The One with the Fashion Faux Pas

This morning I went to the park to get in my running before the sun had fully graced us with its presence. It was cold. Really cold. And I was super irritated at myself for neglecting to bring my earmuffs and gloves. ACK. The wind blowing across the city's river was not pleasant. But I got through it and was quite happy about braving the 23- degree-but 15-degree-with-the-wind-chill temps. 

After this, I had to drop by a local business to drop something off to a friend and realized I was seconds away from the grocery stores I was planning to visit later that morning. Hmm. I had a predicament. Do I go all the way home, shower, primp, and then head back to exactly where I was sitting right at that moment? OR do I do what I've never done in my life and go grocery shopping in my workout attire? 

Before I knew it, I was calling my husband to have him read the grocery list to me and I was pulling into Aldi's parking lot. Unfortunately, I had arrived 35 minutes before the store opened. Ooops. So I headed next door to Meijer where, I figured, people shopping in sweatpants quite frequently. Right? At least I'm hoping I was right. Thanks to the fiercely cold wind, the sweat on my forehead had dried before I walked in the front doors. (That's really saying something because I sweat like a man. It's not pretty.) 

I went up and down, up and down the aisles collecting my items, but soon realized I was definitely going to have to go to Aldi's as well. I just couldn't pay over $2 for milk when I knew Aldi had it for $1.79 or $1.35 for eggs when my favorite store in the world had them for $0.89. I'm crazy like that. On my way up to the cash registers, I made a brief (yeah, right) pit stop in the clothing department. I was pleasantly surprised. I found a number of sweater dresses I had to have (but of course didn't purchase any of them.) And to my sheer glee, I came across two pairs of "skinny" jeans that were half off--only $9.99. And they FIT! Score! I knew Kevin wouldn't want me to leave without buying those. After all, I have been complaining about my jean shortage for months. 

Me=stoked. 

In heading to Aldi, my hesitation grew. You see, I know the people at Aldi. Seriously. The manager greets me by name. Oh well. I threw my pride by wayside and got the job done. I raced through those stores like I was on some sort of serious time schedule. The reality was that I was still high on my adrenaline from running AND I was really really eager to change out of my workout clothes. blech. 

I can't believe it folks. But today, I was that undiginified person walking through the stores in their sweats. I know, I know. It's not really that big of a deal. But I've watched far too many episodes of What Not to Wear to do something like that with a clear conscience. Thanks a lot, Stacey and Clinton.