Shopping on the “Other” Side

It is true when they say the grass is always greener on the other side. I never expected it to apply to clothes shopping as well. Over the last week or so, I've been wandering into regular-size stores like a lost lamb. Shopping feels different and not in a good way. Instead of seeing sizes that are too large for me, I'm now confronted with size fours, zeros and even double-zeros. Who the heck can fit in a double-zero anyways???

At the beginning of my forays into the other side, I felt like a stranger in a strange land. Too skinny clothing and commission sales associates. I had forgotten about those, sales associates that is. I know they're trying to do their job, but I like to be left alone and only get help when asked. I knew I was in foreign territory when I stepped out of a change room to show my husband a so-so outfit when a perky girl popped up and exclaimed I looked "darling." Gah!

The unexpected emotions that come with shopping in regular size stores also dogged my footsteps. I started imagining that I really ought not to be there, especially when one store's "Large" would only fit a six-year old. I even wandered back into the plus-size sections and Addition Elle, seeking the comfort of the known. But even then I felt like an outsider. It was like I was in limbo. A specter doomed to exist between the two worlds.

However, with a number of shopping excursions under my belt, I'm slowly becoming acclimatized. I'm pickier about the places I wander into and have been mainly sticking to stores that carry both plus-size and regular size. Though I'm not technically a plus-size anymore, I just like the comfort that section brings to me and will wander through it when I'm feeling overwhelmed. My soul refreshed, I'll invariably return to the other side which, for some reason, always looks a bit greener.