A coat very similar to this...

is what led me to spend my afternoon (Christmas?) shopping.

You see, I bought the REACTION brand coat two days after Thanksgiving at Macy's. It was a fairly expensive coat, but very attractive and the sale price was great. Plus, I had a gift card. And I desperately needed a new coat.

I was so happy with it.

For about a week.

Then, the seams in the lining started ripping. They ripped under the arms. They ripped in the pockets.

Soooo cheaply made. (Perhaps what is really called for is "No Stitch Left Behind" - I mean, how can any company allow such low-quality merchandise to make it into the stores? Honestly! Standards are so low for everything, education is the tip of the iceberg).

And that's why, after my interview, I trekked back up to Macy's and returned it. While I was in the store, I spotted a few shoppers trying on the same coat that I was returning. I warned them. They all thanked me and quickly returned the coats to the rack. Unfortunately, I needed to replace the coat immediately, as my only other winter coat is enormous and down-filled and way too hot for day-to-day use. I inspected the seams of every wool coat in my price range, and they all looked like they'd fall apart just as quickly. By this point, I was fed up, so I found myself a trim black down coat with solid-looking seams. As I tried it on, a woman said, "Oh, that's stunning! Where'd you find that!" So, at least in the opinion of one fifty-something Manhattan woman, it's stunning. I decided to take it.

One thing led to another, and I ended up on a lower floor hunting for a top to go with a new skirt... and once the top was found, I realized I'd need shoes... As I was looking around the shoe department, I started to feel guilty for spending an entire afternoon two weeks before Christmas shopping for myself... when I decided to get some Christmas shopping done, I decided to leave Macy's and head down to the stores on Fifth Ave. north of Union Square. It was like that nursery rhyme that starts, "For want of a nail, the shoe was lost..."

Or maybe like the children's story, "If you give a mouse a cookie..."

I came home laden with packages. Not a bad afternoon, on the whole. Thank goodness the retroactive pay is on its way.