Woodfield Window Shopping

I am the type of person who enjoys a good window shopping excursion. I don’t always have to spend money, and often times if I do, it is not very much. I love to look and daydream about items it would be nice to have, and daydream I do.

One evening a few years ago I was at the mall with my mom and a friend of hers. We’d been out to dinner, and the mall was just next door, so we decided a little window shopping excursion was just what we needed. We hit the mall suburban style.

I grew up in an area where the nearest mall was a minimum of 45 minutes away. A trip to the mall meant a whole day was usually planned around it, and we didn’t make that trip unless we had an absolute need to. Normally, this was right around the middle of August each year, so we could hit JC Penney’s for school clothes. Regardless, there was a need required for a trip to the mall.

Suburban style is a whole lot different. When I moved to the Northwest Suburbs at age 15, it meant that I was exactly 10 minutes from a shopper’s paradise- Woodfield Mall. This mall, in a simple explanation, is huge. And the absolutely glorious part was that I no longer had to wait until I had a desperate need for something only a mall can offer in order to traipse through one. I could make a quick trip for one thing if I wanted. Or I could just go hang out for no other reason than to pass time. That’s suburban style- hanging out at a mall for no other reason than to pass the time, or for something to do in the suburbs. After all, shopping is a sport.

This particular evening, we walked around the mall a little bit, browsing through the larger department stores, laughing and talking about girly things. And as we meandered through the other shoppers at the mall, we stopped outside a fine jewelry store to look at the jewelry on display.

I have always loved jewelry but unfortunately I have super sensitive skin. This leaves nothing but the expensive jewelry available to me, but unfortunately it’s usually not in my budget. All the same, I absolutely love to look.

I remember the display like it was yesterday, with all sorts of precious stones sparkling and shining. Opals and Rubies. Sapphires and my favorite, emeralds.

As my eyes meandered over the jewelry, I saw it. It was the most beautiful ring I had ever seen. The emerald was so green it sucked me into it. The diamonds on the sides sparkled so much they could have had their very own light source. Oh, it was so divine. I bent over for a closer look.

WHACK

My head hit the glass window of the display, and I really didn’t realize what had happened until it had bounced off and wound up a good foot and a half away from the glass. The sound of the loud whack found itself into my ears, and as I mentally assessed the situation it sunk in what I had just done. Essentially, I had just head-butted the window outside the jewelry store.

By this point, I am starting to get a little embarrassed by my obvious lack of awareness of my physical surroundings, and look to see if anyone had noticed. Maybe it wasn’t that bad- maybe no one noticed.

I looked up, inside the store, and found a dozen pairs of eyes all focused on me. And not an encouraging smile to be seen. I could have been a rare gorilla on display at the zoo. I turned a shade resembling cabernet, and tried blend back in with all the other shoppers walking through the mall.

I found my mother and her friend around the corner of the store- both laughing hysterically. My mom was actually laughing so hard her legs failed to hold her up and she was sitting on the floor.

And this is another one of my many most embarrassing moments. I truly wish I could say it never happened again…