When I went across town last week to pick up my taxes, I stopped at Memorial City mall ('the nice mall') on the way back. And I spent hours walking the whole mall doing the What Not To Wear thing - looking at as many stores as possible, trying things on that I wouldn't normally... Unfortunately, spring is not my favorite shopping season. I don't wear tank tops, shorts, sandals, and swim suits. I'm always happy when the fall clothing starts coming out, even though it's warm here most of the year, but I'm mostly an indoor person anyway. But after an afternoon of trying to find something to wear that looked decent, I can sympathize with the WNTW girls that only end up with a pair of shoes on day one.

Having worked in retail for half my life, I saw all the current trends repeating in every store I went in, it really got pretty boring after awhile. Embellished tees, frilly peasant skirts, lacy Victorian cap-sleeved blouses, lots of lace trim everywhere, tunics (which I like but not with all the damned beads all over them), empire seams (can't wear them), bold black & white outfits. Jeans with holes rubbed into them (why is this style back again?), thin, cheaply made printed tees that look like they've been washed too many times (and shrank down to nothing).

I was actually looking for some interesting tees, I like some of the tie dye patterned ones that are popular now, I bought a black and a brown one (but no sequins!), and I even bought a store brand knock off tee that had a nice ivory, grey and black print of Times Square and Broadway on it. It had little sequins and beads all over the front, which I carefully took off with a seam ripper. I got one good wearing out of the shirt, and then I stupidly put it in the dryer and it shrank like three inches in length (sigh). Why don't things ever shrink from side to side, that's what I was aiming for because it was a little baggy. Now it's too short, and still baggy, which is not a good look on short, large-chested girls ("when's your baby due?"). If anyone asks me that, I will never wear that shirt again.

So after wearing myself out walking all over this enormous mall, all I found was a black velvet gothic Halloween costume top at Torrid. It was on clearance or I wouldn't have bought it. My first mall stop had actually been at Sephora, because I need some more face cream, I think my Clarins lotion has gone rancid, it has a strange chemical smell to it and I'm very paranoid about anything I put on my face because of my Rosacea, which has been getting bad again. I thought about getting some more Clinique CX Redness Relief face cream, but I used it and the Rapid Recovery Serum earlier this yeat and didn't really notice any improvement. I do like the RR Serum, but for $75 a bottle, I decided I ought to try something else. And besides, no stores in the mall carry the CX line, it's a Neiman's/Saks exclusive type thing still.

So I stood around in Sephora, smearing various things on my face to the point where I couldn't tell what was working and what wasn't anymore. I looked for my Christian Dior NoAge fluid that I used to really like (a really mild skin resurfacer), it's been discontinued. I think I tried every redness relief cream they had - DDF, MD Formulations, Dr. Brandt, Cosmedicine, B. Kamins Booster Blue (which actually stained my hand blue for like half an hour), etc. - and I finally out of frustration settled on Murad's Correcting SPF 15 Moisturizer because I could actually feel it cooling my face a bit, and it had a green neutralizing tint, and for a try-me product it only cost $34. I was also so burned out from trying things and the salespeople in Sephora always sort of creep me out. Even when you buy something they treat you weird. Just for grins I also sampled some of the famed Hylexin eye cream for 'serious dark circles', because I wanted to see if I had an allergic reaction to it and if it did anything at all (not). I just put it on one eye as a test and I didn't really notice any difference in appearance, though I did have a bit of itching later in the day.

By the time I had walked all the way around the mall, I was exhausted and it was late, and I grabbed a Starbucks Caffe Vanilla Frappuccino (I don't like coffee but somehow I've gotten addicted to them) on the way back to Foley's and my car and ended up wandering through Foley's sipping my drink, looking at clothing and meandered over to the lingerie section. After spending hours trying on clothes and being very unhappy with the results, I decided I should try and buy a new bra. (And lose about 30 pounds) I rarely (on Halloween maybe) wear bras, they're uncomfortable, they hurt, and it's fricking hot in Houston. Years ago I had found a Bali bra without an underwire (the Double Support style) that I considered semi-wearable, but I realized it was also too small, and probably was when I had bought it, so I decided to try the next band size up.

