As mentioned previously, I'm going to a Ball in the Minster on Friday. Yup.

Ball. In the Minster. How cool is that, Kate thinks to herself. And then I keep thinking and realize that I don't have anything in my teensy closet here that's even SEMI-formal, much less TOTALLY formal. Oops. And Adele's not here for me to beg her to make me something fun that would actually fit and look good, nor would I ever ask her to do it on less than a week's notice - that's just cruel. So I had to go shopping today.

In this, I am the anti-female. I hate shopping. I particularly hate shopping on weekends, since it's so busy, but when else was I going to do it? Ok, actually, now that I think about it, I probably could have gone on Monday or Tuesday. When everyone from Yorkshire was NOT actually in York shopping (or at least that's sort of how it felt). The shops were FULL like you wouldn't believe. They're small at the best of times, compared to North American shops, and when they're crammed full of every single person within a 100 mile radius, it gets even worse. I don't do well in crowds to begin with, so crowded stores just make me itch. And shudder. And itch some more. And LONG for some space. A Steeps Tea shop would not go amiss at the end of a day of shopping - tea, a good book, in a comfy atmosphere... but alas, no such thing here.

Even worse is the unhelpfulness of the staff in the stores here. Customer service is a foreign, North American concept. In Canada, store staff will jump on you with a "can I help you at all today" within 2 minutes of walking in the door. There's actually some rhyming thing that some companies have for their staff that helps them remember to make contact with each person that walks into their store. I'll have to ask my friend who worked at HomeSense or whatever what it was. But I digress. In Canada, I've had store staff fit me out with a personal-stylist-type service when I said that "I need something professional-looking" and keep bringing me items to the dressing room to try on, until I was drowning in clothing. Granted, part of this is because of the desire of the commissioned salesperson to upsell, but when I have no idea what the hell I want, this actually comes in handy. Hell, the dude at the camera shop where we got my digital camera convinced me not to buy a particular more expensive model because a cheaper one would be more use to me. Here, you have to practically drag them away from the intense personal conversation they're having with their coworkers to get some assistance. Oy.

In addition, for some reason, I am one of those people that likes to know what they want, go into a store, purchase, and leave. Browsing is unnecessary except in minute amounts. This is why I particularly hate clothes shopping. I need to find my own tailor that can make clothes that actually fit my body AND look good. So far the two have been more or less mutually exclusive in my life. I should've been born in the 1800s. Those clothes fit me. I have what could more or less be described as an hourglass figure, even without a corset. Hell, I'd even have done OK in the 50s, I think. BUT things that fit through the waist will NOT fit through the hips for me these days, and so pant shopping is a nightmare. Skirt shopping is a nightmare. Dress shopping is a nightmare.

But, eventually, I found a dress that'll do. It was a bit pricier than I'd intended (honestly, if I had a sewing machine I probably could have made myself something for much less... although I haven't found a fabric store in York yet...).

So ignore the really messy hair and here ya go. Yes, I've edited the photo. Adele pointed out that anonymity has its advantages, although I think I only have three or four regular readers that I've never actually met in person.

It's... well... pretty much the color you see on the screen. It's almost chocolate brown, but has just enough purple in it that the people who created it can call it plum.

So. I bought the dress after much agonizing over another dress (but the 12 was too small and the 14 was ever-so-slightly too big in the bust area).

And then I realized that I have no shoes. Well, not any to wear with an evening gown, anyway. Here I was all relieved that my shopping was done, and then... shattered.

So I wandered to a few shoe stores before finding good shoes. They're silver, pointy-toed, with embroidery and such on them. I once swore I would never wear pointy-toed shoes, but they're surprisingly comfortable. God knows they'll be out of style in a year, but for now, they'll do. And there was a matching handbag, so that bit's taken care of, too.

But oh, dear God was I glad when it was all over.