Red Silk Pajamas

It's time for the Half-Yearly Sale at Nordstrom's, a time to stock up on bras at half-price and other necessities. But then, for someone for whom shopping is a healing event, walking into a store with all the newest goodies spread out all around you.....well, I save up for this. It's one of the highlights of my year. The store opens at 7:00 am, but I wasn't among the first to walk in the store this year, as I have been in the past. But it was before 9:00 when I arrived with my Nordstrom's card in hand, ready for those double points. I shopped all morning, looking for inspiration. It's fun to find a few colorful pieces that change the way your current wardobe looks. I found a pair of pumpkin-colored cashmere gloves, and I was off - the coral cashmere scarf for the neckline of a jacket or around the shoulders, several pairs of winter socks with mixtures of red, pink, coral and aqua to pull all my colors together. Then there was the pink cashmere sweater on the top floor. It wastough to choose between the T-Neck and the V-Neck, but it had to be pink, my new favorite color, and with the coral scarf -- Wow! Then to the Lingerie Department for those half-price bras and other practicalities.

When I came home with one big bag full of goodies, Marti wanted to see everything. It was fun to pull out all my treasures and spread them across the table where she was eating a late breakfast. She oooh'd and ahhh'd appropriately over everything, helping me justify each purchase's practicality, and agreeing with how a coral cashmere wrap would spark my wardrobe and that $65 for a cashmere sweater was, indeed, too good a price to pass up. But when I pulled the red silk pajamas out of the bag, her mouth fell open and her eyes went wide. "Red silk pajamas? Did you have some specific event in mind?" She began to laugh. I told her that I was thinking of them as practical for winter travel - warm as flannel, but smaller to pack. They were a really good price, too, under $100 dollars. But of course, the truth is that I just wanted them because they were beautiful. They will be practical if Richard and Dianne and I do take that trip to New York for Christmas that we've been talking about. They will be warmer and take less suitcase space for winter travel to Oregon and Berkeley events I am planning in January. And.....they are wonderful to slip into at the end of the day, like some secret that is all mine. Ummmmm.