Never go bra shopping when you're really tired. It's hard enough when you're fresh, it's sort of like shopping for shoes if you don't really know what size you are or what style you like, it's very overwhelming and can make you very dizzy. And it's been a long time since I've wandered into that department, I usually just stop at panties, and for some reason all of the new bras look like some sort of movie prosthetic devices, vacuum molded out of foam. Speaking of trends, I guess Victoria's Secret styling has rubbed off on the other manufacturers.

If I have to wear a bra, I refuse to wear an underwire, my ribs are very prominent and bruise easily, so I ended up back in the Bali section looking at the same bras I already owned. Oh well, whatever. The last one I bought I They were on sale for buy two get one free (mail in rebate?) but they only had two in that size and I was really tired by this time.

When I got home I had this nagging suspicion that something wasn't right, and when I was cutting the tags off of the first bra I saw the measuring instructions (see the next entry on the subsequent shopping spree)... and realized I had probably bought the wrong size and whipped out my measuring tape. I was either a 40D or possibly a 40C (wouldn't that be nice!). So maybe bra bands don't have to hurt, I'd just been buying the damned things too small for my big ribcage. So back in the bag they went, I'd try again next week, there's literally a sale every week...

And after a few days of using it, I really liked the Murad moisturizer, I've never used Murad products before but I know they have a good reputation with sensitive skin. I read the little brochure that came in the box, then looked them up at Sephora.com and realized there is also a Redness Therapy Gel (Recovery Treatment Gel) that I hadn't seen at the store or I would have bought it (don't want to use an SPF at night), so I decided to just go ahead and order it online, along with the Redness Therapy Soothing Gel Cleanser . I'm a skin care product junkie because my skin is so freaky. I've used Clarins sensitive skin care line for years, with some other brands thrown in-between, but my skin is not actually very dry so I think it will be nice to try something a little lighter for a change. And the price is certainly right so we'll see.

Dammit, why is it everything I like either makes me sick or is discontinued?

My husband wanders in while I'm asleep today and says "some contact lens solution is causing people to get eye infections". So, I figure, it's got to be the one I use. And on the five o'clock new there's a tiny little story that yes, Bausch & Lomb ReNu with Moistureloc (hit your refresh button if this doesn't load) has been voluntarily pulled after reports of people getting fungal corneal eye infections. And apparently this has been going on for over a month overseas...

Crap, why are we hearing about this just now? I've been using this product since I started wearing contact lenses (again) last fall. And I have an already damaged and infection-prone cornea (from RK surgery), and have been having even worse blurred vision than usual since I began wearing contacts, which my optometrist explains is most likely from my overly sensitive corneas.

I've got so many things wrong with my vision that one more problem doesn't make me run to the doctors office, though one of the people at the optometrist mentioned I should try ClearCare if I'm prone to eye infections. It's good, and easy to use, and I already have a bottle around and coincidentally just got my new box of contacts in yesterday, so today is a new pair. But ReNu is so good for dry eyes. And their eyedrops are fabulous, I wonder if they're pulling them too?

But then again, I wonder if any of this is even real. I used to hate conspiracy theories, but so many are true now that when I hear anything bad about a company I have to start wondering about their competition. I don't trust anyone anymore, it's very sad.

Gee... what's going on now?





Why is that police car driving the wrong direction...





A mobile home fell onto the Beltway?? For real??





More detours... sigh...

And we're going out again this weekend, the same exact route, with the husband in the car.

Too tired to write tonight, but I did take pictures...

I hardly ever go anywhere, especially during rush hour traffic. I'm usually pretty lucky when I do, though, I'm normally going against traffic, and I know the back streets to take, I drove downtown and back daily for years, no problem. I can go all over town in a couple of hours normally. I had some errands to run today, the first of which was to pick up our taxes from our accountant on the far west side of Houston. Being me, they closed at 5 pm so I left the house around 3:30 (that's early for me).

