Have you ever felt like you didn’t belong somewhere? I think we all have.
You know what helps? Cookies. Cookies are magical and break down all social, political and economical barriers. I wish I had some of these cookies last week when this happened.
So I spontaneously decided to head over to the Vera Bradley designer handbag store after work one day to shop for my mom’s birthday. I entered the parking lot and started to have second thoughts. Man, this mall was posh. There was a strip of fancy boutiques and a freaking fountain (probably hand crafted in Italy or something). I rolled through the parking lot in my car, which is an old, super-loud hand-me-down Buick from my grandmother. Some ladies crossed the parking lot; they all had on white pants and flowing, flowery tunic shirts. I looked down at my outfit. Hmmm…starting to feel a little uncomfortable. My outfit consisted of workout capris, flip flops and a Paul Frank monkey shirt. Let me explain.
My office has no dress code. We do internal work that requires almost nobody visiting our office, so we wear what we want. 9 times out of 10 I am wearing workout clothes. They are comfortable and sometimes I walk outside on my lunch break, so quit judging.
Yeah, so I sucked it up and went in the store. No lie, I felt like Julia Roberts’ character in Pretty Woman. Except not a hooker, just a poor person. Um, all those ladies in and around the shop clearly made it their job to be impeccably groomed and coifed.
Nobody was rude or anything, but I felt out of place and like people were probably wondering why I was there. I guarantee that if I came in with a tray of these bad boys that all my fashion faux pas-ing would have been forgotten.
By the way, I get the irony that I felt poor and Pay Day cookies would have helped. Life just happens that way sometimes.
