I have two weddings to attend this month, the first happening next Saturday. Ever the procrastinator, I decided to go dress-shopping today.

By the title, you likely assume that I will prattle on about foot stomping, audible exhales, and scandalous eye-rolls. You have decided that I enjoy shopping and could waste hours browsing the racks and that I will have lengthened my boutique excursion past the point of sanity.

This was not it at all. Frustrated after finding nary a dress at all at the first store I tried, I left sullenly to find Nick where he was doing his two-weddings-coming-up shopping and shadow him with scuffing feet and Basset Hound eyes. He was frustrated that I should give up after so little effort. I asked him in the car why he had any reason to be upset and would he be happy if we headed to the mall? "I don't want you to do more shopping because it will make me happy. I want you to make yourself happy. You've been talking about buying a new dress for weeks!"

Yeah, but I am a tough body to fit. I prefer a fitted bodice but with a semi empire waist, a wrap dress that doesn't give away too many of my secrets in its deep "V", and A-line skirts. The hem cannot be too long, the sleeves cannot be too short, and I am very picky on how I spend my money.

Well I pouted some more, all the way through target where we picked up household odds and ends and Nick found a cheaper spider-web-getter-outer than he had just purchased, a price difference so inspiring that he justified returning the first and obtaining the second. Backtracking, we returned to the plethora of retail sirens of Greenway Station and Nick suggested that I peruse the store next door to Linens N' Things. Willing to give the exercise another go, I warned, "They close in an hour."

I crossed the threshold and I wanted to touch everything. I am a touch-shopper. Before I focus in my search, I walk the long aisles of clothing with my fingers extended. I have never been the type to wash my clothing before I wear it the first time [Brenda], but just now it occurs to me how much my new clothing has been fingered by other touch-shoppers. Disturbing.

All clothing this time of year is in the pallet that I love most of all: golds, rusts, olives, siennas, and deep orange. At the far back corner of the store, I found a dress to be considered. Faux wrap, 3/4 sleeves, and rouching. I chewed my lip and walked away. So indecisive.

Before long, Nick came in looking for me. I showed him the first dress and he thought I should try it on...maybe that would win me over. Obediently, and perhaps wanting to be convinced, I traipsed back to the dressing rooms. While there, my boyfriend brought additional dresses for me to try, asking that I model them all. I had to tell him to stop looking at one point because I was falling in love with every dress I tried.

For a day shaping to be yet another bad shopping experience in a long line of them, I left that last store buying three dresses that I absolutely could not be without in about twenty minutes. Giddy, Nick sang, "You cleaned up!" all the way to the car. "Let's go to DSW now! You're on a spending spree!"

Later, walking from our last stop of the night, the grocery store, he asked me how much his preferred members card saved me on groceries. To my answer of 39¢, he started his spiel, "WOW! You owe me! Look at how much money I saved y—"

"Don't EVEN!" I exclaimed, waving my dress and shoe receipts in hand.

This was my landscape one morning while doing my homework. I suppose this is how I would feel at four o'clock too if I had spent the entire night running over my parent's faces while they slept, bringing my entire collection of toys to their bed and begging them to play.

Sophie, we've decided, some king of cat-dog hybrid. Every time I arrive home she runs out from wherever she is nestled or from whatever she has been doing to grind her head into my ankles and purr. She plays fetch. She goes ga-ga over table scraps. She chews everything (I recently found gnaw marks on the creamer pump on the kitchen counter). And, the most un-cat-like thing about her? SHE LIKES US.

So rare is it to find Sophie sleeping, I tip-toed over to my camera to capture a series of shots. I loved that she was curled around her ball and that her tail didn't even try to find room in the basket. I came home from work that day and sat down at my desk again. Looking over to the scene so sweet this morning, I found this:



Cat-dog hybrid. I'm telling you.