Day-After Christmas Shopping With Mother

I remember clothes shopping with Mom was a chore. Through my childhood (and embarrassingly my adulthood), if my mom wanted to buy me clothing, she bought five sizes and colors of the item and returned four of them after I'd tried them on at home. I raised such a brat-like stink in the store that, well, it was easier for her to make two trips. But like a textbook mother, she constantly prodded me into clothes shopping.

As I've grown up, our shopping trips have become much more sporadic. I look back apologetically that I sent her through such tribulations.

So today, when Mom wanted to buy me a new suit for Christmas, I initially rolled my eyes channeling the adolescent, anti-fashionista within me. But being older, and with an income separate from my mother's, I realized that free-suit offers are quite generous. So I sucked in my immaturity and met Mom at the store.

As she rifled through the racks of jackets, I kept my impatient feet in check. When she jiggled my pants checking how the cloth draped my buttock, I bit my tongue. And when the decision came down to two suits, one black and one blue, I hid my frustration and smiled as I changed between the pants and jackets four times.

In the end, though, I must admit: Mom picked out one slammin' suit. I never quite understood why "fancy" suits look so much better than regular, off-the-rack suits. Actually, I still don't. But at least now I'll have a suit in my closet that enacts that mysterious principle.

Back in my vagabond sweatshirt and jeans, Mom treated me to lunch. We sat quietly, both secretly exhausted from the shoving crowds and interminable suit choices. The trip certainly was annoying, but on the other side of the torture, I actually had some fun.

Mom's a pretty amazing lady. She demanded quality help from the clerks and tailor. Like a predator missile through the clouds, she wove in and out of hoards of people. And she used her shrewd cleverness to pit two different clerks against each other in order to receive a discount.

I didn't really like the act of shopping. But quietly munching on my french dip, I realized that seeing Mom act like a crazy-cool shopper was pretty crazy cool. And that was worth the jiggling.