No..not a wedding dress! It wasn't going to be that simple, although the way my friend went about it, you would have thought that she was going to be the center of attention at this party we were invited to. We were invited to a party at a semi-fancy place, and my friend called -- asking if I could go shopping with her--as she needed somebody to help her pick out an appropriate dress. Now this was a party to celebrate another friend's daughter's academic accomplishments, so from my point of view I could go dressed simply in whatever stuff I had in the closet. Not so my friend, oh no...she had to go in the finest new dress because it was an elegant place and who knows--she might meet someone there. I don't know what possessed me to agree to help her shop, but I promised-- so here we were driving to the mall at 5 PM on a Friday night... after work.
We get to this huge mall and select a big department store and go to the elegant evening dresses section and she makes a beeline for the 200-dollars-and-up dresses. Now I know that my friend is on a very limited budget--so I ask her how much does she plan to spend on said dress..oh--it doesn't matter, she says I want to look at all those gorgeous dresses--aren't they great! But--I say--you don't have that kind of money--why don't we look at the discount racks over there, where the dresses are 100 dollars or less. Oh no...she says--I don't even look at the discount racks. I got annoyed --telling her that I did not want to waste my time looking at stuff she wasn't even going to buy. It didn't matter to her, she picked all these expensive dresses to try on. The first one was a silver number with so much sequins, that I told her if the lights hit-- she would look like a human disco-ball, then she tried this other dress with so many ruffles--that she looked like she was wrapped in curtains.
And so it went, she didn't find a dress that we could agree on, so we went to various other stores in the mall. It gets dark, and I noticed that it was 8 PM and still no dress, so finally I said why don't we go back to the first store--there was a dress there that was on sale for less than 100 dollars and it was an elegant, understated dress that we ---finally---both agreed, would look good on her. Then the argument over the size began. There were 2 dresses left: one was a size 6 and the other was a size 12. I look at her wide hips and large derriere and tell her that the size 12 dress looks like it would fit her best. She gives me a daggers-look and grabs the size 6 dress and says--with a hint of indignation--this is my size--I'm a size 6. Not wanting to have to come back out for the size 12, I grab both dresses to go into the Fitting Room.
Of course she took the size 6 dress to try on first--needles to say--it was so tight on her she couldn't breathe. So I say try the size 12, and wonders of wonders--it fits perfectly! Hmph..she says sounding annoyed, this label makes the sizes run smaller than normal, because I am a size 6. I told her that whatever---we both agree that it's a nice dress for a good price and let's go to the cashier and pay for it, as it has been nearly 3 and a half hour, the party was tomorrow and she did not have time to go shopping to look for a better dress or price.
So reluctantly (on her part) we went to the cashier. The cashier rings the dress up and announces the price, which because of taxes, was 3 dollars higher than the tag. When the cashier says the price, my friend says in a really loud and outraged voice--what! this is highway robbery! (this from the person who was looking at 200-dollars-and-up dresses), the cashier gives me a look--and asks if my friend still wanted the dress, totally annoyed by then-- I told her that YES my friend was paying for the dress, my friend just stared and I said to her -- give the cashier your credit card--we are NOT leaving here without you buying the freaking dress!
When we go out she says, could you buy dinner for me I don't have enough cash...I look at her in disbelief--here she spent all this money on a dress but did not have enough to buy dinner! Since I did not want to just buy dinner for myself, I was stuck with paying for her dinner also.
Then the next morning, she calls me to tell me that she went back to the store, talked to the manager and somehow managed to get the dress reduced by 10 dollars, because she found a circular that the dress was on sale cheaper at another branch of the store, and could they give it to her at the lower price. She tells me with a tone of triumph--see I got it cheaper---and no tax! By then I couldn't care less, promising myself to never--under any circumstance go shopping with her.
