Does size really, really matter….

It so does!!!!! even if it doesn't matter.... I know, you might be thinking, but hey, she is not that extreme… she is this “It’s all relative” person…

But let me explain, why is there nothing better for a women than shoe shopping? Becuase you don’t have to worry about your size… It’s not like when you are trying on a trouser, if you picked a size too small, you are miserable if it’s a size to big you are happy, but all the stress that goes in just going to the store… what will it be? Big? Small? Big? Small? Ahhhhhh, to much judging and stress… but with shoes… Nice!

You can spend all day shopping for shoes and you can love them all…. You try one on, it might be two big or it might be to small, so what? You just go and try the other sizes until you find the perfect fit and wooohoooo, you are done! You just feel happy and there is no inner judging, actually you go mind free, you are not scared about the fact of what’s going to happen? Did I gain weight?, did I loose weight? Nope… nothing of that… and you know what? you can still go and get an ice cream later and who cares… free like a bird… oh, and if to add to all that the lady at the cash register in the store after you paid says, “You have a beautiful smile” yes, I’m all giggles…she likes my smile… and it's always nice to hear a compliment, specially when it's so unexpected... I love shoe shopping and I love the shoes that I bought, I just found exactly what I was looking for… black wedges, open toes “a la mode of course”, not to high and not to low…

There was a time when I would only wear high heels; the higher the better and I loved it… it was my time of power girl :p when I was in Venezuela working I would be traveling back and forth between Colombia and Venezuela, and if you have ever been there, it’s amazing how people dress in Bogota, forget New York… or Wall Street, that is nothing compared to Bogota, actually I used to have a specific wardrobe for when I had to go and had to meet with high executives at the banks headquarters, so I had to dress the part… and in a way wearing high heels helped… and let me tell you I’m 5’ 7” (1.70m) so wearing a 5’ (12cm) was kind of empowering when I had to work with a customer and I could look at down at him… ji, ji, ji, ji, ji… OK, that’s mean I know, but it was the world I was caught in… poor me, innocent little girl having to negotiate million dollar business…, Ok, OK... you know I'm not mean... I've actually liked people smaller than me in height... it's not normal, but what matters is what's inside right?

And that was just a phase… I after moved to Spain and surprisingly, people were not that tall and living in Madrid you had to walk at lot, so heels went down… and well, what can I say about Mexico… they are smaller than me by default so there is no way I could do anything there except not to wear heels at all… and yes, my badass attitude had gone away, long, long, long, long, long time ago, so I didn’t want anybody to feel weird because I was taller, because believe me, I never considered myself tall, but I WAS taller than most of the population and they were not used to it...

So after buying my nice perfect heel shoes yesterday I had to go to get new glasses, because mine broke, loved them… it’s so difficult for me to find the perfect fit that I like, I know I mostly wear contacts, but I like to have nice glasses… and it’s a pain to find ones that I really like… I once spent two years without Sunglasses because I couldn’t find THE ones… I guess I am picky sometimes...

I get to the store and I show them my broken glasses… "please tell me they can be repaired", "errr, well, I’m sorry to say… but they can’t"… can I believe him? I don’t know, but I kinda knew before I went in that they had no hope… but they were nice people kept saying *cough* without me asking… they look great on you… sniff…

So off I am to see if I can pick a new pair… the last time I did it I spent 2 hrs at the store… and guess what? size doesn't matter, but it is a fact that because size doesn't matter, it matters... get me?

I think at some point I had more than 15 glasses in my tray and of course, I had to decide for one, so I just sit down, try them all again and start eliminating… and voila! I finally got to the pair of nice frameless glasses, I’ve always been attracted to them, they look great in catalgos but I’ve never found any that would fit my face and when you try them on they kind off disappear on your… but these were perfect… I was happy… I sit down with the person that was helping me and the conversation goes more or less like this:

Him: Have you considered buying a back up pair?
Me: No thank you, I don’t need one, I mostly use my contacts, and these will be my back up pair.
Him: Yes, I understand… silence… silence… silence… are you careful with your glasses?
Me: Of course…
Him: Well, considering you broke your old glasses….
Me: What!
Him: Well, they did break….
Me: Well, you can consider that it was your fault since you guys bend them every time I come to have them fixed.
Him: Don’t blame me! We’ve never met before, I’m sure this is the first time…
Me: I’m not blaming you, I’m just saying that my glasses broke, not because I’m careless, but because of all the handling every time I came here to have them adjusted…. And I’m really, really, really not blaming you. Now… how about my glasses.
Him: So you are sure you don’t want back up…
Me: No, thanks, I don’t need back up, they are THE back up…

