holy grails

even though i would love to go out & drop hundreds on fancy new clothes - & by go out i mean spend a couple hours placing orders for things on my amazon wishlist & on gilt - before going off to school, necessity has taken precedence. not that the word necessity doesn't point to the absurd ideal of necessity that exists here in westchester, but there you have it. i've purchased little white socks, black tights, black shorts, leggings, & new underwear. i have all of the things i really "need" in order to go off to school. but sometimes even the plainest of necessities are impossible for me to find. i end up obsessed with the searches, keeping very particular styles in mind, & they become endless quests, i the archetypal medieval heroine searching for the holy grail.
why discuss this now? today i finally found replacement shoes for my favourite flats. clearly this was imperative as i need shoes that are not heeled to wear around campus. the shoes i need of replacement: black patent-leather peep-toe 1/2" heeled flats with little bows by steve madden purchased for probably $60 in 2007 or 2008. despite the peep-toe, i wear them year-round & the plastic on the heels began peeling off in ugly chunks last year. they do everything a shoe should do: fit snugly, have padded - not flat - soles, make noise when i step, elevate me slightly, have fabric detailing sans metal or colour, & are shiny. so, short of re-purchasing them off e-bay (which was a viable, although expensive, option a week ago), i performed extremely delicate searches on websites like zappos, shoes.com, & department stores' websites... to no avail! finally, on a whim, i google searched "black patent flat" & the google shopping tab took me to newport news, a clothing website that caters to 30-something women & is very economically reasonable. (i have a pair of lace-up "granny booties" from newport news i bought three years ago for $35 that are still in excellent shape.) there they were! the perfect replacement. & for $19! you want it, you got it. the shoes arrived in the mail today & fit perfectly. after four months, grail found.
but there is another simple, black item that is haunting me. i am in dire need - dire. really. - of a short, drop-waist black shift with sleeves. not long sleeves, but short or 3/4-length sleeves. not of a heavy material - i'm envisioning silk - & sans detailing of any kind. i want it to sit on my shoulders like a smock, accentuating nothing. this is hard to find for a multitude of reasons:
1) i found exactly what i wanted in june, but urban outfitters, without my knowledge, cancelled the order due to a random price change. by the time i had learned this, recovered from my resentment, & decided to re-order it, it was sold out. having an ideal image in mind that was at some point palpable is almost worse.
2) i don't want to spend a lot. this, for obvious reasons, hurts the hunt.
3) it is really hard to find "little black dresses" that aren't form-fitting to a degree. people are usually looking for that feature in their little black dresses.
4) i rarely find dresses that, even when designed to fall loosely, do not accentuate any part of my body. this may sound like something for which i should be thankful & about which i should stop complaining, but in this case, i'm complaining.
moral: be less obsessive & more open. but if you happen upon a dress that meets this description, please let me know. i'll probably be searching for a long time because i can't just give up now.

the e.s.m.

there are many things literally clothing-related haunting the depths of my brain as august 24th & my entire future loom. but in an effort to post consistently over the next few days, i will preface packing up all of my belongings with an age-old expression that has become an imperative tool in the pre-college shopping extravaganza this summer has been.
first, for some history: it is well known that when my family visit our relatives out west we frequent the extremely large malls & outlets that surround their small, suburban, western towns. there is a wealth of gigantic, clean, air-conditioned buildings in nevada & colorado. twenty-first century consumerism has incentivized their construction alongside the necessity of enticement: where all da humans @ in tha desert? i don't know if these stand-alone structures - literally, not even under the cover of foliage - have succeeded in enticing, but they are usually built next to sites of new condominium/housing developments, which over time will surely produce a population of cheap-home-seeking consumers. the current/long-time residents are the one reeping the benefits, however. such is the case with my maternal extended family. my father's siblings living in new jersey may have the meadowlands complex (more like spacestation), but they don't have the outlet malls.
so, why is this relevant? well, the expression to which i am referring is the e.s.m., or exciting shopping moment. it was invented by my mother, my cousin anna & me after a trip to dsw, the large shoe warehouse that did not arrive on the east coast for some time after its placement in colorado. the term is applicable to all purchases made on items extremely reduced, items that, thanks to coupons & giftcards, are significantly reduced at the register, &, most excitingly, items that are surprisingly cheaper than expected when scanned. how does this relate to college shopping? well, being frugal is a key component of dorm furnishment, and that frugality necessarily dips into overall money-spending of any kind.
my most recent e.s.m.s were a fitted, strong-shouldered black blazer marked down from $70 to $24, rung up for $19, at lord & taylor, two gigantic silver baubles & purchased at macy's, both of which started at $24 & were marked down to $12.00, further reduced at the register to $5.70 a piece.

the fact that the bracelets were purchased at macy's points to another e.s.m. factor. e.s.m.s are frequently found at the most uncommon of places, uncommon here meaning stores in which one rarely purchases anything. hence the application of the term at things like sidewalk sales. the unexpected element contributes to the "exciting" part of the "moment" in question.
herein ends an insight into both my family of girly, bargain-loving shoppers & my lack of interest in anything marked up to full-price.
one last note: the image in which i am sporting a leotard above is a shot of my performance of the single ladies dance at camp a week ago. youtube link to follow.