my loves, is almost the perfect Ms. Moon bag. I like bags that look like something a medicine woman might have carried across the prairies with all of her herbs and childbirthing supplies in it. There was also a backpack bag, same brand, and that might actually have been THE perfect Ms. Moon bag but I did not take its picture. No worries, though! The internet is filled with pictures of it! Here's one in black, being worn by a man. 

Oh sigh. 

But I did not buy that either. Those things are not cheap! 

And then I left the store and walked out into the gray day and had to calm my nerves. It had been an experience and I remembered why people like to shop in retail stores that sell new things. 

I would say that I'm proud of myself but honestly- visiting one store in a mall and spending more than half the time there in a cozy fitting room with my daughter and Debralady and the mannequin woman/girl is hardly reason to qualify for an award. 

But who knows? Maybe I'll go back! Maybe I'll make it all the way to the middle of the mall and get a coffee at Starbucks! 
Oh god. 
Maybe not. I don't even like Starbucks' coffee. 

Well, anyway, that's my report for today. I better go make our supper. 

Love...Ms. Moon