So then we start going back and forth for the options of the lenses, thin vs. extra thin, light reflection, better for computer use, night vision, etc, etc, etc… during all this time I keep trying them on, because I really like them, but I’m still not convinced, I guess because they are different… but I’m intrigued and well, for me to be intrigued about something has the same interest when something fascinates me, so it was a yes, I had to go for them… and well, of course, if I didn’t like them I can come back in 30 days and exchange them… after all this IS America… land of the free and of the you can change your mind...

We are finally done with all the bits and pieces of my ordering and my friend starts again…

Him: Well, I have to inform you that these glasses will not be ready in one hour (this is the normal practice of the store) it will take around 14 days…
Me: Oh no, I can’t, I’m leaving for France next Saturday and I need to have my glasses with me.
Him: Well, it normally takes 14 days, but we normally get them back in 5 days, so you could have them here by Friday.
Me: Oh that’s great, so can you guarantee that?
Him: No, as I mentioned it normally takes 14 days…
Me: Yes, but you just mentioned that you normally get them back in 5 days
Him: We do, but I can not guarantee that, maybe you would like to also choose another pair as a backup.
Me: I don’t need a backup, actually I normally don’t need the glasses, they ARE my backup… are you wanting me to change my mind?
Him: Of course not, this is your decision, it’s up to you, but I have to say what I have to say, I recommend a back up and they do take 14 days.
Me: You want me to change my mind; you are making me change my mind…
Him: No, please, it is entirely your decision; I have nothing to do if you decide to change your mind or not…
Me: Ok, I’ll drop these and I’ll look for another pair…

So here I go again, getting up and starting to look for another pair that I would fall in love with and them being again the “IT” glasses for me. I'm not a difficult shopper, believe me, for me it's normally love at first sight... but with glasses, it's another story...

By now I was exhausted, so I went back and took all the other 15 and so pairs that I had eliminated…. Until I saw THE ones, I hadn’t seen them before, isn’t there always a reason for everything? Perfect! Nice Prada glasses, in two tones of brown… I put them on my tray and go back to the clerk…

Him: So, you are going to stick with these?
Me: Yes
Him: You are not going to change your mind?
Me: No, I like this and I’m happy with these.
Him: So will these be your backup
Me: Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

OK, that didn’t come out of my mouth, but it should, shouldn't it?… and I just wanted to be in and out of the store.

We sit down again to choose the lens, by now I was an expert with all of this… so I went straight to the ones that were best for me… and I say these… thank you…

Him: Let me check if we can have them in an hour (me thinking, wasn’t that the point of all this…) because it’s late and the lab stops at 8pm (it was 8:10pm)
Me: Well, you did mention that if I wanted my glasses in one hour, I had to change and so I did, so I really hope they are because I’m not coming back. (Can you believe that during all this time, I did not lost my patience?)

He goes and checks and guess what?

Him: Well, we don’t have these lenses, but we do have these other ones (more expensive of course and you know what? I was really sure that he was just doing his job and in no way trying to sell me the most expensive product)
Me: Ok then, since you don’t have the ones that I want I guess you will upgrade me to the next ones that you have for the same price? It’s the least you can do… (and I smile, I mean I did get a my smile is beautiful today, so…and hey! it’s not like I don't smile, I'm always smiling…)
Him: I can’t you have the option to downgrade also…
Me: Silence…. And smile…. Silence, silence, silence, silence…
Him: Ok, I might have a coupon somewhere were I can give you the glasses 50% off and it’s a great deal (lenses are the most expensive part)
Me: Thank you, I would appreciate it…

And voila! I’m done… I had been in the store for more than 1 1/2hr and was fed up! Oh and guess what? They had them ready in 15min….

Best of all, it was all still stress free, like shoe shopping… size doesn’t matter, if one didn’t fit, you could go for the next one!

Oh and regarding that other subject that I will not talk about… I wonder why there are so many emails out there offering enlargements, I guess men do care… I don’t think it is women sending all those spam emails… and believe me, we don’t always want a bigger house or a bigger car, regarding size, the only thing that we really care about is that we would love to be a size smaller, cloths just fit better!

Oh and yes, I forgot, it's always all relative...