Guys Hate Shopping

I've always hated shopping. Specifically cloths shopping. I remember shopping with my mother and sister a lot when I was little and hating it. Whenever I shop I have a clear idea of what I want, I go in, and I get it. Shopping has never been fun for me and I don't understand spending a lot of time doing it because I find it suffocating. I learned early on with my sister and mother to bring a book. I can handle shopping or rather someone else shopping if I can sit and read while they do it. Early on I would inevitably ask my mother for her car keys so I could sit in the car and wait. Thinking back on it I may have been a petluant and irritating child. I remember a couple of tantrums at JC Penny's mostly because I started feeling claustrophobic. Or bored maybe, maybe I'm romanticizing it.

A couple days ago Punam and I went shopping. Or more accurately I went with Punam while she shopped. In my head I thought I was making a great boyfriend type sacrifice. I think I even wanted her to acknowledge that "Oh Steve thank you SO much WHAT a sacrifice!" Which is of course stupid. For the most part all guys hate shopping I think. Guys don't really care about what they wear and our options are much more limited than women. It's something that's totally foreign to us: difficulty finding cloths. Spending a lot of time looking doesn't make sense to us.

We went shopping and I realized I was being dramatic. I didn't hate it as much as I had remembered. I didn't hate it at all really. Women's cloths are pretty interesting. Outside the changing room there was a couch and a TV with sports on. Specifically for men who are waiting for their wives or girlfriends to try stuff on. I thought that was nice although I hate sports, I had of course brought a book. Punam tried some stuff on and asked me what I thought of it. I was surprised how nice that was. She looks great in most everything but it was something we had never done together. The cut of one cream colored dress was kind of odd. It wasn't unflattering just kind of weird. We both agreed it didn't really work, not because of the way it fit but because of the style of the dress.

We ended up having a great day. She shopped for a bit, we saw Pitch Perfect, and we went to a bookstore for me. I have a lot of preconceived ideas about what I like and don't like and what I'm comfortable doing. I'm realizing more and more recently that you have to go outside of your comfort zone. You need to test yourself. When you feel like saying no you should probably say yes. Approach things with no preconceived idea of how they will turn out and most of the time they'll turn out good.

Maybe I don't hate shopping after all. But then again maybe it was just the company.