My list was to make a swing past several places that close earlier than I'm usually out - check on a new box of contacts I ordered almost two weeks ago, make a bank deposit, pick up some steaks for us and my parents at Omaha Steaks, get some more shampoo and some hard to find facial moisturizer (I'm after more of the Clinique CX stuff), I had my list and I was off...

First stop was at the optometrist because it was on the way to the freeway. I'm on my last pair of my normal strength contacts, which makes me nervous, so I ordered a new box when I put in the new ones, but for some reason they hadn't arrived when I checked at the end of last week, they had to be in by now. First freak bad luck of the day - no, they were part of an order that had gotten lost and had been reordered, they might come in later this afternoon. Crap, I don't want to go another weekend with no backup contacts and mine are almost at the two week limit, so I left my cell phone number in case they came in with today's shipment.

So I drove around to the back of Meyerland mall and made a deposit at the ATM, and then jumped on the 610 loop heading north to run across town and pick up our taxes (at i-10 and Dairy Ashford for anyone that knows the city). According to Mapquest it's a little over 19 miles from my house and/or 25 minutes (at 3 in the morning I guess). I was going along nicely till I noticed one of the flashing signs that read 'freeway closed at Memorial Dr.', which was two exits before where I needed to to turn off onto I-10. A few seconds after I read that I came up over the overpass just before the Galleria and.. everyone was stopped. So I did what some of the other idiots were doing (I was in the right lane, though) and just got off at Westheimer, I'd go ahead and get my steaks, there was a store on the corner of Westheimer (and one in the area I was going to in West Houston), so maybe traffic would be cleared up in a few minutes (ha!).

So one successful errand marked off the list, with three boxes of steaks in the freezer bag in my trunk, I headed north again. And everything was just stopped. Not the normal afternoon rush hour(s) traffic jam, something really bad. OK, I went up the feeder to the next intersection, and there were cars stopped on the next entrance ramp too. So I decided to make a u-turn and head down one of the westbound streets and bypass the whole two freeway interchange. Happily for me I had grabbed a new CD I'd just gotten in the mail from Amazon on the way out the door (the original Nena self-titled German CD, I always had the English version), so I'd get to listen to it while I waited in traffic. And waited. and waited.

After about half a dozen light cycles, I made it under the freeway. People were backing up on the feeder, stopping in the middle of the intersection, preventing us from crossing. That should have been my first clue something was really, really bad in the Galleria. And then I sat, and sat, and there was nowhere to turn off but residential streets and into business parks and I am not at all familiar with the back streets on San Felipe, I inched along with everyone else, surrounded by construction, concrete barriers, passing overheated cars and just thinking 'Oh my God, what the fuck is going on??" alternating with, "my husband is never going to believe the traffic was this bad".

But he called (I was afraid to pick up right away, this was just too crazy), and left a message that there was some sort of huge mess on 610 and he 'hoped I had avoided that area'. Good, at least it wasn't just me. So after the fourth playing of my Nena CD, and inching along about three miles I gave up and called him back and told him I'd try again tomorrow, and headed south down Voss. At least I got my damned steaks.

The news reported there was a fiery crash on the West Loop earlier in the afternoon involving an 18-wheeler and four other cars. Don't I have the best timing? But at least I was alone in the car. I would have rather have my cat in the car with me (bouncing off the walls and yowling, she hates riding in the car) than my husband, he would have just gone bananas. I spent years sitting in traffic, and I know sometimes it's bad for no apparent reason but I don't think I'll be going to the Galleria area for a while... And yet another reason I love shopping online.

I have to make another attempt to drive out and pick up the taxes tomorrow. I'll be heading out the opposite direction, straight west to Beltway 8, hope nothing happens that direction. And I'll be leaving a few hours earlier, just in case. And bringing a different CD to listen to. I really like 99 Luftballons but I think I'll be having nightmares in German tonight.

my rear view mirror... and this was on the way home in the good traffic...