Keeping Score

Basketball:

Sunday was a big day. My unpredictable Volunteers - both men's and women's basketball teams - were finally and literally on the ball. It was rather exciting.

'Dores Floored

Gators Chomped

Final Score:

Tennessee Lady Vols 75

Vanderbilt 66

Tennessee Men 79
Florida 75

But onto other sports...

Shopping:

I need to find a dress or skirt/top combo that fulfills the following:

1. Suitable to be worn to any or all of the following: non-profit auction/fundraiser, Easter, church wine tasting/fundraiser, and maybe my high school reunion.
2. Won't make me want to crawl in a hole and die when I put it on.

First Half: I started at the behemoth amusement-park-turned-parking-lot-and-mall. Now, I appreciate good customer service. I really do. And I understand that times are tough and I understand that retail businesses are desperate to sell their stuff. I really do. But following me around Ann Taylor and perkily chirping at me every 90 seconds with unhelpful information is neither good customer service nor a way to get me to buy anything. All it does is get me to walk over to Brooks Brothers where I can safely rely on being completely ignored.

And while we're at it...

If you are genuinely interested in getting me to buy something, the way to get me to do that is to make it at least seem like you're actually interested in finding something for me to wear - i.e. you've actually looked at me and made some sort of assessment about what I would like instead of just shoving some sparkly, ruffly thing at me that you would wear and saying "Isn't this gorgeous?! And if you sign up to be a preferred shopper you'll save an extra $10!"

Because it's rather apparent after looking at me for oh... five or six seconds... that I neither sparkle nor ruffle.

Well... ok, maybe if it were something vintage or vintage-y looking and not overly-girlie I might on occasion ruffle. But I assure you that not since a poly-blend, off-white sweater with purple and metallic gold horizontal stripes worn in my sixth (?) grade class picture, have I sparkled.

Or worn horizontal stripes for that matter... but that's not the issue here...

Just be nice is all I'm saying. And not annoying. And I'll probably be so happy that I'll buy something even if I don't really need it.

For example...

Second Half: After being stalked by the staff at Ann Taylor and subsequently ignored at Brooks Brothers. And The Banana too, for that matter. I drove over to a different shopping center and walked into J. Jill where I was greeted genuinely and asked if I needed assistance. I told her what I was looking for. She asked me some questions about what I had in mind, what it was for, etc. Then she showed me a couple of things they had and made some other very helpful and sincere suggestions.

Here's what I bought:

"Hey, that's not a dress!" you say. And you would be correct. Nothing they had dress-wise really quite worked. But, you know what? I still had a good time not finding one. And you know what else? Instead of me leaving all annoyed after not finding a dress, like I had at seven other stores earlier that day, I actually felt like hanging around and seeing what else they had back in the clearance section. And, seeing as how the two hoodies I currently wear all the damn time have shrunk in length and stretched in width (sooo not attractive on a person who is short and wide to begin with) and desperately need to be replaced. I thought it a sound purchase.

Final Score:

J. Jill 1
Ann Taylor 0

Comfy Gert 1
Fancy Gert 0

You win some, you lose some.

Next up:

Tennessee Lady Vols vs. Alabama in the first round of the SEC Tournament - Thursday, March 5th

Tennessee Men vs. South Carolina - Thursday, March 5th

Comfy Gert vs. Couch - Thursday, March 5th

Fancy Gert vs. Macy's - Saturday, March 7th

Stay Tuned.


Thanks to www.tennessean.com/section/SPORTS for the photos. Of the games. Not the sweater. That was from www.jjill.com.